The Towers of Chongqing
To facsimile the informational email I just sent out...
I had underestimated the amount of time it takes to get from Shanghai by the sea to Chongqing of the upper Yangtze. 'Maybe eighteen or twenty odd hours by train', I thought. 'I'll start off this afternoon, and I'll be there by midmorning the following day.' 10am, I figured was about right. But 10 am the next morning came and went. We were still trundling through Hunan province at that point. I took a look at the map and despaired. 'Oh well, perhaps the train will arrive in Chongqing by 10 this evening'. 10 o'clock that evening we were darting swiftly through the karstic mountains and narrow canyons of Guizhou province--beautiful scenery, but not reassuring to my feeling that I might have accidentally gotten onto a 'train to nowhere'.
But 10am on the third day of travel (today) found us jogging up the homestretch along bamboo-lined river shores.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell about Chongqing at a later date, when I've spent more than part of a day in this remarkable city. Built on a penninsula of high ridges and canyons caught between the confluence of two rivers, the Jialing and the Yangtze, towering offices and hi-rise appartments cling to the cliffsides, and the roads which twist and turn and tunnel their way through the hills are free of bicycles--the city, perhaps like San Francisco, has much too much vertical change to allow such transport. An oppulent city that has grown to rival the traditional Chinese centers of trade and manufacturing, Chongqing is a separate city-state, like Beijing or Shanghai, although it was once a part of neighboring Sichuan province, and shares its tastes for firey spice in its cooking. From what I've seen so far, the girls here are also quite spicy and beautiful (la meizi, as the Chinese would say). :-)
My apartment is quite different from my last: on the nineteenth floor of a highrise condo tower, I definitely can't complain about the amenities which include a large screen tv (good sound system), Western bathroom amenities--flush toilet and an enclosed shower--a large kitchen, nice furniture overall. I can't complain about the great views out over the city, nor the oppulent gardens below the condo complex. Best of all, the Carrefour supermarket (a French chain of superstores) is directly below the condo building. Yes. If I have a late evening craving for cheese, I can hop in the elevator and get some. Now is about the time when I should let loose with some manner of villainous exultant laughter, but wait! There's more!
It seems that there are only going to be two teachers here (at least for this first five months). The Chongqing Aston is still fairly new, with a small number of students (maybe 150?). They don't currently have a LSO (a sort of foreign assistant manager for the location), and as the other fellow who is coming doesn't have any experience teaching in China (much less at Aston), the two temp-manager fellows who were here when I arrived seem to be keen on the idea of promoting me to that position. I've expressed my interest in that idea. Less teaching hours (15) but more responsibilities related to promoting and developing the school. I may get a chance to use my creativity after all!
With that position, I would get my own single apartment, in a neighboring condo tower right across the plaza.
So we'll see how things go. Sometime in the next month I'll also have to make a run to Hongkong to get my tourist visa changed to a working visa (another long journey by train). That should be an adventure in itself!
I had underestimated the amount of time it takes to get from Shanghai by the sea to Chongqing of the upper Yangtze. 'Maybe eighteen or twenty odd hours by train', I thought. 'I'll start off this afternoon, and I'll be there by midmorning the following day.' 10am, I figured was about right. But 10 am the next morning came and went. We were still trundling through Hunan province at that point. I took a look at the map and despaired. 'Oh well, perhaps the train will arrive in Chongqing by 10 this evening'. 10 o'clock that evening we were darting swiftly through the karstic mountains and narrow canyons of Guizhou province--beautiful scenery, but not reassuring to my feeling that I might have accidentally gotten onto a 'train to nowhere'.
But 10am on the third day of travel (today) found us jogging up the homestretch along bamboo-lined river shores.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell about Chongqing at a later date, when I've spent more than part of a day in this remarkable city. Built on a penninsula of high ridges and canyons caught between the confluence of two rivers, the Jialing and the Yangtze, towering offices and hi-rise appartments cling to the cliffsides, and the roads which twist and turn and tunnel their way through the hills are free of bicycles--the city, perhaps like San Francisco, has much too much vertical change to allow such transport. An oppulent city that has grown to rival the traditional Chinese centers of trade and manufacturing, Chongqing is a separate city-state, like Beijing or Shanghai, although it was once a part of neighboring Sichuan province, and shares its tastes for firey spice in its cooking. From what I've seen so far, the girls here are also quite spicy and beautiful (la meizi, as the Chinese would say). :-)
My apartment is quite different from my last: on the nineteenth floor of a highrise condo tower, I definitely can't complain about the amenities which include a large screen tv (good sound system), Western bathroom amenities--flush toilet and an enclosed shower--a large kitchen, nice furniture overall. I can't complain about the great views out over the city, nor the oppulent gardens below the condo complex. Best of all, the Carrefour supermarket (a French chain of superstores) is directly below the condo building. Yes. If I have a late evening craving for cheese, I can hop in the elevator and get some. Now is about the time when I should let loose with some manner of villainous exultant laughter, but wait! There's more!
It seems that there are only going to be two teachers here (at least for this first five months). The Chongqing Aston is still fairly new, with a small number of students (maybe 150?). They don't currently have a LSO (a sort of foreign assistant manager for the location), and as the other fellow who is coming doesn't have any experience teaching in China (much less at Aston), the two temp-manager fellows who were here when I arrived seem to be keen on the idea of promoting me to that position. I've expressed my interest in that idea. Less teaching hours (15) but more responsibilities related to promoting and developing the school. I may get a chance to use my creativity after all!
With that position, I would get my own single apartment, in a neighboring condo tower right across the plaza.
So we'll see how things go. Sometime in the next month I'll also have to make a run to Hongkong to get my tourist visa changed to a working visa (another long journey by train). That should be an adventure in itself!