I was very honoured when hotel owner Howard Astbury rang me last Thursday evening to invited me to address 84 Chinese teachers who were having a lunch at The Lion on the Friday.
The Chinese had given up their six-week summer holiday to come on a teacher-development course at the University of Wolverhampton.
I made a mental note to mention that fact to my British friends who are teachers.
Daphne Laing, Director at the university’s Centre for Language and Communication Training, said they normally took their visitors to London for a celebration day out at the end of the course.
Because it might be too difficult this year with the Olympics they opted to spend their time in Shrewsbury instead.
After a tour around the town the group, pictured below, had a Chinese meal in the historic hotel ballroom and then spent the afternoon going round the shops.
Before lunch I gave a talk on the history of the hotel and the many famous guests who had stayed there.
They were fascinated by how old The Lion was and that they were dining in a ballroom built in 1777.
I was amazed that most of them had read some of Charles Dickens’ books, knew all about Charles Darwin and had even heard of Niccolo Paganini who gave a concert in the ballroom on Thursday, August 15, 1833, while the famous musician was on his way from Italy to St Petersburg, Russia.
It was also interesting to hear from Daphne how popular the English teacher training courses were with the Chinese and how numbers had doubled in the last year.
Naturally, my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel , was on sale and I hope it will help the fame of this historic building and town spread to China.
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