The ancient tombs of the Xixia dynasty

The region we live in have traces from a history way back. Right outside Yinchuan there are tombs from one of the oldest dynasties in China, the Western Xia Dynasty (2200-1700 BC) We went there with our cameras and here's the result...

Banquets

This fall we have experienced many things. Both work related and related to our spare time. Earlier we wrote about concerts we were invited to. One of the things related to work we have not told you about so far is the many banquet we are and have been attending. Since we came we have probably attended between 20-30 such events. The latest two was on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th of December. On Thursday we were invited to Ningxia University's and the School of International Education's Christmas Banquet/Party for their Foreign Students.
On Friday we were invited to a banquet sponsored by the Ningxia People's Government,and arranged by organizations that deals with foreigners here in Ningxia, like the Ningxia Personnel Department, The Ningxia Foreign Affaris Office and The Ningxia Foreign Expert Bureau. This was a banquet for the Foreign Experts in Ningxia, and held as a thanks to all of them, for their contributions to the developement of Ningxia.
Thanks alot for inviting us to all these occations. We meet people on these dinners, get to learn more about Chinese culture, and we get to try many interesting and delicious types of Chinese food. Sometimes at these dinners there are also different kinds of performances, from singing and dancing to acrobatics. We think it is interesting to see and hear, and feel priviledged to be invited and to take part in these events.

SYCNNO's Deaf Cafe

Saturday the 13th of December we attended the first SYCNNO, Shou(w) Y(o)u China Norway, Deaf Cafe in the old city in Yinchuan. This is a cafe where the deaf can meet, communicate together, play games and relax. In the future the cafe will be open to everyone who is interested in joining. It was really fun to see that so many could come. We were between 30-40 people and the ones who showed up seemed to have a great time. It was also a great opportunity for us to learn a few words in Chinese sign language (shou yu). The organizers of this cafe is Alexander Sløk Mjelde and Qin Wen. Both Alexander (2006-7) and Wen (2005-6) are former participants on the Sinonor project. They have together with Tora Hope (2006-7) formed the organization SYCNNO, which is a result of the Sinonorproject. If you are interested in learning more about this organization you could visit the website www.sycnno.no

The Sinonor project has during it's 6 years had different partners. The first 5 years the project partners were RCNUWC, Ningxia University, the CDPF (China's Disabled Persons' Federation) in Ningxia and Fredskorpset.
The cooperation meant approx half and half teaching for CDPF related schools and at the Ningxia University.
The places where the participants taught were The Ningxia Special Education School (for deaf students and also blind students), The Kindergarten for Hearing Impaired Children, The Mentally Disabled School and The Blind Massage Institute.

Chinese classes

Last month we wrote about a trip to the desert with the foreign students of Ningxia University. But what we forgot to mention was that these lovely guys are our fellow students. We are lucky enough to have the time and opportunity to follow the Chinese lessons for full time students. In our class of Chinese Made Easier you can, besides the two crazy Norwegians, find two diligent students from Romania and five nice people from the US. Unfortunately, we can only follow 9 out of 15 hours a week, but we still feel that we manage to keep up with their pace of learning. At least that’s the current situation. Since we rarely have the time to study at home, I guess that they will lose us at one point. But luckily for us, the teacher, Diao Laoshi, is very skilled and he takes good care of us. Hopefully we are good enough to pass our Chinese exam January 5th.

The Chinese language is very different from the languages we know and have been taught; Norwegian, English, German, French and Russian. So the characters are very difficult to learn, and we kind of gave them up. We focus more on the oral part of Chinese so we can communicate with people when we are travelling on our own in the Winter Holiday.

We still don’t know if we can follow Chinese lessons next term, because we don’t know our schedule yet. But our fingers are crossed and we hope for a positive message from our schools. Why? Aren’t we busy enough already? Yes, definitely very busy, but learning Chinese is an important part of this exchange, and we really want to learn as much as possible.

Trip to Xiji with Teachers Training Center

The last weekend in November(29-30th) we went to Xiji in the south of Ningxia with Teachers' Training Centre. We went by car for about 4 hours to get there. We met with teachers from the rural areas in the south, who had come to Xiji, both Saturday and Sunday. Had a class on Saturday and a meeting on Sunday. We learned a lot from them, about their work and they said that they had learned a lot from us as well. Listening to the teachers describing their work situation was very fruitful for us.
The south of Ningxia is home to the Hui moslem minority group. Xiji's surroundings was quite different from what we are used to, so it was an interesting experience. Ningxia is a poor region in China, and we were told that the south is some of the poorest parts in Ningxia. The landscape in the south was amazing, and we got to see some cool sights as well. One particular sight was a huge Buddha statue in the Xumi Mountains north of Xiji.

