Just Because Beijing Isn't Cold Enough....

With our schedule here, we get three weeks on and then one week off. Usually that week comes at the end of every month, but sometimes due to scheduling, it is at the start of the month. So when one break is at the end of a month, followed by a break at the beginning of the month it is a good thing and we get 2 weeks off. Such is the case with the December/January break. We have off for 14 whole days, leaving plenty of time to relax and/or travel. Our team is split up into two different mindsets. One side wants to go down to Yunnan province which has been called the Hawaii of China. Nice, consistent temperatures around 75 this time of year, tropical vegetation, vast variety of people and food...a pretty nice break from the cold and smog of Beijing. The other group wants to travel north to Harbin, the capital of the northernmost province of China, bordering Russia. It too also has consistent temperatures, around -15 to -25 degrees in the daytime. The main attraction this time of year is the Ice Festival and the Siberian Tiger Park, where for a fee you can throw live chickens out of a moving van and watch the tigers pounce, all the while hoping that they don't decide to go for the more tasty and filling treat of what's inside the van. Apparently, that's happened before. Did I mention the cold? Right now according to WeatherChannel.com, it feels like -27 degrees farenheit. Let's think about that for a second...

that's nearly sixty degrees below freezing.

As a matter of fact, the only thing that seperates it from the region known as Siberia is an imaginary line on the nap that separates China and Russia. Half of us are not only going there, but going there in January to see the Ice Festival, while the other-perhaps more sensible-half are going to tropical Yunnan.
Of course, I'm going with the Harbin group. Why? Well for one, the Ice Festival is internationally famous and two, it boils down to bragging rights. Anyone can go to a tropical city in the middle of winter, but it takes someone special to get excited to go much farther north. But you have to admit, that's a darn good tourism board right there. Somewhere back in time, somebody asked the question "How can we make a city in northern China the most popular tourist destination...in wintertime?"

Alaska, take note.

It's Christmas Time in the City

The past two days have been amazing as far as getting one into the Christmas spirit. Last night around 9 pm we thought we would go caroling around the student dorms and just have some fun.
The student response was tremendous to say the least. I felt like I was a rock star. Nearly every student crowded around to try to take a picture and were just insanely happy that we were spending some time with them on our important holiday. To give you an idea of the rock concert like conditions here's some pictures Geoff took of them taking pictures of us...



It was crazy, we ended up singing every song we knew and then some and still they wanted more.




Then today on Christmas, we had a short Christmas skit and because of the holiday itself we were able to be a lot more bold and do the entire Christmas story as well as read some passages from Luke and Isaiah. I'm not sure how much the students got out of it but it felt really good to be able to do this and we even got it cleared by our liason, a registered Party member who insisted we tell the entire biblical story in order to give all the facts about Christmas. Amazing.

Christmas Come Early

Today our group received four boxes from a church in Texas that were absolutely filled with Christmas decorations and American food, such as Velveeta (cheesy gold!) cans of Campbell's chili, dozens of boxes of Swiss Miss hot chocolate as well as other goodies that we haven't had in month. Opening these boxes, it was the same feeling as opening presents under the tree.
Inside the first box, we found this note:

Caption Contest

Rush Hour 430 PM Zhongguancun Plaza Haidian District. I have no idea why there is all the traffic going one way, so this is where y'all come in! Give me a good caption!

I Will Never Get Christmas Materialism

All throughout the session while planning Christmas themed activities, involving lesson plans and carols and stories, we have been more than careful to keep the religious imagery well within the confines of the law and into the fuzzy "grey areas." This has provided more than one headache and a lot of frustration, but that's one of the things you deal with when you work in a country such as China. Just as I was getting used to this, I had a intense Big Mac attack and went out to McDonald's to relieve this (thank you God for sending me to a civilized city with starbucks and MickeyD's)
and as I'm in there "Joy to the World" begins to play....

In Chinese.

In case you are not quite aware of the imagery of this song, let's have a Chinese lesson...

Joy to the World, the Lord has come.
huān téng de shì jiè， shàng dì lái le。

Let Earth receive her king!
huān téng de shì jiè， shàng dì lái le。

Let every heart prepare Him room,
ràng wǒ men měi gè rén xīn zhōng tā zhǔn bèi shì，

And Heaven and nature sing
yǔ tiān dì zì rán chàng


How much profit do you have to turn before you can openly flaunt tense regulations?

Somehow "ō shèng dàn shù!" just doesn't have the same ring....

Tis' the season and nobody knows that better than....China?
Here are a few pictures of one of the dozens of Christmas Trees that are set up in metropolitan Beijing.



This one is my favorite...it's nearly six stories high.

Here's another angle of it



How many Christmas trees are in your parking lot?

New Session Update

It's a few days into the new session and I thought I would give you an update of what's going on here.Having Brandon as a co-facilitator has been a huge blessing because the past few days I have been knocked out by something I ate (to the best of my guess). So he's been able to pick up my slack and today we started our rotating teaching schedule. He teaches the main session one day, and then I teach the afternoon activity and then we switch. This gives both of us some new free time, so I have been spending mine doing some reading. Currently, I am on Paul by Walter Wangerin and is pretty much a novelization of most of the New Testament, specifically Acts. It's pretty good so far.

What Are The Odds?

At the start of each session, we hold entrance interviews for the students to determine what class level to put them in based off their English skills. Figure that this session there were about 350 students divided among 20 facilitators in three rooms holding interviews for about two and a half hours. So then, what are the odds I would get these students in this exact order? I only noticed this after interviews were concluded.

New Students Arrive Tomorrow

Another break has come and gone and another session is on the horizon.
Sunrise Sunset.

However, this time is a little different as I'm co-facilitating a class. I've never shared a class before so this will be more than a little interesting. My partner is Brandon, who has been here about half a year longer than I. We spent most of the day prepping for the session and comparing lesson plans. We'll see how it goes =)

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

From left to right, Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Chairman Mao and Barack Obama. The design is available on t-shirts as well as buttons, like this one.

Beijingle Bells!

