The Latest from China

Tuesday, March 10 -- Very busy day touring around town. Morning spent at the Museum of Liuzhou with exhibits from fossils to dinosaurs to prehistoric China up to early 20th century. Great section on the different ethnic groups as well as Chinese art, pottery and calligraphy. It's a beautiful 1 year old museum that is in the center of town - just on the other side of the park across the street from Long Cheng. After lunch we spent the afternoon at the factory that makes a the Chinese car - soon to be exported to the US they say. It is already exported to S. American, SE Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Africa. We saw the car assembled from the steel 'shell' to finish as they drove cars off the assembly line. Long Cheng has certainly "pulled out all the stops" to make this trip a memorable one. There was a positive reaction to the demostration classes Mr. Yost and I taught yesterday to about 150 teachers from Long Cheng and a neighboring school. The teachers were interested in a process other than lecture which they are almost forced to do with class size of 50 to 60 students. Mr. Yost taught an excellent lesson on forms of literary criticism - had a copy of his lesson plan in Chinese for the teachers to follow along with notes on his power point presentation. I taught a lesson relative to the upcoming presidential election with an emphasis on the voters' obligation to be informed on where the candidates stand. The discussion with the English teachers after the demo was lively with lots of good questions asked. Mr. Yost could do well mentoring teachers here! The demonstration classes made the front page of the Liuzhou Daily. Mr. Radtke and students continue to work on the video. You are going to be very impressed with the work they will have done. Can't wait for you to see it! There are 5 daily newspapers in Liuzhou (if I understood correctly) and two papers have assigned reporters to be with us just about every day. We were accompanied to the Museum and the car factory today. They each will do a big articles at the conclusion of the trip (if I understood correctly). Needless to say, our visit is big news. I'm writing this from the People's Hospital of Liuzhou as my host father makes rounds. He did open hear surgery today and is checking up on his patients. A good day with good weather. The days are going fast.