China Meiguo

I just returned yesterday from a trip to Wuyi Mountains (武夷山) that the Fujian provincial government held for foreign teachers working at universities in Fujian (福建). This trip was very well organized and, in addition to a meeting, we got to hike Wuyi Mountain, take a river rafting cruise, see some music and dance performances by university students, learn all about the famous tea grown in the mountain area, and of course (albeit reluctantly) sing karaoke-style at banquet dinners (always mandatory in China). 


However, one of the biggest highlights was a visit to a local kindergarten where the young students acted as guides (one for each of us) and others instructed us on the etiquette of serving tea. I was quite impressed with these kids and their tea pouring skills. If I was doing this, half of the hot water would probably end up on the table and I'd likely have first degree burns as souvenirs. Here's a slideshow of photos from the Kindergarten visit and I'll post some others from the trip in future.

Much of Fujian province is situated along China's southeast coast, including my current home city of Xiamen. Due to its location, many Chinese men and women earn a living by fishing. This past Saturday, while I was attending the Xiamen Boat Show, a fisherman in another part of Fujian province (Baiqing village in Pingtan) scored a really big catch. While out in the South China Sea, the fisherman netted a very large fish which turned out to be a gray whale. The whale turned out to be 13.9 metres (about 45 feet) long. Liu claimed that when he realized it might be a whale, he tried to release it, but it was already dead.