Trip to China - day 8

03.07.2014

Today our studying in Guangzhou at South China Univesity of Technology International School started. After a welcome session and a lesson of Chinese with Cheng Yao laoshi we had a tour around the campus with lead by Chinese students. We saw a 200-years old (at least a volunteer student told us so) sundial and some other places of interest on campus (a bank, a restaurant, a couple of lakes, a hundred steps staircase – bai bu ti - 百步梯, a statue of Sun Yat-sen). We practiced our Chinese with them – to the degree we could, and they practiced their English with us.

 

Then we had an interesting lecture about history of Chinese porcelain. The lecture was given by a material scientist and was great from that point of view. From historical point of view it could be more detailed (I am talking not about the exact chronology but about the historical context; I must note, however, that to some degree – especially for the earlier times, historical context was given: about pottery facilitating peoples’ settling down or helping to produce bronze tools).

Then there was some free time. I had some rest. And while my roommate, Alasdair, was writing in his diary about our visit to Confucius temple in Beijing couple of days ago, I composed a small quasi-poem about Confucius statue at the entrance to the temple:

The Temple of Confucius
I entered with confusion,
And as I went away
Confucius stepped my way.

With sword he was and with a beard,

And gesture of his said:
To learn, to teach, to eat your bread,
A human you should be.

(I welcome any criticism of it. J )

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