Recently I finished reading River Town by Peter Hessler. This book has been doing the rounds with my circle of friends for a while and at last it was my turn to read it. Reading it was a joy and I could relate to it a great deal. The book is the author's account of two years of life in Fuling, a small river town in the east of Chongqing province, in the late 1990s where he worked as a Peace Corps teacher in a small teacher training college. I like his writing style immensely: he maintains a good balance of clear affection for the Chinese people he encounters without appearing condescending and criticism for certain aspects of China and Chinese life without appearing arrogant. I visited Fuling last September and it's clear that some things have changed considerably since Hessler lived there. The Three Gorges Dam has been completed and large areas of the town that Hessler knew have been flooded. The stone carvings that he saw on the rocks at White Crane Ridge have been preserved in an underwater museum. Nevertheless, some things remain the same as Hessler detailed in his book. Like him I had ordinary people screaming “waiguoren, waiguoren!” (“foreigner, foreigner!”) at me at the top of their lungs, which was not something I'd experienced in Chongqing. It didn't both me as much as it alarmed my poor friend Shuyu, who I'd gone to visit, as I think she was rather embarrassed by the whole thing. Fuling is still a little bit remote, but is accessible by long-distance bus which takes a couple of hours, rather than the boats that Hessler travelled on. Fuling appears less like its own city and more like a slightly smaller, slightly grubbier version of Chongqing. In the book, Hessler documents how he (along with his Peace Corps colleague Adam) develop a sort of “Fuling English” that only they understand and use with each other. This involves incorporating Chinese words into normal English. For example, they describe something as ma fan (annoying) in an English sentence and they talk about young ladies as xiaojies. Xiaojie is quite a slippery term, it can be a respectful form of address, refer to people who work as waitresses or be a euphemism for a prostitute. There are no plurals in Chinese so adding this 's' makes it both clever and wrong. Rex, an English colleague who I worked with last year, regularly referred to us all as his pengyous (“friend” plus an 's') so it's clear that this is amusing to many people. Within my circle of British and Irish friends we say things like “Let's mai dan.” or “Have you da bao'd yet?”. Mai dan means to pay the bill in a restaurant and da bao means to have a dish wrapped up to take away. For many words we only ever use the Chinese as it's quicker: green beans are always si ji dou and aubergine is always qie zi. No one says RMB or yuan for money, it's kuai (a slang term comparable to “quid”), even if we say the number in English. So this part of the book I could really identify with. Hessler had places in Fuling that he frequented so often that the staff and regulars knew him very well. As I've written about before, there are a lot of friendly people in Shiqiaopu where I live. There are several restaurants that we go to religiously, the pool hall where Charlie and I play every Tuesday, the post office where I send postcards. Over the past few weeks I've got to know the young owner of a small shop close to the post office selling stationary and other bits and bobs who is very friendly and invites me to sit down and chat which is very pleasant. I can think back to my time in Singapore and remember the people there who I knew well: the Singaporean uncle who worked in the coffee shop where Jasper and I would get our coffee in the morning and encouraged me to practise Chinese with him; the incredible Malay uncle who served the best ever chicken biriyani and never, ever, charged me more than three dollars for anything, no matter how much I ordered; and then there was Thai Lady who was just fantastic, calling us all her sons and serving us up plate after plate of food that we wolfed down. I can also think back to the ladies in the bakery opposite my house in Sheffield who would natter with me and ask about the progress of my dissertation, the Turkish barber who cut my hair with such skill for only a fiver and of course dear Remo and his wonderful café that we would go to every Friday after badminton. All the hard-working men and women I have described are quite simply good honest people who are cheerful from day to day, do their jobs with skill and pride and our interactions have been ones of friendship, not of mere capitalistic exchanges of currency for goods and services. Hessler's Chinese ability that he acquired in Fuling eclipses mine completely. I think this is largely due to his greater isolation and his personal drive. Most of my Chinese friends speak much better English than I speak