Merry Christmas! What ever you believe the true meaning of Christmas to be, you can be pretty sure that Chongqing is yet to discover it. Above is the Christmas Eve celebration in downtown Chongqing. Hoards of people toting plastic clubs descend into the various city centers and thump each other until the early morning. It is utter madness, and nobody knows where the tradition started. It is unique to Chongqing.

I almost guiltily want to admit that I had a wonderful Christmas. Would I have rather been at home in the US? Yes. But I had a great amount of fun (before and after the riot police took my bang bang stick) and I must have the best students of any teacher anywhere. My students just poured affection on me over the last few days, and in the end I didn't feel any loneliness this holiday. I am very lucky.