JISHOU, HUNAN — I live in a small city in the western fringes of Hunan. The usual American population here is normally four in a city of 300,000. Last week, the American population briefly surged, twice.
The first influx was on Wednesday. A group of ethnobotanists (folks who study people’s uses of plants) arrived from Zhangjiajie to spend two nights in Jishou. The US national basketball team was the second wave. They played an exhibition game against Lithuania Saturday night (a close win for USA, btw), and left the next day.
[The US basketball team was involved in a intercultural faux pas earlier that day. Details are here.]
It was fun while it lasted.
Dr.Gordon Tucker and Zhiwei Liu of Eastern Illinois University have brought a group of students to China four times now. EIU and Jishou University are sister institutions, so part of their time was spent at the campus in Zhangjiajie and here in Jishou.
Typical of communications at educational institutions, I learned of the Americans’ visit only by the way. My neighbor, MeiMei, a Russian translator for the university, told me about it on Monday. So, I asked my foreign affairs officer, Cyril, if I could meet them.
I ended up having dinner with them Wednesday at the Qin Zhao Hotel, which belongs to the university. Students sat at one table, faculty and uni officers at the other. Ample food, grape wine and baijiu soon had all of us feeling quite happy.
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