6: by the dawn's early light...

we hauled our packs and our bleary selves through the gray dawn of the shenzhen station to yet more waiting busses. first impression: shenzhen looked a lot like downtown houston, if houston had any street trees. a grid of broad streets- 6 to 10 lanes at least- could serve as landing strips, if not for the fences down the middle. similar pedestrian fencing separated sidewalks from street traffic; jaywalkers are physically restrained until the major intersections. though streets were deserted at the moment, it was apparent that they would soon be teeming. unlike houston, the broad sidewalks are lushly shaded; beyond the sidewalks, there's another strip of dense greenery before the building line. this layering of public space seems typical here; only the interior lanes are directly fronted with commercial activity. the arterial street grid is for moving- the interior lanes are for lingering.

from a bus window, one is aware of a city, but not necessarily of any individual buildings, the tops of which are only apparent in a long view. the built area is flat, but flows around intervening mountains; steep and fuzzy green bumps, devoid of any structures, emerge everywhere, terminate every major street, and gather for a continuous backdrop to the north. we mount a motorway ramp that is draped in bouganvilla; the land captured inside the ramp is tended like a garden: hibiscus and patterned planting beds under varieties of palm trees. as the day brightened, the vivid colors became apparent. while the moist blanket that enveloped us on emerging from the station felt like beijing, the lush vegetation drove home the point that we were now in the tropics.

a short distance up the motorway, a turnoff started a climb into a cleft in the mountains to the north. snazzy apartment blocks with views of the city held tight to the winding road as we made our way to the top, where an earthen dam held back a picturesque lake. the still water was edged with willows, piers, bridges and pavilions, and a fleet of paddle boats (not swans, but mini helicopters; not sure what that imagery was all about, unless a reference to dragonflies). at the far end, we wound over an arched bridge, past another lotus pond and into the motorcourt of the silver lake lodge, the next punch on our ticket. in a rare moment of efficiency, room keys were pre-sorted and distributed on board the bus. steve and tristan, two of the frat boys from the early train that arrived the night before, had our checked baggage laid out in a meeting room for us. their clear and bright eyes confirmed what they told us sotto voce: "man, it's like a monastery up here; i think we're in detention." word was passed that we would gather at 10am, giving us time for a shower. as i entered the new room, my first image was of pill bottles and plastic bags arrayed on the table and ledge at the far end of the room; as i should have suspected, james the gerbil was still my roommate...

it was only from the new printed schedule handed out at the meeting that it registered: this was a sunday morning, the 20th of august, the start of our fourth week in china. this would be our home until distribution to our individual schools. in the meantime, we had to navigate the bureaucratic shoals: resident visa applications and police paperwork, an official medical exam, and the secret deliberations over our school assignments. our meals were to be group buffets in our own dining room. we were encouraged to enjoy the peaceful scenery and to relax. and we were discouraged from descending the mountain in search of the bright lights; yup, we were in detention. it seems previous groups had run into problems with the blood test component of the medical exam; we were in preventive rehab...

the resort was quite a nice place, if a bit scruffy and worn. the low-rise buildings probably dated from the 1970's, good tropical modernist design around courtyards, with lots of waterways, bridges, cascades, manicured gardens and some private villas clustered to the rear. the swimming pools (one a brown soup, the other an empty tub) and the chained gates to tennis courts gave the place an air of "sunset boulevard"; this was obviously not the high season at the silver lake resort. my guess is that august is too damned hot- winter is when they make their money. the young teachers were completely seduced by the western food served up on our buffet: trays of crisp french fries and mounds of sliced roast beaf with mashed potatoes and gravy kept all but the diehard fratboys content on our mountaintop. my preferred asian fare was so-so, but they had good seafood, noodle dishes and lots of nice fruit; and it was available without having to mangle the language or play menu roulette. velvet handcuffs- i'm sure the chinese invented the idea.

the first afternoon passed like a glacier as we were step-by-step instructed (then re-directed) on the proper filling out of the stack of forms in front of us in the stuffy meeting room; my years of slandering school teachers came back to haunt me. teacher: yesterday i couldn't spell it- today i are one. the questions from the floor were as exasperating as the shepherding from the stage: seems many of my young colleagues have a lot of difficulty with shades of gray. the specifics of our school contracts- the permissability of part-time work, the recognition of unmarried couples and their living arrangements, and all other issues amiably covered by the "don't ask-don't tell" wording of our agreements (another chinese invention, i'm sure) just could not stand unchallenged. a further insistence on answers for, and predictions of the unknowable had me climbing the panelled walls; perhaps china will illustrate for them the beauty of what's between the lines, and the latitude afforded by ambiguity. the kicker? every contract states that the chinese version governs, no matter what the translation says. signing anything here is a leap of faith.