Today was the first day of break and so Geoff and I went to McDonalds for lunch. The place looked like the New York Stock Exchange. The Chinese haven't really got the concept of waiting in a line yet, so imagine a crazy lunch hour rush at McDonald's with no lines and you have something similar. Once we got our food, there was no place to sit and so we finally had the good fortune to spot two businessmen right when they were about to get up from a table that sat four, so we went and sat down. A few things to keep in mind here. This place is cramped and crowded, standing room only. There are two of us, and four seats at our table. We waited to see if anyone would come and sit next to the foreigners for nearly twenty minutes. Several people looked like they might, but then quickly turned away. Others simply ate standing up. When we left, it was a mad dash to our table. Afterward, we walked down to the Lotus Center which is a rather large department store. Inside the Lotus Center is well decorated with all the Christmas spirit of anywhere in America. Still can't quite figure that one out, but it took me record time to get annoyed with Christmas carols this year. Geoff and I bought a small Christmas tree and a few decorations (think Charlie Brown)and when we came back to campus decorated a little bit. A little later on, all the staff had a belated Thanksgiving dinner that, even though was lacking in the traditional elements, certainly was not lacking in spirit. As always, Geoff had his camera there and took a few hundred pictures then whittled them down to these.

Geoff's PicasaWeb

Thanksgiving

Want to know how they celebrate Thanksgiving in China?

OK, I'll tell you.

It's just like any other day. Thanksgiving is a strictly American holiday so the vast majority of the sutdents weren't even aware of the holiday. It's kind of like Americans and Boxing Day. You are aware it exists, and it's even on some calendars but you have no ideas on the specifics besides the fact that its celebrated in some other country. As far as the American staff here, there was really nothing special to commemorate the day. On Sunday, however, there is talk of a pot luck. Certain things are pretty hard to get such as turkey, cranberry sauce, real gravy, and stuffing but we'll see how it turns out.

For Once, the Rich White Man Has All The Power :)

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep."At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out." 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut."Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Matthew 25:1-13

The Internet died here this morning and it's looking like it won't be repaired for a solid ten days to two weeks. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth on this morning, but it barely affects me. I have had my own internet, DanNet, for a few months now. Yesterday, it was TIP Net, ChinaNet and DanNet. Now it's only DanNet. Effective this morning, I own a full monopoly on Internet services for this campus.

"Excellent...."

People soon realized that I had nternet, so they were saved! Of course I was happy to help them...for a nominal fee. I may not have a master's in international economics but there is a few things I have learned...among them being Supply and Demand. Since this break in service occurs on Thanksgiving Week, I am giving people one free hour during ideal American calling hours to contact home. It got so bad that earlier the Dean of the entire campus was in my room, asking (and paying) to use DanNet. However, most people can't seem to understand why I don't just set up my router for everyone to use. After all, be a nice person and all that. The answer comes from the Gospel According to Dan:


"At that time, TIP will be like ten facilitators who turned on their computers and went out to check their email. Nine of them were foolish and one of them was wise. The foolish ones depended on the campus for their Internet, the one who was wise bought his own equipment. The email was a long time in loading, and they all became impatient and did other things. At noon, the cry rang out: “Here is the proxy to load your email, come out and install it!”Then all the facilitators got back to their computers. The foolish ones said to the wise “Give us some of your bandwidth, for ours is really slow.”“No” he replied, “there may not be enough for both you and me. Instead, go to those who sell wi-fi and buy some for yourselves.”But while they were off campus, the router broke. And the one who was wise, turned on his own equipment and checked his email, and updated his blog. And the internet was password protected.Later, the others also came. “Sir! Sir!” they said, “Unlock the internet for us!” But he replied, “I tell you the truth, I will not.”Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour when the router shall break."

The Roomie's a Shutterbug

So not only is my new roommate the cat's pajamas (goes with the retro theme ;) but he is a pretty avid photographer and has some great equipment. He put together an album that you can see here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/geoffrey.hill/First17Days#

you can get some good shots of our campus as well as our students here.

How To Lose Guan Xi...in Color!

The past few days at meal times, our program director Julia has been eating with my class to get to know the students. This has been pretty good because the students have a new target to ask a million questions a day. That is, until yesterday when one of the lower students couldn't remember the particular vocab for his question, so he just asked it in Chinese. We like to keep an English-only environment, so Julia gave him a citation.
It looked something like this...



A citation is pretty much just a reminder to use English and a warning that if you get enough of them, you're in trouble. The first citation is practically meaningless, but the students didn't see it that way and were quite upset with Julia for giving him one since it was only a few words. Well rules are rules so Julia didn't bend on it, and seeing as though she is my boss, I didn't either. So today, the students sat on the complete opposite ends of the table crowding each other so not as to have to sit near Julia.



Hey, at least it built class unity. :)

Snow Problems

This is from the China Daily in an article from yesterdays paper.

Heavy snowstorms in northern China have killed at least 32 people today, according to officials. More than 15,000 buildings had collapsed due to large amounts of snow and 300,000 hectares of winter crops were destroyed, according to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry estimated that 9.6 million people were affected in some way by the snows, and a further 166,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Most of the deaths were caused by traffic accidents, the ministry said.

Heavy snowfall started on Monday in central and northern parts of China, including the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Shandong. The capital of Beijing was struck by three successive snowfalls, and dozens of flights at airports were canceled or delayed. Beijing and the surrounding area is not very well equipped to handle the snows, as they have few de-icing supplies or snowploughs.

The snowfalls are the heaviest in China since records started being kept in 1949, according to the civil affairs ministry. State media suggested some of the snowfall was started artificially, by cloud seeding.

This Just Isn't Right....

So all the press is covering obama's every movement since he slithered into China last night, including his travels to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, (locking down dang near the entire city as well) and I have just one question....

How come he didn't have to go through seven days of isolated quarantine like every other foreigner in the country?

What's More Annoying Than a Gloating Packers Fan?

A: A Gloating Packers Fan 12,000 miles from Green Bay.

Schedule

I know that I have a rather unpredicatable posting schedule but I post when the news happens. Not everyday does something "blog worthy" happen. For the most part, it is a typical get up in the morning, go to work, come home at night type thing. Due to the session, I don't really have much of a chance to leave the campus, so that means for the most part I am surrounded by Americans. Let me update you on my typical day.

7:15 - Wake up.
8:00 - 9:50 Class starts. I usually try to be there at least 20 minutes early. My class this session is very low in English speaking ability so it often involves a lot of repeating things and learning to talk very slowly.

10-12 - I use this time to catch up on other things that are happening or will happen throughout the day.

12-1245 Lunch. I sit with my class and get asked the same questions every day. (Do you have a girlfriend? Do you like Chinese food? Do you miss America? Have you ever been to *insert rural province here*? What do you think of China? Doyouhaveagirlfriend? DoyoulikeChinesefood? DoyoumissAmerica? Whatistheairspeedvelocityofanunladenswallow? Haveyoueverbeento*insertruralprovincehere*? WhatdoyouthinkofChina?Doyouhaveagirlfriend?DoyoulikeChinesefood?DoyoumissAmerica?Haveyoueverbeento*insertruralprovincehere*?WhatdoyouthinkofChina?)

