【导读】荷兰Otto Spijker教授2020年2月正式加盟武汉大学，担任中国边界与海洋研究院全职国际法教授，并参与共同创立了边海院国际水法中心。在经历武汉、欧洲两处疫情起落等待后，2020年10月他终于在武汉大学开启了他的学术科研新生活。加入武汉大学之前，他在荷兰乌德勒支大学担任国际公法方向讲师、研究员、博士生导师。

最近，乌特勒支大学网站以《Message from 'our man in Wuhan' : Otto Spijkers（我们那个在武汉的兄弟：Otto Spijkers的消息）》为题发表了他对武汉大学以及武汉的鲜活初印象。Otto教授十分乐意我们一起分享他的故事，并告诉我们请称呼他的中文名：高海平。

原文链接：https://www.uu.nl/en/news/message-from-our-man-in-wuhan-otto-spijkers

Impression of First Months in Wuhan，by Otto Spijkers

In February 2020, Wuhan University’s China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies (CIBOS) and its Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL) appointed me fulltime professor of international law. Around the same time, a group of friends and colleagues - Patricia Wouters, Lingjie Kong, David J. Devlaeminck, Jing Lee, Owen McIntyre, Alistair Rieu-Clarke, Sergei Vinogradov, and I – founded Wuhan’s very own International Water Law Academy (IWLA). Prior to joining Wuhan University, I was lecturer of international law here at Utrecht University.

I flew to China in October of 2020, from Amsterdam to Guangzhou. I first had to undergo a two-weeks quarantine in a hotel. It was a very good hotel, but I found it challenging not to be allowed to leave my hotel room for two weeks. Each day, I was served breakfast at 8am sharp, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6pm. The food was placed in front of my hotel room door, and then the bell rang. I opened the door, picked up the food, and closed the door. In-between meals, I was working or walking around my hotel room using two small plastic water bottles as weights to train my arm muscles. I watched a lot of Chinese basketball, with enthusiastic Chinese commentary.

During this self-quarantine, Chinese students came to my apartment every day to bring me lunch and dinner. So sweet! 

After the quarantine, I traveled by bullet train – the locomotives of the fast trains in China all have the shape of a bullet - from Guangzhou to Wuhan, and there was a beautiful apartment in the so-called “Butterfly House” waiting for me. 

When I arrived in Wuhan, I had to undergo another two weeks quarantine, but this time in my own apartment. During this self-quarantine, students came to my apartment every day to bring me lunch and dinner from the nearby canteen. I wonder whether Utrecht students would be willing to do such a kind favor to their teachers!

Everybody’s temperature is measured everywhere.     

And then I was free. The Butterfly House is situated in the very heart of campus and finds itself surrounded by trees and singing birds. Nearby is my office, a supermarket, and a huge canteen where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served to all students and teachers every day. On campus, the students are quite relaxed, despite corona. Everybody’s temperature is measured everywhere, and to be allowed to enter the University’s canteens you must scan a QR code and show a green “health code” on your smartphone. Most people on campus wear mouth masks most of the time.

(Wanlin Art Museum)

There is an "art and corona" exhibition at the Wanlin Art Museum - the University’s own museum, conveniently located on campus. Besides that, I also saw spontaneous corona-street art everywhere on campus. All sewer lids on campus were artistically painted.

The best thing about the campus of Wuhan is the beautiful nature. The campus largely consists of dense jungle, with a wonderful variety of tropical birds all singing their own songs, creating a cacophony of sounds. There are lots of neighborhood cats, dogs, squirrels... I was told Wuhan also has geckos, and apparently there is even a famous fox hiding somewhere on Luojia Hill.

（Student reading at Wuhan University Campus.）

Just before the start of the winter holidays, I attended a performance of Wuhan University's own Shakespeare Drama Club. The students performed A Winter’s Tale. They did a marvelous job at reciting Shakespeare’s ancient English. Wuhan University also has a Harmonica Society, founded by students in 1996. Members can learn to play the harmonica and share the charm of harmonica music. They gave an end-of-the year performance. The students of CIBOS organized their own New Year’s party, in which they showed their dancing and singing skills. At the event, I gave my first-ever speech in Chinese! It only lasted for ten seconds, but I was busy all-day memorizing the words. Inspired, I began to take Chinese lessons. I quickly discovered that it is a terribly hard language to learn.

(A"hot pot" lunch)

Having lunch together is very important in Wuhan. Especially “hot pot” is popular. People sit around a huge table with a large pan of boiling hot soup. You can throw in all kinds of meat, fish, chicken, tofu, and vegetables, and then fish all this food out of the soup when you believe it is done.

In January, for a moment the corona-situation seemed to be getting worse. New outbreaks were reported at various places in China. But not near Wuhan. And thus, life here remained quite normal even around that somewhat stressful time. The cinemas and theaters stayed open, as did the shopping malls and restaurants. For classical music concerts, you can go to the beautiful Wuhan Qintai Concert Hall. At the same time, I was advised not to leave campus. During the holidays, it was very quiet, because all the students had left.

At the time I am writing this impression (end of February 2021), the students have all come back from their holidays. Spring has come to Wuhan, and that is the most beautiful time of the year. Wuhan's cherry blossom trees will soon be in full bloom, and one of the best places to enjoy the blossoming is here at Wuhan University campus. I regularly take bicycle rides along Wuhan's many parks, scenic areas, and lakes. You can rent a bicycle anywhere on the streets of Wuhan with the help of an app on your smartphone, and you can leave it when you have finished cycling.

I think we have all been through a difficult period that is now more or less in the past. All signals are green: the cold and rainy days of winter are gone, the students – and the teachers - are ready for a new semester, and the spring sun is shining on all of us. Welcome to the year of the Ox!

(Graffiti on the ground at Wuhan University.)