The Shelby County 4-H and Junior Fair attracts visitors from all over Central Illinois, but the fair this year had visitors from even further away. A delegation of teachers from Shanghai, China spent the day enjoying the fair on Monday, July 28.

They were the guests of the University of Illinois Extension Office and Shelby County Extension Unit Manager Jim Looft. Looft explained these university teachers live in Shanghai and they are hoping to grow 4-H in an urban environment in China.

“They (Chinese delegation) are here to visit 4-H fairs and 4-H events going on in the United States,” said Looft. “I think they will be in the Unites States for 6-8 weeks.”

Looft went on to say the group has been to Champaign County, were in Shelby County on Monday and plan to be in Macon County on Tuesday.

“They are looking for projects that they might be able to take home and use in that urban environment,” Looft said. “They are also working in a low income environment so they are working with kids that have limitations.”

Jing Gao, Keren Hua and Ya Wen are accompanied by Richard Clark of the State 4-H office out of Champaign. Clark said the concept of volunteerism is a new concept in China.

“Their most recent experience with volunteering came after the major earthquake that took place in China,” said Clark.

Clark said this delegation is a follow-up from American 4-H educators’ visit to China several months ago.

“The University of Illinois Extension took 14 of our educators to China about 2 months ago and we visited in several locations in China trying to work with universities there to establish the 4-H program,” continued Clark. “These girls are coming here to learn hands-on. We told them about our 4-H program but they wanted to experience the 4-H program.”

Clark said the Extension is looking at more exchanges of educators in the future.

He went on to say the visitors will also go to urban 4-H programs in Chicago and St. Louis.

Clark said when the teachers return to China they will start volunteering by teaching English to young people.

“They (the Chinese government) are using their college students to volunteer and they are starting with teaching English and they are also learning about the 4-H at the same time,” said Clark.

Two of the three Chinese teachers spoke very good English and the third was certainly understandable.

When the students were asked about their impressions of the United States, all three were impressed with the size of everything.

“Everything is so big, the cars are big, the trucks are big, the people are also big, the cornfields are so big,” said Jing Gao.

Keren Hua was impressed by the vast grain fields in the Midwest.

“I think what impressed me most was about Illinois was miles and miles of cornfields,” said Hau. “Also the sky in Illinois looks much closer than our sky in Shanghai because here in Illinois there are not so many high-rises.”

Hau explained by high-rises she meant skyscrapers. Evidently there are many tall buildings in Shanghai that it is difficult to see the sky.

Ya Wen was impressed with the different methods of teaching such as the 4-H program.

“What really impressed me a lot was the different teaching and learning skills and the experiential learning from each program ,” said Wen. “The different ways of teaching the students the skills besides just academic knowledge.”

Keren Hua made an interesting observation. She said she was impressed with the way the 4-H students were able to gain knowledge from doing a project and yet have fun at the same time.

“When I was a child I remember my experiences of working very hard to get into university,” Hua said. “But I find here students can indulge in very interesting activities and through those activities they can learn a lot of things such as science or how to raise animals but everything is involved in fun activities. Students can learn and have fun at the same time.”