Chinese, although I do try to speak as much Chinese as I can with them. My Chinese has improved greatly, however if I'd had regular classes it would have improved a lot more. I've largely self-studied and learnt with friends and although it's been hard to motivate myself sometimes I do think I've generally done okay. Obviously, I have compared myself to Hessler and it's a bit depressing because looking back I could have done more, but I'm not sure that's a very constructive thing to do. I'm considering studying Chinese full time in the future and if I do so I think that total dedication to the task will really help me progress a lot. One of the things that Hessler talks about in detail is the attention that you get as a foreigner and how you cope with it. I get the same endless questions about I'm from and my salary as he did, but normally preceded with one about my height. Having people take pictures of you was probably not as common in his day as he was in Fuling before the advent of smart phones. He also talked about the occasional confrontations that you find yourself in. You don't want Chinese people to get a bad impression of all foreigners if you act in a certain way, but in some situations when you are treated like a zoo animal or circus freak it can be very frustrating. My room mate Charlie keeps a cool head in these moments, largely because he is one part true English gentleman and one part Daoist sage of wu wei (action through non-action). On a couple of trips to the Nanping area of Chongqing city at the start of the year he told me how someone had tried to convert him to a peculiar twisted version of Christianity involving a Father God and Mother God and also someone who got chatting to him and then asked him repeatedly in English if he wanted to masturbate. I have no doubt that he remained calm in what for me would be extremely vexing situations. For me, like Hessler, my reaction varies. Most of the time I ignore people and they quickly get bored of me and go away, or another Chinese person tells them to stop behaving like an idiot and leave me alone. On occasions I have snapped back at people who have been rude to me, or gone up very close to them to take a photograph of their face if they have just taken a photograph of me without asking permission. China, along with my friendship with Charlie, has helped me to be calmer in most situations. You have good days and bad days based on how you are feeling and you just have to try to do the best you can to do the right thing and rise above the tiny minority of people who are annoying. River Town is a fantastic book. I can relate to it a lot and this is why I enjoyed it so much, but for people who have never been to China it gives a great insight into life in a small (by Chinese standards at least) town as experienced by an integrated and enlightened foreigner. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. You can read an article Peter Hessler wrote for National Geographic about returning to Fuling by clicking here.

I originally wrote this piece for Chongqing News, an English-language news website based in Chongqing. I was given the topic of the environment to write about and came up with this. I hope you all enjoy reading it and find it applicable to your own lives.When I was first driven back from the airport into the city of Chongqing proper almost two years ago, one of the first things that I noticed was the natural environment of the city: the two rivers, the surrounding mountains, the hilly streets and the jutting peninsula. This visible natural environment is at the core of the city's identity and deserves to be celebrated.The trees that line many roads in Chongqing and the parks and private gardens, big and small, help the environment. There are small gardens on rooftops and balconies, sometimes nothing more than a few pot plants, but still significant. Gardens and allotments can also be found in Chongqing underneath bridges, by the sides of the rivers and under monorail lines. They contribute to the absorption of carbon dioxide emissions and encourage the presence of wildlife. Some of these creatures are noticeable, like birds, but just as significant, if not more so, are the thousands of insects and other small animals that we don't see and matter so much to our ecosystems.In addition to their contribution of absorbing emissions and encouraging wildlife, green spaces contribute to our mental well-being. The unsymmetrical and imperfect natural shapes of trees and plants break up the rigid and strict forms of modern buildings. Natural colours counter the starkness of chemical paints and the flat shades rendered on computers as they are softer and more nuanced. These shapes and colours attract our eyes with their differences and appeal to something very basic and human in our nature.Recently I visited E Ling Park with a friend on a