Stephen's Week

Hello all

Here is my latest retrospective "blog" on the events of last week. This time it doesn't feature PMQs or political views and gossip, but is instead set in China. But as my trip to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing was with the Education Select Committee you can look upon it as one long extended meeting, rather than the usual Monday and Wednesday sessions. We packed a lot in, so there's a lot to read here!

Stephen

Friday 8th June 2007

After packing enough clothes for 8 days off to Temple Meads for the 11am to London. Spent afternoon clearing as many letters as possible. But also slipped out to Victoria St M&S to buy a light (in colour and weight!) jacket and trousers as the weather on our trip was likely to be hot and humid. At 5.15 the delegation set off from the Commons to Heathrow. With me there were 5 Labour MPs, one Conservative and my Lib Dem colleague Paul Holmes plus 3 members of staff.

At Heathrow started the first of another 3 sessions of sitting in departure lounges of airports. In the course of the next week I clocked up 30 hours in the air plus about 6 hours sat in departure lounges and several more hours sat in a bus on the way to airports.

We took off from Heathrow at 9.15pm. I had my first experience of sitting upstairs in a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. This was to be a 14 hour trip with a mixture of eating, reading (I started a book called "Suicide of the West", about the decline in "Western" European and American values) and dozing. I have never been able to sleep well in new places so the week ahead with two overnight plane trips and three different hotels didn't auger well for

my physical and mental well being.

We arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday at 4.10pm local time, 7 hours ahead of UK time. The first thing that hit me was the heat and humidity. I've never experienced this feeling before, though it wasn't as "sticky" as I'd feared. We met by a representative of the British Council (the organisation that promotes British education, culture and language abroad) and taken on a bus towards the city. The mountainous landscape initially reminded me a little of parts of north Wales. But as we turned a corner I could see hundreds of sky scrapers ringing the coast and spreading some way up the slopes. The terrain doesn't give much space for building, hence the need to build upwards. The islands and the mainland are linked by tunnels and dramatic suspension bridges, as well as by ferries.

At this point it started to rain. It rains a lot in Hong Kong. But unlike Bristol, where rain is not exactly unknown, it can rain with a remarkable ferocity and duration. The Hong Kong government even has different categories of rainfall. Amber is the weakest category, followed by red and black rain. In black rain much activity stops and children stay home from school. After this there are three categories of typhoon, where wind is the problem as well as rain. Apparently the rain that had just started was "normal"...why not "green" I thought!

We arrived at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel, one of two that are part of the waterfront Convention Centre that was the scene of the 1997 handover ceremony at the end of British colonial rule. Inside was much cooler and I noticed for the first time the foetid smell that was created by the combination of aircon and humidity in every building.

After checking in we were taken to a local restaurant. The pouring rain didn't impact on us as you can walk around much of Hong Kong in first storey level covered walkways. These were the sort of things loved by UK planners in the 1970s, but they've never been popular. In Hong Kong they are vital to protect pedestrians from the elements and to maximise use of

ground level space.

The restaurant served a familiar fare of Cantonese food, including my favourite of crispy Peking duck. However, this was he first time I'd sat in a "Chinese" restaurant when all of the other customers were Chinese. As my foreign travel had hitherto been limited to Europe and Australia, this trip was my first experience of feeling to be genuinely in a foreign country.

Back at the hotel, and tried to sleep. But at 3am the rain started to slam into my 31st floor window and an amazing thunder storm rumbled for the next few hours.

Sunday 10th June

This was our free day, to rest and acclimatise. Unfortunately it was a bit of a wash out. Several of us were determined to make the most of it and took the "Star" Ferry from Hong King Island to the mainland, called Kowloon. Looking back from the ferry the mountain slopes were lost in cloud and the tops of the highest buildings were also obscured.

