Putting people in space is only a sign that a nation doing this possesses the technology and some experts to do it. It is mostly a project of prestige, and nothing else. The old Soviet Union did have the this technology and the experts but was highly underdeveloped in many other important areas. Their system was even so much underdeveloped that it finally, leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, being replaced by a Russian Federation that still has many problems of development within her own nation, and they cannot match with general Western standards.

The same would also apply to China. Despite the fact that they have nuclear power and can put people in space, they are still a nation that has not yet finished the process of catching up with the West; the failures it has in its education system, for example, are those that must be attributed to its somewhat fallible system as a whole. Putting people in space thus is no criterion at all for an advanced country.

Well we can argue about all this until the cows come home; but let's say for arguments sake you are right, and let's say the other posters with gripes about China are right, SO WHAT? Did all of you(not you personally) embark on a teaching period in China without knowing what you say you know now, and if so why so? It sounds to me as if you were all(not you personally) totally uninformed about Chinese ways before you decided to take a wreckless and blinkered plunge- and now lo and behold ,shock horror at what a terrible place it is.

There's no excuse for FT's not knowing what they think they know now before they arrived in China for the first time. With respect to you, Turnoi, you have been warning most of them since when they were still in short trousers nearly, is that right? There is absolutely no excuse for past and future FT's for not finding this site alone. I know I found it very easily before coming to China. If an FT was too bone-idle to have not learned about all the bad things, well hard luck, I have no sympathy for them-just get on with it.

I believe that if you have a bad attitude you will not be happy in China, but if you have a good one you will be happy.