Well, the Tourism Bureau of the Prefecture of Zhoushan would like you to imagine it as a land of holy Buddhist isles. Situated just off the coast of wealthy Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Zhoushan is in fact made up of over 1,000 islands, many of which have Buddhist temples and monasteries. And the island of Putuoshan (普陀山) is in fact one of the 4 holy mountains of Chinese Buddhism. But our main purpose of travel was to share about new visa application procedures, talk to students about studying in the US, and learn more about the region's economic development. A pretty standard outreach trip.
One of our first visits was to a (very windy) port where international cargo ships unload commodities. While we were there, a Panamanian ship carrying US soybeans pulled in.
Did you know that the men who are helping tie up the ship are actually still called stevedores?! For some reason, this word conjures up images of old colonial docks with monkeys and steamer trunks.
Massive machines unloading soybeans onto a conveyor belt to be carried into storage silos, then eventually transported into the interior of China. It was so windy, soybeans were raining down on us constantly!
We also visited a fish products factory that exports frozen squid to the U.S. Our tour guide told us that most of their workers came from interior provinces like Hunan and Hubei, and that it was getting harder and harder to keep their workers as development moves inward. Migrant workers can now stay closer to home and have a lower cost of living, so fewer are willing to stay in the coastal areas that were the engine of China's growth for the last few decades.
Best part of touring the factory: sampling fish snacks! No joke, deep fried fish vertebrae are actually really tasty. I'm really serious. The NC state fair should consider this.
Our hosts from the Foreign Affairs Office took us to dinner at a line of casual open-air seafood restaurants in the town of Shenjiamen (沈家门) - so much better than formal hotel dinners! We asked about all the new apartment buildings and hotels going up everywhere on the main island, and our host explained that Zhoushan was recently designated a national-level development project. This means massive government funds for infrastructure, logistics, tourism, and the port economy. The towers and towers of apartment buildings in this prefecture just might fill up in the next few years.
After our two-day outreach work was done, I decided to stay a little longer and explore more of the islands. My friend in Shaoxing came over, and we had a nice time catching up again. The photo above is from a memorial park to Chinese soldiers who died defending Zhoushan in the Opium Wars.
Honestly, the Opium Wars were a pretty sad chapter in history - Great Britain going to war with China to force them to import drugs, while the Chinese government tried to prevent what would be a disaster for its increasingly addicted citizens. The UK Foreign Secretary claimed it was all about righting the balance of payments, while President John Quincy Adams said it was about the "arrogant and insupportable pretensions" of China refusing to allow free trade. Only a very young MP William Gladstone denounced the war as "calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace." Beginnings of great statesmanship!
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