Winter in China is cold. But fortunately the worst of it was over this time when I spent February there for my next round of classes. The air in Beijing, while well below zero, was extremely dry and highly charged with static electricity, making for a few painful jolts when things were touched with an outstretched finger. But with a warm coat on, it was actually pleasant walking outside in the late afternoon. On a day off I took the sparkling Beijing subway into the city centre, about 10 km from the hotel, and wandered across Tiananmen Square and around the perimeter of the Forbidden City.
My second class was in Zhejiang province in the city of Hangzhou, considered by many Chinese to be the country’s most beautiful. Like everywhere in China, there are hundreds of construction cranes lording over the sprouting shells of 35 storey apartment blocks, and growing signs of affluence on the roads and in the shops.
When my work in Hangzhou was done, a high speed train glided me to Shanghai where my third and final class was held, also for one week. In a lucky coincidence, my daughter Jane who works as a flight attendant with Emirates Airlines and lives in Dubai in the Middle East, was one of the cabin crew on Emirates’ Saturday flight to Shanghai. We spent a day together wandering around the city centre markets and amongst the skyscrapers of Pudong District, stopping for a coffee and pastry in the cosy cafe on the 4th floor of the English Department store Marks & Spencer, before braving the cold outside one last time.
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