I was picked up from my hotel at 9.30am and driven to the school, which was about a 10 minute drive. I then had to give a formal speech at the welcoming ceremony. It was held in the playground with all the students (1700!) standing in lines on the dusty pitch, just like we do for fire drills. There was a raised platform for me and the deputy principal and my translator. I wore a tartan sash from the Highland Kiltmakers shop to show I was representing Scotland. The speeches were all translated, and presents were handed over - a shield from the Highland Council, a quaich from Imrays which was engraved with the school names, a scottish flag and the school scrapbook. Afterwards I had a meeting with the deputy principal who I have been emailing to set up this link. His name is Michael and he speaks very good English. The headmistress is away at the moment in Shanghai on a training course for 3 months so he is standing in as the head and is very busy. He is very nice, friendly and easy to talk to. We had a brief meeting and I talked about our school and showed him where it was on the map...There was a big banner welcoming me in Chinese and English and a huge wall size colour information poster about our school with photos. It looked great.
Then it was time for a quick tour of the school. It is based around a courtyard which has ponds, trees and plants. Around the 4 sides are the classrooms and they are on 4 floors. The students don't move between classrooms, but the teachers do. There are specialist classrooms for the library, 2 computer rooms and science labs - specific ones for each subject and all very high tech. There are about 50 students in a class and they all sit on individual small desks in rows. They have a uniform which is white - it looks like tracksuit bottoms and a top. They look very smart. There seems to be different colour stripes for different year groups..The school seems very friendly and has a nice atmosphere..
I spent the afternoon visiting the Yunnan Nationalities Village which has different houses on display for the different ethnic groups with people dressed in the typical dress. There are 50 or so groups in China and 26 of them are in Yunnan, so it is a big part of their culture and they are very proud of it. The houses varied from courtyard style with intricate patterns to bamboo houses on stilts. I saw them dancing and singing, and even got selected as the wife of a Muouso horseman!
Dinner was the typical dish of the area - Cross Bridge noodles. Basically a bowl of very hot broth served with raw meat and veg and noodles that you put in the bowl and it cooks. Lovely. But this was only one of the dishes! Also had pigs ear, seaweed, a variety of pickled mushrooms, wild veg that looked like grass, Peking duck with pancakes and a chinese style pork pie (slices of pork piled into a pryamid that you put into a white 'pie' made from rice) - very odd. Also saw traditional folk dancing...A long day.
Kunming seems like a lovely city - very green with lots of flowers blooming and trees and hedges lining the road. It is enormous and stretches as far as the eye can see. It seems quite modern with lots of new buildings and skyscrapers. But lots of green parks and areas to rest. Wide roads, with lots of cars but also bikes and mopeds and people walking. Very busy...However it seems fairly relaxed and not too hectic...And definately not as much traffic as in Beijing. Great weather - blue sky and sun and a hot 25 degrees!
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