At the Kowloon ferry station there were all sorts of stalls selling wares. But much to my surprise there were also stalls of various campaign groups. Some of them displayed horrific photos of dead bodies in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square from the Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army crackdown in 1989. Others showed "Falon Gong" cult members with awful marks of torture on their bodies. Around the corner there was a brass band braving the rain at an official ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the British handing Hong Kong back to China. All over the Hong Kong "Special Administrative Area" there were 10th anniversary banners proclaiming "HKSAR - Together we serve in Unity". So we have this curious dual system of western freedoms and Chinese state propaganda.

Back on the Island and after a Thai lunch I ventured on my own (everyone else went shopping) in a hair raising taxi ride to the "Peak tram" station to take a ride up the slope to the "Peak", where normally there are commanding views over Hong Kong and Kowloon. The tram is pulled by a cable up the slope, where some sections are so steep you are pinned to your seat. There were views until just before the summit, but the top was shrouded in cloud. The viewing platform was on top of a truly hideous shopping centre - Hong Kong does not pass up any retail opportunity.

In the evening we ate in the hotel our first official meal, a briefing from the British Council. I often feel I eat too many dishes in Chinese restaurants in Bristol, but I was unprepared for what happened here. A total of 12 courses were served, washed down by a mountain of Tsing Tao beer cans.

Monday 11th June

Checked out of the hotel at 8am (a bit of a killer given our sleep deprived state) and onto our bus for a visit to the University of Hong Kong. There are 8 universities in HK, but this one is probably the best according to international rankings. As with all our meetings for the next week this one started with mass handshakes and formal two handed presentation of bilingual business cards. We spent the next two and a half hours talking to various professors and officials. HK higher education is delivered in English so is suitable for British students and researchers. Both Hong Kong SAR and China are keen for more British students, to match the thousands who travel in the opposite direction.

Back in the bus, to the British Council offices for meetings with HKSAR government education officials which continued over lunch with university heads at the Italian restaurant over the road, which claimed to be the best Italian outside Italy...

Back at the Council offices for our last HK meeting, with the British Chamber of Commerce. The Director was Brigadier Christopher Hammerbeck. He'd commanded the British garrison in Hong Kong but had stayed on after 1997. His message essentially was that Britain could do more to exploit it's advantage of language, history and business practices in Hong Kong.

The bus then took us off to the airport...just as the sun came out. Through the windows I marvelled for the last time at the buildings, not just commercial but also high rise residential blocks. I've long felt that we are too timid in Bristol about tall buildings. Much of the stuff

erected here in Harbourside and elsewhere in the last ten years is of mind numbing architectural mediocrity. Ironically it is largely British architects who are designing stunning buildings on the other side of the world.

Hong Kong Airport is also amazing, a single roof covering thousands of square metres, all on land reclaimed from the sea. At 6pm we took off for Shanghai and the two and half hour flight to the next stage in our visit.

Shanghai is one of the largest cities on Earth, with a population of 17 million. We were met again by the British Council and taken by bus to the city centre. I was disappointed by this, as the Shanghai Airport train is the fastest in the world, one whizzed past us, skimming along its magnetic field track at 268 mph. You can see images of Shanghai at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai

Our hotel in the centre was the Westin, a skyscraper with a crown on top. The amount of investment in Shanghai is staggering. The Chinese have constructed modern buildings of amazing exterior design and internal opulence.

Tuesday 12th June

Off at 8.30am to the British Consulate offices for a briefing on the Shanghai economy and on Chinese higher education. I could give many superlatives, the scale of it all is staggering. The economy of Shanghai alone is equivalent to that of Ukraine. It's experienced 15 years of

double digit growth. A new bridge to the deep water harbour (Shanghai is the second largest port in the world now) is 32kms long. China has 23 million university students. This year alone 10 million young people will sit the "Gaokao" exam, a common university entrance test which performs the same role as our A Levels. But there are only 5.7 million first year

places available. So that's a lot of disappointed young people. Also at the other end, there's a lot of graduate unemployment. Different sections of the Chinese economy and education system are growing at different rates, leading to many anomalies.