warm and sunny day. We sat in the shade under some trees, drank tea and studied Chinese together. This was an incredibly enjoyable time, not just for the pleasure of the company of a dear friend, the satisfaction of improving my Chinese, nor the excellent tea, although these were all important, but because the surrounding natural environment in its peaceful greenery contributed significantly to my happiness.My childhood encouraged me to appreciate nature. I grew in the countryside in North Yorkshire, seeing young livestock thrive in the spring, fields lit up by golden sunlight on long summer evenings, the pavement covered with copper-coloured leaves in autumn and my front lawn covered with frost and occasionally snow in the winter. I ride my bike around the quiet country lanes with my father in summer and also enjoying sitting in my garden filled with birds and plant life quietly reading. Since I turned eighteen I have lived in only cities: Sheffield, Singapore and Chongqing, but luckily for me all of these cities are places where it is easy to get in touch with nature, through parks and green space.The Chinese author Lin Yutang wrote a book called My Country and My People in 1935 in which he sought to present his meditations on the character and habits of Chinese people to a foreign audience. Parts of his book seem very dated now, as you would expect, but others remain remarkably true. He extols Chinese people's love of nature, from its centrality to their high arts of poetry and calligraphy and to their daily habits such as taking a walk in the park. It is certainly true that contemporary China's environmental record is poor and pollution is a primary concern for many citizens across the country. Nevertheless, from private gardens to public parks, green space in Chongqing is not only visible but used thoroughly. Parks are meeting places for old friends, venues for music and somewhere to read or play chess. All parks in Chongqing are hives of activity, full of people consciously or unconsciously interacting with nature. The expansion, development and maintenance of green space in the city should be encouraged. It benefits people's physical health by improving air quality and giving them a place to exercise but also their mental health by providing somewhere they can reflex.There is plenty of green space in Chongqing, from simple benches under trees to the giant Expo Garden, you just have to go out and enjoy it. Read a book quietly there. Catch up with a friend you haven't seen a while. Play a game of chess or cards. By spending time in these green spaces I guarantee you will feel more relaxed, at peace and in touch with nature.

This is a piece that I originally wrote for the English-language Chongqing News website, when I was asked to write about smiles and smiling. You can see it on their website by clicking here.It's local people in my neighbourhood that bring me regular smiles. I'm quite a habitual person and I enjoy having a set routine. Therefore I tend to go back to the same places and, provided the service is good, I remain a loyal customer. I have the hair salon close to my school where I always get my hair cut, the lady who works in the poultry section in my local supermarket who is always cheerful and I have my regular kindly greengrocer. Even the lady who works at the post office who used to be a bit frosty with me now greets me with a smile.At the pool hall that I play at on Tuesdays with my friend Charlie we always get a warm reception from the staff. When Charlie arrived in Chongqing in September I was delighted to learn that he also enjoys playing pool. Now our weekly contest is something we both look forward to. As the year has progressed we have smiled more as we clear the table of balls faster, commit fewer fouls and occasionally play the odd shot that has us grinning with delight.The other day as I walked back from the post office I popped into a stationary shop to buy some pens. I ended up having a friendly conversation with the shop assistant for about five minutes, which all started when she told me she liked my wallet and asked me where I bought it from. It was just one of those familiar, comfortable chats between two people who are complete strangers. It was something so simple and normal, but I didn't take it for granted. I treasured it.Despite the dull cloud that covers the city for most of the year, Chongqing folk are a cheery lot: quick to smile and quick to laugh. Walking around on the streets you can see friends joking together, proud grandparents beaming as others fuss over their grandchildren and shop owners greeting regular customers. It doesn't surprise me that Chongqing has been voted as one of the happiest cities in China. When I leave the mountain city at the end of June after nearly two years of living here, I will miss the familiar faces with the smiles I see so often.

