Teaching in Shantou

Friday at 12.30pm was the time for Gaelle (Switzerland) and me to leave our Postgraduate hall in order to get to our final destination - Shantou in China. The rest of the group that we went with consisted of Andy (US/Taiwan), Maaike (Holland) and Arnout (Holland). Our chaperon for the weekend was Bonnie from the International office of CUHK and I was pretty happy about that since she is our age and a cool lady. We got on a bus that would drive through Shenzhen to cross the border and continue towards Shantou. The purpose of the trip was to go to a school and teach the children English by talking with them about our own countries and cultural differences and for us to learn about their lives.
All of us on the bus

My expectations of Shantou were not high. I assumed it to be a city that used to be a fishing village. I heard great things about the seafood there and that they spoke a language of their own in that region which was not anything like Putonghua (Mandarin) or Guang dong Hua (Cantonese). I had no expectations about the school or accommodation and thought it was going to be simple and rural. How wrong was I!?!?

The city of Shantou is huge!! It thrives from a blooming economy ranking it seventh best rate of commerce in all of China. It is one of the most important open-to-the-world harbours and is one of five special economic zones in China. The seafood cuisine is famous as I mentioned and so is also their special Gongfu tea, which is being served in a specific manner in tiny cups and drunk as a shot.Gongfu tea

We arrived around seven at the bus station in Shantou and were met by many people asking if we needed taxi. Everyone stared bluntly and was clearly not as used to seeing foreigners as people are in HK. We were picked up in a van by two of the schools teachers of whom one of them spoke a little English, but preferred to speak in Mandarin. Bonnie speaks Cantonese, but understands and can answer a little in Mandarin, Andy speaks quite well and Gaelle has studied Mandarin for two years, so I didn´t feel like I went with the worst group of people! I wish I knew a little as well and I now understand how important it is too know the language because barely anyone understands English. I took this opportunity to learn just a little bit when I had the chance.

We drove 13 km outside of the city centre to get to the school that was surrounded by.. nothing. It had a huge mountain in the background and other than that.. nothing. The school gate was old and guarded by the gatekeeper. We were told that there was a curfew after six o´clock. The airport was on the other side of the mountain and the extreme sound of the planes roaring above our heads appeared in intervals of ten minutes. We were lead to our rooms, the girls to one building and the boys to another. The four of us shared a small apartment with a bathroom and a kitchen – apparently a teacher apartment – the highest standard they could give us. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were of chalk and didn´t reach the ceiling, but it was clean and had four beds for us to sleep comfortably in. The toilet didn´t work so we couldn´t throw paper into it and to flush it we had to use a bucket of water, but it was an ordinary toilet and not a squatting toilet, so no one complained.
Our bathroom
The girls rooms
We were immediately escorted (yes, escorted everywhere, they were worried we would get lost) to the main kitchen on the premises were we would be served dinner. It was a shed where they had a small kitchen and some plastic tables and stools. The teachers had their own “restaurant” room inside the shed where we could sit together and discuss tomorrow’s events over an incredible meal! We got fresh fish, siu mai (sort of dumpling, but open at the top), pai, fish balls, meatballs, clams and lots of other stuff. It exceeded what I had heard about the region’s meals – it was goooood. Afterwards, we played some cards with my excellent 54-views-from-Norway cards for a while, but had to go early to bed because we were tired after the trip and we had to get up at 7.30am the next day.