There are growing ties between British and Chinese higher education. There are 53,000 Chinese students in Britain, mainly at post graduate level. British universities have built relationships with Chinese institutions, delivering British degree programmes. There are also three Sino-British partnership universities, all in the Shanghai area.

We then went to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission to meet with the Director of Higher Education in the city. Prof Zhang Min Xuan spoke fluent English and was a genial host. Our Chinese meetings this week followed much the same process. First, we lined up outside and went in one by one, shook hands, handed over and received several business cards and sat at one side of a huge table (they must get through a lot of wood making tables in China). There would then be opening remarks from the leader of each side. We'd all have a mug (with a china lid) of tea, usually green but sometimes Jasmine, which i prefer. We would then ask some questions. Then there would be an exchange of official gifts. Our

gifts were an assortment of House of Commons medallions and paper weights. The Chinese usually gave pictures.

Then we were back in the bus to The Bund. This is the river frontage of the city, on the West side of the Huangpu. The buildings date from the early 20th century, mainly built by the British. It resembles the frontage of Liverpool, Shanghai's twin city. We had lunch with the British Chamber of Commerce in an upper storey restaurant that had views over to the east

bank, called Pudong. This is the new Shanghai. I was told by one of the businessmen that it was all fields until the 1990s. Now it has some of the most stunning skyscrapers in the world.

In the afternoon we visited Fudan University, the leading HE institution in Shanghai, with 25,000 students. Then we were back to the hotel to meet representatives of Nottingham University. They have set up a new university, Nottingham Ningbo, on the coast nearby. It is a separate university in its own right, but delivering degrees based on Nottingham courses and taught in English. Students pay fees of £3,300 pa. In fact all Chinese universities charge tuition fees. There were also toll booths on the roads and adverts everywhere. Despite the fact that the Communist Party is still very much in charge, China is in all appearances a fully

fledged market economy, at least in its major cities.

The meeting finished at 6pm and I took advantage of a half hour's free time not to go for a rest but to stroll along the Bund before it got dark. As an architecture buff I enjoyed the contract either side of the river. It was also an opportunity to soak up the atmosphere, with thousands of Chinese also strolling along. There were also many peddlars, offering me

Chairman Mao watches, roller skates with flashing lights and post cards. A young lady suggestively asked if I was from England and then if I would "like to do business" with her. She picked the wrong man...

Back at the hotel and a British Council reception for Shanghai dignitaries. A mixture of Chinese savouries and British sweets including the best bread and butter pudding I've ever tasted - so I had to have two portions!

The reception was over by 9.30pm and despite the heavy rain we went for a walk around the shopping streets which apart from the street sellers could have been anywhere in the world and then back along the Bund, taking in the flood lit views. The night was topped off by cocktails and a jazz band in the 50th floor bar of the hotel.

Wednesday 13th June

Checked out of the hotel and in the bus to Suzhou, a city about 40 miles west. Outside the city is being built Dushu Higher Education Town. The Chinese are building these mini Cambridges outside all their major cities, combining higher education and science parks. Again, the scale is astounding. We were shown a model and exhibition of Dushu, where there will be several university outlets and housing for students, staff and ancillary workers. A pioneer here is Liverpool University which has set up a joint university with Xi'an Jiaotong University. In a lakeside restaurant we heard about its ambitious plans to expand to about 10,000 students from the couple of hundred who've just started in 2007.

Off to the airport and another sit around in a lounge before a two hour flight to Beijing.

We arrived in the Chinese capital at 6.30pm, just as it was getting dark. The city was hot, but apparently a temporary dip in temperature and a bit of unseasonal rain had cooled things down and abated the pollution. Beijing is the most polluted city in the world. It's a combination of heavy industries, chronic traffic congestion (you don't see many bicycles

now!), a hot climate and the proximity of dust blown in from the Gobi desert. The city is trying to clear up prior to next year's Olympics. The local British Council took us in a mini bus (called "coasters" here..) to the China World Hotel, set in the Chinese World Trade Centre. The opulence was again amazing, but unlike Shanghai this had a Chinese design,

rather than a Western feel.