Last Sunday I went with my friends Charlie and Sophie to two small history museums near Fotuguan (佛图关) subway station. They are on a quiet narrow road that clings to the steep hills of the peninsula. Both of them cover the history of the Anti-Japanese War in Chongqing, when Chongqing became the capital of China temporarily, as Beijing and Nanjing had both been captured by the Japanese. The first museum we visited was the “Flying Tigers” museum, dedicated to a volunteer group of American airmen that defended Chongqing from air attacks and protected British and American troops bringing supplies into China via India and Burma. The museum has maps and lots of photographs, and details of the aircraft used by the unit. There were also some objects left by the pilots such as uniforms, mess tins and a baseball bat. (I presume the latter was for recreation, rather than hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese!) To the rear of the museum there is a small art gallery with paintings for sale. This works are painted by someone who works at the museum and before I leave Chongqing I think I will go back and get myself something. Just a few metres away from the “Flying Tigers” museum is the house of Joseph Stillwell, the American commander based in Chongqing during the war, which has been turned into a museum. His task was to work with Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek and represent American interests in China. The two did not have a great working relationship: they never trusted each other fully and Stillwell refers to Chiang as “Peanut” in his diary. Stillwell was significant for co-ordinating American and Chinese forces in their limited operations together in Burma and China. In the museum you can see the rooms Stillwell lived in, all his furniture, desk, telephone, wireless set and so on. The house is in a great location, with stunning views over the river but I can imagine it was less tranquil when Japanese bombs were raining down. The walls of the lower floors of the house are lined with photographs showing the events of the war, which are real treasure trove. Both museums were pretty good in terms of their English coverage and the staff at both were friendly. The connection between the Americans who fought in Chongqing has been maintained and some former servicemen and their relatives have returned to the city on special occasions. I'm glad that this personal connection has been kept alive over the years. I'm not sure if I would have felt different going around the museum if I was American, perhaps I would have felt a sense of pride or involvement. I did have a small wish that there had been a British unit based in Chongqing that had fought alongside Chinese forces to defend the city. What was particularly significant about the museums was the acknowledgement that this was a fight between Chinese Nationalist forces and the Japanese, and that Communist forces were not present as they were based far away in Yan'an. How this presentation of history has changed over time I think is extremely significant in terms of how modern China sees itself. If you're interested in learning more about the Anti-Japanese War then I would highly recommend reading China's War With Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival by Rana Mitter, who is professor of the history and politics of modern China at the University of Oxford. The introduction of the book starts with the bombing of Chongqing, and the book contains lots of information about the tense relationship between Chiang and Stillwell and gives an account of the largely forgotten Burma campaign against the Japanese in which Chinese forces were involved. It also gives details of the large scale land battles that took place between the Japanese and the Nationalists. In short, it is a superb book, very informative and readable. I'm glad that these two museums show Chongqing's importance in the Anti-Japanese War and I hope that more people can learn about its history. Chongqing is not just the home of hot pot, it has a fascinating past well worth learning about.

My fascination with Chinese calligraphy （书法 - shu1fa3) is probably almost as old as my fascination with China itself. I have been drawn to its mystery and beauty and the fact that it is only created with the limited tools of brush, paper and black ink. My love of the Chinese language initially stems from its written form, I just think it's so cool to have a language written in characters. My early experiments with Chinese calligraphy were with a brush I found in an art shop in England, and I crudely copied out some characters I found on the internet. I was also exposed to calligraphy and Chinese painting during my cultural classes as part of the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship, the British Council programme that first brought me to China in 2009. But my first proper engagement with Chinese calligraphy came in my final year of university at Sheffield University's Confucius Institute. I found out about some evening classes through a circular email and persuaded my friends Lizzy and Jo to join me. They in turn would persuade me to come along to the Sino-English Corner run nearby afterwards and this formed the start of my real (although totally informal) Chinese language learning. Calligraphy on Tuesday evenings became a fixed event in my week that I would look forward to. Our young teacher was helpful and always cheerful, and we got to write out some phrases on large pieces of paper to take home with us each week – I bet I would cringe at my brushwork if I saw them now. I find any sort of art very relaxing and calligraphy was a time I could forget about my work for a while and just concentrate on writing characters. When I arrived in Chongqing in September 2012 I got straight into calligraphy again. I started practising with a colleague of mine, Miss Yu, who teaches Russian. She herself has only being doing calligraphy for a few years and we've only ever practised as friends, rather than her teaching me specific things. She's been incredibly sweet to me, my Chongqing auntie really. I write calligraphy for projects that I set myself, usually making posters or decorating postcards to sent to family and friends. I set myself the task of producing some Chinese New Year calligraphy couplets (春联 - chun1lian2) for Spring Festival this year. I decorated my bedroom door with some and also gave some to my friends. Recently I've been working on writing some poems, thanks to a little book of Chinese poetry (actually a primary school textbook!) given to me as a birthday present by my friend Fan Qi. I want the satisfaction of producing a long scroll of calligraphy, but of course this takes practice. But practice makes perfect – 熟能生巧 (shu2neng2sheng1qiao3)! My appreciation of calligraphy has also increased recently, this Spring Festival I was able to visit galleries in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many of the works I saw took my breath away with their technical brilliance and beauty but I also became more critical in my appreciation, deciding which styles I preferred over others. In the future I'd like to study calligraphy formally in a class, with a teacher observing my work and giving me tips on how to improve. I hope this will mean I make significant progress. I want to keep writing calligraphy throughout my life. I'm sure my calligraphy will only ever be hanging on my bedroom walls, and not those of any gallery, but I know I'll continue to get a sense of satisfaction and achievement from writing it.

