Coming up to one month, living in Chongqing with my wife. Life is very nice indeed. Got a great apartment provided by my school, with views over a valley with a large golf course. Living in the relatively unpopulated Northern Zone of the city, but right next to a monorail station which links the airport to downtown. School is great, a closely knit community of teachers and parents, Chinese and English. There are still only a few thousand foreigners here, but it is growing, with Ford and other car and IT companies bringing people over, mostly from the US and Australia.
My wife and I are expecting a baby in December (my first), so we are looking at hospitals. Even the international hospitals are not that expensive, and they can cater to Western-type requirements. Most things are pretty cheap here, certainly cheaper than big cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. Local stores do not have Western food as a rule (though you can find anything if you look, Walmart, Metro, Carrefour, etc.). But then foreigners are still a bit of a rarity. This week, a new supermarket opened closeby. It was like the circus had come to town - the excitement was unbelievable. Yesterday, in the vegetable section, the giggly shop assistant shyly told her friend that I was the second foreign person she had seen TODAY!
The head of my school is Australian, so of course he is sport-mad, and yesterday, a bunch of teachers and parents had our first training session for the football team (google translate = "soccer"). I was in defence, right-back, and my legs just held out). We are the best football team in Chongqing (well, until recently, we were the only one). Although I haven't succumbed yet, many of the teachers have bought electric bikes (for less than 4000rmb). The school run is like a slow-mo version of Easy Rider.
Wherever we go in China, my wife switches to the dialect/accent/language of the area. Very clever. People say, "Ah! You speak Chongqinghua!" Then they chat about "The American" (me) and are curious about how we can communicate.
So, I have to say I love Chongqing, especially on days like today, when the sun burns through the smog, which is not as bad here in the north part of town.
