My Two Cents: Volunteering in China

Don't let your kids come to China to "volunteer" unless you directly have evidence that it truly is volunteering. This doesn't mean going through companies like China Horizons, ILP, Travellers Worldwide, etc. (Please note, I am just trying to point out that even established companies such as these have issues, I am not trying to call out any specific company). Many of these companies are looking for cheap labor, and "volunteering" is the easiest route to that. What we have seen here is that many of these companies are hooked up to the "middlemen" that find foreign teachers for schools. Many of these schools are not for poor children in remote areas of the countryside, that could really benefit from volunteers. Many volunteers end up teaching very well off students in cities. Some of these middlemen, such as one that we know, are quite dishonest. This specific one has been kicked out of nearly every job-hunting group in Xi'An for lying, cheating, stealing money, vulgarity, and threatening violence. Once a friend of mine contacted him about a job (not knowing it was him until later) and requested the going rate for foreign teachers, he replied "are you kidding? I get native speakers who teach for free." By "volunteering" in this way, you are placing yourself in a vulnerable and potentially dangerous situation. You are making the rich here richer, not helping the poor. You are also disturbing the marketplace, becoming slave labor that says no English teacher must be treated with respect and fairness. If you want to come to China as a "volunteer" very careful think through what you are doing. Work directly with a school, as these companies are generally set up to profit off of you. After paying for your plane ticket, visa, and housing, the middleman will earn AT LEAST $16,000 USD a semester per teacher. It is better to work for a semester earning that $16,000 for yourself and pay the money for your plane ticket and visa, rather than putting yourself in this situation.
Many of these companies bring teachers here on a tourist visa rather than a working visa. This creates a lot of legal problems if the authorities catch you. A big question to ask the companies is what legal help if any is available to you. Not getting teachers a working visa is a red flag.
 If you know anyone who really wants to come to China to volunteer, and can't find a legit school we are more than willing to help while we are here.  My recommendation is don't volunteer. Accept the money they are willing and able to pay. There are plenty of places in China that can't get foreign teachers due to the low salary they are able to provide. If you want, you can donate that money you earn to an orphanage before you leave (but be careful about which orphanage there is a lot corruption, but that is a whole different blog post).

Mianshan Mountain 绵山

The highlight of our weekend trip was a trip to Mianshan Mountain. The mountain is well known for it's beauty,  for the Buddhist and Daoist temples and bridges built into the sheer cliffs and as the birthplace of the Qingming Festival 

Mr. Kungfuyankee climbed up the cliff to walk on the wooden steps.

Monkey bridge and Daoist Temple

Buddhist temple built into the cliffs

People put locks on chains to bring wealth and 

lovers put locks on chains together to signify

their love is never broken.

.

Huaqing Hotsprings Palace and Lishan Mountain 华清池

Huaqing hot springs and palace has an extensive history. It was built during the Western Zhou Dynasty (711 BC) and expanded by the first emperor of China (210 BC) and during the Western Han Dynasty (206-24 BC).

The palace had five hot springs. One giant one designated for the emperor, one for his concubines and others  for palace dignitaries .

The palace has extensive gardens and a spectacular view.

This palace is also the site of the Xi'an incident, an important incident in modern Chinese history. The Xi'an incident took place during  the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party. During the incident two of Chiang Kai-shek's generals took him hostage and made him join with the communists in order to defeat the invading Japanese. After the Japanese were defeated and the communists took over China Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan.

We took a gondola to the midpoint of a mountain where there were more palace grounds. At the grounds was a Buddhist temple, a bird aviary, and another tower. The kids loved riding a horse from the base of the gondola to the top of the mountain to see the view of Xi'an.


                                   

                                                                    View of Xi'an

Sky view of the Huaqing Palace

garden

garden

hot spring for concubines 

Living area of Chiang Kai-shek

Bullet hole from the Xi'an incident

Chiang Kai-shek eating quarters.  It is 

rare to see the Taiwanese flag displayed in

China.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda

                                                   

This week my daughter and I went to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. The Buddhist pagoda was built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). During the Tang and Song Dynasties (618-907 and 960-1279 AD) it was known as the Jianfu Temple Pagoda. The Pagoda was built to house Buddhist sutras a monk had brought from India.

                                              

The original pagoda was fifteen stories but because of storms and earthquakes it is currently thirteen stories.

In 1487 AD  a violent earthquake occurred which caused a huge 1.1 foot crack down the middle of the pagoda. The crack was there until another earthquake occurred in 1521 AD. The two halves came back together and the crack disappeared, the people called this phenomenon the magical combination.

Restoration in 1949 revealed the Small Wild Goose Pagoda can withstand earthquakes because ancient craftsman built it's foundation on a hemisphere of packed earth, allowing it to be flexible during earthquakes.

                                                    

The morning bell chime was built in 1192 AD and was rung every morning as a prayer for happiness. 

The Pagoda also had a museum and cultural street. We really liked watching the shadow puppet show and puppet show.

Shadow puppet show

Hong Kong

                                 

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to take my kids to my favorite city in the world, Hong Kong. Our trip started off a little rocky, the flight was delayed seven hours due to bad weather in Hong Kong. I was impressed with our air carrier service, Dragonair, they provided tuna fish sandwiches and drinks for all of the passengers waiting.
Once we got to Hong Kong we went to bed and the next morning we went to OceanPark, a theme park with some animals. Due to rain in the morning it was not crowded so we could walk onto most rides and got to see jellyfish, pandas and other animals.
We went to the Night Market and Jade Market, which was fun and stopped by to visit the outside of the LDS Hong Kong temple.  We went to an hour of church and ran into some old friends. It is always good catching up with friends.The kids really liked visiting Monkey Hill, a natural reservoir that is overrun with monkeys.
Hong Kong has changed a lot in the ten years since we lived there. A lot of the small, mom and pop restaurants we loved have closed and it seemed like it was not as affluent as before.

Panda exhibit at OceanPark

LDS Hong Kong Temple

Jinkang Tea Cultural Street

Tea in China is as old as the country itself. The Chinese pride themselves in their blends of tea for medicinal use as well as for consumption. According to legend, tea was discovered by Emperor Shennong who lived in 2737 BC. He liked to drink boiled water because it was clean, so one day while on a trip a leaf fell into his cup of boiled water. He liked the taste so much that tea came into being.
Historical records such as the Eyra which was written in the third century BC dates tea being used int the  Zhou Dynasty which was about 1046-256 BC.
The tea market in Xi'an had various types of teas, flowers and herbs in baskets that you can choose and have bagged. Some tea was wrapped in gold foil, I think it's use was for a gift.
My favorite part of this market were the umbrellas strung up between the buildings on either side of the street.

Shengtang Peony Gadens

The Shentang Peony Gardens are 10 km south of Xi'an at the foot of the Qingling Mountains. The garden boasts of 400 different types of peonies, although by the time I made it out there, many had already wilted.  In the gardens is a temple built by a Taiwanese movie star named Li Jialin, in honor of a famous character from Chinese folklore Zhong Kui. The temple was dilapidated, but it had some carvings of deer in the windows. I had never seen deer in temple decor before.
I really liked this garden because there were only two groundskeepers and my youngest daughter and I there. It was a quiet piece of heaven.

The Peopny Fairy

Temple