Just got back from a weekend student mobile learning trip to Hangzhou and Nanjing. Good times as always, but I’ve done that trip about five times now and so the excitement of the road is less than what it used to be.
Fortunately, I’m heading out somewhere I’ve never been before…yep, I’m heading west along the Silk Road for Xinjiang. The students and I will be taking a train to Xi’an tonight and then on to Lanzhou/Xiahe, Dunhuang, Turpan, Urumqi, before ultimately ending up in the city of Kashgar.
It’s been a busy month or so with research and the first few weeks of school, especially because I begin every semester with a two-week course on “Understanding China” that meets daily for 2.5 hours. In addition to my usual semester-long course on “Late Imperial China” plus administrative tasks…you can understand why leading a trip of 15 students through the wilds of western China might seem like something of a break from the daily grind.