See Photos From China

The 2008 China Study Abroad Program

Notes from the Program Director Professor Susan Tiefenbrun:

June 6, 2008

Dear TJSL Community: The China Program 2008 ended yesterday after our Farewell Reception at the law school. Everyone attended right after finals, including the Secretary of the Communist Part of Hangzhou who is also a high level administrator of Zhejiang University. The Chinese students really appreciated the pizzas we served at that reception, and it was a major miracle to get 25 pizzas delivered across the street from Pizza Hut to the Dragon Hotel and then bus driven up to the law school located at the new campus. All in all, it was an incredible experience for our American students and for the Chinese students. All the Chinese students expressed their gratitude and appreciation for all the hard work that went into organizing and administering the program. It was a pleasure seeing the cultural exchange happen. I am now in the airport with several of our TJSL students en route to Hong Kong and then Los Angeles to San Diego. It will be a long day's journey but well worth the effort. I will tell you all about it in detail when I return tomorrow. There appear to be several students interested in coming to TJSL on August 1 for the LL.M. Program. When they come, we will welcome them with the same hospitality and warmth they showed to all of us.

Thanks in advance.

Susan

June 2, 2008

Dear TJSL Community:

The China Program 2008 is going very well primarily because we have an absolutely terrific group of students, professors, and Chinese students who are all working together beautifully. On Tuesday we organized a basketball tournament between the US students and the Chinese students (america vs china pre-olympic tournament!), and our tjsl team won 68 to 40 in a most exciting game. The Chinese team fought hard but they just couldn't beat us! Even the Chinese Vice Dean of the law school played and referreed the whole game! Jennifer Carroll was the only woman on our team but she was unbeatable!!! We have a rematch next tuesday. Today 23 of us are on a weekend tour of a little jewel of a city called Shaoxing which is like Venice. Tonight we go to the Shaoxing Opera (second best opera after Beijing Opera) , and we are all having a ball! Classes are well attended and the discussions are quite lively. All in all, up to now, absolutely wonderful! We leave next Saturday. I hope our last week will be as perfect as the first two have been.

Regards from China,

Professor Tiefenbrun

Sunday June 1, 2008

Dear TJSL Community:

This is the end of our second week in the China Program 2008. This weekend some students went to Beijing, some went to Shanghai, and I went on an guided tour with 22 of our students to a lovely city with canals like Venice called Shaoxing. We took boat rides on what looked like ancient Chinese "gondolas" with Chinese oarsmen and plenty of beautiful temples and pagodas and weeping willows to keep us all afloat with excitement! China is really exquisitely beautiful and very interesting. We are all having a wonderful time. Tomorrow a Chinese Supreme Court Justice will speak to all of us at Zhejiang University School of Law about the Chinese legal system and its reforms. I will keep you all posted. We are all taking incredible photos and hope to share them with you when we return.

Regards,

Professor Susan Tiefenbrun

Director, TJSL China Study Abroad Program 2008

May 28, 2008
Dear TJSL Community:

We here in Hangzhou, China participating in Thomas Jefferson Sschool of Law's China Study Abroad Program 2008 have all been following the news of the tragic earthquake and loss of lives and homes in Sichuan, China.

We all grieve for the huge number of Chinese people who have lost loved ones and who are left homeless. We Americans in Hangzhou, China in the China Program 2008 are lucky because absolutely no after shocks were felt here. The earthquake took place many miles away in Sichuan Province in the city of Chengdu.

We see reports on the news and are quite amazed at the immediacy of the Chinese government response and the empathy of the people for their Chinese citizens left homeless and in despair far away. I, personally, have sent money to support the effort to help the survivors, and I do believe that many of our students and professors in the China Program have given support in their own way.

We are the lucky ones because this tragedy did not impact in any way on our program in China. But we all feel deeply for the survivors and remember our own series of recent tragic events the United States: Katrina, the San Diego fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones. and we wonder what is happening to our world and why.

Professor Susan Tiefenbrun, Director of the China Study Abroad International Law Program 2008 in Hangzhou, China.

May 15, 2008

Dear TJSL professors, students, and staff,

Today is Friday in Hangzhou China and I am watching the preparations for the parade and carrying of the Olympic Torch that will happen on Sunday along the banks of beautiful West Lake. All the students taking the China Study Abroad Program will see this special and highly controversial event. We will keep you all posted!

Professor Tiefenbrun

From the 2007 China Study Abroad Program

Read: A Letter From Hangzhou, China
by Thomas Jefferson School of Law Professor Aaron Schwabach,
a Fulbright Scholar in Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

See Professor Schwabach's Hangzhou Photo Gallery