Doors open where once stood walls!

This may seem like a philosophical metaphor, and to an extent it is as today we got a green light for a project with unbelievable potential.

BUT for those of you reading this blog who have borne witness to some of the almost unbelievable occurrences that I've experienced so far and may be finding it difficult to fully believe my tales.....

What happened today has to push your faith in my truthfulness to breaking point! We taken on a site visit to the area being developed for a massive new International School that has just broken ground. The school will cover a site three times that of the Liberty Stadium and provides state of the art teaching, learning and recreation facilities for over 7,000 students from Junior to Pre University level. The Pre Uni level being completed by September!

Scale Model of the New School

 The site to date has only workforce accommodation and a site office setup, the rest is a gaping muddy hole in the ground. We parked the limousine convoy on the main road just outside the gate and transferred into 4x4s to get across the negotiatable mud mountain to the office structure. We alighted and then made our way very carefully, the earth was sodden and very treacherous, around the craters edge ( a good 15-20 ft drop) on a path no more than 6 inches wide. We had a 9 and 6 year old with us and as parents we were unsettled (I don't think this adequately describes the mothers' state of mind!), the last section, a muddy slipery, ancient scaffolding plank, into the gate was particularly nerve wracking.

Office Accommodation and Entrance  

The Scaffold Plank Walk Way over the Pit

 Once safely inside the office's walled compound, we were shown the scale model of the planned build and the poster presentations of the whole infrastructure including a new city that would, eventually, encompass the school.

 Unknown to us, the builders who had been dismayed at the danger we had been in just attempting to access the office had made a decision and by the time we came out they had knocked a whole in the compound wall and built a functional doorway!!

Door in progress!

 I totally believe that the plan will come in on time and by September 2013 there will be a state of the art school complete and fully functioning!

 After this we went strawberry picking followed by a couple of hours fishing and the were hosted to a beautiful farewell dinner by the Director of Education and her team.


 These past three will be engraved in memory for the rest of my life and we still have a week of Beijing to experience! WOW!