Wednesday we visited the old campus of Fujian Normal University where we were treated to a viewing of rare books and paintings. The books were Chinese- privately printed as well as government produced. The government ones were on better paper and have not yellowed. There were also books written in English from 1654-1848 about the exploration of China by missionaries, embassy officials and adventurers. They have a collection numbering 10,000 rare items.
Then we were shown several of the 500 ancient paintings they have. The most amazing was 7 meters long and is of 100 flowers. It is believed to be about 300 years old and was taken by the tutor to the last emperor of China in the early 1900’s from the Forbidden City to Fuzhou. He then donated his entire collection of books and paintings to the Fuzhou Normal University as one of its founders. The ink is all from natural dyes and has not diminished in intensity. Then we viewed 4 hanging paintings which are also posted to the blog. These are painted on rice paper and then glued to a silk backing. One is by the famous artist Qi Bai Shi who is famous for his paintings of crabs and shrimp. The painting of the old man carrying a peach symbolizes longevity.
The visit to Acquisitions and cataloging was interesting in terms of process. When books arrive they are piled in what can only be described as a precarious leaning tower of Pisa. As they whittle their way down the materials go into another room where they surround the librarian working on them. As in other libraries we visited the book vendors come in and do all the processing.
In the afternoon Gretta presented to about 100 attendees on the topic of “From Gatekeeper to Portal to Cybercommons: the ever evolving nature of the university library. And in the evening we attended the “night market” at which a large variety of goods and foods are sold.
Thursday was another cultural day with a drive and ferry ride to the island of Mei Zhou which houses an amazing temple complex devoted to Ma Zu. Ma Zu was a young woman who at the age of 28 ascended to heaven and has been revered ever since. During her short life she was renowned for her ability to forecast the weather thereby saving fisherman as well as her incredible kindness and generosity. She lived from 960-987.
Tomorrow, Friday, is our last day with the three of us scattering to three different corners of China on Saturday. My intent is to make one last blog entry on Saturday after I reach Beijing and before I begin a 2 week personal tour of China with my husband and son.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Tuesday November 6
We had a lively day with a morning visit to Min Jiang University and an afternoon visit to the Chinese Medical School Library. Min Jiang University is smaller than the others we have visited and it also serves as a quasi-community college offering both 3 and 4 year degrees. We visited the new campus which is a complex outside of Fuzhou located in an area with at least 5 other universities nearby. These include Fuzhou University, the Chinese and Western Medical Schools, a technical university and who knows what else.
This area has been designated by the government as the site for campuses for both new and expanded existing universities. Min Jiang’s focus is on vocational studies, arts and crafts and teaching. It claims to be the best among the newly build universities and was started in 2002.
The library opened in June 2005 and currently has about 900,000 items and they are adding about 50,000 items per year working to meet the government standard of 100 books per student. It is about 13,000 square meters.
In the afternoon we visited the Chinese Medical School campus and Library. They opened only last week with an older campus still downtown. It was very interesting to see a specialized library. Like the other buildings we visited, it is massive with huge computer labs. The two campuses together have about 480,000 volumes and the new building is 16,000 square meters for the library and 9,000 square meters for a museum of traditional Chinese medicine which was not yet open so we could not visit.
In the evening we were treated to a tea party at the house of one of this year’s Horner fellows from China, Xiao Fang. Her husband is the Chair of the Fujian Tea Society and gave us a lesson in preparing and drinking tea. He shared with us a tea he has had for 10 years and never opened before. The tea plant it came from is the parent plant for Fujian tea and is being retired this year so leaves from this plant will no longer be available. It was a very special experience particularly since we got to visit them in their home. We also visited a neighbor’s apartment where she has a special tea room set up. Yes, pictures are coming.
This area has been designated by the government as the site for campuses for both new and expanded existing universities. Min Jiang’s focus is on vocational studies, arts and crafts and teaching. It claims to be the best among the newly build universities and was started in 2002.
The library opened in June 2005 and currently has about 900,000 items and they are adding about 50,000 items per year working to meet the government standard of 100 books per student. It is about 13,000 square meters.
In the afternoon we visited the Chinese Medical School campus and Library. They opened only last week with an older campus still downtown. It was very interesting to see a specialized library. Like the other buildings we visited, it is massive with huge computer labs. The two campuses together have about 480,000 volumes and the new building is 16,000 square meters for the library and 9,000 square meters for a museum of traditional Chinese medicine which was not yet open so we could not visit.
