Hong Kong -- Day 3

A Visit to Hong Kong

Pictures and musing from a teacher in Hong Kong

Visit to King George V School in Hong Kong

hong_kong_day3pct1.jpg (23863 bytes) Waiting for my ride, I took this picture of Waterloo road outside of my hotel. This is pretty typical of pre-rush hour Hong Kong. Unable to see the mountains from this vantage, little distinguishes this scene from New York besides the signs.

hong_kong_day3pct2.jpg (15107 bytes) KGV school is fairly typical of British Colonial Schools. It is made up of courtyards surrounded by two and three story balconied classroom modules.

One thing that was fascinating was that they are having to add classroom space. Since there is no room to expand outwardly, they have had to raise their tennis courts 8 or 9 meters and are building extra rooms beneath them.

hong_kong_day3pct3.jpg (20151 bytes) Unlike most schools in Hong Kong, King George V school is quite rich in technology. They have several computer labs for student use. Some are scheduled for classes while others are available for booking by teachers and students.

Much of the maintainance of the network and information infrastructure is done by students. Here are my hosts, Helen and Margaret, in an Acorn lab. A few of you may remember Acorn computers.

One of the most incredible things I have seen in Hong Kong is the use of bamboo for scaffolding in both major and minor building projects.

Since the bamboo scaffolding is not "scientifically proven" to be very reliable, so the developers (or was it the government?) tried to introduce the steel scaffolding. However, during a typical typhoon storm, the steel scaffolding all fell down while the bamboo one stayed. From then on, no one ever mention the steel scaffolding ever again!

This story was enterd by Connie Liu

Lunch at the China Club

hong_kong_day3pct5.jpg (82383 bytes) After visiting the King George V school, we went to the China Club where Helen had a meeting. Margaret and I had Dim Sum again. They just kept bringing it, and again, I skipped dinner this evening.

The origin of the China Club is quite interesting. As more people from China moved into the British dominated Hong Kong, the wealthy Chinese business people were disappointed and probably experiences other emotions as they were excluded from member ship in the English gentlemen's club. So the established their own, called the China Club.

It's look is very British, however, the walls a covered with pictures that represent communist china, with many images of Mao and other symbols. The club is on the top of a fairly tall building and looks down at the English Gentlemen's Club. I don't know if that was intentional.

Contrary to the busy highway shown above, Hong Kong Central, or "Central," is quite pedestrian-friendly. There are also many cross walks between buildings. Even driving seems fairly straightforward when you are accustomed to driving among thousands of other automobiles and on the left hand side of the road.

The afternoon was spent in meetings with my hosts planning the upcoming workshops. They are an organization called Genius Elite. They are mothers who are trying to support the schools of Hong Kong by helping them understand more about instructional technology (IT). This is the reason for my visit. They are also the national partner for ThinkQuest, which, if you know me, you already know about ThinkQuest.

They are also a securities brokerage, so I learned a little about their business, as much as I was capable of understanding. They have a very talented staff. Their secretary, Cheri, demonstrated how to type Chinese characters into the computer. It is actually quite a simple process if you know how the characters are built...which is not a very simple process. Cheri illustrated most impressive skills at the computer.