The Restaurant Owner
I was buying dinner at a local restaurant today when a fifty year old man stopped me to talk. I am always a little suspicious at first of these sorts of situations, as I have met some pretty strange people before under similar circumstances. It turns out, however, that the man was the owner of the restaurant and had wanted to talk to me for some time, but never could before because he was always too busy with his business.
My local chao tian guo restaurant.
I had always wanted to meet the owner and chat with him too, because his restaurant is well known in Weifang, not because it is large, it’s not, but because it serves a local speciality, chao tian guo, which is a kind of wrap where the meat is boiled in a broth. In the past in China the rich people would eat the meat from chao tian guo while the poor people would drink the broth – still getting the flavor of the meat. Since it is Weifang’s speciality, business men often bring out-of-town guests there for dinner.
Anyway, I was just really pleasantly surprised to finally meet this man and to learn that he too had wanted to meet me. I generally find people like him in China to be very interesting. He was standing outside in the cold just directing the traffic to his restaurant, and as such I certainly didn’t take him as the owner. When I got to talking to him, however, he spoke to me clearly and slowly so I could understand him, often this is no small feat. He even showed off a few phrases in English, like “Please sit down.” and “My name is Han Zhongwei.” Eventually, he asked me if I had been to the Great Wall and then sang a few short verses of a Chinese song about the Great Wall in a rich baritone. He asked me if we had music like that in America, to which I replied we had similar music, but that it was mostly in the western style. He asked me about American money and I promised I’d give him a few coins the next time I eat there. He was thrilled by this and said he’d use them to brag that he’d been to America to his friends.
Overall, it was just a nice short conversation, and is one of those little things that sometimes happens in China that just completely makes your day.
