A Chinese student, a talented English major from a university in Hunan, China, asked me to describe my hometown.  This is what I wrote: Smethport is very different from Chenzhou.  It is like a dream that I’m afraid will seem unreal or too abstract for you to realize.  Words alone are not enough to describe the beauty, wonder, and charm of my home town.  But I will try. Right now it is a very special time of the year in which we celebrate the birth of our country, the Declaration of Independence and like your country, a revolution against Imperial tyranny.  Now the weather is much like Kunming in the…