Last weekend I went back to Shijiazhuang to see how the city had changed in the two years since I last lived there. I booked the flight from Shanghai Honqiao Airport for 9pm thinking that that would be ample time to finish work and get there; I hadn't counted on it raining. In China everything stops when it rains. It becomes impossible to get a taxi and the whole road network comes to a halt. I eventually managed to get a taxi but only after telling the apartment concierge that I would pay twice the usual fare to get there. I then got to the airport about an hour later than planned only to find that my flight had been delayed for 1.5 hours due to the bad weather. Still I managed to get the seat on the emergency exit so the flight was comfortable (more leg room than BA premium economy!).
This all meant that I arrived in Shijiazhuang about about midnight. I got to the hotel for about 1am and then went out and met a few friends in a club called Mazzo Bar which is about 5 minutes from the hotel; I was desparate to revist this place as when we lived there previously it gave free drinks to Foreigners all night, every night! I was excited to see that nothing had changed!
Saturday morning I met up with Nancy who was a really good friend to me when I was last here. She showed me around the town quickly and pointed out a few places that had changed/been knocked down/been built and then we went to the school. We got out at the top of the road and walked down the congested road to the school gates. As soon as I got out of the taxi some of my students started recognising me. Shouting "Mr Charlie" and waving - a few coming up to chat.
I go to the school gate and waited around for a few more students to come out of class. We then went for lunch at our favourite Sichuan Style restuarant. I was glad to see that nothing had changed and that all our old favourites were still on the menu; gong bao ji ding, suan la bai cai, song ren yu mi, suan la tou do si, yu xiang rou si, tang cu li ji and chow bing. The restuarant doesn't usually serve Chow Bing at lunch times but I told the owner that I'd come all this way especially and she agreed to go and find the ingredients for me! Service! All this (plus drinks for only £6! and there was plenty left at the end.
After eating we went back to the school and had a look around the class rooms to see a few more of my old students. The majority all recognised me, it was quite funny the few that didn't as it dawned on them who I was. It was great to see so many of the children that I remembered - it was good to see that their english had improved more in the last two years as well. My class are in year 9 now the last year of middle school before moving in to senior school - this will mean that some leave No.42 and go to better schools in the city; but I hope to get back to Shijiazhaung once more before I leave China again and see some more of the children.
Last weekend I went back to Shijiazhuang to see how the city had changed in the two years since I last lived there. I booked the flight from Shanghai Honqiao Airport for 9pm thinking that that would be ample time to finish work and get there; I hadn't counted on it raining. In China everything stops when it rains. It becomes impossible to get a taxi and the whole road network comes to a halt. I eventually managed to get a taxi but only after telling the apartment concierge that I would pay twice the usual fare to get there. I then got to the airport about an hour later than planned only to find that my flight had been delayed for 1.5 hours due to the bad weather. Still I managed to get the seat on the emergency exit so the flight was comfortable (more leg room than BA premium economy!).
This all meant that I arrived in Shijiazhuang about about midnight. I got to the hotel for about 1am and then went out and met a few friends in a club called Mazzo Bar which is about 5 minutes from the hotel; I was desparate to revist this place as when we lived there previously it gave free drinks to Foreigners all night, every night! I was excited to see that nothing had changed!
Saturday morning I met up with Nancy who was a really good friend to me when I was last here. She showed me around the town quickly and pointed out a few places that had changed/been knocked down/been built and then we went to the school. We got out at the top of the road and walked down the congested road to the school gates. As soon as I got out of the taxi some of my students started recognising me. Shouting "Mr Charlie" and waving - a few coming up to chat. 
I go to the school gate and waited around for a few more students to come out of class. We then went for lunch at our favourite Sichuan Style restuarant. I was glad to see that nothing had changed and that all our old favourites were still on the menu; gong bao ji ding, suan la bai cai, song ren yu mi, suan la tou do si, yu xiang rou si, tang cu li ji and chow bing. The restuarant doesn't usually serve Chow Bing at lunch times but I told the owner that I'd come all this way especially and she agreed to go and find the ingredients for me! Service! All this (plus drinks for only £6! and there was plenty left at the end.
After eating we went back to the school and had a look around the class rooms to see a few more of my old students. The majority all recognised me, it was quite funny the few that didn't as it dawned on them who I was. It was great to see so many of the children that I remembered - it was good to see that their english had improved more in the last two years as well. My class are in year 9 now the last year of middle school before moving in to senior school - this will mean that some leave No.42 and go to better schools in the city; but I hope to get back to Shijiazhaung once more before I leave China again and see some more of the children.
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