In the evening we were treated to a tea party at the house of one of this year’s Horner fellows from China, Xiao Fang. Her husband is the Chair of the Fujian Tea Society and gave us a lesson in preparing and drinking tea. He shared with us a tea he has had for 10 years and never opened before. The tea plant it came from is the parent plant for Fujian tea and is being retired this year so leaves from this plant will no longer be available. It was a very special experience particularly since we got to visit them in their home. We also visited a neighbor’s apartment where she has a special tea room set up. Yes, pictures are coming.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Monday November 5
Today we visited Fuzhou Normal University. Despite its name it is a lot more than a teaching university and is a comprehensive university offering classes from undergraduate through PhD. It is celebrating its centennial next week so we will just miss the festivities although everyone is very busy getting ready for it. The first president was the tutor for the last Qing emperor.
There are about 25,000 students with 20,000 of them undergraduates. They also have many involved in distance learning taking the total to closer to 60,000.
It ranks number 6 out of 1,000 provincial universities in the country.
The current main library facility opened in May 2006 and is quite impressive. They have the oldest collection in the province and the first president donated his collection to the library. They only show this collection to esteemed visitors. Pictures are posted. (In fact all of Teresa’s pictures are now posted and I am working on getting them tagged better. Next will be the task of loading Gretta’s and eventually Rosalind’s)
The collection is 2,086,000 volumes and is the largest of the provincial university libraries. They have 200,000 rare books with 10,000 of these considered “classics”. They also have a collection of 200,000 documents and many of these are about Taiwan from when Taiwan was still part of Fujian province. They are number 3 in the nation for documents trailing only behind Beijing University and Hua Dong University.
They also collect famous paintings back to the Song and Yuan dynasties.
We had a special lunch in Ming Hou, a nearby village with the table area made out of bamboo (pictures posted). And yes, posted is another picture of mom and baby water buffalo- they are different from the ones the day before. Those who know me well will understand why there are so many animal shots. Just know we are all being restrained- there are many very cute dogs running around everywhere- the most car savvy any of us have ever encountered.
The afternoon was interesting as Rosalind had something to attend to so Gretta and I were left to fend for ourselves with two very nice and earnest translators. We met with the various division directors and did our best but we did miss Rosalind. It is a much richer experience because of her skills, abilities and sensitivities.
There are about 25,000 students with 20,000 of them undergraduates. They also have many involved in distance learning taking the total to closer to 60,000.
It ranks number 6 out of 1,000 provincial universities in the country.
The current main library facility opened in May 2006 and is quite impressive. They have the oldest collection in the province and the first president donated his collection to the library. They only show this collection to esteemed visitors. Pictures are posted. (In fact all of Teresa’s pictures are now posted and I am working on getting them tagged better. Next will be the task of loading Gretta’s and eventually Rosalind’s)
The collection is 2,086,000 volumes and is the largest of the provincial university libraries. They have 200,000 rare books with 10,000 of these considered “classics”. They also have a collection of 200,000 documents and many of these are about Taiwan from when Taiwan was still part of Fujian province. They are number 3 in the nation for documents trailing only behind Beijing University and Hua Dong University.
They also collect famous paintings back to the Song and Yuan dynasties.
We had a special lunch in Ming Hou, a nearby village with the table area made out of bamboo (pictures posted). And yes, posted is another picture of mom and baby water buffalo- they are different from the ones the day before. Those who know me well will understand why there are so many animal shots. Just know we are all being restrained- there are many very cute dogs running around everywhere- the most car savvy any of us have ever encountered.
The afternoon was interesting as Rosalind had something to attend to so Gretta and I were left to fend for ourselves with two very nice and earnest translators. We met with the various division directors and did our best but we did miss Rosalind. It is a much richer experience because of her skills, abilities and sensitivities.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Sat and Sunday November 3 and 4
The weekend was as busy as the weekdays have been. In fact we had to be ready earlier than usual on Saturday. It was a very special day with an excursion up into the mountains to visit a native Hakka village with the former diretor of Xiamen Municipal Library who grew up in this town. The village and surrounding areas are famous for their earth dwellings. Many of them were built in a circular fashion for protection reasons. The Hakka fled from the central area of China to southern China to avoid ongoing conflicts during the Tang and Song dynasties. Most of the dwellings are still inhabited and are like round apartment complexes. Yes, pictures are coming. These earth buildings have been declared a UNESCO World heritage site.
There are currently about 10,000 residents of the village and all are members of the Jiang clan. Gretta’s excitement came from the plethora of fresh persimmon trees and yes, she has been feasting on fresh persimmon ever since.
The first special treat was a visit to Mr. Jiang’s house where his brothers and their families still live. He left many years ago to attend Beijing University to study history.
