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Chongqing Special Education Center
The Chongqing Special Education Center has welcomed the first residents to its brand new campus in Nan San. Students and teachers of the Chongqing School for the Blind moved to the new facility in May after most of the construction was completed. With this move, the Chongqing School for the Blind is no longer a separate school but now operates as part of the Chongqing Special Education Center.
In early June, Rainbow Missions field workers visited the new campus to see the facilities and visit the students and the teachers. At the same time, we also met with the school principal to discuss ways of partnering together during the school year starting September 2011.
The city government of Chongqing began selecting the new site for the School for the Blind in 2008. Construction began in mid-2009 with a budget of 80 million RMB ($12 million USD). The first of two construction phases was completed at the cost of about 50 million RMB. Due to design changes during the construction period, the completion was delayed until May of this year. The government plans to invest another 30 million RMB in the second construction phase which will begin at a later date.
The new campus is located in Nan San, about 1 km from the Botanical Garden. The usable area is over 10 times larger than the previous campus of Chongqing School for the Blind. It will take time for the visually impaired students to learn the layout of the new campus. Once in a while, there are still students finding the wrong place. But the students love and help each other. We believe that they will get used to the new environment very soon.
The new campus has 3 large Bashu-style buildings. The main teaching building is a U-shaped building with over 30 classrooms, each furnished with 16 desks and chairs for the students. There is a computer classroom, music classroom, rhythm classroom and chemistry laboratory. The bottom of the U shape contains the administrative offices and special function rooms, including teachers¡¦ offices, the principal¡¦s office, conference room, library, and resource center for the blind. There is a book bar on the ground floor where students can enjoy books and chat. The center of the U opens to a courtyard where visitors are greeted by a smiling face composed of colorful potted flowers. Below the courtyard is the school auditorium which is equipped with the latest audio and video technologies.
Behind the administration offices is the school's soccer field. The soccer field is surrounded by 200 meter race tracks which are paved with the latest advanced technology materials. Beneath the soccer field is indoor goal ball field, gym and a room for ping pong.
Along one side of the soccer field sits the largest building of the school. There are 5 floors in this building. The 4 top floors are the boys' and girls' dormitories. There are about 40 bedrooms per floor for a total of about 150 bedrooms. Each bedroom has 4 beds, 1 bathroom, and its own air conditioning/cooling and heating system. Maximum capacity for the dormitories is 500 students. Additional bedrooms are available for teachers and overnight staff, with a few rooms reserved for special guests. The ground floor of the building includes a kitchen, canteen, storage room for sports equipment, and a room which may potentially become an office for Rainbow Missions in the future. Between the girls¡¦ and the boys¡¦ dormitories, there is a huge TV screen facing the soccer field. It shows scores during games and it can show television programs too.
Rainbow Missions is very happy to see that the students of the School for the Blind have such a beautiful, well-equipped campus. This will allow the students to study in a much better environment with better equipment. May God greatly bless the school and every teacher and student, so that they can shine at the top of the mountain to every land in China. May the relationship between the school and Rainbow Missions rise to another level so we can partner together in many different areas. May we grow together in the process of working closely together.
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