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.