The Great Hall of the People
As visiting
guests of the government, we were invited to attend a dinner celebrating the
founding of the Republic of China in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People. This was sometime around the 1st
of October. We taught for only a couple
of weeks and then had a week off for the celebration of this national holiday. The Great Hall of the People is enormous and
sits on the west side of Tiananmen Square.
It’s not a building that is open to the public and it was a big deal to
get invited to a dinner there. Some of
the foreign teachers at the big universities in and around Beijing were invited
as well as foreign dignitaries. We rode
to Beijing on a bus with the vice president of Nankai University, the head of the
office for foreign teachers and the other teachers. The dinner was plate after plate of great Chinese
food. We then listened to some speeches,
one given by one of the vice chairmen of the central committee. Of course we didn’t understand any of them,
they were in Chinese, but we were provided a rather interesting translation. Mom went to the bathroom with Doerte and
wanted to steal the tissue dispenser that had Great Hall of the People stamped on
it. Doerte persuaded her that it was not
a good idea, but they could take a picture.
It was fun evening and the building was very impressive.
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| L to R The head of the office for all the foreign teachers, Doerte, the German Teacher, Carol and John Galbraith, Mom and I, The Vice President of NanKai, and one of the Japanese Teachers and his wife. |
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| Really big vases. |
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| This painting was huge, maybe 30 feet long and 20 feet tall. |
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| L to R Dave Hennesey, Carol and Craig Larson, Mom and I. Dave, Carol and Craig were BYU Teachers also and taught at Tianjin University right next to Nankai University. |
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The tissue dispenser that tempted mom.
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| Outside the Great Hall of the People before the dinner. |
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| Out side the Great Hall of the People after the dinner. |
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