After a nice lunch in a local restaurant where in our honor the head was left on the chicken, we headed out to the surrounding countryside where we visited another village with its local temple and canal. This village is at the base of tea country so drying tea (it’s harvest time) was everywhere.
Climbing further into the mountains we viewed an earth building complex that from the top (yes we could look down on it) looks like a plum flower. Leaving there we continued through the mountains through absolutely phenomenally beautiful countryside. Similar to the cascades but imagine bamboo instead of pine! Besides the incredible scenery we were treated to passing several pomelo harvest collection sites along the road. Rosalind did her magic and negotiated for about 10 pomelos. We ate one in the car- it fed all 9 of us and was wonderful! Then we had to get a shot of pomelos growing on the mountainside like blackberries grow in Oregon and then I was treated to mom and baby water buffalo grazing at the side of the road. Yes pictures of all this are coming soon.
We got back late as usual after an indescribable drive through the mountains. Whatever we have said about driving in town- doesn’t change in the mountains. Then up early again on Sunday to visit the beach in Xiamen and the Hulishan fortress which is home to the largest cannon in the world. There were originally two such cannons but Mao ordered them to be made into steel. One was taken but the community gathered the money to pay the equivalent value and saved it. The fortress was built in the Qing Dynasty to guard Xiamen against foreign invaders.
We then went to lunch at the first vegetarian restaurant in China! It is in the Nanputuo Temple. The food art was INCREDIBLE and pictures are coming up soon. They made the food on the plate actually look like bamboo trees (using cucumbers for the branches) and another that looked like coconut trees using snow pea pods for the fronds. Dessert was sticky rice made to look like a pumpkin and filled with a nut/sesame/? Filling. Then there was the tofu made to look like a coin purse with carrots shaped like coins and sticky rice for gold nuggets. I was extremely pleased and stuffed- not used to carrying the food load! Interestingly, this same sticky rice was mixed with gravel to form the pavement surface of the fortress so that if attacked by a missile/cannon it would only hurt not kill- kind of like shatter proof glass.
Then off to Fuzhou where we were met by Mr Rouan,one of this year's visitors. Late dinner and then back to the hotel to unpack and prepare for our last week!
There are currently about 10,000 residents of the village and all are members of the Jiang clan. Gretta’s excitement came from the plethora of fresh persimmon trees and yes, she has been feasting on fresh persimmon ever since.
The first special treat was a visit to Mr. Jiang’s house where his brothers and their families still live. He left many years ago to attend Beijing University to study history.
After a nice lunch in a local restaurant where in our honor the head was left on the chicken, we headed out to the surrounding countryside where we visited another village with its local temple and canal. This village is at the base of tea country so drying tea (it’s harvest time) was everywhere.
Climbing further into the mountains we viewed an earth building complex that from the top (yes we could look down on it) looks like a plum flower. Leaving there we continued through the mountains through absolutely phenomenally beautiful countryside. Similar to the cascades but imagine bamboo instead of pine! Besides the incredible scenery we were treated to passing several pomelo harvest collection sites along the road. Rosalind did her magic and negotiated for about 10 pomelos. We ate one in the car- it fed all 9 of us and was wonderful! Then we had to get a shot of pomelos growing on the mountainside like blackberries grow in Oregon and then I was treated to mom and baby water buffalo grazing at the side of the road. Yes pictures of all this are coming soon.
We got back late as usual after an indescribable drive through the mountains. Whatever we have said about driving in town- doesn’t change in the mountains. Then up early again on Sunday to visit the beach in Xiamen and the Hulishan fortress which is home to the largest cannon in the world. There were originally two such cannons but Mao ordered them to be made into steel. One was taken but the community gathered the money to pay the equivalent value and saved it. The fortress was built in the Qing Dynasty to guard Xiamen against foreign invaders.
We then went to lunch at the first vegetarian restaurant in China! It is in the Nanputuo Temple. The food art was INCREDIBLE and pictures are coming up soon. They made the food on the plate actually look like bamboo trees (using cucumbers for the branches) and another that looked like coconut trees using snow pea pods for the fronds. Dessert was sticky rice made to look like a pumpkin and filled with a nut/sesame/? Filling. Then there was the tofu made to look like a coin purse with carrots shaped like coins and sticky rice for gold nuggets. I was extremely pleased and stuffed- not used to carrying the food load! Interestingly, this same sticky rice was mixed with gravel to form the pavement surface of the fortress so that if attacked by a missile/cannon it would only hurt not kill- kind of like shatter proof glass.
Then off to Fuzhou where we were met by Mr Rouan,one of this year's visitors. Late dinner and then back to the hotel to unpack and prepare for our last week!
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