P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }P.western { }A:link { } Last Friday I went with my friends Charlie, Lucy and Sydney to a place called Diaoyucheng (钓鱼城） near the small city of Hechuan （合川）, which is in the north-west of Chongqing province. It's famous for being the site of several intense battles fought between Mongol and Chinese forces in the thirteenth century.We took the train from Chongqing North Station (重庆北站） which was quick as we were on the high-speed line from Chongqing to Chengdu, it took less than half an hour. Hechuan is a plain-looking place that resembles other small cities that cluster around Chongqing city, like Beibei （北倍）and Fuling （涪陵）. We took a bus from the train station into town in search of lunch. We found a clean restaurant with cheerful staff and a simple menu that fitted the bill. Our twice-cooked pork （回锅肉）, shredded pork with green pepper （青椒肉丝）, fresh greens and egg-fried rice all slid down nicely.After lunch we took two buses to get to Diaoyucheng and walked a short distance to reach the entrance of the tourist site. Diaoyucheng is a natural fortress as it is surrounded by water on three sides. It's also the highest point for miles around, offering views over all the surrounding area – you'd be able to see any marauding Mongols coming in enough time to sound the alarm and get ready for battle. The more we explored the hilltop, the more happy I became with the things that we found: gates, walls, models of siege engines and large statues of Buddha. The site was quite quiet and we wandered around peacefully, relishing the lack of man-made noise: no cars or construction work, just birds and insects. Charlie got into the martial spirit by fashioning a bow and arrow from sticks and creepers he found on the ground, the design he improved upon throughout the afternoon.I studied the Mongols in my final year of university and loved learning about this warlike people who conquered half the globe in a very short period of time. They left no personal accounts of what they did, as they were not literate. Our knowledge of them comes from European, Chinese and Persian sources. At university I mainly studied the European impressions of the Mongols, chronicles that recorded the terror that the Mongols unleashed on Europe and the accounts of the bold missionaries who travelled into the unknown to attempt to convert these people to Christianity. This battle site is significant as it was where Mengge Khan died in 1259. At the same time as they were attacking the Chinese, Mongol armies were besieging Europe, having swept through Russia and Eastern Europe. The Mongols were on the verge of conquering Hungary and continuing their charge into the rest of Europe, but the death of Mengge meant that all Mongol forces were recalled for the election of the new great khan. It was decided by this new khan Kublai that China was a more important prize than Europe and deserved the attacking efforts of all Mongol forces. They were rewarded and Mongols ruled China as the Yuan dynasty for about a hundred years.When Chongqing became the temporary capital of China in the 1940s during the war against Japan, Diaoyucheng became a military training camp for Nationalist (国民党) forces. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek left inscriptions on stones at the site, as did other wartime leaders.It was a thoroughly enjoyable day out with my friends and I'm very glad that I got to reconnect with the history that I studied at university and feel a sense of it as I stood on the walls of the city and tried to imagine the hordes of Mongols attacking the fortress. It was also a great chance to get out of the city and breath some fresh air.