Visit from Sogn og Fjordane University College (HSF)

Christian and Tom are now officially famous. Or at least a little bit. They've made it to the official pages of Sogn og Fjordane University College (Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane) in Norway. How on earth did this happen, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you.

It all started when we on the 11th of October got a visit from HSF. Two lovely ladies, Åse Løkeland and Helga Kalhagen, came to visit Ningxia University to see whether there are possibilities of an exchange program. They have heard nice things about our Sinonor project and wanted us to tell about our experiences so far. And since we both did our teacher training in Sogndal we were more than glad to help.

So we went with them to an amazing mosque (looked kind of like Taj Mahal) and told them how nice Yinchuan is. We also got to watch some calligraphy art, and got two master pieces of the artist (who looked remarkably like a chinese Jahn Teigen). There we told them about our follow-up work, that we would like to spread the word of our project and the work we do here in China. They were really nice ladies, so they asked us if we wanted to write a web letter to their web pages. We said "definitely, yes" and sent our little letter. And now you can read the letter for yourself. Unfortunately for you English speakers, this is only in Norwegian.

http://www.hisf.no/no/internasjonalisering/nyheiter/reisebrev_til_hsf_laerarjobb_i_hjartet_av_kina

What does the Ningxia Red Cross work with?

Two of the main things the Ningxia Red Cross work with is teaching first aid to people, and stem cell research. Teaching first aid is an educational part of their work, and working with stem cells is the research part of their work. They make people donate blood to use in research, to help people with leukemia (blood cancer). The Red Cross in Ningxia have been doing this since 2003. They also have other focuses but these two are the most important. Here you see pictures where we are joining the Red Cross in their work - first aid course in the old city of Yinchuan, and getting students to donate blood for stem cell research at North Campus og Ningxia University.

Teaching at the The Ningxia Red Cross Society

Between 15.00 and 17.00 every Wednesday we teach the staff at Ningxia Red Cross's administration building. The students we have are members of the staff at the Red Cross administration. They're a group of between 10 to 15 people, varying from one week to the next. Aged between 21 and 50 makes them a diverse class. They are a busy crowd, often picking up their phone in class and running out in the hallway to talk. This is because we teach them during their working hours. The first time we had to start from scratch. Some of the younger members know a little bit of English, but most of them know next to nothing. But they are very eager to learn, and they see that in order to get connections with other Red Cross Societies around the world, they need to learn and improve their English.

We have started the teaching by letting them learn single words, which are important for their work, and personal interests. They are learning to count, to greet and to introduce themselves. And we are trying to learn them simple, but useful sentences. When we teach there we have an interpreter with us, Jia Lei. He is crucial to us now in the beginning because of the language barrier. Teaching there is fun, and we learn about the Red Cross and their work here in Ningxia. We are dreaming about being able to join them for an excursion to the more rural parts of the region during this year. Their building is situated in the Old Town of Yinchuan.

The Ningxia Red Cross Society's homepage: http://www.nxredcross.org.cn

FK Network Meeting in Beijing

Last Saturday we went to Beijing on the night train. 19 hours and hard sleepers again, but it's always fun so we didn't mind much. We travelled through the desert lands of Inner Mongolia, through Shanxi and Hebei, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, until we finally arrived at Beijing Railway station.

In Beijing we had two free days before the show (network meeting) started. We decided to be crazy tourists and went to the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Jade Factory, Tea House, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Beihai Park and Jingshan Park. All this in just two days. Imagine how tired we were of all the walking. Especially the day we ran to the top of the Wall. But it was definitely worth it. We got to see a lot of China in two days, and had a lot of fun.

But after the fun started the work. The reason for travelling to Beijing was that we were to attend an FK Network Meeting for FK China. It lasted for one and a half day, but it turned out that it wasn't half bad after all. We discussed and shared experiences and from the looks of it it was rather successful. One of the best, some people said. So with a satisfied smile on our faces we flew back to Yinchuan on Thursday to plan Friday's teaching. It was a hasty but fun week in Beijing. Looking forward to going back there some day.

Link to Fredskorpset's coverage of the meeting (in Norwegian):
http://www.fredskorpset.no/no/Fredskorpset/Media/NyheterPressemeldinger/Nettverksmote-i-Beijing/

Welcome Party for freshmen students at Xinhua

Thursday 16th of October the teachers and students at Xinhua invited me (Chris) to attend the annual Welcome party for the freshmen at the college. I was there together with the rest of the freshmen's teachers. It was a 3hours lasting fun event, with singing, roleplays, acting and breakdancing. Many of my students attended the singing, acting and dancing on stage. One of the things I liked the most was when a group were doing tai chi with chinese fans while two famous calligrafers were painting on stage. The local TVstation was there, and my name was annonced in public together with the rest of the teachers, The concert hall at school was as full as could be, people were standing everywhere and all seats were taken.