As you can see, it all kind of runs together after a while. They will ask these same questions every day for the entire three weeks.

1-4. I use this time to prep for my next class and/or sneak in a nap.

4-5 - Physical exercise time. This is a challenge to plan for. Our director wants the students to have more exercise in the day so he wants us to incorporate a game time. This is pretty hard when you have 30 plus students all in their late twenties to mid forties, who are also business professionals. There are just some things you can't do. ("red rover, red rover, send the primary school headmaster for Chaoyang District right over!") So coming up with a new activity each day that not only suits the students, but the weather as well is a challenge to say the least. Speaking of the weather, we now put things in the refrigerator to keep them from freezing solid. I left a can of soda on my window sill last night and this morning it was rock hard. It turned out alright as now I am enjoying a nice Coke slushie.

5-5:50 - Club time. This is another class that the students go to where they learn more about western things, such as holidays, sports, etc. The lesson planning for this is pretty easy but sometimes it gets a little fun trying to fill an hour talking about Thanksgiving. Go ahead, write down everything you know and do for thanksgiving. See if it takes you more than ten minutes.

6-6:50 - Dinner. See "Lunch"

7-8 - Reading time in the classroom. The students head back to the classroom and fill their minds with new information from American magazines and English language newspapers. Then they write a summary of the article as well as any new words they have learned while doing so. And that's the way it works in theory... In reality, I spend most of my time reminding them to do this, because students seem to think this is "The Sun is Down So I Officially Don't Have to Do Any Work Now" Time. For others, it is "I Don't Understand Any of This So I'm Just Going to Sit Here and Pretend" They are firm believers in the philosophy of "Asking Questions Only Makes It Harder."
Still others follow the more leisurely way "I Bet I Can Sneak A Quick Cigarette and Cell Phone Call Since We're Not Really Doing Anything Now." Time.

8-Only God Knows When - Staff Meeting. Normally pretty quick unless somebody asks an inane question or brings up a controversy about the schedule or something else completely off focus. Somebody always does.

That's the end of my work day, so after that I find time to relax and catch up on things in America and there's always a conversation I look forward to that makes everything better at night. So if you're wondering why I don't post more often, it's because the schedule hasn't deviated from the above in a while. I post when I have news that I feel is worth sharing, hence the title "News From Dan". If I posted everyday, it would be the "Daily Grind From Dan" and who would want that?

The Layouts....They Are a'Changing!

As you can see, there are some major changes around here. I happen to like them, so if you don't, tough :) I think that the new banner has a sort of "retro postcard" feel to it.

You can thank the blog's makeover on the new roomie, Geoff. Back in Cincinnati, he owned his own graphic design firm, so tonight was a night of hexadecimal color codes, CSS code and Macromedia Fireworks. Getting into the technical side of things, this blog is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox. If you don't have it, get it at mozilla.com. It's easy, it's free and it's a heck of lot better than Internet Explorer. You win, Caitlin.

What Kind of 401(k) Does the Kingdom of Heaven offer?

As you might have seen from a post a while back, payday is a bit different here then in the United States and usually this doesn't cause too much of a concern, but for the past few days it has been a divisive issue on campus. Our pay is ten days late and as of today has been delayed until Friday at the earliest. Needless to say, the workers are not amused.
As for me, it doesn't really bother me. I have enough saved over from previous months to tide me well into 2010 and I know that I'll get paid eventually. I'm really not concerned about this at all, and myself and a few others as well as the leadership here have been trying to convince the others, most notably the new recruits, to put down the pitchforks and torches and listen to some reason. There are three main reasons why I am not worried or upset about a delayed paycheck, er..stack of bills. They are as follows.
The first one is cultural. This is China. If any place in the world is going to act the opposite of America, it's going to be China. While a set standard of pay (such as every Friday, or the first and fifteenth) is the standard in America, such agreements are practically non-existent anywhere in China. Employees either work on commission, or know that they will receive an envelope filled with cash sometime during the month. Delays happen. It may not be as efficient as the American system, but it works and it's the culture. Frankly, I'm not one to mess with the system that pays over a billion and a half people. That seems dangerous. Sure, it's different from what we know and love. But so are squat toilets, boiled intestine surprise, and room temperature beer. But we got used to them. Doesn't mean we have to like them, but it does mean we have to go by them. When in Rome and all that.
Second reason is our employer. We work for ESEC who in turn has a partnership with Peking University. One of the largest and most prestigious (if not the most prestigious)university in all of Asia. Hilary Clinton and Obama have both left slime trails on the main campus on their official visits. The founder of modern China and the guy whose mug graces all the bills on the country started out as the librarian at Peking University, or Beida as it's more colloquially called. It has around 50,000 students in 14 major departments and operates large hospitals, printing houses, research centers, and many more things. You can't go five feet in downtown Beijing without seeing the Beida logo on something. ESEC is one fish in a very busy river. So expecting that they will be consistently on time with the pay of a mere twenty five or so foreigners on a slightly backwater campus, in a culture where the myriad professors and deans themselves probably don't have this luxury, is ridiculous. Delays happen. Especially when you have our location on the totem pole. It's selfish and dangerously ethnocentric to think that special privileges should be extended to you just because you are used to something else.
The third reason is the most important. None of us are here for the money, as what we make here translates into roughly minimum wage in America for much more than 40 hours a week. Even if you did come to China for the money, almost any other English program will pay more. We came, all of us, because we were called by a higher authority. I, for one, think it shows a lack of faith to suggest that the One who called us here would abandon our financial needs when we got here. Sure it might stretch us a little, (for instance, I can remember when I was 12 hours away from complete homelessness on the streets of Seoul with no cash whatsoever) but that only serves to increase our faith. Now, I'm not saying I don't care about money whatsoever, that's most certainly not true, but I'm not going to completely lose focus on my purpose for being here just because I'm getting paid a bit late. Paul's first letter to Tim he says "Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." Food? Check. Maybe not always the best looking and/or tasting but I have it. Clothing? Check. And quite stylish may I add. Content? That's what we need to be working on now.
So basically what I have been trying to say to those who are stressed about our financial crisis here is, Chill out. He's in control. The new session starts tomorrow. Do your job and Friday will be here before you know it.

Anonymous Quote Found Tonight Regarding Purpose

The guy who wrote this knows what it's all about.

