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SAINT JOHN - While respect is sometimes lacking in Canadian schools, in China it's the order of the day and bullying is, for the most part, unheard of in the classrooms, hallways and schoolyards.

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Const. Krystal Daley of the Rothesay Regional Police Force teaches a class of students in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Const. Krystal Daley of the Rothesay Regional Police Force recently spent two weeks in China, in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

"They kind of found it a little hard to believe because I told them stories about the Canadian schools and they couldn't believe some of the stuff that happened," said Daley, who was also a teacher.

She was on a two-week visit to see her sister Tanya, who teaches at the International School of Sino Canada.

Fights in the playground or students yelling at teachers never happen there. Then again, China was home to Tiananmen Square protests and other human rights violations. The Communist country's reputation is one of ruling its citizens with an iron fist.

Daley teaches DARE classes that help children avoid drugs, gangs and protect themselves against bullying.

"In their culture, they have a lot of respect for authority figures. They just didn't understand how somebody could yell at a teacher or could get angry at a student because it's not done over there."

Taking on the role of a bully, Daley used role playing to show the Chinese students what form bullying can take.

"To have a Canadian female police officer come in, they never even heard of it before," she said. "When they told them what my job was, I got a lot of shocked reactions."

What really surprised her was the way the students were able to think two, even three steps ahead.

"I would give them one concept and they would click into it right away. They taught themselves their lessons pretty much because they would touch on concept two, three and four before I even brought them up," she said.

For her part, she learned a lesson about being in a strange land and in a strange culture. It will, she said, change the way she deals with immigrants here.

"That was a real eye-opener."