Ningxia University's foreign students trip 08

Thursday the 23rd of october we were invited to attend a trip for all the foreign students studying Chinese at the university. We had a fantastic time. The day started with museums, and after lunch we ended up in the desert, near the Huang He (The Yellow River), outside Yinchuan. We got to try a lot of fun stuff. Both of us tried "Desert Surfing". The surfing started already when we entered a crazy machine, a kind of desert bus, that took us up to a steep sandhill next to the Yellow River. The vehicle and the ride was awesome and thrilling. Until that day we didn't know that you could surf the sand, but it's possible. We also tried a ziprope which was fun, the view from the top was stunning, and the end of the ziprope was just by the river. After that we saw camels and sheepskinfleets. After a while, most of the students and some teachers joined desert-volleyball or desert-football.

The day ended in an Inner Mongolian restaurant close to the Yellow River. It was a round big hut, with great food. Grilled lamb (the whole animal on a plate) was served as the main course, which this region is famous for.

There were musicians and we helped to serve, which was fun. Those who wanted could entertain after eating. Both teachers and students entered the stage to a lot of applause.

After the entertainment was over a big bonfire was made and we stayed outside in the cold night, dancing and having fun.

All in all it was a great day in a great place with a lot of great people. Great!

Preparatory School for Ethnic Minorities

This school is a preparatory school for those of an ethnic minority whose education has not been sufficient to the demands of the Chinese government.

"Ethnic students whose literacy level is not up to the standard will be enrolled first in preparatory classes to receive one or two years' up-grading training. After passing the qualifying examinations, these students will be transferred to the regular classes. " (China Education and Research Network, www.edu.cn)

So after this one year of preparatory education, they can finally enroll into China's different Universities.

The students at this school chooses a major, for example Liberal Arts or Science and Technology. I have one class from each of these two majors and teach eight lessons a week. Each class consist of about 50 students. In Norway you normally teach classes of 16-24 students, so this is a challenge. But it is also very fun. The students are really eager to learn English. Even though my class of Oral English is just a bonus class for the students, they really put their mind into it and try their best. And, really, that's all I can demand from anyone.

Even though this is a Hui minority region, it doesn't mean that my classes only have Hui people. As a matter of fact, I only teach one Hui. But I have lots of people from all over China. They live in campus, but their hometowns are in Shan Dong, Shan Xi, Sha An Xi, Chong Qing, Ji Lin, Yun Nan, Gui Zhou, Guang Xi, Ning Xia, Hei Long Jiang, Fu Jian, He Nan, Hu Nan, Liao Ning, Si Chuan, Gan Su, Inner Mongolia and Xin Jiang regions, which means 18 of China's 34 in total. So through these classes I meet a lot of China, and it's a great experience.

My classes consist mostly of communicative activities, and different ways of making them speak English. This is partly because these are good ways of promoting oral English, and also because my classes don't have a textbook. So I have to start from scratch every day, finding new and exciting ways of learning English. This is also a challenge, but a very fun challenge. It's definitely worth all the work.

Our trip to Xian during the October holiday

During October holiday we went to the city of Xian, in Shaanxi province. This was one of the old capitols in ancient China, during the famous Qin-dynasty (221-207 BC), the Han-dynasty (206-220AD) and the Tang-dynasty (618-907AD). It was a beautiful city, but quite big for two western Norwegians with its 3,2 million inhabitants. We heard there that during the holiday it is supposed to be exceptionally crowded, which we found out was true. Crowded it surely was:)

We took the night train from Yinchuan to get there. This was the first train experience in China for both of us, and we enjoyed it alot. We had hard sleepers, in an open wagon, which was surprisingly comfortable. Except for Tom who for some reason never fits into China's when it comes to doorways, lamps, and in this case, beds. Travelling with the train ("firewagon") in China is a social event and it was a great opportunity for us to practice our Chinese. The journey took approximately 13 hours.

In Xian we visited the Shanxi History Museum, The Terracotta Warriors, The Calligraphy Museum, A Silk factory, The City Walls,The Big Goose Pagoda, The Muslim Quarter and The Bell Tower to mention some of the sights. Xian is a more Chinese town as we know it from movies and books, with the typical traditional architecture and ancient tourist sites. It is a city with a lot of history and many of the places preserve history very well.

We had a great time during our first Chinese holiday trip. Xian is definitely a city worth visiting. Drop in at the city's home cozy youth hostel if you are there, a really neat place with people from all over the world. Highly recommended by Chris and Tom.