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JULY 2004

Perspectives in International Education: Beijing, China
By Jan Aaron
Beijing, China
Special to Education Update

“My American name is Helen. I chose my name because I want to be strong like your Helen Keller,” our Beijing guide says, in flawless English, introducing herself to our group of visiting journalists from the US, Canada, and Kuala Lumpur. Her trendy jacket is red, “the color of happiness,” she says. She carries a red flag. We happily follow her as we cram centuries of history into three days in China’s capital.

On the agenda for some is a preschool visit where tots learn “truth, kindness and beauty.” (Any tourist can visit a school with a guide.) There also are bus conversations with Helen about education. “In China, all children must finish primary and junior middle schools. Exams are required for entrance to either high school or technical schools,” she says. Helen, 33, also tells us that she is a college grad, and “Yes, it takes special training and a rigorous exam to become a guide,” and “No, you don’t have to be in the Communist party to be a guide.”

Our education starts with the vast 98-acre Tiananmen Square, site of one of the most politically significant events in China’s modern history. Helen tells us about the imposing gray buildings and then lets us wander around. Awestruck by the square’s immensity, we mingle with many Chinese tourists who seem similarly impressed. Kites sail above, tots run about and giggling teens in hip jeans ask us to pose for pictures with them. Our group’s Bonnie, a former teacher, remembers otherwise: “Twenty years ago, I taught English here and everyone wore blue or gray uniforms,” she says.

The group visits the other top tourist sites like the Forbidden City where commoners could not set foot in its Ming and Qing dynasties’ heydays and where now you still can imagine departed emperors, their concubines and the eunuchs who guarded them. My favorite site is the Great Wall, where two of us climb nine towers, while the others enjoy cappuccinos in the coffee shop below.

Thinking back, it isn’t our delicious Peking duck feast or nibbling sweets and sipping tea at the Peking Opera or even Beijing itself, which is truly a jewel in the coronet of China’s cities, that is most memorable to me here: It is a lovely little Chinese song Helen sings to us aboard the bus. Moments like this make a tourist visit a personal treasure.#

For more information contact Ritz Tours, 1-800-900-2446; china@ritztours.com

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