the next day saw us loaded onto busses and taken to the port clinic for our medical exams. mentally prepared for the worst, i spent the day marvelling at how much brighter, cleaner and more efficient the whole operation was than any medical facilty i'd seen (or been a victim of) in new york; and remember now, i've spent years designing hospitals. the clinic was on four floors of an office building on an interior street of a superblock, near the main hong kong border crossing. we were handed a sheet of 16 bar code stickers and a list of 12 departments where we were to "spend" them, scavenger hunt style. most of the stops were fairly routine, like vital statistics, an ekg and a blood test (with a flourish of of sterile-packaged needles to ease our concerns), but some were uniquely chinese: an ultrasound scan of our bellies and internal organs was kind of creepy. and the live-action chest x-ray was spooky; our feet were simultaneously imaged. the dental exam was satisfied by having evidence of teeth.

the bus commute to and from the clinic gave us another glimpse of our new home town, this time while populated. it seems that every tall building- and there are lots- must wear a party hat. where shanghai is dense with glassy needle buildings, shenzhen is more chunky apartment blocks, 30- to 40-stories the average. groups of towers are banded together with swoopy trelliage at the top, or cornice and wainscot bands in the middle. every variant of the grid facade is on display, with lots of sky gardens and multi-story cutouts and bridges- and lots of applied color. i'll have to do some photos of the most amazing ones later...

back on our mountaintop, we were informed that the schedule had been compressed: our contract signing and distribution to schools would be the next day. we were instructed to show up at the meeting room at 9am on the dot, looking sharp; meanwhile, our actual assignments were being deliberated in secrecy worthy of the sistine chapel. all would be known in the morning...

james brook, one of the handful of brits in the group, stopped by my table at dinner to whisper that a breakout had been arranged for this evening- taxis would appear at about 9pm. was i interested? duh... brit james, coincidentally, had been james the gerbil's teaching partner; consequently, he was sympathetic to my difficult "home life", and always included me in the frat boy adventures. this breakout was a rather benign one, and all were back up the mountain before dawn; our first taste of nightlife in shenzhen was a good one, however. there were lots of outdoor drinking venues- trendy and expensive compared to our neighborhood in beijing, but quite pleasant and crowded, with locals and a smattering of westerners.

next morning, we were instructed to be packed up, checked out and ready for departure before arriving at the contract signing. the lobby had a list with our seating assignments; the meeting room was set up with rows of narrow tables, like a college classroom. my namecard was on a table in the second row on the right. when i took my chair, a very tall and pretty asian girl intoduced herself as lulu, my contact teacher at the jiao yuan middle school. and handed me a huge bouquet of coral roses (19 i counted- i'm sure it means something) and palm fronds; this really was a claiming race, and i was the horse. she then introduced me to a shorter, stocky guy in a polo shirt: mr. wang, our headmaster (who speaks no english) and asked if i was william or james. huh? they were assigned two teachers: william rogan and james brook- they had only our names on the cards. about this time james ambles up: "you're not gonna believe this" i mouthed to him over the crowd. i pointed james out to lulu, and he was saddled with his own matching bouquet; we were seated across the aisle from our claimants, and we made small talk with them as similar scenes unfolded around us: 96 teachers were meeting their new owners that morning. almost every group was bearing some sort of token for their horseflesh, but few approached the scale of funerary tribute as ours; looks like we hit the jackpot, i thought. checking out our new headmaster during the inevitable speeches, i noted the huge gold rolex he was wearing- not a hong kong fake, i could tell; no ordinary schoolteacher, this one.

four copies of contracts were signed, with much flourish and nodding and handshaking, by we and our schools, two in english, two in chinese. and then it was time for- what else? a banquet.

on the way to the dining hall, we were instructed to gather our luggage with our new keepers; the pic below was snapped by lulu as we loaded ours into the headmaster's snazzy honda stretch van. i had the feeling this was so they could identify us if we bolted...



the banquet was another grand production, in a big room overlooking a pond. seated at tables of 10, we were served great wall red wine this time, and more fantastic food. our headmaster was seated at the head table with the program directors and folks from the shenzhen education ministry; he was obviously a player, as i suspected. at one point during the inevitable toasting, i looked up to see that the education ministry honcho had come down to our table, and was raising a glass to me: "i hear that you are almost as old as i am" was his toast; i guess he had to come see for himself. my new headmaster and the program directors all bobbed and nodded around him... when that hubbub died down, lulu leaned over to ask me quietly, "by the way, do you guys like to drink? our headmaster really likes to drink; we all have a hard time at faculty parties." when i stopped laughing, i leaned over to james to tell him how we must have qualified for this placement, and asked lulu to repeat her question for his benefit. we had clearly hit the jackpot.

the party broke up about 2pm; more farewells, but big anticipation this time. the headmaster drove us as lulu pointed out the points of interest: the convention center, the new city government building, a performance hall and library. heading south, toward the border i could tell from the road signs, suddenly we were there. this was my first view of our new school.



we drove around the athletic field to the south gate; guards quickly rolled back the barricade for the headmaster's locomotive. smiling little men appeared from everywhere to fetch our bags and take us up to our new quarters, on the rear third floor of the building below.



our little parade was led by the headmaster; as we each entered the doors of our adjacent rooms (with more little cleaning people bustling around inside), james shook my hand and summed it up with "well, here we go"...

next: be it ever so humble...