I travelled to China in 2002 to take up the position as Head of English at the School of Administration at Wuhan University in the Hubei Province of China. The University was a massive campus where students lived in dormitories and studied in class rooms along the stairways of the Dormitory Buildings.

Meals were available through the student canteen and restaurants on the campus, as well as street vendors, at very reasonable costs and one could live at the University for a very small amount of money. I had an apartment decorated in Western Style just for me and it was rather sumptuos and expensively decorated and very comfortable indeed. My chinese boss was very generous and treated me and the students very well.

China is very different from anywhere else  I have experienced. There are touches of other places...traffic at times similar to Bangkok and Hong Kong, and totally different at other times. The streets are continually busy with people like in the eastern countries, and there are many hawkers and sellers and touts. However there is an air of dignity and pride in the chinese which I admired. They are very hard workers and take their jobs, however humble, with pride and even the construction workers and the labourers work constantly. I never saw workers relaxing on spades and shovels like in the west. When they were not working, they were usually eating or sleeping. It is a constant work ethic there and people are always meaningfully employed and industrious.

China is unique in many ways.. the beautiful people, the smiling charm of the older people in particular, the curiosity and interest in westerners, and the magnificent scenery shrouded in mists and magical clouds. The other startling difference is in the fantastic architectural structures apparent in many places.. public buildings, monuments, dams and bridges.

I visited the Three Gorges on a wonderful Cultural trip and was taken to see every sight on the way and back with a diligence same as they apply to their work. From 6am, the cultural tour started and went on till close to midnight. No time was wasted at all. We went to the dams, the tourist centre, the monuments, the temples, white water rafting, the bridges, many restaurants of a very high quality and I ate some of the most magnificent meals I have ever eaten, and met some of the lost fantastic people I have ever met.

Everywhere there was dignity. Teachers are treated with respect and my position was treated with the respect of the task. I was guest of Honor at numerous feasts and banquets and was introduced to some very imposing and important personages who treated me with the perfect manners China is famous for. I was feasted, admired, treated with respect and I made many friends and was welcomed everywhere.

I particularly enjoyed the Cultural trips, the visits to the Museums and the temples, and loved the Art and the Music and dance. Wuhan is a place of water. The East lake runs along the University and the University grounds are full of ponds and lakes and water features that make the grounds more like a Botannical gardens than an University. The chinese believe in the beauty of nature and this is apparent in everything they design. There is the element of peace and relaxation as against the constant sense of Industry and Purpose.

Teaching in Wuhan was a privilege and a pleasure, and I have many wonderful memories of Wuhan and the people I met and also still have contact with the students I taught via email.