Daily Life in
China
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Hubei Normal University in Huangshi: Huangshi is the second largest city after Wuhan the provincial capital. It lies in the east of Hubei province next to the ChangJiang River.
Looking across the campus from the English department.
A series of pictures looking left to right from opposite the view above, so looking back at the English department. The English department is on the side of a hill so on the side boarder. The campus has a long thing layout. The view here below looks to the front of the campus which dips down you you can only see the tops of buildings. In the right center is another attached 3 year college.
The tall building in the top right is the English department. It's always loaded with students. There are so many students that Saturday and Sunday classes are required. There is also a shortage of teachers. For example the translation teacher has 60 to 300 students in his classes. With that many students in a translation class it's impossible to read student papers. Wait a minute, translation class and student papers cannot be read. That does not compute. How about writing classes; large. In fact, all classes; large.
The two buildings in the top center are girls dormitories. The school is on a hill and you can just see the top of the hill in the background to the right of a stack. Note the steep cliff face. That's not a natural fault. The hill has been nibbled away for some time, probably at first by mining but now to make way for more dorms (shown below).
This view is to the back of the campus. The buildings on the left are mostly dorms. The dorms go up the hill and some are hidden in this view. The school is constructing new dorms on the hill in back which is shown below. There is also another large building plan just being started which is off the picture to the right. The university has purchases what was a park next to the campus and started developing that land. Over the next two years the campus will undergo quite an expansion.
Theater building housing a large theater and several viewing room which can seat a few hunderd students to watch films or lectures.
Main science building. The land off to the left extends to a park which the school has purchased for expansion. Ground breaking has taken place and in a few years the campus will be greatly expanded.
Party offices and administration building.
The English department has a small grotto at the stair base with lots of flowering bushes and plants. It's a nice area and students read out loud there in the morning.
Stairs to the 6 story English department. You could tell it's the English department if you could read Chinese characters. At the top of the stairs are notice boards which are always in Chinese. I make up 4x8 plywood billboards on legs and put them on the wings of the entrance. Their filled with articles from the net and newspapers. A hill and a student are a match made in heaven. A hill is not so great for farming and a student is young and strong so can climb. Schools are often on hills. Many times on steep hills. The Chinese don't have cars so everyone is fit and can climb stairs. Most buildings do not have elevators.
The PE department at times uses these stairs for exercise.
Students reading out loud.
Foreign teachers office.
Cafeteria #2, the good caf. For most of lunch time there are not enough seats for everyone so you have to stand with your tray waiting for someone to finish eating to get a seat. Silly. A new cafeteria was built this year which has taken some of the pressure off. Unfortunately the food at the new cafeteria is not so great so has not siphoned off many students.
Cafeteria #1, the big caf. Huge with two floors but at times you still have to stand waiting for someone to get up to get a seat.
Cafeteria #3, the white building sandwiched between the dorm and Caf #1. Two floors mostly empty because of the bogus food.
Inside of #1 cafe. Basic, no frills and typical of most any Chinese university cafeteria.
Kitchen help preparing pigs feet.
Girls dorms. Lots of cloths out drying which is the norm.
Hot water for washing is gotten from a central building and carried to the dorm. The dorms have a couple of places to wash for every 100 students so there usually a line to wash. In summer students wash more frequently so a major time pit and a source of quarreling.
Thermo's are left on the way to classes or cafeteria and picked up on the way back.
The track. Library at the back. It's pretty small and not so many books. There are a couple of floors housing computers. The network reach is limited to within China and parts inside of restricted.
The little building on the hill to the right is for viewing the surrounding area and nice. But most days the smog is too thick to get a nice view of the city and river. Pollution here is pretty nasty. On good days the local take up the slack by building fires. The little building is part of the art department which is mostly on the other side of the hill. You can just see the stairs to the building in the lower left behind the bleachers. The stairs go up and wind around the right side of the hill to the art building which is high on the other side. The perspective is distorted so the hill does not seem to be very steep but is. The art department students have the healthiest legs on campus.
View of the attached three year college attached to the university.
View of the back of the university. The buildings are dorms. The school is leveling the remainder of the hill to make way for more dorms. This shot was before the others below showing later construction.
The hill is being cut away to make room for more dorms.
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