I have written elsewhere about my arrival in China and Shanghai airport. See Where can I go and What can I see in China for that. My generally critical pieces on life in China, China – Critique, etc. will give you another perspective on the joys and tribulations of living here. In fact, there’s a lot on this site about one person’s experience of China. This series of short blogs is more lightweight but it could be pretty worthwhile to anyone wanting to teach in China.
Two days after I arrived there was a light snow. It was the first I had seen for twenty three years as my last visit to Britain finished in the autumn. The trees soon turned russet and every day was cold, I would guess never reaching more than about eight degrees. I have had to buy two more jumpers and a two layered quilted jacket, or it could be described as two jackets which zip together. I suspect I will need both layers before winter is over. I had a cold for two weeks and it went into my chest. It came and went a bit but eventually turned into a light flu. I went to the hospital (few GPs in China) where my chest was listened to carefully. I was x-rayed, had my blood tested and my temperature taken. My lungs were not seriously affected, temperature just slightly up, and the blood was put immediately into a machine which indicated I had a flu. No x-ray film was used but the radiologist watched through a monitor and wrote down her findings for the doctor. My liaison officer was the daughter of two doctors and the school has close links with the hospital so I was given VIP treatment and there was no waiting. I took penicillin and concentrated liquorice and something that has no English on the packet. I also had to drink hot water. The treatment has worked well and I my symptoms cleared quickly.
On TV there is an English language channel, CCTV 9, and I discovered a programme on learning Mandarin hosted by a brilliant Canadian named Da Shan who is word and tone perfect. This man performs the Chinese comic dialogue, a fast talking stand-up comedy, but not on his teaching show. I thought then the main block to my learning the language was a lack of resources but now I realize I was just unaware of the best ways to approach it. If I had got stuck into reading and writing Mandarin, and persuaded some of my Chinese friends to speak Chinese with me as much as possible instead of speaking English to increase their ability, I would have made more progress.