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Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5051 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE April 27, 2009

MADE IN CHINA TAKES ON NEW MEANING FOR ABAC TURF TEAM

TIFTON—Traveling over the North Pole to a land where chop sticks, duck heads on your plate and beware of cobras signs are commonplace, Dr. Eddie Seagle and eight students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College have a whole new appreciation for the Made in China label.

Seagle, a professor of Agriculture and Environmental Horticulture at ABAC, recently returned from 15 days in China with ABAC students Nate Carney from Acworth, Jed Cathey from Madison, Brandon Doles from Fort Valley, John Grist from Rabun Gap, Richard Irvin from Whigham, Woody Moore from Pacolet, S.C., Kimberly Morris from Dallas, and Joseph Wengert III, from Ringgold.

“China is an awesome place,” Seagle, a 1970 honor graduate of Franklin (N.C.) High School, said. “The food is excellent. The people are very friendly, and the countryside is beautiful.”

Seagle and the students presented a program on Golf Course Planning, Construction and Maintenance at Nan Sha Golf Club and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Peoples Republic of China.  Invited by the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Richtone Worldwide Limited/Golf China and BMI China, Seagle led the sessions, where the audience included 32 Chinese golf course managers and 22 Chinese students. 

“The entire first week was dedicated to the educational component of the trip,” Seagle said. “We had headphones with nearly simultaneous interpretation of all remarks.”

All the ABAC students major in the college’s new bachelor’s degree in Turfgrass and Golf Course Management. No state funds were used for the trip. The students had to provide their own funding.

Their shared experiences included their first 16-hour flight which went straight over the North Pole and ended in China where there is a 12-hour time difference from Tifton.

“We drank hot tea like five times a day,” Grist said. “The people are very interested in America. All the students we talked to spoke English, and they said high school was harder than college.

“I like the fact that they take pride in their cities. It seemed like every 30 or 40 yards, someone would be sweeping the streets.”

Mission Hills Golf Course was the first stop on the tour. Seagle said it is the world’s largest golf facility with twelve 18-hole courses or 216 holes of golf in one very large spot.

“We rode carts over a portion of the course, and we couldn’t help but notice the ‘Beware of Cobras’ signs adjacent to the rough,” Seagle said. “We never saw any.”

The ABAC Turf Team enjoyed a tour of Guangzhou via a boat ride on the Pearl River, the third largest river in China. Seagle said with 18 million people, Guangzhou offered both urban and rural impressions.

The students had a chance to play golf twice during the week at Nan Sha, which has both a mountain course and a valley course. After golf, many toasts were exchanged between the Americans and the Chinese.

“I enjoyed getting to know more about their culture,” Irvin said.

Culture was a huge part of the second phase of the journey which included flights to Beijing and Lijiang. Seagle said a Sun Yat-sen University club management major named Sophie was the tour guide and interpreter for this portion of the trip.

At Beijing, site of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the group felt right at home with a stop at McDonald’s and the Harley Davidson store.

Much less Americanized was the Lucky Duck restaurant where every part of the duck was prepared for eating.

“The food was interesting,” Seagle said. “There is no waste in China. They cooked every part of that duck. The beak and feet were made into a soup, and the heart tasted like filet mignon. They even used the blood for a Jell-O-like mix.”

For some students there wasn’t room for Jell-O but Cathey did like the pig snout.

“We ate that several times,” Cathey, who admitted that his large size made him a favorite of the smaller Chinese people, said.

The ABAC contingent walked through the history of China with a tour of Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City, which is an imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty.

Although both venues were closed, the ABAC students snapped many pictures at the Bird’s Nest (the Olympic Stadium), and the Water Cube, the Olympic swimming facility where Michael Phelps won his gold medals.

Lindsay Liu proved quite a link to Georgia when she told them about her role as Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s liaison for commerce between China and The Peach State.

The team chair-lifted to the top of the Great Wall, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and then took sleds back down. Grist even did a hand-stand on top of the Wall, which is 4,163 miles long, although the version of today is not continuous because there has been some deterioration after 2,000 years. The purpose of the Wall was to protect the Ming Dynasty from the Huns to the north.

Morris, the only female among the ABAC travelers, loved the view from atop the Wall. She did find a little fault with some of the local restrooms.

“A couple of those places only had holes in the floor for toilets,” Morris said. “I don’t think I really got used to that.”

Another three-hour flight to Lijiang opened the door for a visit to the Blue Moon Lagoon Valley. The students had their first encounter with yaks, the local water buffalo, and toured the Jade Snow Dragon Mountain Golf Course, the longest course in the world which is framed on one side by the Himalayas.

At an elevation of 12,000 feet, the students took turns driving golf balls on the Jade Snow Dragon range and tasted Yak soup.

“Bigger is better over there,” Carney, who also serves as president of the student body at ABAC, said. “The golf courses are just so beautiful. My impression of China is just beyond anything I could have imagined.”

Seagle and the students flew back to Shenzhen from Lijiang and then boarded a JetFerry for an hour-long water trip to Hong Kong.

Dr. Alywin Tai, Managing Director of Richtone Worldwide Limited, met them there.

“Mr. Tai had dreams of bringing such a program to China, and he sought our expertise and creativity to make it happen,” Seagle said.

Tai led a tour of Hong Kong via ferry, trolley, and subway. A laser light show called “Symphony of Lights” topped off the evening.

“The communication was the toughest part sometimes but the trip was definitely worth it,” Doles said. “The program gave me incredible information about golf courses, as well as an opportunity to network with golf club managers from all over China.”

Seagle said when he returned to ABAC, he thought there was no way he could top the experience. Then he got some incredible news—ABAC has been invited to send a group back to China next year.

Pass the heart of duck and hold the yak soup.

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