WLE Newsletter May 2002 - June 2002
Karaoke Night Friday May 17, 2002
A must do when you are in China is sing KARAOKE! World Link students were most impressive in their singing talents and performances! See for yourselves?
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Edwards Slade, 9-week students, made a grand opening singing one of his favorite songs!
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Ben, Shannon, Andrew and Edward singing at the top of their lungs!
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Our Brazilian student, Luciana Selmi Dei, singing "Living la Vida Loca" together with Andy Poole from the UK.
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1-year student Shannon "John Lennon" Roy does a thumbs up for karaoke!
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World Link staff took to the stage and showed the students that they could also sing karaoke! Samantha, Sanna, Patrik and Tony.
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Jeffrey Seals doing an excellent job singing Chinese songs throughout the evening!
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Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sung by our martial arts students Jeff, Jon and Andy.
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Mable Chu singing a Cantonese song.
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Got to pick the right songs from the song list. WLE Staff Tony assisting Bethany Nobles, a 9 week Mandarin student with her choice.
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Cool Dragon
On May the 19th, a hot Sunday in the early Beijing summer, World Link students trooped to the Black Dragon Pool (Hei Long Tan) for their weekend excursion. Past the Miyun Reservoir (Miyun Shuiku) and about a hundred kilometers northeast of Beijing, the pool, located up in the mountains, dotted with smaller ponds and waterfalls, is a cool place to hang out on a hot, summer day. World Link students trudged up the mountain, strolled leisurely around the pool and picnicked on the rocks.
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Mark, Andrew, David and Jon starting off on the trek.
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Finally! After an hour of trekking, Black Dragon Pool emerges.
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Martial Arts Programs Advisor Samantha Zhang and 9W Chinese Language student Mary Higonnet trading secrets and stories by the water.
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The trek gets harder.
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WLE hikers taking a quick rest halfway up.
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Farewell Dinner at A Fun Ti
Friday, May 31st, World Link 4 week students went to the famous Xinjiang restaurant to enjoy their farewell dinner. A Fun Ti has always been a favorite venue introducing the tastes and sounds of China's northern province, Xinjiang. Here students experience the food, culture and music of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region's Uighur nationality (a Turkic Muslim people). With delicious Chinese-Muslim cuisine from lamb kebabs (yang rou chuan'r), nang bread, to hand stretched noodles (la tiao zi), entertainment by Xinjiang dancers and musicians, this successful farewell was an enjoyable and memorable evening. Dancing on tables featured the most fun and exciting part. This time our visiting colleagues, Anders and Fredrick from our Europe office joined us, as they took the lead dancing on the tables!
Silver Fox Cave
Sunday, June 2nd, World Link students went to the famous Silver Fox Cave in the suburbs of Beijing. Among the many spectacular stalactites found in the cave, we marveled at the crystalline formation that looks like a jade carving of a fox - thus giving the cave its unique name. The cave system is estimated to have formed 50 to 32 million years BC. It consists of a labyrinth of small dry caves, with underground streams, including the largest underground stream found in north China. The cave keeps a stable temperature of 13 degrees. Keeping us all quite cold as we ventured through natures' amazing creations!
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Temple in the Rain
On Sunday, the 9th of June, World Link Students went on a weekend excursion to the Lama Temple. Built in 1694 as the residence for Count Yin Zhen who later became Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, it is otherwise known as Yong He Gong meaning Yong He Palace. In 1744, it was converted into a lamasery and has since become home to monks from Mongolia and Tibet. It is an attractive destination for many reasons, foremost of which is its peaceful, monastic ambience despite the presence of hordes of tourists. The artworks inside the halls are authentic and breathtaking. One of the most extraordinary is the statue of the Maitreya Buddha, nearly 20 meters in height, carved of a single sandalwood tree. Packed with people as always despite the inclement weather, visiting the temple in the rain - the first for the season, was a novel experience.
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Martial Arts student Jon Farr with sister, Chinese Language student Anna Farr from Scotland enjoying the first rainfall of the season at the Lama Temple.
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Peking Duck Dinner
Friday, the 14th of June saw the June batch of WLE students heartily dining on Kao Ya (Roast Duck - Peking style). This traditional WLE welcome dinner was held at a newly-opened Beijing Duck restaurant where the "fresh off the plane" students also had the chance not only to taste traditional, Beijing cuisine, but also to view the exciting highlights of the ongoing 2002 FIFA World Cup.
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Business Programs Advisor Sanna Johannesson clowning around with 10-week Chinese Language student Will Giles from the US.
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Chinese Language students Philip Uglow, Dan Flynn and Kevin Komoroski, enjoying their dinner.
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Sophia Mendelsohn, Menelva Harry and Andrew Carrington, with wide smiles after finishing off their kao ya.
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Martial Arts student Marcus Ryan Woo
wanting more kao ya???