Thursday 14th June

Breakfast briefing in the hotel by the British Ambassador, Sir William Ehrman. Prior to his arrival in China Sir William was Director for Defence and Intelligence in the Foreign Office and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. But I didn't raise Iraq...

To the Ministry of Education to meet the HE Minister Mr Zhang Xinsheng. Chinese government is complicated. The Ministers are technocrats. They carry out policy. But they report to the National Peoples Congress, which is full of national representatives, best thought of as a kind of House of Lords with a mixture of experts and party members. But virtually all of them, Ministers and NPC members, will be members of the Communist Party,

which oversees everything and provides the President and Prime Minister. All the politicians and officials we met were urbane and intelligent individuals. I was expecting rather dour apparatchics, but they were nothing like that.

After the Ministry we went to Beijing Normal University and had a lunch (a mere 8 courses) with a group of students followed by a meeting with university officials and a tour of their neuro-science labs.

In the evening there was a reception at the Ambassador's Residence. As Britain doesn't (yet?) have a national day, our Embassies around the world use the Queen's Official Birthday as the occasion for their annual reception. It was good luck for us to be in Beijing this week. The garden was full of representatives from all other foreign missions, as well as Chinese dignitaries.

Afterwards we were dropped in Tian'anmen Square for a late evening stroll. The square is vast - probably about 4 Trafalgar Squares in length, though about the same width. You can see some images of the square and Beijing here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing The square is bounded by the Forbidden City - the Palace from which the Chinese Empire was ruled until 1912, the Great Hall of the People - the home of the NPC and the Museum of

China. Within the Square there's Mao's Mausoleum and the war memorial. The square was thronged with people strolling, flying kites and selling goods. We took the subway train back to China World, at a cost of 3 Yuan (about 20p).

Friday 15th June

Our last full day. Our first meeting wasn't until 12.30 so I made the most of the free time by taking the subway back to Tian'anmen Square with a Labour MP and a member of staff. Others took an early morning taxi out of the city to see part of the Great Wall, or went shopping. We went through the Tian'anmen Gate (which bears Mao's portrait) and into the Forbidden City. This is a huge complex of palaces, large and small courtyards, lanes and temples. It dwarfs Versailles or Windsor and you would need at least an entire day, probably two, to do it justice. So two hours before having to get back to the hotel was a little frustrating!

At 12.30 we were off to Tsinghua University, one of China's top two universities. It's set in the grounds of an old Imperial garden on the outskirts of the city. Lots of jasmine tea and a bar of chocolate I'd brought with me kept me going through the meetings. Then back in the bus through traffic congestion (Chinese driving is appalling, they beep their horns constantly and we witnessed two bumps in the drive back to the city) to Tian'anmen Square and the Great hall of the People for the finale of the visit.

We were ushered into a large meeting room with a huge mural of a far west section of the Great Wall and a fort. Around three sides of the room were large armchairs interspersed with small tables for the lidded mugs of tea. We were met by Madame Zhu Lilan, the NPC Chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee. Madame Zhu is a long term survivor on the Chinese political scene, having joined the Communist party

in 1956. Mde Zhu was accompanied by several colleagues, incl Prof Chen Zhangliang, who I had met at the Ambassador's reception. Although they both understood English the meeting was conducted in a formal manner, with each side's interpreters providing translation. We then adjourned to the banqueting hall for a formal dinner. The gold plate was out, complete with knives and forks. Over the course of the week my chop stick skills

have improved over their normal clumsy levels so I stuck to the local eating implements.

After the meal we had another night time wander around the Square and then went to a lakeside bar for a final social before heading back to China World to pack.

Saturday 16th June

Checked out at 8.30am and off to the airport. A ten hour flight back to Heathrow, landing at 3.30pm British time but 11.30pm as far as my body was concerned. Heathrow Express to Paddington and home, exhausted ready for a day of sleep recovery before heading back to Westminster.