9/10/98 11:00 PM Jingzhou, Hubei

Our first appointment for the day was at the Jingzhou City Orphanage. The children  captivated everyone.

Accompanied by Vice Mayor Lin, we  looked at the condition of the infrastructure, including the kitchen. We took a look at the site for a future playground which we hope to help arrange and also provided a plaque pledging the cooperation of Westchester Family Services to the orphanage. The County Executive presented mementos from Westchester companies, including a Polaroid camera, to the children and a videophone from Bell Atlantic, which will allow face-to-face communication between Westchester Family Services and the Orphanage.

Brenda Resnick Spano, Westchester's advocate for child care, said: "We are pleased to facilitate quality child care by bringing together the Jingzhou Orphanage and Family Services of Westchester."

We then went to the Hubei Sanonda Co. Ltd., one of the largest publicly traded corporations in China with annual revenues close to (US) $100 million.

It specializes in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. We met with the Vice President/General Manager, along with several other executives and members of Sanonda's Board.

The next company we visited was the Hubei Ching Kiang Co. Inc., a 2500-employee publicly-traded company specializing in vacuum (thermos-style) products. In its product area, it is the only company in China with a "Class A Enterprise" certificate enabling it to freely export and import products.

	The County Executive met with Mr. Wu Xian Bin, the Business Director, and discussed potential opportunities.

Throughout the day and during much of the rest of our trip, excellent translation services and general information was provided by Mr. Zhang Qingsheng. Mr. Zhang is also part of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Jingzhou Municipal government.

At another meeting with city officials, we went through a fairly complicated discussion to show how local government is organized in our respective countries. What the Chinese call cities are usually vast areas covering a territory much larger than Westchester. These cities will often include farm areas and may contain various urban concentrations, called districts. Thus, while Jingzhou is called a city, it is eight times as large as Westchester. Like Westchester, it also contains what we would call cities and towns.

The Yantgze River flooding hit Jingzhou particularly hard, and the County Executive was invited to inspect the situation with the city officials. As you can see, the river crested at a 100-year high point, marked by the red line in the picture.

County Executive Spano summed up his view: "We were impressed by the work of hundreds of thousands of people, including the soldiers from many parts of China who were able to stem the damage to people and property. On the very day we were there, the officials declared that they finally had the flooding under control. We witnessed the joy of the people who had attained a victory against this natural enemy, as well as their outpouring of gratitude to the over 80,000 (mostly young) soldiers who helped them. The streets were lined with people and fireworks celebrations were everywhere."

Next we went to Jingzhou Central Hospital where we were greeted by a double line of the nursing staff, as well as banners everywhere.

The County Executive and Dr. Gene Matusow toured the MRI section, the eye surgery section, held the usual public discussion in a foyer and posed for a picture with the director of the hospital and the nursing staff.

We came back to Jingzhou Hotel and held a four hour conference with a group of nine local businesses and the Deputy Mayor. The businesses included pharmaceutical/chemical, electronic, import/export and manufacturing companies. This was a wide-ranging and very fruitful discussion on how Westchester businesses could work with each of these Jingzhou businesses to their mutual benefi

The meeting included some breakout sessions, including a discussion with China Telecom managers and the director of the Jingzhou Information Center, who is working on providing information over the Internet in much the same way we are. They also courteously provided our first connection to the Internet since arriving in China, thus making it possible to send these reports.

In the evening, two members of our delegation, representing the Westchester Arts Council, arranged a meeting with several local artists. The artists explained Chinese painting techniques and quickly created several interesting works of art.

We discussed the ways in which we intend to use technology to support artists in Peekskill and how a similar approach might be used to establish a community between the Chinese and Westchester artists.

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The following report is from Dr. John F.M. Flynn, Vice President and Academic Dean of Westchester Community College, who along with Westchewster County Planning Commissioner Joyce Lannert, met with officials from two local colleges.

At Jingzhou Teachers College, the Delegation met with Mr. Wang Jiazhang, Vice President and Associate Professor. He described the curriculum of the College, which trains primary and secondary school teachers for Hubei Province. A faculty of 637 train 6000 students (3100 in residence, the rest by correspondence) in 12 departments including math, chemistry, Chinese, political science, and literature. It is ranked among the top 10 percent of teacher training institutues in the nation. Dr. Flynn described American higher education, including SUNY and WCC in particular. Both parties expressed the hope that in the decade ahead a way will be found to exchange both students and faculty.

At Shashi University, the delegation met with Mr. Zou Shizhi, the President, and his staff. Mr. Zou reviewed the mission and accomplishments of his university, founded in 1983. It provides degrees in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. The faculty of 330 serve 2000 full time students. The university has acquired additional land and is discussing merging with another institution, which will create a very strong academic center.

Both parties expressed interest in faculty and student exchanges after financial support can be identified and obstacles, such as visa restrictions, can be addressed.