6/9/03

Has been a few days since I've written. Mainly because it's been a few days since anything remotely meaningful has happened. I've been at the guest house since Wednesday evening, it's very nice, restaurant's great. Unfortunately having bugger all to do all day takes something away from it all. I'm just waiting for the apartment to be ready so I can move in. Latest prediction is Sunday afternoon.

The campus is really nice. The buildings aren't as luxurious as your typical western university, however the classrooms are fully equipped, and there has obviously been quite a bit invested in the place. There is a small basketball arena, about ten outdoor courts, a 400m track (which is either brand new, or extremely well kept), two Olympic size swimming pools, and a host of other facilities. In short, it is all very nice. As you may have seen from the photos the scenery is all quite nice too. Lakes and ponds are dotted around, with hills surrounding the campus.

I guess I haven't talked a whole lot about Shantou itself, so now might be a good time. The city is located in the province of Guangdong, Southeast China. If your looking at a map, find Hong Kong and look slightly north, and slightly east, it had better be a good map, because Shantou is not a very significant town (especially in a country of 1.2 billion). At first I was told the population was 2.5 million, however I have since heard that there are up to (and possibly over) 4 million people in the greater Shantou area. Despite it's size it is a city that is for the most part void of foreigners. It was named one of China's original Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in 1980. There are four SEZs; Shenzen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Shantou. Shantou was to cover the telecommunications side of things, however is it thought that the town itself is fading. 10 years ago there were almost 200 foreign companies in here, at the moment there are less than 10. Shantou has a unique culture, and this culture is the reason many foreign companies have struggled (when I find out more about it I'll let you know). The city and the surrounding area have a local dialect, chaoshan, however a proportion of the population speak mandarin. Due the lack of foreigners in Shantou itself, as a white person, you get stared at quite a bit, and taken for all you are worth by any salesman (foreign = money). Basically no one speaks English, anyone who does doesn't speak much (in general). I'm here to change that!

I've walked the campus quite a bit, have walked past the building where I'll be living. It all looks quite nice, fully refurbished, I was hoping to sneak inside but had to settle for peeking through a window. I'm on the sixth floor, and am pretty sure there are no elevators. Which is common in Shantou. The office at the medical faculty is on the fourth floor, and similarly has no elevators (and they wonder why us foreigners are the obese ones!).

As I said there hasn't been a whole lot happening. My room has an internet connection, however it's about as reliable as a US federal election. I've been keeping myself busy watching DVDs, reading, watching lots of TV shows in Chinese (funny how good all those ordinary shows get when they're all speaking mandarin!). One thing Shantou does have is a Walmart (however I haven't heard great things about it), there is a trip out there tomorrow morning at 9.30, which I'm on, to try at get a few necessities. When something happens, you'll be the first to know!

- Sam