If you wanted to build a new school in China – where and how would you start? What do you think would be the most difficult part? Well my company Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee, www.missiongrounds.com just graded the lot and the school construction will be the easiest part. We should have the school done in about 100 days – now that the Monsoon season is over. Again the actual construction is the easiest part.

The most difficult aspects of building a school are many: – 1. How to get the money from the USA to the remote village where you are building; 2. Getting the Chinese government’s approval 3. Choosing the right village 4. Convincing the villagers you are completely nuts and getting them to help. And it doesn’t help you don’t speak any Chinese and you truly are at the mercy of the translator. And you hope the translator is liked by both the village and the government.

Let??s start with the money. The average Chinese school will cost you around $20,000 to build for the material; another $15,000 in labor if you can’t rally the village into providing the labor for free. So how do you get $20,000 from Atlanta Georgia to the remote Village of DS (to protect the innocent) in the remote village of the Yunnan province? DS is an 8 hour bus ride plus a 4 hour llama ride up the steepest mountains from the nearest banks in Beijing. It??s more money that you can legally carry if you wanted to fly there and drop it off. I won’t disclose the how to this because I hop to do it again in the spring when we start another school. All I can say is there are some Chinese ladies I trust a whole lot who are sleeping tonight with $20,000 buried or hidden somewhere in their house – the mud shacks with dirt floors. She is holding $10,000 when they will make about $200 for the year. At least I know they love their children of the village more than they love money. At least that??s my prayer every night.

The Chinese government is very proud and admits PROUDLY they don’t need any help from anybody – especially from outsiders and especially from Americans. Unfortunately they are ignoring the remote villages to the West and focusing on trying to keep the infrastructure up to meet the explosive growth of the East. Throw the money back where it is coming from.??? Our big goal was to get their blessing to not only approve us but to accept the new school into their system; to then provide the books and supplies; to pay the teachers and keep up the maintains. We even hoped they might find some money to help. And we didn’t mention God one time – though HE was there everywhere.

So we decided to build our schools in the poorest villages of Western China. We decided on the Yunnan Province because it is still a Third world country still living like its 1000 AD. No civilization here – no modern infrastructure. No money and no school. No jobs. The average wage is about $20 per month and most people are dirt farmers. The goal each day is to survive – find enough food to make it till tomorrow. Girls go to school – are you kidding? No in this part of China the one child run is in effect – families dump their girls in hope of having boys. So in these villages you find a pack of homeless girls who live on the streets together – like a pack of wolves. Feeding on the trash – begging all day for handouts. They work to survive and school is not an option.

So we identified 10 villages – all without schools. In August I asked my good friend, also a Chinese pastor, if he would help me contact a government official we could trust to build a school in one of this needy village. A few weeks later the meeting was set and we drove 3 hours to meet Mr. Z, the director of the Community and Religious Affairs in another county.

During our lunch Mr. Z explained to me that he was very happy to hear of my intentions. He asked questions about my previous experience and then proceeded to tell me that he had many places that were in need. I then asked him to tell me about a few villages in need so we could begin our project.

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???In the next few sentences Mr. Z told me about his home village and how very poor they were and that they had no existing school but the children were meeting in the teacher??s mud brick home. He also said, ??I am not forcing you to go to my village but only letting you know of the need. If you prefer to go to another village I know plenty of other places!?? I replied, ??Mr. Z, I would be honored to build a school in your home village, please take me there so we can look around and meet your people.??

After visiting the village Mr. Z and I drew up a contract basically agreeing that the Chinese government would contribute part of the cost (about half) and that I would have the privilege of returning to the village to continue building relationship through activities and training at the school.

And that the school would be recognized by the Chinese Government; and adopted into their system and most importantly supplied with books and teachers by the Chinese government. The Contract was signed at a big party in the village where the government took all the credit. We then enlisted many villagers who donated their time to build the school.

I made visits during the construction of the school to be sure things were going as planned. During one of these visits the village leaders hosted an outdoor banquet where I sat with all the village leaders and communist party members who celebrated our new joint venture. The school was completed in about 150 days. It was a 2 story building and will host children from many villages. In China the children travel on Sundays for many hours to the school. They then live in the school all week and once or twice a month will return home. They have a teacher during the day and a house mom to take care of the children at night. They sleep on the floor and the house mom feeds them dinner; sleeps with them at night and fixes them breakfast. She also makes sure they do their “home” work and acts as a tutor…

Here??s the really neat part. (Shhhh! And please don’t tell the Chinese government.) The homeless girls – the ones abandoned by their families by the one child rule – go to school. As part of my deal with the villagers – I made a secret agreement to build them a school but they had to agree to let the “worthless” girls go to school. And live in the school. And eat dinner and breakfast. And get a bath. And have a house mom to look after them. Some might say we are building orphanages – but that would be wrong and against the Chinese governments rules. And they certainly wouldn’t support an orphanage. Or even help. But building a school – that??s cool for them. And let them have all the credit. You should have seen the celebration they threw for our new orphanage I mean their new school. Seems like everybodies a winner in this deal. And all for just $10,000.

Should you consider buying a cheap Chinese Hot Tub or a proper made American or European Product?

Well what are the advantages and disadvantages?

The price is one consideration as cheap Chinese poorly produced goods are cheaper than properly made American or European products.

