English Corner and Hunter City Mall

After an eventful Friday, we spent a quiet Saturday morning at our hotel. Candice, our Chinese friend and associate picked us up and treated us to a Guiyang staple food, beef noodles. Our chopstick skills are improving and we have no difficulty eating slippery noodles and broth. As an appetizer we ate fermented daikon and cabbage, a dish I know well because I make it in Missoula.

Beef Noodles

Chinese parents are especially keen on having their children learn English because they know it can help them find good jobs. Outside of the school day, children take extra classes in language, music, sports, etc. Children work extremely hard to make their parents proud and to be recognized as one of the best in their classes. We were invited to help teach at “English Corner,” which is an informal, drop-in, 90-minute English class for elementary students. Natalie and I played games, read a couple of books, and sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

Natalie reading Rainbow Crow at English Corner 

Door art at English Corner

Happy Bear/Beer design on a children's stool

Students enjoying a reading of No, David! at English Corner

Guiyang is a city of approximately 4.5 million people. We live in Yunyan District, one the seven districts that make up the city. Driving from one area of the city is an exhilarating experience. The infrastructure of the city is still catching up with the population growth and increase in personal vehicles. The city has regulations to help reduce traffic congestion and minimize emissions. Cars with license plates that end in a certain number cannot drive on two specified days of the week, which are posted around the city.  For example, if your license plate number ends with a 2 or 7 you cannot drive on Monday. Candice was kind to drive us to a mall in the city center to eat “American sushi.” Delicious! The Hunter City Mall was the biggest shopping mall I have ever seen, complete with a Carrefour in the basement. Carrefour is a French company similar to Walmart and is considered a hypermart due to its great size and immense variety of commodities for sale. Natalie was excited to find Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing store in Guiyang. Candice asked us if we have similar types of shopping in Montana. No, we definitely do not. 

Lizzy