Last Sunday I went to Chongqing Art Museum (重庆美术馆), a newly-opened strikingly-designed building in Jiefangbei (解放碑), one of Chongqing's city centres. I went there because of my own personal curiosity but also because I was planning a lesson on art for my Senior 2 students and I thought that I should supply them with information about the art available to them in their own city. The exhibition that I saw was a collection of works by French artists and Chinese artists who had been inspired by French art in some way; many of them had lived or studied in France. Rémy Aron, the president of ChiFa, the organisation that organised the exhibition, wrote in the foreword to the exhibition the following: “Chinese artists have a peculiar attraction to France. For them Paris represents the city of the permanence and the continuity of Western culture and Europe's centre of gravity.” I agree with him as I think that France has a very visible cultural influence in China. For example, the Eiffel Tower is probably one of the most reproduced images that you see in China: it adorns everything from T-shirts to my students' notebooks. France represents sophistication and fashion. Thus I can see why it is a place for Chinese artists to gravitate towards and be inspired by. The exhibition featured many impressive and diverse works of art and it was such an enjoyable experience to wander round the gallery and appreciate them all. When I visited Taiwan during Spring Festival earlier this year, I stumbled across an exhibition by the Taiwanese painter Chen Huikun (陈慧坤). Chen studied in France and when he returned home he started painting landscapes, birds and other traditional Chinese artistic subjects in a European-influenced rather than traditional Chinese style. A lot of the paintings in this exhibition also approached familiar Chinese subjects from a European-influenced style, and I loved the way that the artists were able to draw on and express a variety of traditions in their work. A few of the artists particularly stood out to me so I will give them a brief mention here. Fei Zheng (费正) paints scenes that vividly captured the bustle of Chinese open-air markets and people's daily life lived close together. Visiting Chinese markets, buying vegetables and chatting with the stall-owners is something I really enjoy so I could relate to his work a lot. Duan Zhengqu's (段正渠) dimly-lit paintings featured round-faced and slightly ghostly characters that existed in a world of books and old-fashioned rooms. They really had spirit, being both fun and childlike and a little disturbing at the same time. Wang Yishi (王以时), who was born in Chongqing, drew and painted lively and colourful cartoon figures that were often characters from Chinese classics such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义) and Journey to the West (西游记). His pictures were also bursting with text, as lines of his distinctive calligraphy added to the storytelling. I'm so pleased that Chongqing is hosting this brilliant exhibition. It's certainly comparable to the art that I saw in the galleries that I visited in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei during my Spring Festival travels, and these cities have a much more developed art scene compared to Chongqing. The gallery is free and it was busy on the day that I went, with lots of families walking around. Parents were holding up their young children so that they could get a clear view of the paintings. It's a great thing for Chongqing to have a large art gallery like this that is both strongly promoting Chinese art and also art that is international in its scope. I think that Chongqing should be proud that it is changing and not just becoming a place that is more international in terms of its consumption of material goods (Jiefangbei is filled with shops selling foreign luxury brands like Louis Vuitton) but that it is becoming more globalised in terms of its consumption of culture. The significant thing is that this culture is reflective of both China, and how it is changing, and other countries. Thus it has strong roots in where it is displayed but also introduces non-Chinese influences. For many people in Chongqing I can imagine that Chongqing Art Museum might be the first art gallery that they have ever visited. I hope that it is not their last, and that it is the first of many visits to this gallery in particular.

