A fond farewell

It has become a regular little treat for our school to round off one of our 'sessions' of residence with a mini-holiday on the idyllic river island of Tongzhou, an hour or so south-west of the city. (Well, this is the third time we've done it in only two years. Our October visit this year was only precipitated by the miscarriage of other plans. But the June appointment seems likely to become a regular fixture, since our host Chinese school is always obliged to kick us off campus for a few days at this time of year, in order to accommodate the security arrangements required of it as a test centre for the sitting of the gaokao, China's notorious national university entrance exams.)

Even very heavy rains could not dampen our spirits (though, on balance, I would have preferred some more of the blissful sunshine we were blessed with in October!). And I found myself getting rather sentimental: some of my happiest experiences with this school have come on the Tongzhou trips - and this will be my last.

Here's another of my slideshow roundups of the shenanigans.

The music is Incident at Gate 7 by Thievery Corporation, part of the iPhoto music library licensed by Apple for royalty-free use.