Posts Tagged ‘Shandong’

Heze

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Today I will be leaving Mr. Crawford and the rest of our group to travel to Heze for five days. During this time, I will be spending time at the Shandong Heze Experimental Primary School, one of Beecher Road School’s sister schools.

Heze is the political, economic, and cultural center of southwestern Shandong. It is noted for Peonies, a flower that appears in many Chinese paintings.

During my stay in Heze, the International Peony Festival will be in progress.

I hope to see some peonies while I am there. My grandfather grew peonies, his favorite flower, and I still have some his peonies growing at my home.

As you can see from the map below, I will be in the farthest outreaches of Shandong. The other educators visiting from Connecticut will be closer to Jinan, the capital of Shandong.

(Map from Wikimedia)

(Map from Wikimedia)

As I noted in yesterday’s post, Heze, the city, is about the same area as Connecticut, the state. The population of Heze is about 8.1 million. At this time, I don’t know where in the city I will be. Once I get there I may be able to share a map.

Mr. Wood

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Posted in Geography, Heze | No Comments »

Connecticut & Shandong

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Connecticut is one of the fifty states of the United States. Shandong is one of the 22 provinces of China. Let’s compare the two.

Connecticut:

  • 5,544 square miles
  • 3,502,309 people

Shandong:

  • 60,500 square miles
  • 91,800,000 people

And let’s compare the cities (towns).

Woodbridge, Connecticut:

  • 19.2 square miles (49.7 km2)
  • 9,264 people

Heze, Shandong:

  • 4,725 square miles (12,238 km²)
  • 8,810,000 people

Binzhou, Shandong:

  • 3,646 square miles (9,444 km²)
  • 3,661,500 people
  • [116,573 people in the main city]

Observations:

  • Connecticut (the state) is only slightly larger in land area than Heze (the city).
  • The population of Connecticut (the state) is about the same as Binzhou (the city).
  • Cities in China are made up of many towns and townships, like boroughs in New York.

How big are some of the places where you travel?

Mr. Wood

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Posted in Binzhou, Geography, Heze | No Comments »

What’s in a Name?

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Where is Shandong, China?

East of the Mountain

Shandong is a two syllable name - Shan which means “mountain” and dong which means “east”.

Shandong is the Province East of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi is the Province West of the Taihang Mountains.

This map shows the location of Shandong Province in China.

Shandong Province

Shandong Province

Even though we won’t be visiting the Taihang Mountains, they look very interesting. Click here to see some pictures at Wikiemedia.

Mr. Wood

(Map from Wikipedia)

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