Monday, November 16, 2009

Monday, November 9, 2009


We got our wake-up calls at 5:30AM, had breakfast at 6:00AM, checked out of the Beijing hotel at 6:30AM, and left for the train station for the high speed train to Jinan. We arrived at the very modern and very large train station at 7:30AM. The weather was cool and overcast, the heavy fog had lifted, but the clouds remained. The train D35 to Jinan left promptly at 8:20AM and the three hour ride to Jinan, in the Shandong Province. The train was much like a modern jet…and very fast. We arrived in Jinan, a city of about 7million people, at 11:20PM. The weather was very cold, near 32 degrees, very windy, and the sky was gray and overcast. Mrs. Frank and I were met by Wang Ping, the English Department Head from The Century School, who had visited AMSB in June and a driver named Mr. Zhang. Wang Peng was also there to meet Dan Gregg and Mailoha. Mailoha was going to stay at the Shandong University of Finance where Peng was an English professor. Wang Peng had also visited AMSB in October and stayed at Ms. Frank’s home for a week. After a brief welcome, we went our separate ways. Mrs. Frank and I left for a lunch in downtown Jinan and then took a three hour car ride to the city of Shouguang, where The Century School is located. Most of the countryside was farmland. We were finally dropped off at one of the most beautiful hotels that I have ever visited, the Chenming International Hotel, which was only two years old. Shouguang is a city of one million people, but is the center a major agricultural region for China as well as for other countries. The hotel was built primarily for foreign business people who come to the city to buy produce. At 5:00PM we went out to a restaurant for dinner with the Principal of The Century School, several of his staff and teachers, as well as school officials for the entire region. It was a very lovely meal with many toasts toward good relations between The Century School and Amity. We returned to the hotel after dinner and explored the grounds. I found a tennis center and hit for several minutes with one of the employees. We also found a table tennis room (ping-pong) and played a few games before returning to our rooms for the evening.

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