The last 8 days have been rather busy. My overseas project module students arrived from the UK and have been busily (or not) exploring Ningbo. Their first reactions were interesting, finding Ningbo much less alien than they expected.

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I picked the students up at Shanghai Pudong airport and we took a coach to Ningbo (about 4 hours). Their first sighting on the main building on campus caused a collective ‘ooh’ because its a copy (more or less) of the main building on the main campus in UK.

The first full day took them into town (on the bus). The weather was a treat and after a tour of the nice shopping mall we ended up having a beer in the sun and then, when it cooled, playing pool in an Irish bar. The reaction was interesting: so, where’s China? The experience of the first day much like any spring day off for middle class students in a wealthy city. At the end of the first day, one commented to me that the most alien experience was her breakfast of noodles.

Since then, they have slowly been exploring the ‘alien other’. Live turtles and frogs for sale (to eat) in Walmart, trips to temples, ancient cities, industrial parks, ports and a clothing factory that manufactures for Gap, Next and others (and has 8000 employees on one site).

For the rest of the week, some more of the same and exercises with the UNNC students. Then, on Saturday, we begin our tour, to Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.