I took the 7:55 plane from Beijing to Changsha, and arrived in Changsha shortly after ten. The ride to Xiangtan took about an hour, and when I arrived it was nearly time for lunch.
After lunch Hu Laoshi had a Q & A session at the Foreign Languages School (外语学院). The students there were excited to hear what he had to say about his experiences at Xiangtan and his perspective on life and English study.
We took a brief rest in the afternoon before our lecture, had dinner with President Luo, and then headed over to the 俱乐部, where the lecture was to be held. When we got there we found a huge crowd outside waiting to get in. Apparently, tickets for the event had been handed out in advance, but students without tickets had gotten there early hoping to get a seat, crowded by the gate, and the students with tickets had no way to get in!
Sorting out the seating inside took a while, and we didn’t get started with the lecture until 7:30–half an hour later than the scheduled time. The lecture went well, though, and I think all of the students had a great time. We didn’t finish until after 10:30!
I spent the night at my 二岳父’s house at Xiang Tan University, and am now in the Changsha airport waiting for the plane back to Beijing.
Overall, our lecture tour was very successful. We gave four lectures in Wuhan and two lectures in Hunan to a total of about 7,000 people.
I can’t wait for the next trip to Hunan. Hopefully, Catherine will be able to go next time.