The pumps in the Chinese spas seem to be of a reasonable quality

The Jets may be made outside of China or they could be Chinese but it does not matter as the Jets they install are very basic even lacking the ability to adjust up or down. Over a little while the chemicals that are used in Hot Tubs will destroy the moving parts of the Jet, something that the American have had some 40 or 45 years to solve

What other drawbacks are there?

The first and major one is that the designs are out of date and lack the developments that the Americans have developed in both Hydrotherapy and Hydro massage. After all Roy Jacuzzi was of Italian origin and was not borne in China other wise he might have been called Roy Chiang Kai-shek.

Also it is a lot easier to understand and indeed telephone Americans or Europeans it is a lot harder to telephone China. Our client tried to so this two or three times to no avail.

The Chinese tubs are made in an oppressive regime where athletes attending the Olympic Games cannot even have freedom of speech. This reminds one of a similar country run by a dictator some years ago in the 1930′s.

The point is the labour conditions are poor. The quality control does not exist. How can I say this, simple, we have recently installed a Chinese spa for a client

The spa looked good until we probed a little.

The problems

Bad wiring – cables dragging on the floor not properly tied up or secure/ Low capacity cables and badly layed out

No floor, so the whole spa was exposed to the ground the elements and those lovely little beasties that chew threw car ignition leads and those beasties will make mince meat of the cables on this spa

The frame was made of iron and looked like it had been assembled by a couple of children. It was not square or properly put together. The filter was designed in such a way so that the water would not flow from top to bottom so that the whole of the filter would not be used. Very bad design.

The circulation pump would not start as it was cabled up incorrectly on the main circuit board. Not a problem that was an easy fault to fix.

However, the circulation pump has no timer or ability to be programmed perhaps into a sleep mode it is either on or off.

The Ozone was pathetic in that it just seemed to produce big bubbles and not ozone and in a small area only the ozone was not being injected into the water.

No insulation what so ever either on the side panels and whilst heat rises a lack of a floor is a definite disadvantage. This spa may have an initial lower cost but the real cost over its useful life will probably be very expensive. This is a bit like spoiling the ship for a happorth of tar a famous old English expression but as with all things you tend to get what you pay for.

As they say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys or what I would call a pig in a poke. I would not give you house room for one and if you offered me one for free I don’t want it as the thought of catching alight or shorting out is too much of a risk to take;

People often think that buying some thing that looks good for peanuts is a clever idea but when it comes from a country that whilst an engineering giant is many decades behind the west in basic manufacturing standards and all it really has is very very cheap and inexperienced labour.

The best advice remains buy a product from a reputable American manufacturer and from our point of view whilst it was an interesting experience we will not touch a piece of junk like that again.

The Chinese culture has been greatly regarded in history for its beauty, elegance and uniqueness from among other cultures. Their culture and traditions had flourished and as we see now still lies greatly on their hands as if it has never changed, but it has. There has always been an attempt to compare the past from the present but as we can see it can never ever be the same. We always have to look back into its remnants in order for us to recognize its beautiful and wonderful past. The past that had transpired the past, now just lies in the memory and on its existing proofs.

The remnants and ruins that had survived the test of time now amaze us with their stunning beauty and charisma. Not only that, but because of the priceless value that it has as of now, it has become an icon and also a symbol of fortune and a lot more.

In ancient China the very first fixture and or ornament that they had learned to make are straw mats on the floor. But as time goes by it had evolved to a variety of furniture, from floor mats to beds and couches, tables and bookcases, decorative screens and cabinets. The design runs from simple to intricate and is being related to the Chinese lifestyle and cultural and economic changes in China. Because of the nature of the Chinese people of being people who are very interested in trade they have evolved into seafarers in order to trade to other communities thus enhancing their craftsmanship and skill level and as well as their mental level. These voyages had brought influences to their art and had improved it. That is why these fixtures became so intensely captivating may it be in simplicity and or in extravagance.

Some of the furniture in that era has made it through the test of time and are still present in today’s modern society. Although not all of them are here, at least we would have to be able to grab a chance to get a glimpse of the glory of ancient China that it has been.

Most of Chinese-made fixtures are symmetrically made but if coupled with other elements of art becomes a splendid aesthetic enhancer. Not only that, other art works can also be used in order to accentuate the presence of the antique cabinet. With this you will be able to prevent having the room look as if it has an unlikely atmosphere which would be very untoward on your part. In an antique display cabinet, objects which are of relevance to the Chinese culture could be used as displays, such as ceramic plates, and chinaware.

An example of this antique and popular wood China cabinet is an Armoire. It has beautifully incorporated metal works on its doors that makes a striking appearance. These cabinets are specially made in order to display a variety of materials from dining wares; plates, cups, silverware, glasses, goblets, soup plates to electronic equipment such as a television, a DVD set component and a whole lot more. A cabinet may function in many different ways. It can be used as plainly a display cabinet. It can be used as a divider if there is a need to divide the room into sections. It can also be used as an ornament in the room.

Cabinets that are made from the ages usually are made with genuine and high quality wood that a matter of fact lasts for a very long time. Each and very antique furniture has its purpose but with innovative use you can put more spice into its existence. Check out your nearest furniture or antique store and you will see that an antique wood China cabinet may be just the thing to make your room shine.