Things That Please Dan

- 1 kuai mutton sticks.
- 1.5 kuai Tsingtao
- the new coffee machine on campus.
- chahshka!
- temperatures that are above freezing, for a change.
- www.youku.com
- the Dallas Cowboys defense
- the lack of same on the New York Giants
- being able to actually watch these games


and lately,
- getting up in the morning and finding out that Republican governors are elected in two states that went blue a year ago.
- checking again to find out that Maine voters defeated a gay marriage bill.
- doing a little research that shows Maine is the 31st straight state (no pun intended) that has shot down gay marriage amendments. You think that when every state it has been introduced in, including California and Vermont -- the two most supportive states--it might be time to give up the idea. Not being able to get this bill passed in either of those states nor any other state is akin to not being able to pass a pro cattle raising amendment in Texas, Wyoming, or Oklahoma.

I know that this isn't a political blog, and for my part I have tried my best to keep it that way, but every once in a while it's a good thing to let ol' Dan have his say. Thanks!

Weekend Update

It has been a great start to the break between sessions and so far a lot has been going on.

Saturday
I didn't even realize it was halloween until I stopped by an American chain restaurant for dinner and the waitresses were dressed up. I guess that's what happens when you're not surrounded by constant commercial advertising. =)
That night we had a quick Halloween party that was a lot of fun with the theme being "scary things."
For example...



Then Sunday morning, I woke up and heard what sounded like soft rain falling, so I opened up my curtains to find that the city had been coated in a fresh layer of snow overnight. My guesstimate was four inches in some places. No, this isn't usual. It snows in Beijing, but not this early!


Finally, today was a busy one. Four in the morning found my boss Holly and I headed out to Lush to actually watch the Vikings-Packers game, courtesy of the NFL posting the game online (for a not-so-nominal fee of course...) and then this being Holly's birthday, Brett Favre won the game for her and we took her out to dinner at the Kro's Nest, an American style pizzeria with family style dining. The Kro's Nest has several plaques at the entrance declaring it to have won The Family Friendly Award for such and such a year and Excellence in Family Dining for another year by this and that organization. They even had coloring pages and crayons for the kids, which is pretty rare for Beijing.


yes, that is Kaptain Kro smoking a cigarette while bringing you alcohol. In "the most family friendly restaurant of 2008."

New Layout

UPDATE: It turns out that having several hours of student speeches gives one plenty of time to fiddle with HTML code. Enjoy!

So the people have spoken and Alternate Banner Number Three was chosen. However, after uploading it and changing the header, apparently it has decided it doesn't want to accept the nomination and refuses to show. I'm working on this problem as best as I can through my blogspot proxy (as remember this whole blog network is blocked in China) I expect to have a solution in place in the next couple of days. In the meantime, show some pride and vote in the new poll!

From Awesome to Evil...

One of the most infamous things that TIP is known for is the requirement that all students write and memorize a ten minute speech in English. (Keep that in mind next time you have to speak in public. Just be glad you don't have to speak...and get graded on...in a foreign language) Students prepare almost from day one for these speeches. Guess who gets to listen to all 41 ten minute speeches?
So yesterday, I thought i would play a little prank on my students. :)
We have this game where I play an American song that is either medium or low speed and ask questions about the lyrics, to make sure they are paying close attention. The student who answers the most questions correct gets a small prize or privilege, basically it's an honor thing.
Students usually really like this game and so yesterday morning I told my class,
"OK. I really don't want to have to listen to 41 speeches. Very long. SO how about this. I will play a song where a man talks about some places he has traveled. If you can write down the names of the cities he mentions in this song, I will count that as evidence of growth in your English and you will not have to give a speech. Well, this went over really excitedly and I reminded them that they needed to write down the names of the cities.
Yes! Yes! We understand! PLAY THE SONG! PLAY THE SONG!
I have seen hobos concentrate on powerball tickets less intently than my students were waiting for the song that would deliver them from giving their speech. Or so they thought.
The song I played? I've Been Everywhere Man. by Johnny Cash. If you're not familiar with it, here are the lyrics

http://artists.letssingit.com/johnny-cash-lyrics-ive-been-everywhere-t9jndr2

Over 100 cities spoken in just over 3 minutes. My students faces fell almost as soon as their eyes started to get wider and wider.

Speeches began today. :)

Inspirational Poster

Over the past few days, many students both from my class and others have said that they like my sports club the best and I was a great facilitator, even mentioned in the student newspaper. Now someone who is less humble than me might get a big head over that, but not I. In fact, thinking of others, I have created a Motivational/Inspirational Poster to encourage others in their quest to do their best. I present it to you below.

"We're Taking Care of It...."

The past few weeks it has been getting noticeably colder here, but the past week has been especially cold. The government has control of heating here and they turn it on when they are good and ready to. Picture the a father hovering over the thermostat on a massive national scale and you have something similar. (and you thought getting a call reminding you to vote for Candidate X was the government being annoying...)
Well the deadline for when the government was two days ago and alas no heat. Just cold iron pipes in a concrete/marble floor (read: colder INSIDE than OUTSIDE) Our university officials said they were aware of the problem and were working on a solution. Wasting no time, the next day their solution was in place. Wool blankets were handed out to all the staff, free of charge.

Student Journals

I am extremely busy this session with 41 students and no assistants in my class, so I have to do everything myself and part of that is reading forty-one student journals. All of the students are required to keep journals of each day and to make summaries of anything they read and to make sure they are doing it, I read them. A benefit of this besides learning of the myriad ways English can be mangled, is that I gain an insight on the lives of my students. Some entries are laugh out loud funny, others are tearfully poignant. I give you now an example from one that I just put down. To get the full effect, I left in the spelling and grammar mistakes.

"Last night. I was sad. Because my wife was crying in my sell phone as my daughter left at 8:00 in the evening with her grandparents. My parents-in-law. My wife was crying and crying she was so alone.What a sad thing she meet! No one to talk to, to play with, to share love with. I could say nothing to her except "I love you. Don't cry." Even this, she did not know what is meaning. Because she can not speak English and I am not allowed to speak Chinese to give the comfort to her. Because she is so alonely. I walked back to Dormroom. My tears falled down. I miss my wife very much. I will work very hard in TIP so this will be worth it."

New Layout

On the lighter side of things, I have decided to freshen up the blog a little by adding a new header image. I've come up with a few alternate choices as seen below and I'll give you all ten days to vote on a new one. Most of these were based off pictures taken around the Great Wall earlier this month. Due to size restrictions these are only previews. To see the full size image, simply click on the picture and then vote for your choice on the panel on the right there.