P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }P.western { } Last Saturday my British friend Fran told me about some bands that were playing that night at a bar called Nuts in the Shapingba （沙坪坝） district of Chongqing. I'd been to that bar before and found it to be a cool little place with decent black beer at the very reasonable price of 10 RMB a bottle. I had no idea what the bands would be like but was up for giving it a try.The first band that played were called “The Deep Green Sea” (“深绿海“）. They played a slow, shoegaze style of music with distorted guitars and a host of electronic effects. Their vocalist was fantastic, with a strong and powerful voice with touches of Amy Winehouse and Florence Welch. She also had a commanding stage presence and moved like she belonged there. After the first song I felt that my 50 RMB was already well-spent. I was so chuffed with the quality of the band. It was also great that the sound set up was professionally done, with no problems with the mix and no embarrassing technical hitches. The sizeable crowd (nearly all local, with the odd foreign face) soaked up the enthusiasm of the musicians and responded with heartfelt applause and loud cheers. The second band was an all girl band called “Miss Hormone” (“荷尔蒙小姐”), a five-piece with acoustic guitar and vocals, electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboards and effects. They reminded me a lot of the Brazilian band “CSS” and also the British band “Foals” and mixed a largely riff-based rock and indie sound with dance and electronic elements. The sheer joy that the band felt in playing spilled over into the audience and we cheered each song successively louder. With each song in the set the band seemed to get tighter and more alive. The crowd loved it all, singing along with the choruses and jumping to the beat. After “Miss Hormone” had finished playing we went up to say hi. My friend Xiaofan had been taking photos with her big Canon SLR and promised to send them to the band later. We got a photo with the band which was cool. We also bought them a round of beer to say thanks.A bit later I got talking to the bassist Mingming. She joined the band after first seeing them perform without a bassist and then asked if she could join them. She has only been playing bass for two years and is entirely self-taught, which is pretty impressive. But as she explained, when you have a group of friends with a shared goal you help each other and you learn pretty quickly. The band hadn't made any money out of this trip to Chongqing (they formed in Chengdu and are based there) as their pay barely covered their expenses for train tickets and so on. Nevertheless, they were out to get experience and have a great time doing what they love. I think this is so fantastic to see in China where it seems there is considerable pressure from society to succeed academically, get a stable job and generally to play it safe rather than follow your dream. A friend of mine from Chongqing called Yue who I met at university in Sheffield has just moved to Shanghai. As she explained to me in a lengthy email, she always dreamed of living and working there and it took a lot of courage for her to make the decision to leave her family and stable job in Chongqing behind. She told me about the pressure and expectations that she feels her generation faces from society and their families. My British colleague Matt observed the other day that there is quite a negative focus to the Chinese education system: you are told that if you don't do certain things you won't be able to succeed rather than being told that if you do certain things it will benefit you in the future. Thus the fear of failure is predominant. I think he makes a good point. Therefore I'm so happy to see people like Yue and Mingming and her bandmates taking these big steps to do what they really want to do and ignoring those who might discourage them or try to hold them back. This was a brilliant night out with some great music. I'm really grateful that I got to chat with Mingming and her bandmates. I wish both “The Deep Green Sea” and “Miss Hormone” every success and hope that I can see more live music in Chongqing in the near future.

On Friday night I had hot pot for the first time in months. I've not really been a fan of hot pot, in fact I confess to having eaten Chongqing's favourite and most famous dish fewer than ten times during my time in the mountain city. The hot pot that I enjoyed with my colleagues Matt, Barry and Charlie was so tasty and such an enjoyable occasion that I feel guilty for neglecting it for so long.Good food always tastes better after sport. On Friday I had a cracking few games of badminton with Matt, they were quite different to the games we played the week before. Last week our games had featured high-powered smashes and drives whereas last Friday we played a lot more drop shots and net shots. Sport is the best way to finish off a week of teaching and a hearty meal afterwards is even better.The hot pot restaurant Barry took us to was a place he'd been to a couple of times before. Someone working there had stopped him in the street one time to say hi and they'd had a friendly chat together. Consequently, he has become a loyal customer. The place is typical of hot pot restaurants across the city, although this one does have large pictures of Chairman Mao on the walls which makes it a bit distinctive. We ordered a decent amount of food to cook in our cauldron of spicy soup: potatoes, pumpkin, cucumber, tomatoes, quail's eggs, slices of beef and lamb, a fish head and a pig brain. We also followed the Chongqing tradition of doing rounds of toasts to each other.Red in the face, tears streaming down your cheeks, sweat pouring from your brow and your mouth numbed with the pain of the spice: looking attractive whilst eating hot pot is a challenge. The quail's eggs are something that I'd never tried before, Matt and Barry recommended them, and they really were very tasty. I've had brain several times in hot pot, it sounds a bit disgusting but I'd really recommend you try it if you have the chance. It has a soft, silky, melt-in-the-mouth tofu-like texture. It's also excellent when you have it at street barbecue (烧烤 – shaokao). Pumpkin is something I never really ate prior to coming to China but now it's become one of my favourite vegetables. It's great in hot pot and I look forward to when it's served in my school canteen, I always ladle huge amounts of it on to my tray.I'm really glad I gave hot pot another chance. Sometimes you just have a particular moment where the food you eat and the people who you are with just fit together perfectly. Last Friday was one of these times.

