The quietest place in China
Since landing in the PRC I have been overwhelmed by the fact that, day or night, you are always in the middle of a crowd. On Monday I have a meeting scheduled with the Communist Party Secretary of Sichuan University. This is a very high political position at the largest and most prominent university of southwest China (I think I have that right). I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but she is the classmate of a friend who now lives in Canada – and because good people are friends with good people, I am assuming she will be good people ('cause Eric is definitely good people). I meet her and her daughter near the west gate of the university and we take a tour past several buildings including the Foreign Languages Department and the Intensive Language Education Centre. Because the weather has shifted from hot and humid to hot and humid and raining, we change gears and get a ride to the Sichuan University Museum – which has either just opened or is just getting ready to open, I'm not really sure which. At any rate we spend the next hour or so walking through the displays. At one point I am asked if I really want to continue the tour – I assured her that my first undergraduate degree was in anthropology / archaeology with an undeclared minor in Aboriginal Art History and it would take all six of the guards to haul me out from the displays of Tibetan and Sichuan Minority articles dating back to 300 BC.

What made the time at the museum more enjoyable is that we were the only ones there – we had the whole place to ourselves. As culturally adaptable as I pride myself in being, I still love my three feet of personal space.

I am brought back to reality at supper when we go out for chou sho – Sichuan-hua for hundun or wanton. The restaurant is crowded – but for good reason the dumplings are absolutely delicious.