This is Alt Picture 1


This is Alt Picture 2


This is Alt Picture 3

and of course you have the option of retaining the current image.
Happy voting :)

Eating With Dragons

Click here for the full text.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/godandstarcraft/eatingwithdragons.jpg

Tuesday Morning Football

I apologize that this post is almost a week old, but I wanuted to make sure the link to the pictures got plenty of exposure, as well as my thank you, so I waited to post this one.

Last Tuesday morning (Monday evening in the states) we woke up at 7 to get to a pretty trendy coffee shop in an international district to watch the packers/vikings game. You have to understand that the NBA is huge over here and MLB is not far behind. Mention NFL and they draw blanks. However, if you are lucky, you can sometimes catch a game on an American network like ESPN. However, ESPN Asia gives Asian sports preference (imagine that) so instead of seeing one of the biggest NFL games of the season, it was Kyoto University women's rowing finals. On ESPN.

Not cool.

So we were frantically trying to find a way to watch the game online because the NFL option is ridiculously expensive (like 270 US dollars for a season pass) and we ended up finding a live feed from some US TV station that was broadcasting online "ESPN en Espanol." So for about 15 minutes we had things like:

"Brett Farve lleva el balón y evita la defensa. Él mira hacia el campo. Coger! Corre! El bloques! Anoto! ¡Touchdown! No lo puedo creer! Celebración! Undelay, undelay, Él es el ratón más rápido de todo México!"

Then that site went down. It said there was a server overload, which makes me think that every other NFL fan in China was having to listen to Brett Farve slice up his old team in Spanish as well. The only other thing we could do was go to nfl.com and watch the game represented in animated arrows and lines on a green rectangle. We did this for over two hours, wildly cheering or shouting when a line moved a fraction of an inch. I'm sure the staff there thought we were crazy. I can imagine how the conversation among two waiters went...

Ping: "You should have been here earlier today. Six foreigners came in around 730 this morning and wanted to make sure we had that American sports station on TV."
Li: "That's not unusual. Anything good on?"
Ping: "Kyoto University rowing. Ladies' team."
Li: "Oooh, I heard they're really good this year. Can't wait till they compete against the Chinese universities. That's going to be interesting."
Ping: "Yeah, it will be. But boy, you should have seen the Americans. They were not happy.”
Li: "Hmm. Can’t please everyone. So what did they end up doing?"
Ping: "Well after ordering a LOT of coffee. They all squished in one booth and tried to get as close as possible to this laptop on the table. Didn’t care about anything else. Just sitting there watching what looked like very slow, choppy TV.”
Li: “Huh. That’s stupid. Why watch TV on a computer when we have our big screen?”
Ping: “Yeah, well they really got into this one I tell you. I watched a bit of it when I dropped off yet another espresso and it looked odd. This man was all dressed up wearing purple, he got this squished ball from this other guy wearing purple, but it didn’t look like a ball, you see, and then a lot of guys wearing yellow came running after him. I figured they wanted the ball too, and he panicked, so he got rid of it and threw it.”
Li: “Wow really?”
Ping: “Yeah, only the yellow guys were a LOT bigger than the first purple guy. And as soon as he threw the ball, the yellow guys hit him hard and knocked him down. Some other random guy, apparently didn’t learn the lesson from the last guy that in this game ball equals pain, caught the thing in the air and he too got knocked flat, but at least he held on to it longer than the little purple guy. Even looked like he might get away from them for a few seconds.”
Li: “The guy that caught it…was he wearing yellow or purple?”
Ping: “Purple. It looked like a yellow guy was going to catch it after the purple guy threw it away one time, and boy the Americans were UPSET. Awful vocal they were about that one.”
Li: “So they stayed there the whole day watching this sport?”
Ping: “No. Weirdest thing. After about 20 minutes or so, there was no more purple or yellow guys anymore, and the same image was stuck on the screen and all six of them were talking at once faster and faster. Finally, they had a rectangle on the screen. Green with white lines and there was orange arrows and lines everywhere. Lots and lots of numbers too. When this came up, I tell you….they DID NOT MOVE. Not an inch. It was like time stood still for them, as they were glued to that laptop.
Li: “Weird. What do you think was going on?”
Ping: “No idea. Every few minutes, the little arrow would go forth half an inch or two and then they would just jump and shout like they did earlier for a second and then go right back to staring at it. They did this for over an hour, man!”
Li: “over an hour? You’ve got to be kidding me! It must have been another type of game. Maybe a shape game or math game or something. But I can’t believe that could hold anyone’s attention for over an hour”
Ping: “I’m telling you it did. Maybe even two. One time the little arrow shot ahead in two big bursts and then after a pause started going the other way. Boy, they were happy then. After a while, when the arrows stopped moving altogether, the one with the laptop shut it down and they all left, pretty happy.”
Li: “With the possible exception of basketball, I will never understand American sports! But they sure take it passionately!”

Fuqing coming in to backroom: “Hey guys, anyone know if ESPN’s gonna air the West Ham – Millwall soccer match? Some British guys are out front and want to know.”

Thank you

I got a parcel in the mail today containing letters and birthday cards from friends and family. To those of you who contributed to this, thank you so much. The updates from home are much appreciated and I don't think you know how much this means to me. Anything from America is valued, even the little things like an American address on the return address label. I've been over here a few weeks shy of six months now and while I love it, the little reminders of home are a great source of joy and comfort. So once again, thank you.

Stair Master from Hell!

Sarah, Abby and I went to a non touristy part of the Great Wall over the weekend. It was outside of Beijing more than a little and had no where near the tourist trappings of the main section at Badaling, but we all really liked it. It was a lot more narrow and a lot steeper than any section I have been on before and was for all practical purposes, a staircase going up a mountain. The steps were killer, some were only a few inches high, some more than two feet high. We figured it was probably a mile going up the mountain and coming back down, we felt every step. A few days later, I can still feel them a little in my legs. The whole time we were there, the views were amazing, and we took many pictures, far too many to post one at a time as I usually do, but I uploaded them all to Photobucket through a proxy, so you should be able to just click --or copy and paste--the link below and see some of the pictures, (even movies!)

