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suzhou university
Suzhou University - The campus here is beautiful. I occasionally take my writing students over to the "Lovers' River", a canal that runs through the campus. It takes them awhile to settle down, but when they do, they turn out some pretty good essays in this lovely setting. These are pictures I snapped during one such class.
 Suzhou University Juniors (Grad. 2000). They're excited in this picture (me too) only because we learned moments ago that their final exam was canceled due to flooding in Suzhou.
(Photo by Yang Yue Feng [Vera])
 Three of my favorite students from Suzhou University:
(L to R) May, Karen and Vera. You can see much more of May at my Christmas 99 page where she served as one of Santa's helpers. A short story written by Karen for my class will appear shortly in the Cultural Revolution section. Vera also loves to write but refuses to translate one of her stories into English for my website. I guess she
wants $$ for it.
Suzhou has many beautiful spots both inside and outside the city. One fall day, I and some of my Suzhou Zhong Shan College students went to climb the mountains near Lake Shi (Shi Hu) which was only about ten minutes from campus.
At the top of the highest mountain was an ancient temple complex overlooking Shi Hu. We paused for pictures.
Beckham, Carl & Simon
Carl & Jacqui
Julie & Ada 
Zhong Shan students Becky (front) and Tyler (rear) I ran into them one afternoon (when they were cutting classes) on Guan Qian Jie which is the newly refurbished, upscale shopping area once known as The Suzhou Bazaar in midtown Suzhou. They were checking out the shopping, the guys were checking them out, and the kid behind them was checking out the marble dragon.
Unfortunately, their teacher wandered by.
Right in the middle of the Suzhou Bazaar is the "Temple of Mystery" built in 1181 A.D. So Becky, Tyler and I went over and wandered through it. Becky took this picture of Tyler and I. (Note the Cleveland Browns jacket I'm wearing which I wrote about in Chuck @ China 6.)
Nora from Zhong Shan College. No, she doesn't always dress in an evening gown. This was taken at the Halloween Party 1999 that I threw for the students.
Nora has her own website now. She has more pictures as well as some stories about me. Unfortunately (or fortunately...I don't know...) her stories are in Chinese. Her site is here: http://www.puhongonline.com
Every year in every college in China, freshman students spend their first week of college life taking military training. Well, that's what they call it, but in fact it's merely an extended P.E. class where the students do a lot of running, exercises and learn how to march around the schoolyard. Plus, it's a chance to sell them the required military fatigues and
give the army guys something to do for a week.
suzhou-singapore industrial park
 The Suzhou Industrial Park and the Suzhou New District are home to hundreds of foreign joint ventures all housed in state-of-the-art facilities and
high-rises. I was invited to train workers from a dozen different companies while in Suzhou. Here's a typical "Suzhou sweatshop". The central air conditioning was much too cold (although the office coffee machine helped keep me warm). Plus, those ergonomical comfy chairs were no match for the metal stools found in most street-side noodle houses. Notice how tense and
unhappy the oppressed workers appear. Hell, the most under-dressed guy in the picture is me! (One week later, this company, Delco-Delphi (formerly GM-Delco), held a job fair for 14 openings and more than 2,000 applicants showed up!) Folks, this is what entry into the WTO will bring China - it will bring western business practices and standards to bear upon the way
business is done in China. It will raise the standard of living for all here - something that stonewalling and empty threats will not. The workers I met at all these companies were very well treated, very well taken care of, and very happy.
other suzhou schools
Guest speaker at a Suzhou Primary School - Summer of '99. I'm the one on the lion's right.
Suzhou International School Summer Camp '98
Copyright © 1998, SIFLS
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