Science high priority at Chinese military university

Given that Lockwood Smith has removed parliamentary travel perks for sitting MPs, it's probably not politic for me to say that one of the great things about my job as a university lecturer is the opportunity it affords for overseas travel. Generally, such travel arises through attending conferences, or liaising with research collaborators.

However, I recently had the opportunity to spend one month in China (paid for by the Chinese Government, before you ask) doing something very different - teaching undergraduate students at the Chinese National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) in Changsha. Given that it was an experience somewhat out of the ordinary, I thought I'd tell you a little about it.

So to begin with, no, I'd never heard of Changsha either, and if it weren't for an invitation from a visiting professor from NUDT, who spent six months at the University of Otago earlier this year, I probably still wouldn't have. Changsha is a city of about 3 million people (with another 3 million or so in the immediate surrounds) in Hunan province, about 700km north of Hong Kong.

It's not exactly on the tourist trail - my erstwhile travelling companion and I counted about five other European faces in two weeks and, as such, there's not a lot of English spoken there.

Changsha is renowned for both its food and its foot massages. The former is spicy and there's an enormous variety of it. The first night there we were taken to a restaurant that seats 4000. And dog was on the menu in our hotel. Foot massages are to be recommended, if only for the unusual sensation of having flaming hollow glass spheres stuck to your feet.

But enough about all this. I know you're all wanting to know about the chemistry.

NUDT is, as the name suggests, a military university - sort of the West Point of China. It has about 13,000 students, just over half of whom are undergraduates, and while science is the primary focus, it also offers courses in management, law, philosophy and history, among others. And it's certainly a little different from Otago.

For starters, I couldn't turn up to the campus by myself - every morning I was driven to the university, saluted at the gate, and I would marvel at the hundreds of students in military uniform marching (or jogging) in formation to class.

However, the students would get changed into civilian clothes to attend my lectures (I was told that it wouldn't be so intimidating for me), as did all of the academic staff with whom I had contact.

The students are some of the best in China - rigorous entrance exams see to that - and work extremely hard. Lectures go continuously from 8am to 9pm, interrupted only at 4pm when everyone has to go for a one-hour run. Their English is pretty good on the whole, and while I found myself talking slower than usual, they understood what I had to say without too much trouble.

One thing I heartily approved of was the fact that all students, regardless of their academic discipline, had to take a chemistry course - so on one occasion I found myself lecturing chemistry to 100 politics students. The facilities at the university are superb and the labs are full of the latest equipment - money appears to be no object.

I could write a book on all of this, but will end by saying that China is an amazing place to visit. It's big, noisy, polluted (sadly), beautiful (check out Zhangjiajie and Yangshuo on the internet) and the people are friendly and extraordinarily hospitable. They could work on their public toilets, though.

• Dr Blackman is an associate professor in the chemistry department at the University of Otago