NewsFromDan Photobucket Album

Silk Street

Today, being a pretty special day and all, went pretty well. Sarah - who if you are not aware, came up to Beijing to celebrate with me, and I went to the silk market along with a new facilitator Abby. The silk market is nearly 1,500 vendors selling everything (literally everything) from DVD's to expensive jewelry to artwork to tourist tshirts to fine luxury clothing. One of my favorite shops is this woman who sells pure cashmere and silk scarves. Unless you have been to Northern China, Inner Mongolia or Persia, you have never felt anything this soft or smooth. Most of the silk you buy in the US is a blend of silk and another fabric to keep costs down or colors bright, but pure 100% silk is hard to find in the US. Pure cashmere is even harder to find, but when you find it, it is softer and smoother then silk. A while back, I helped a facilitator bargain at this particular shop and the lady tthat runs it gave us a pretty fair price for what we wanted, so since then I've brought them all the new facilitators who come
into TIP. This ensures that they get great prices for what they want without having to worry about being ripped off during the negotiation phase
of buying and it gives her business. This also help me establish what is called "guan xi." In China, it's not what you know that gets things done, but largely
who you know and how good of a relationship you have with them. This is guan xi. Guan xi is used in thousands of ways for thousands of circumstances, but in this case
guan xi enables me to get a better price than most people would. For instance, suppose the silk scarves this woman is selling cost her 50 yuan each. If a complete stranger comes to her and asks how much, she will probably start off at around 700 yuan and then negotiations would ensue with (depending on the skill of the bargainer) an agreement around two or three hundred yuan or so. However, because I bring this woman customers and because I am her friend, I have built up guan xi with her. Thus, today Sarah and Abby were able to get pure silk scarves for 90 yuan each. This would be impossible for someone who has not spent the time and effort to build up guan xi with the vendor. sarah and Abby bought a few more things there as well, and when she found out it was my birthday, she gave us a free gift of a small cashmere table accessory. Negotations would have started out at over 300 yuan for this free item.
Her brother runs a stall nearby that sells exquisite men's clothes, including very formal traditional silk Chinese shirts. While Sarah and Abby were haggling it out for one last item, I wandered over to his shop and my eye caught a very handsome
silk shirt that is navy blue with intricately embroidered gold dragons down the front. As I was looking it over, the brother said in pretty fair English for me to try it on. So as I was slipping into it, he told me "you always make my sister so happy when you come and bring new business."
We talked for a little more and as I was admiring the shirt, he pulled out a calculator (the preferred way to negotiate) and said "normally, I would charge this amount for that shirt" and he typed in 1,175. It is a well loved trick by vendors to go down in price maybe 50 yuan and then put on a big production about how much they went down so i was expecting this while trying to figure out how to tell him I could not pay over a thousand yuan for a shirt. However, he quickly typed in 270. I was incredibly shocked by this massive drop in price and he delicately hinted that it was the base price and only for me only because of my specialrelationship with his family's shops. This is guan xi paying off. To understand how meaningful this is, you have to understand a little something about how the silk market works. Every vendor is on commission and if he or she fails to sell a single thing on any given day, their base pay is just ten yuan. About a buck and a half. To them, the phrase "another day, another dollar" is a scary incentive of what will happen if you don't make a sell. So to take a bath like they did today, by drastically underselling the merchandise and evengiving some away is a huge cut into their paycheck, and it meant that would have to work that much harder for the rest of the day. Pretty hard to do considering there is another 20 or so stalls selling the exact same thing. Granted, they've more than made up the losses in the business that I've brought them over the past few months, but still, I was very impressed. If I had been completley fluent in Chinese and an expert on silk and cashmere, but a complete stranger to them, I still would not have gotten the treatment I got today. It pays to be a friend.

Payday!

We started our break between sessions, so not a lot has been happening, but one very important thing of note took place a few nights ago. We got paid! The salary system isn't nearly as regulated over here as it is in America. When they say how much you will receive, it's usually per month (for almost any job over here) and it's normal for them to get a few months behind sometimes. Which can lead to some very nice paydays when they finally catch up. Sometimes it is direct deposit, but most of the time it's straight cash. Imagine receiving two to three months salary, all at once, and that was what happened a few nights ago.


Go ahead and grab a stack!


Our "accounting department"


That's 68,000 RMB....Roughly ten thousand US dollars.

Addendum to Earlier Post

This goes well with the earlier post about the Haidian church. This is the line on a rainy Sunday about a half hour before the start of church. That's right, these people have been standing in the chilly, blustery rain of a late September morning for over 30 minutes. (Some of them much longer)

National Day Invitation

In case you were not aware, the Chinese "fourth of July" is October 1st. (I'd say Independence Day, but that gets into the subject of independence from what? and there it gets very tricky so I'll stick with fourth of July)

This year marks sixty years since the founding of "New" China, and large scale preperations are well underway for a massive celebration. Think something along the lines of Olympic Opening Ceremony last year and you're getting close. Despite personal feelings on the matter, it is still quite exciting to be here during this time. It got even more exciting a few days ago when our organization was invited by the government to commemorate this event at the Great Hall of the People and be representative of all the foreign workers in China at the celebrations. This is an astounding honor and one that has all of us pretty excited. Your average Chinese citizen will never see the Great Hall (which is similar to our Capitol) in real life, let alone ever dream about being invited inside. Honor guards stand ramrod straight all along the perimeter twenty fours a day seven days a week, rain or shine. Imagine the guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington doing that around the US Capitol and thats what happens at the Great Hall of the People.

Haidian English Service

Today marked the first day of the English language service in the main sanctuary at Haidian Christian Church. The first English language service, the church staff were expecting around fifty people, instead 150 showed up. When they moved to the basement of the present-day church, around 4-500 people were there on average on any given Sunday. Today, in the main sanctuary over 900 people were there and there were still people standing for the whole service. This amazing church explosion has taken place in a little more than two years.

Fall in Beijing

I love this time of year here. Monsoon season is at an end and the hot days are on their way out. It has been absolutley gorgeous here with temperatures in the mid seventies all day. Beautiful weather and quite rare for Beijing, the skies have been crystal clear, providing some gorgeous sunrises/sunsets.



The entire sky looked like this from one horizon to the next

just a few minutes before sunset

New Session and Orientation

Today is the start of the new session, orientation began last night and continues this morning, but this afternoon the students will meet their class and begin TIP. The English only environment begins tomorrow. I have a rather unique role this session, in that I am assisting with a class, teaching a few clubs and then mostly working on program materials, such as our manual. Our manual is big and bloated, well over 2,000 pages if it were ever printed out and it's my job this session to index every file in it as well as receive updated files from everyone else in an attempt to streamline this sucker. In other words, I'm going to be stuck inside a lot this session!

