From April 1 through April 9, 1999, we, as part of a delegation from Walnut Valley Unified School District, had the distinct privilege to be guests of the Shanghai, China Department of Education. In a cultural exchange, the Chinese invited 47 of us to visit schools in Shanghai and to tour their city and several of the surrounding areas.
The following pages will attempt to illustrate the trip and to give some kind of a feel for what we experienced while guests in the People's Republic of China.
Travel: Plane trips and bus trips, some observations
Educational Exchange: Descriptions of our experiences as guests of several schools in the Bao Shan district of Shanghai.
Sight Seeing: Introduction
Wuxi: Pearls, Taihu Lake
Suzhou: Silk embroidery, Silk production, Gardens
Hangzhou: West Lake, Gardens
Shanghai: TV Tower, Museum, City of Change
Dining: Observations on our culinary experiences
Hotels: Observations on the quality hotels provided by our hosts.
Shopping: The ultimate American experience in China.
We
wish to give special thanks to our guide while in China, Johnny, and to our
bus driver "Bus Driver" (we never did get his name). They did a yeoman's
job in organizing and shepherding our group of "Crazy Americas."
As with all of the pictures on this website, click on the small picture to view
the full size picture, then use the back button on your browser to return to
this page.
Additionally, we'd like to thank Pai Wa Lien, Dr. and Mrs. Lee, Shelly ?????, and Mr. and Mrs. ????? who acted as translators when we were on our shopping excursions. They not only translated, but helped us to get the very best bargains possible.
This site is under construction. The pictures currently here are only those taken with the Epson PCPlus Digital camera on loan from GTS Graphics. It is anticipated that additional pictures will be scanned and included at a later date.
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John invites you to visit the site of the company he works for GTS Graphics.
Deb invites you to visit the Diamond Bar High School website.
Also recommended are