So, how shall I begin? God blessed me on my first day in Wuhan. I got up at 6AM and headed out looking for breakfast. I returned to the same area where I had enjoyed dinner. Walking further along that lane, there clearly were a group of customers waiting at an as yet unopened establishment
I want to jump forward and list the things I remember about Lee
She grew up about a hour from Wuhan. She works for a publisher (magazine? newspaper?) in Beijing. She is 29. he has rented a B&B for a week? and is with 4 other writers from her publisher working on an item interviewing successful business people in the Wuhan area, normally from one of the 3 towns that make up Wuhan, the industrial one to the south.
She mentioned that older women, meaning 40?, are wearing such interesting outfits!. We talked a fair amount about finding a partner for life. I do not remember asking if her parents were arranged. She just broke up or is in the process of leaving a young man who she thinks would be a great husband but he is not ready to settle down. She thinks she will only have one child as it is so expensive. She knew a great deal about China and its problems, one of them being the aging population and the tendency of the young people to not have more than one child and to have it later as the women are enjoying their success. She put her hand up to her mouth in the normal Chinese embarrassment think, Probably when I was talking too much about the place of sex in the marriage. She asked if I was embarrassed with all the people looking at me and I said that years on the nude beach had probably beaten a lot of the self consciousness out of me.
I of course talked about riding in order to drink and she asked exactly how much and maybe saying 7 a day was what ended it. It is my impression that fairly abruptly she said she had to go prepare for her interview but it seemed to me that she was still very interested in more contact. The other thing, along with my whole personality that could have put her off is that I said something like “you have to be able to figure out that I am rich”. I said this in the context of please maybe you and your friend that I had met have a restaurant that you would like to go to that is over budget, I would love to treat.
Off I went to explore, move to a new hotel etc. I had no idea my honeymoon had ended. I texted her 3 times at reasonable intervals. The first was just a what I am doing, probably the next morning. The second one, later in the day, again careful not to expose my concern was suggesting a meeting. And the last, a day later, was thanking her for the time she spent with me and promising not to try to contact her again.
We had traded phone numbers, by her calling me, outside the first breakfast red sign.
Ok, back the the beginning. Now you know how the story will end so hopefully you will be prepared! Below is the pedestrian street that I walked before the red sign breakfast opened.
A touch of nostalgia. You can see this area is called Hankon Historical area and you can see that I am not the first English speaking tourist though I saw almost no non-Chinese in my 4 days in Wuhan.
Even an historical marker
And I havd blown up the two English paragraphs
The above one just talks about how this Historical Area fits into the larger Wuhan ones. A close read will let you see that the English is very good put not perfect.
The above text concentrates on this road in what was the Russian Concession. I hope Lee will not be too disappointed that I take this short break from telling out compelling story.
I think below is some kind of CPC building
And then the famous breakfast sign. By this time the alleyway shop was open and the people who had been milling around were ordering and taking away their items. How was I going to handle this? Just walk up and point to one. Only a small amount of money to lose. I must have started to ask a question or icked something and the woman shook her head. Anyway, Wuhan Less stepped forward, offered to help and had me order this item:
Perfect chance to get an innocent picture of her and I missed it! God knows what it was, some kind of flavored rice on a stick? My memory is that once I had breakfast and she was still standing around, I approached her and started a conversation. As I may have said above, her English was very strong. The fact that she studied Hemingway may have given me a certain appeal! We walked slowly down the pedestrian mall I have shown you above, talking. At the bottom of the street 20? young men were waiting outside a clothing store. I asked Lee what was up and she went over and found out they were waiting for the release of a new sneaker. I think there was a a natural meeting of her journalist curiosity and my presence as an “excuse” to ask questions, “My foreign friend wonders…”. We talked a lot about bars, where I could get good beer, etc. I spend the next 3 nights at No 18 that she recommended and was very good.
Whether by chance or plan we ended up at a noodle bar. Lee insisted on introducing me to the typical Wuhan noodle breakfast. She shepherded me through the ordering process and these were the condiments that I could put on the hot noodles.
We then went to sit on a stoop, wait for the noodles to cool and eat. Other people from the neighborhood were gathered around and occasionally Lee would ask me a question from them. We talked non-stop. Her airbnb roomate, doing the same journalistic story interviewing as she was doing, came over and we shook hands.
It has occured to me, and this is clearly just a crazy excuse for my loss, that this was all a set up, a check out the foreigner and that Lee was connected to the CPC.
Just as we all have had the experience on the first days of a new school or job that one makes friends for life, so I think my first real day in China I was giving off vibes that said I was open to anyone so inclined to engage. After a few days in country , I might just become more defensive and wary of being approached. More pretending that I knew what I was doing.
A last note. I wrote the first paragraphs about Lee while I was still in China so I would not forget all the details and I am completing this page 5 months! later. I was so ashamed that I had forgotten her name even before I texted her the first time. I am just terrible with names. So I made up this Wuhan Lee name.
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