Headmaster's visit to China
Mr Biggs then flew to Qu Zhou in Zheijiang Province, to visit the school which has been selected by the Hanban Institute as the partner for King's College: Qu Zhou No. 2 High School. He says:
"After the cold, smog and noise of Beijing I was completely won over by the warmth and charm of Qu Zhou. This is an ancient and historical city of moderate size, set on the banks of a large river and surrounded by mountains. The school is huge, modern, bright and attractive. It enjoys an impressively outward-looking philosophy: it has already linked up with schools in Canada and the USA. While I was there I met two British GAP students who taught English in the senior school and an American woman who worked in the junior school next door. All three were having a wonderful time and spoke with some passion about the value of their experience and the warmth of the welcome they had enjoyed. All members of the school's English Department are encouraged to spend at least six months living in an English-speaking country. My host, Mr Michael Chen, had worked for a year in Millfield.
I spoke to three English classes, each with about 56 pupils! Some spoke fluent English; none had been out of China. They were amazed when I told them that King's College only had about 420 pupils. They found it extraordinary that our school day only lasted from 8:30am to 6pm (as opposed to their 7:30am - 9:00pm marathon - with most of that being taken up by lessons), that we did such a wide range of subjects and that so much of the week was taken up with non-academic pursuits. I explained that I believed, because of the increasing importance and influence of China, that it was important for them to learn English and to find out more about the world outside of China and for the pupils of King's College to learn more about China and Chinese culture and language.
In a rather formal (and well-photographed) ceremony I gave the principal of the school, Mr Xu, a watercolour of King's and a school crest. He spoke little English, unlike his deputy (and Party Secretary) Mr Pan, who had spent time teaching in Minnesota.
After lunch in the vast school canteen (more chicken knuckle stew and rice) three members of the English department joined me on a trip into the nearby mountains, where we completed a long and rather hair-raising trail, including a terrifying crossing of a deep valley courtesy of a precarious rope bridge. All this in sub-tropical heat and still in my smart clothes! The countryside was beautiful, though, and the drive a revelation of paddy fields, orange groves and bamboo forests. Back in Qu Zhou we visited the Southern Confucius Family Temple, complete with a living descendant of the original Confucius. This modern scion (75th generation) is apparently an expert and popular lecturer on all things cultural. He had survived the Cultural Revolution as a gold mining engineer and had been brought to Qu Zhou and the newly-restored family temple by the city council when sense once again prevailed in China. Mr Confucius offered us tea and spoke warmly of the benefits of cultural links between different countries. He was keen to come out to the UK and I hope we might get him here to visit King's soon.
A formal and apparently typically local dinner, hosted by the Deputy Principal (and Party Secretary), Mr Pan rounded off an extraordinary day. My hope is that we now build on the link that has been established and that GAP or work experience students from King's go out to work in Qu Zhou, that staff from there come to teach Mandarin here and that we send groups of pupils out to visit what is, I think, a delightful place. I am very excited about the whole project."
Mr Biggs then flew on to Hong Kong, where he attended a reception for OAs, past and present parents and present King's pupils, hosted by Mr Victor Chu OA. About 70 people attended the reception, held on the 77th floor of the International Finance Centre. Two days later Mr Biggs took a group of present and recently-left King's pupils to Lama Island for a walk and seafood lunch.
"There are real concerns about the human rights record of China and we need to engage in that particular debate, but the importance of China in the world and its inevitable future influence on the working lives of the pupils of King's College mean that we ignore it at our peril. It is far better to go out into the world with some knowledge at least of its culture and language. We have, for many decades, enjoyed a close link to Hong Kong - indeed we were one of the very first UK schools ever to accept Hong Kong pupils - and I hope that link remains as strong as ever. I hope that we are now able to build on this particular link with a school in mainland China as well."