Redemption Song

I know that I have written some bad stuff about the Chinese trying to take advantage of foreigners, but just when I thought things were all bad, the Chinese came around and completely redeemed themselves. In this case, redemption came in the form on my main man Lu Qinglin.

By going into the wrong compartment for my train from Beijing to Xi'an, I stumbled on happiness. Traveling alone is something of a daunting experience on the whole (although it does allow me to take infinite pictures without anyone complaining about it...), so it was nice to talk to someone for awhile, even if he barely spoke English and I barely spoke Chinese (although I am traveling alone technically, I spent every night and maybe half my days with friends, so I am overstating things a bit). Lu is from Hangzhou and he is extremely proud of it. He told me to shorten my stay in Shanghai, so that I could lengthen my stay in Hangzhou. He showed me countless pictures of his home and family and we talked for hours...mostly communicating through the aid of my Mandarin phrasebook and his computer dictionary. Amazingly in Xi'an, he bought me dinner and made sure that I got on the right train to Shanghai. I hope to see him in Hangzhou next week.


So never fear readers, there are plenty of nice Chinese people. Unless Lu is running the ultimate game on me...