Truth in Advertising

Today in a break between entrance interviews and orientation, I went to grab some food. On the way back I came across a street vendor selling bootleg American dvd's three for ten kwai. Pretty good deal and if a movie is no good, I'm only out roughly forty-five cents. So i bought a few I haven't seen before and the vendor said "Even though these are illegal copies, the quality is excellent!" Hey, I appreciate the honesty!

Let's Have a Staff Meeting to Plan More Staff Meetings!

So the past few days, my proxy to access blogspot has been acting up. I have great internet, just no ability to access it. Kind of like having a Ferrari with no gas.

Anyway, I would not have had time to post with all the Staff Meetings going on lately. My schedule has been full of nothing but staff meetings to finalize training for the new year longs and prepare a new schedule for a new part of campus, as well as preparations for TIP branching out. This is my seventh session, so most of the stuff covered is familiar information. However, the staff meetings march on. Yesterday, I was in meetings for seven hours, today nine and a half altogether.

Well, that was a mistake....

We don't start class again until the 7th, so in the meantime, the new year long team is training and everyone else is trying to relax and catch up on sleep. The director of the whole program, Dr. Danny Yu, got back from a business trip to America last night and as I was headed out to dinner, I stopped to say hello to him for a quick second. (Mistake Number One.)

Me "Welcome back, Dr. Yu. How was your trip?"
Dr. Yu "Ah. You are very lucky. You have been drafted."
Me "Excuse me, sir?"
Dr. Yu "You can help me for maybe 30 minutes." (Notice how that's not really a question.)
Me "Uh, I was actually heading out to dinner, but sure, I can help for a second..." (Mistake Number Two)

So myself and about four others like myself who were in the wrong place at the wrong time followed him up to his office. Ninety minutes and an entire office suite moved, including desks and file cabinets later, we were done. Dr. Yu took us all out to eat at a nice goose restaurant, which was better (at least cheaper, for me anyway) than where I was going.

New living area

For all summer the campus has been getting renovated for year-long facilitators. While the room is definitely better, the only "before and after" that I am really interested in is this one.

Before in Building Six

Public "squatties"


New living space in Building Three

My own private Western bathroom!

I went for over 2 months using the squatties, so having a real throne to sit on....its just indescribable!

Nap Time

One of the first things that foreigners notice here is how the entire country seems to shut down in the middle of the day. Everything seems to run a little slower to accommodate the centuries old cultural practice of a mid day siesta.




Literally, everything slows down...

Please excuse the delay...

Sorry about leaving you all hanging for a while. Since we moved there has been no internet here, however today I trampsed all over Beijing with Ray and bought my very own router so I have my own dedicated Internet connection. This pleases me. :D

More Pictures from Yuan Ming Yuan

A little deeper into the park.


Ruins of the central building structures.



Pathway alongside massive lily pond.

Yuan Ming Yuan park

Our campus is really close to a park that used to be the Summer Palace where the emperors of the Qing Dynasties resided and handled government affairs. The more famous Forbidden City was used only for formal ceremonies. The extensive network of gardens, lily ponds and architecture led it to be called the "Garden of Gardens" and "Garden of Perfect Brightness." Today there is only ruins, the buildings having been destroyed by British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Even so, it makes a very relaxing place when one needs to get away. I went there the other day and took a few pictures with my cell phone so forgive the low quality.




The entrance to the park



Close up of ruins



All that remains of what once was a bridge.


Vast lily pond.


A recreation of how an ancient bridge looked.


I have a few more pics that I'll put up when I can, but right now I think the Internet is going to die on me, so I'll leave it at these for now.

Apple + China Mobile = Pain

I bought a cell phone when I first got here. A little non-descript phone that ran on the China Mobile network. Like most cell phones (and everything else for that matter) here, it is pay as you go. The only problem is that trying to check your balance on the thing involves calling a hotline and going through a series of instructions that is harder to comprehend than Chinese algebra. So I figured as long as I could call people and they could call me, I had minutes. This was seemingly confirmed one Sunday a few weeks back when I got an error message trying to call someone and had to buy more minutes. No problem. Then a few days ago, my boss Dr. Yu, and I were playing air hockey when the puck soared off the table and hit me squarely in the leg. This was too much for my little phone and her screen cracked right down the middle. A phone is a constant necessity here and being without is not a possibility here. I didn't have the financial means to fix this one or buy a new one, so I asked the technical guru, Ray, here if he could "unlock" my American iPhone to work on the China Mobile network and still continue to buy minutes. Ray was able to do this in about a day's time (something Apple once proudly proclaimed was impossible to do) and then when I synched it to my iTunes on my computer, I found a little jewel that the nice people at Apple had put in for people like me. iTunes has a "security patch" that goes into your iPhone and identifies whether its been unlocked or not. If it has, it immediatly kills the phone capabilities. Thanks a lot, Apple. So this was a problem for a while, until Ray fixed it again (again, considered impossible by Apple at one time). Now I should have a great working iPhone again on the China Mobile network with plenty of minutes. This is where China Mobile comes in and tag teams me along with Apple to ruin my day. Minutes are sold in fifty yuan increments and then after you use them China Mobile is glad to let you go into the negatives (without telling you) and then just take out what you owe them the next time you buy minutes. So thus, I was over 100 yuan into negatives when I was able to check my balance today. How I found this lovely piece of information out was I bought two fifty yuan phone minute cards and expecting my balance to be somewhere near, oh I don't know, a hundred, it was five. five minutes. So i spent another fifty yuan and this time it's at 55 which is enough to last for a few weeks. Hopefully.

You Don't See This Everyday...

The past few weeks, it has been storming more than average. We've been getting three or four heavy storms each week, including several monsoons and one that was very severe. Apparently, the torrential rainfall, loud thunder and high winds affect more than just us. I went back to my room last night right after another round of storms and found a lump in my usually made bed. This is a little odd, as to the best of my knowledge my room is not possessed, so my blankets should not be moving or lumping by themselves. So I pulled them back with great caution, much to the annoyance of the cat who snuck in and wandered into my room to escape the storms.

"The Church in China is ONE!"

Comments by Dr. Don Snow in regards to the state of the church, both perceived and otherwise.

Disclaimer: This article may be hazardous to longstanding firmly held beliefs, particularly by Westerners

When Western media write about the Protestant church situation in China, there is a strong tendency to assume that Chinese Christians fall into one or the other of two distinct and divided camps. One camp is variously referred to as “Three-Self churches,” Christian Council churches, registered churches, official churches, or even government churches. The other camp is referred to as unregistered churches, house churches, or underground churches. Along with this neat binary division all too often comes a Manichean tendency to associate one camp with darkness and the other with light – which is which depending on the presuppositions of the observer.

