Eric's Beijing Diary

Back in Beihai. I flew in Monday night and landed in a tropical rainstorm. It's nice today, though. Blue sky, and a breeze coming in off the sea. I'm sitting here at Tommy's looking out over the Gulf. Tommy's is an Australian bar and grill that serves pretty good Western food for a moderate price. This is my first time here, so I can't give you a comprehensive recommendation, but the Cordon Blue is a pretty good meal for 20 kuai.

Last night, I went to the Japanese Corner in front of the library. the students began to talk to me in English, so I told them politely in Japanese that I didn't speak English. They laughed, but they got the point. The college here in Beihai is establishing a very strong Japanese software program, which is good, because Japan has a labour shortage that Chinese young people are in a good position to take advantage of right now. China's economy is growing rapidly, which, of course, produces many jobs, but also many, many young graduates competing for those jobs. I have been in China three years, and I have yet to see a student in the Japanese software program who couldn't get hired. After studying software and Japanese language here, they go to Japan and do an internship for a year. After that, they can either stay, or come back to China.