Finally Teaching

Yesterday I began teaching the Oral Legal English class. It went fairly well considering that it was the first class and I had no idea what level the students would be at. There were about 40 people in the class, most of whom should just be in a regular English class. My students are lawyers, teachers, at least one judge, and post-graduate students. I may just be the youngest person in the room. They were all friendly, but it will be a challenge to get them to talk during class.

Mmm....

The foreign teachers and students were invited by the university for a mid-autumn festival lunch. The restaurant was very high class and quite the change from the whole-in-the-wall places which I’ve been frequenting with the other teachers. As a gift from the university we also all got about a months supply of moon cake.

Chongqing hills

The nickname for Chongqing is Mountain city. This is the view from the top of the Hotel for Foreign Guests, where I live.

Shapingba

Yesterday, the Laowai brigade took the bus to the centre of the Shapingba district of Chongqing. For a Wednesday afternoon there were a crazy amount of people just walking around like us. The mall had what seemed like hundreds of tiny clothing and shoe stores. At one point we came across a crowd of people only to realize they were watching a naked man bathing in fountain/waterfall, and then the ensuing capture by firefighters. We then had hotpot for the first time since arriving, which was very tasty and tolerably spicy when the non-spicy pot was ordered. We got a little lost trying to find the bus to take back to the university, but why bother traveling if you aren’t going to get lost once in a while?

Some pics

Here is a pic of Hong Kong, a pic of my gigantic bed, and the "kitchen" area.

Arrived

We arrived last night in Chongqing. There was a stopover in Hong Kong for a few hours, so we went to the Kowloon waterfront. A lot about it felt just like being home in Markham/Richmond Hill. My left ass cheek is still soar from all the sitting down.
My residence is much larger than I expected. There’s a living room, bedroom, washroom, and “kitchen” like thing, that really isn’t going to be useful for much of anything. I think I’ll basically be living in the bedroom. There is a huge king sized bed, and a lovely view of the outside of a building from my window.

The biggest city you've never heard of

The most populated municipality in China:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing
http://mstforum.com.cn/images/cq/chongqing3-ChaotianmenPort.jpg

I've asked around about any interesting martial arts/artists in Chongqing and have only come up with one name. Lu Zijian is from the area, and is reportedly now 115 years old. Here is a video of him walking around, doing his thing, when he was 93:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr5vQm_i09I

How old is he really? Who knows, but I hope to still be able to move around like that at his age. I'm hoping that some of his students will be in the city, and maybe I'll have the opportunity to meet Lu.