When talking with people about Christianity in China, I find this binary, good guy/bad guy framework to be one of the biggest obstacles. Granted, people often need to simplify when dealing with the unfamiliar, but I find this particular framework so overly simplified that it often forces people to shoehorn a particular group of Christians into a category that doesn’t really fit them, generating more misunderstanding than insight. I feel we need to approach the task of trying to understand Christian groups in China with a somewhat more nuanced – if still over-simplified framework that has at least the five categories below.

Category 1: Churches associated with the China Christian Council (CCC) and Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM)

• They are legally registered with the government.
• They are affiliated with the CCC/TSPM, hence belong to a loose but nation-wide organization.
• These are generally urban churches with church buildings and many have professionally trained clergy.
• They make up the backbone of a nation-wide organization that has achieved much since churches were officially allowed to re-open in 1979, including
  - Recovery of old church buildings and building of new churches;
  - Opening of seminaries and Bible schools;
  - Running of lay training courses;
  - Publishing of Bibles and Christian literature;
  - Sponsorship of public works of compassion, both through individual churches and through organizations such as the Amity Foundation;
  - Last but not least, giving the church a public presence.

However, this part of the church community is also burdened to some extent by the legacy of excesses from the 1950s, and its officially recognized status involves it in a relationship with the government which also at times gives rise to accusations of inappropriate government influence.

Category 2: Meeting points related to the Christian Council

• These are groups which meet in homes of other non-church structures, yet are legally registered.
• They are usually led by elders rather than professionally trained clergy.
• They are often affiliated with a larger church from Category 1, above, which provides them at least occasionally with the services of professionally trained clergy.
• These are usually in cities, surrounding suburbs or towns, rather than villages.
• Some of these eventually grow to the point that they build their own church and move into Category 1.

Many Westerners are under the mistaken impression that all groups meeting in homes are unregistered, hence presumably underground. This simply isn’t so. There are many gray areas in Christian life in China, and I find discussion of this category a good place to point out that many Chinese Christians who attend registered churches or meeting points may also have contact with unregistered Christian groups. In fact, in some places division between registered and unregistered groups is minimal, and there is a fair amount of interaction and mutual support between them.

Category 3: “Semi-denominations”
This is my term for groups that have a distinct identity that distinguishes them from other Protestant Christians. Some of these groups are based on denominations that originated outside China, such as the Seventh-Day Adventists or even Methodists. Others are indigenous Chinese denominations such as the Little Flock, True Jesus Church, or Jesus Family. They relate to other Christian groups in a variety of ways.

• Even though they retain a sense of their denominational distinctiveness, they are sometimes integrated into churches that are not of their denomination, worshipping alongside Christians of other traditions.
• In other cases they hold their own separate meetings in churches that also have services held by other Christians.
• In some cases they have their own churches, i.e. churches in which most or all people attending are members of the group in question.

The reason I find it useful to stress the existence of this category has to do with the assumption that churches in China are all post-denominational. In one sense this assumption is true – many Christians in China have no sense of belonging to some denominational grouping, and the Christian Council does not recognize denominations. However, we also need to recognize that there are Christians in China who do have a sense of belonging to more distinct – and at times exclusive – groupings.

Category 4: (Defiantly) unregistered groups

These are groups that have made a clear choice not to register with the government or to associate with the CCC/TSPM – the groups often called “house churches” or “underground churches” (though these terms can be misleading). They generally have the following characteristics:

• They are usually urban rather than rural.
• They often have leaders who have been Christians a long time, hence may have a legacy of grievances against the government of TSPM reaching back to the 1950s.
• Christians in these groups are sometimes arrested by government authorities.

It is this category that accounts for most reports of persecution of Christians in China. However, more often than not, meetings of these groups are not directly interfered with, despite the fact that their gathering times and meeting places are often at best a half-kept secret.

What distinguishes these groups most is the fact that they are unwilling to register with the government or affiliate with the CCC/TSPM. There are several possible reasons for this:

• Some want to avoid the possibility of government interference or restrictions on their activities.
• Some do not want to be associated with groups of Christians who do not entirely share their theological beliefs.
• Some feel that churches should have not interaction with government at all. (This strain of thought derives in part from the teaching of Wang Mingdao, a well-known Chinese pastor through much of the 20th century.)
• Sometimes leaders of these groups have had personal conflicts with Christians in registered groups, and have dealt with the conflict by splitting off.

Category 5: Rural Christian groups

One of the fastest growing segments of church life in China is found in the countryside among Christian groups that do not fit neatly into any of the categories above. These groups:

• Are in villages in the countryside, hence often far away from organized Christian life in town and cities;
• Many consist largely of “young Christians,” people who have not been Christians more than a decade or so, and perhaps much less;
• Tend to be run by strong lay leaders, often the Christians around which the group originally formed. While these leaders may have been Christians longer than others in the group, even their Christian experience may not reach back more than a decade or so;
• Are often not “underground” – their meetings are publicly known;
• Are not registered – but not necessarily because they oppose registration. Rather, registration may be a “city” concept they know little about or which has little meaning for them;
• Likewise, while they may not be affiliated with the CCC/TSPM, they may not be opposed to such affiliation either. How much they do or do not relate to CCC/TSPM is in such matters as providing Bibles or sending clergy out for baptisms, communion, and so forth.

This is probably the category of Christians in which the most rapid growth is taking place – after all, the overwhelming majority of China’s population lives in the countryside. However, it is also the segment of church life viewed with the most concern, at least by Christians in the cities. The main problem is that even the leaders of these groups may have had relatively little formal Christian training and may not even have a very strong understanding of the Bible. The fact that they are relatively cut off from other parts of the church body makes it relatively easy for unusual ideas and practices, or even heresies, to take root (although problems with heresy are by no means confined to the countryside).

This segment of church life is sometimes lumped by outside observers together with the “defiantly unregistered” groups in Category 4, in part to support the argument that most Christians in China meet in unregistered groups. However, these rural Christians are quite different from “underground” groups in urban areas, and do not fall into the same category.

The discussion above may seem a bit dry, even academic, not least because I have tried to avoid falling into the “good guy/bad guy” mode. I would concede that there is a time and a place for Christians to make value judgments. However, I feel the first step is to understand, and that the framework proposed above may be helpful in explaining the situation of the church in China in a way that is understandable yet not overly distorted.