My first Chinese 'friend' was called Victoria, a Chengdu girl who had recently moved back from teaching English in various countries in Asia. She seemed very laid back and relaxed, turning up to every meeting at least 30 minutes late, and getting lost most of the time too. My British colleague, Johnny, who was in China with his long-term Chinese girlfriend says 'she's from Chengdu so she's really laid back'. This was probably my first 'education' about the differing places in China. All I knew about Chengdu was that it was the home of some really cute pandas, nothing so much about the individual characteristics of its people. The differences between Chinese cities are not only geographical, but cultural and linguistic, with each having its own attributes, or rather 'personality traits' of its people. This small encounter made me realise that I knew nothing about China She was a new 'local' teacher, basically meaning that she did the exac...