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| The Science Building of JTU 科學樓 |
The students of JTU asked us some questions. They asked us what was the meaning of the emblem of history society. Of course our trip leader Kitty answered them that the lion was a symbol of British tradition, and the meaning of AA HKUSU (Arts Association, HKU Students Union). It was predictable that they asked us about our feeling of the reunification, and some of us gave our views briefly. Then, they asked about the history of HKU, I thought the members of the history society could answer it since they probably had prepared for this kind of questions. I felt something wrong when they looked at each other. Jo sat near to me and said to us that if we had anything to say, just voice out. Although my knowledge in HKU was very shallow, to break the silence, I started to say that nowadays we have many faculties including Arts, Social Sciences, Law blah blah blah, which was unlikely to be wrong. Then, I said that when HKU was founded, there was only a medicine faculty. I had spoken all I know then. We were asked about the number of students in HKU today, Jo reminded me a number and I spoke so. Someone among us said he/she doubted about that answer (and the students of JTU also). While I was in trouble, Mr. Cheung, the Xinhua News Agency official went to Xi'an with us, started to speak. He gave a brief introduction to the tertiary education in Hong Kong. He said that the construction budget of HKUST was too high.
Although the meeting hadn't finished, I went to the toilet after a long period of tolerance. Then, someone told me that Joe and I were invited to an interview conducted by a reporter from a local radio channel. Kitty was invited too. We were selected because we were perceived to be relatively more fluent in Mandarin. Oh, there was a little overestimation about my fluency. The reporter first told us what she would be asking so that we could prepare our answers. Then, the tape recorder was switched on and I was the first to be interviewed. She said that some Hong Kong people visited the tomb of Huang Di 黃帝, and then asked about my feelings. I said that it was quite normal since Huang Di is our common ancestor. Then, she asked about the activities which Hong Kong people organized to celebrate the reunification. I answered that many local organizations organized activities like variety shows and sport competitions to celebrate the event, but I knew little about those territory-wide activities and the acitivities in HKU during the period of the handover. After that, Joe was interviewed about the feelings of Hong Kong people towards reunification, and he answered that some Hong Kong people worried about the handover since they were afraid that the usual living style would be changed.
After taking a photo with the reporter and her collegues, we caught up with others in the library. We visited an exhibition room which showed the things which symbolized the development of JTU. There were photos, old books etc., and we saw a roll-call book which had Jiang Zemin's name on it. There were words written by state leaders too, displayed near the lift lobby. A group of JTU students were with us when we were in the room, and we talked very happily. The atmosphere was really good, some of us exchanged our addresses with them.
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| The library of JTU 交大錢學森圖書館 |
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| A birds'-eye view of the big square 廣場鳥瞰 | A tower in the square 廣場內的塔 | The main gate of JTU 交大正門 |
So, we were quite satisfied with our visit to JTU (although we hadn't the chance to buy any souvenirs of JTU), and returned to STU then.
The chief of the academic affairs department was there also. Firstly, the chancellor gave us a brief history of Xi'an and the local culture of the city. STU received (only) RMB$30,000,000 a year from the government, much less than any university in Hong Kong. There were about 12,000 students and staff in STU. After the meeting, the chancellor presented a badge of STU to each of us. Then, we visited the library of JTU. It was rather dark in our standard, but it had the good atmosphere for a library. Very quiet. We came to a room which entry was restricted. There were old books which were packed in wooden boxes, and we saw some very large books and pictures. The chief librarian showed us some ancient and precious collections, like an written order of an emporor in the Ming Dynasty 明朝聖旨, an original script written by Leung Kai-Chiu 梁啟超 etc..
We saw some old paintings, thread-binded books too. And we were permitted to take photos. I found some psychology books in the library, but I hadn't the chance to read them. When we were back to the entrance of the library. We heard some people singing, then we knew that they were practicing for a singing competition which was a celebrated the reunification. Mr. Cheung was very interested in it.
Then we went to the main gate of STU and took photos. On our way back to the hostel, we saw many good sceneries and took photos at them.
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| The main gate of STU 師大正門 |
At about 6 p.m., we went to a small restuarant beside our hostel, which was for senior staff or visitors, because the chancellor invited us to a dinner. Kitty, Sam and Jo, the leaders of the trip, as well as Joe and I, sat with Mr.Cheung, the chancellor, the chief librarian and other senior staff of STU. In fact, Kitty managed to communicate with others very well, and needn't any help from Joe and I for translation. I talked with the official of the academic affairs department, while Kitty and Sam talked with the librarian. We were offered cigarettes by the officials, I think it is a kind of cultural manner there. Of course, we politely refused the offer. Mr. Cheung chatted happily with the chancellor about some people in the Xinhua News Agency or in the education field of Hong Kong.
The dishes were good, including a big fish. and we were satisfied. One interesting thing was that during the dinner, the chancellor placed his finger on the edge of the turnable round-glass for putting dishes and constantly moved it, so that the dishes went round and round. I noticed it and told Jo that it was just like the electric powered machine in a Japanese sushi shop, which brings the dishes of sushi round and round the table (迴轉壽司), Jo wanted to laugh after hearing that, but as we were still sitting with the big men of STU, she (and I too) controlled our laugh. I observed that the officials (and the people there too) like to have beer in meals. In this dinner, we the boys had beer with them, too. I paid some attention to my intake of beer since I wasn't a good drinker and could only tolerate a bottle of it. I would feel dizzy exceeding that amount. So, I drank slowly, and took in much food. This proved to be useful, and I could drank more beer without any dysfunctioning. Our table was relatively quiet, since we heard that other people were talking happily in the other table.
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| The dinner with the chancellor of JTU 與師大校長共晉晚宴 |
We left the shopping centre and walk towards north. We saw a bar and went inside. To our surprise, we found the bar selling imported beers like Heinekin and Corona. A bottle of Heinekin was only RMB$12, not expensive. I ordered a bottle of a local beer, $6 or so and bigger than imported beers, the taste was not bad. There were other beverages such as crushed ice in different flavours. We talked for a while about the trip. After that, we crossed the road to find a taxi. It was dangerous since there were no traffic lights, pedestrains could cross the road wherever they like.
We got into two taxis, I told the driver to drive to STU, but I forgot that STU was quite big that there maybe several entrances. The two drivers drove us to another entrance but not TU Road which we were familiar with. Never mind, as I've mentioned before, the roads of Xi'an were either going from north to south or from west to east. I kept track of the direction we were going and knew that we were at the northern edge of the university. As our hostel was somewhere at the middle of the university, we should walk towards south. I thought the drivers drove us to that gate because the hostels for students were located there. Within ten minutes we saw the back of our hostel.
Additional photos:
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Leave me a message if you have any additional information or correction to the above events.