Some of the students at my school are starting an English-language newspaper. I offered to check some of the articles they have prepared for the paper and they also asked me to write a short piece of my own. As several of the students had written excellent pieces about education, I also chose this as my topic. Chinese students are not the only ones who face a multitude of examinations. My generation of students in England took more exams than any other. We still have the problem of schools, teachers and thus students being very exam-orientated. Schools are ranked in league tables by their exam results. As the teachers feel the pressure to make their school's ranking improve they “teach the test”, teaching only the material needed to pass the relevant exam. The negative effect of this is that students gain a narrow, rather than holistic education. The best aspects of my schooling, which I try to bring into my teaching, came from particular teachers who inspired me. When I was seventeen and eighteen, my French classes included weekly debates in which were given a side to argue for. Our topics were deliberately controversial, such as the death penalty and abortion. Such debates lasted about an hour. They not only improved our fluency in speaking, but also helped us form clear arguments and reflect on our own ideas. Our teachers encouraged to engage with these political and social issues and I found that this contributed a lot to my own personal development. When teaching now, I try to include these kinds of issues because I believe that young people should be aware of them and how they affect their lives and the world around them. I also recall a physics teacher of mine who constantly gave us examples of news stories that kept us informed about new innovation and ideas and how what we were learning in class could be applied to the wider world. This explained why what were learning from our textbooks was relevant and also kept us in touch with the real world. Schools have a tendency to become insular and I think that this idea tackles this problem. Debate, the encouragement of sharing different opinions and an awareness of the application of knowledge to the wider world are thus some of the best aspects of my school life in England. I think that Chinese schools can be admired for their hard-working students. It's a cliché, but the attitude towards education in China is very commendable. The bullying I experienced at school for wanting to get good results and for contributing in class seems unimaginable to me in Chinese schools. The level of respect for teachers is very high which I think acknowledges the contribution that they make to society. According to an international study of 21 countries compiled by the University of Sussex in 2013, teachers in China have the highest level of public respect. This is an acknowledgement of the respect for the effect that teachers can have on our lives. Personally I wouldn't be in China if my French teacher hadn't encouraged me to apply for an educational summer project in Beijing and Shanghai. Two areas where I feel both education systems need to make progress in are sport and practical skills. Sport should become an integral part of education and it should be led by inspiring teachers delivering the message that sport is for everyone, not just for the most able. Sport helps students not just in improving physical health, but also with things like teamwork, respect, encouraging their peers and setting and achieving targets. I also think that education should include practical work such as cooking, learning how to repair things and building skills. Not everyone is suited to academic study and so these lessons would allow these students to enjoy something they are more comfortable with. In addition, the feeling of having created something solid and tangible by yourself is extremely rewarding. If the goal of education is to prepare young people for the outside world then education needs to develop a variety of skills, contribute positively to students' physical and mental health, and allow them to engage with and reflect upon the world around them whilst also listening to and respecting the opinions of their peers.