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The "poor kao ya" getting itself ready
to be eaten by the eager WLE students.
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Shopping not just for Silk
On the 16th of June, World Link students went to the Silk Market to do their Sunday shopping. Don't let the name fool you, though. People don't come to this place to shop only for silk. Although probably the best place for silk or linen clothing, here, you can also find Goretex or down jackets made for export in styles and sizes that appeal to both locals and foreigners. J.Crew, North Face, Jan Sport, Valentino, Gucci, Prada and other designer brands sell for a fraction of store prices. Also a good place to buy patchwork eiderdowns and cashmere. But don't forget to bargain and to bargain hard. Start with a third or maybe even a fourth of the price! Then, learn to walk away and before you know it, you'll get the merchandise you want at the price you want!
Euphoria over Korea
On the evening of the 18th of June, news of South Korea's stunning defeat of Italy during their second World Cup Finals match in Taejon, sent thousands of Koreans to the streets of Beijing. In Haidian, the university district, particularly teeming with Korean students, Wang Zhuang Lu where Beijing Xijiao Hotel is located, was closed to traffic to give way to the unparalleled joy of the Korean students. It was 1966 all over again for Korea as when the North Korean team pulled the same upset against the Italian team during that year. WLE students respectively wept and celebrated, depending on which team they were rooting for.
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Beijing Sammie's - Where East Eats West
One of the field trips of this intake's China Business program was a guided tour by the founder of Beijing Sammies. Sammies is a Canadian-owned western food service company offering sandwiches, salads, muffins, brownies and coffee in three locations in Beijing. It was founded in 1997 by Sam Goodman also a past Chinese Language student of our host Chinese Language university. In 1999, Sammies was voted Beijing's No 1 western food delivery company by City Weekend magazine.
Mr. Goodman guided us through the company's central kitchen and office sharing how he set up his company in Beijing, what difficulties he met along the way and working in China. Sammies first opened as a cafeteria near the Chinese language university campus, and gradually expanded downtown in Chaoyang District to meet the demands of office catering and functions. Mr Goodman's informative briefing was followed by a tour of the heart of Sammies -its central kitchen where we observed how its range of salads, bagels, muffins and cakes are prepared. It was easy to understand why Sammies remains a popular caf?for local and foreigners to enjoy good quality western sandwiches, cakes and beverages.
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Pictured outside Sammies' central kitchen in Beijing's busy downtown Chaoyang disctrict.
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Mr. Sam Goodman on "How to do business in China".
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Chrisnah, Bethany, Luciana and Anna tasting some of Sammies' delicious products!
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SEB - Scandinaviska Enskilda Bank
One of this intake's China Business program seminars was presented by the SEB (Skandinaviska Ensklida Banken) Bank. SEB is a privately owned Swedish bank and one of the leading commercial banking groups in Scandinavia.
SEB in Beijing was established in 1983 and has been part of China's transition over the two past decades by providing active commercial support for major Scandinavian companies in a range of areas from infrastructure and telecommunications to services and industry. SEB has an active trade-financing department to help expand the network of trading relations between China and Scandinavia. They maintain extensive relations with the Chinese banking and financing community which have benefited their clients.
Ms. Eileen Chen, the Chief Representative of the SEB bank, presented the seminar introducing students to the structure of financial institutions in China, the roles of foreign banks in China and main requirements for establishing a foreign bank branch. This lively seminar outlining the changing face of foreign banks in China further examined the pending banking reforms following China's accession to the WTO.
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Ms Chen presenting the banking seminar on SEB's operations in China
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Wine Tasting at Beijing Dragon Seal Wine Co., Ltd.
Students of the current China Business program were delighted when a field trip was held at one of China's four prominent wineries, Dragon Seal. Dragon Seal Wines was first established in 1987. Its objective was to produce wines of the highest quality in China. Previously a joint venture with French Pernod Ricard, Dragon Seal Wines is now a state-owned company exhibiting the success of a perfect marriage between quality Chinese grapes and traditional French winemaking expertise. In the world's best chardonnay competition, the international Chardonnay-du-monde competition, the Dragon Seal' Chardonnay 1998, was named winner of the year 2000 bronze award.
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Dragon Seal's National Sales and Marketing Director, Mr Li Zhu conducted an interesting presentation of the company's history and how its wines are produced. A guided tour was held followed by a wine tasting session wetting the palates of our curious business students wanting to see for themselves why Dragon Seal wines are regarded as China's best wines and top sellers. We were treated to a selection of their fine wines: the Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and sweet Chinese Gui Hua Jiu. With flush cheeks and satisfied taste buds, there was a unanimous agreement that much was leant about one of China's growing industries. Gan pei!
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During the tour of the winery Mr. Li Zhu gave a step by step guide of intricate process of wine making, from crushing the grapes, fermenting, fining, and aging through to bottling.
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Andrew Wong enjoying the Chardonnay!
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