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| Our school Sports Day festivities |
After Xi’an and Guangzhou, I had a brief hiatus
from weekend trips, but it wasn’t long until I was again eager to travel! It
being my second fall in Hangzhou, the city started to bore me—don’t get me
wrong, there are things to do, and bars and restaurants to frequent, but my expat social circle is fairly small, and it can quickly feel like a bubble. And I
like to burst bubbles.
So in early November I was off again, this
time to Changchun, in northeast China. If Guangzhou doesn’t rank high on the
list in terms of cities to visit, then Changchun is off the page, especially
come winter. The city is the capital of Jilin province, and with 4 million
inhabitants in the urban area, one of the largest in the region. Some know
Changchun as the “Detroit of China,” due to the large automotive and
manufacturing presence there. It was also the former the capital of Manchukuo,
the Japanese puppet state in the 1930s and 40s, and you can visit the old
imperial palace in the city center.
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| Changchun, between North Korea and Russia |
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Steve, left, in the office with Joanna
and a colleague |
But like I said, tourist mecca Changchun is
not. The average high in January is -10 Celcius (14 F), so best to avoid the
winter months too. So, why would I go? Steve, the history teacher at our school
last year, took a job at the international school in Changchun, and invited us
up for a visit. He actually taught at the school in Hangzhou for three years,
and Joanna was quite close with him the two years they were colleagues. November
4
th-5
th was scheduled for our school’s Sports Day
activities, so classes were cancelled. All us foreign teachers needed to do was
show up for the opening ceremony Thursday morning—a perfect chance to slip out
early and catch an afternoon flight up north.
There’s not much to write home about the
weekend we spent in Changchun; most of it was with Steve, his wife Manya, and
their young son, Fedya. It was great to see the family again and catch up on
their new life. We arrived Thursday evening, and Friday rode the bus with Steve
to his school. He works at the only true international school in the city
(which, in China, means students must hold a foreign passport to attend), which
felt more like a school back home than one in China. We spent the day touring
the campus, sitting in on Steve’s classes, and meeting the other teachers.
Around half of the students were Chinese,
but held dual citizenship, while the other half came from dozens of countries,
from Indonesia to Brazil. There are a significant number of German families
affiliated with the auto companies in Changchun, and within the same building
is a German language school (although next year the two will be combined into
one institution). It was so strange to see and hear German kids running through
the halls of what could have been a school in Stuttgart, save for the haze
outside.
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| Steve works at the Changchun International School |
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| The library at Steve's school |
After school let out we got dinner and met
Steve’s coworkers for drinks at a local hangout spot, but the area around his
place isn’t much for late night activities. That’s fine with many of the
teachers though, since they have families to go back to and are long past their
clubbing days. Most of his colleagues see education as a long-term job, whereas
our school is a mix of career teachers and those who do it to live abroad in
their 20s and fund their travels (guess which group I belong to?).
Aside from our day at the school, we made
it out of the house and visited South Lake, surrounded by a large park, and
explored the city center on foot. Oh and we also trekked to the local Wal-mart
for a unique Changchun shopping experience. Problem was that even in early
November Northeast China is frigid; temperatures did budge (just) over
freezing, but with the wind chill it felt even colder, not to mention we had
just come from 20+ degree Hangzhou—and the weekend we were gone it reached 25
(mid 70s F) with sunny skies!
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| Joanna reading to Fedya |
The upside to the cold is that all modern
buildings in Changchun have proper central heating, whereas in Hangzhou most
are equipped with simple wall units. At my school, for example, when you walk
outside the office or a classroom, the hallways and stairwells—even the
bathrooms—are open to the elements. It’s fine 9 months of the year, but even
though Hangzhou rarely dips below freezing, it feels much colder without
central heating in winter. Steve’s school and apartment, on the other hand,
were nice and cozy—warm enough for a light jacket.
At the end of the day, it was nice to stay
holed up at Steve’s place for most of the weekend, watching movies with Fedya
during the day and drinking and reminiscing after he went to sleep for the
night. After our trip downtown Sunday we grabbed take away for lunch, at back
at the apartment, collected our luggage, and bid Steve and family goodbye as we
hailed a cab for the aiport, off to better weather (yes!) and work (one out of
two ain’t bad) in Hangzhou.
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