7/13/2014 (Sunday) – 7/15/2014 (Tuesday):  Huangshan

7/16/2014 (Wednesday) & 7/17/2014 (Thursday):  Hefei

7/18/2014 (Friday):  Shanghai

7/19/2014 (Saturday):  Home

English practice/discussion session with the staff of the organization.

Last day of my internship.

Finished presentation and practiced Chinese during the day.  Gave presentation in the evening with the help of one of the interns as a translator.  A very good discussion followed.  One of the girls asked why so many people care about the environment and ecological damage in California. She stated that in China most people only care about the environment if people are being harmed.  I mentioned that we have problems with pollution harming humans too, but I tried to explain the importance of ecosystem health and resource preservation, and how that benefits everyone as a whole.

Office working day.

Office working day.  Focused on my presentation and practicing Chinese.

Went to Wan zhi and and San he.

Went to:

• Ma tou
• Yi zhang
• Hong yang

Saw tobacco plantations, woodworkers, blacksmiths, polluted springs, and basket weavers.

Went to Xi he via public transportation.

It’s a popular scenic area for locals but is suffering from economic decline.  Villagers are no longer allowed to transport their goods to the nearby city by boat, and most do not have the means to transport goods by road.

A storm cam through and it was raining too hard to visit any villages.  One of the interns was going to survey one of the manufacturing districts to watch for illegal dumping (which can occur more often when it rains).  I really wanted to go with him, but was not allowed because I am a foreigner.  The government has warned NGOs that foreigners are forbidden from entering manufacturing areas.  So instead I had the day off and had lunch with some of the other interns and biked to the city center was the rain had cleared.  That night I went to a presentation about a lady’s teaching experience at a Confucius Institute in the USA.  It was at the same cafe that I would be presenting at.

Visited Jing xian (several areas) – The water is polluted at this location because of paper making factories upstream that dump their waste water in the river.

Chi tan – Spent a lot of time talking to one of the village elders.  He talked about the lack of education in the area and about how the paper factories have been causing problems ever since the were built about 20 years ago.  Before they were built, people could drink from the water but now the must build wells.  It is likely that the wells are polluted now too.  It is well known in the area that the paper factories run production at night so that they can dump waste water undetected.  The local authorities know of this, and yet they do nothing.