A prize for Garreth in China

Locally-born teacher Garreth Byrne has been awarded a prize in Changchun, China, at a special reception for 'Foreign Experts' by the Jilin Province  and Changchun City Government.

Garreth, who has spent his working life teaching in Africa and China, was one of a number of foreign teachers, doctors, and people working at foreign companies like Volkswagen who were awarded prizes in recognition of their contributions to social development.

It is the second prize Garreth has received as a teacher of English in China. In 2009 in Nanchang in Jianxi Province he was awarded the Lushan Prize along with several other expatriates, for work done in that province. Later he was among a small group flown that year to Beijing to attend a banquet held to thank expatriates who have worked in various fields in China since the opening up of the country by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s.

Those at the recent presentations were entertained by a group of folk musicians playing traditional instruments like the erhu (two-string violin) and the long stringed instrument called the pipa.

(Garreth is your editor's brother and the second son of the late Jim and Monica Byrne, formerly of The Hideout, Kilcullen.)