Dear Friends,I've decided to hit the road again, after several years back in the UK. Despite my previous travels in Mongolia, The Gambia, Ethiopia and the Philippines, it seems like my itchy feet were not scratched enough! For the coming months I'll be living and working in Beijing, China's busy capital city. I'll do my best to share any notable (and hopefully interesting) observations I have.
Beijing is bound to be a fascinating place to live and work in, what with it being one of the main political, economic and cultural hubs of the world. It's also an interesting time to be here - China is going through immense change (indeed, it has been going through huge changes in the last 100 years or so, as my trusty history books remind me). Thus, there's plenty to write about! I'll also hope to shed some light on some of the the intricacies of Chinese culture and pitfalls of being a foreigner here.
Note to readers: I guess the tone of "Rob in China" may be a bit different to my previous blogs, as I am older (sadly), wiser (perhaps) and doing a different kind of work. I'm also currently not working in the development/charity sector. Instead, I'll be spending my time teaching history and economics to Chinese students. Whilst I will certainly continue still have an interest in social justice issues, these themes will no longer just "fall onto my plate" as easily as they did when I was working more directly on international development / poverty-reduction programmes. The fact that I'm working in a country in which I feel a slight pressure to self-censure myself will also add a certain twist to what I feel I can write.I hope you enjoy what I write in the coming weeks. Many best wishes to you all,
Rob
