SPARE OF THE MOMENT ADVENTURES

It was Chinese New Year Spring Festival holiday; all my friends had gone away on travels back home to their families, including my roommates. It was so quiet, but I kind of liked it. I didn’t feel at all lonely, I felt independent and adventurous. I set out on a big adventure to Hangqiao, about two hours away. But firstly, my trip had to begin with me face planting onto the concrete tiles outside my apartment after missing the smallest singular step. Hoping that no one saw me, I got up, looked around and walked it off- it’s cool, I’m alive, no damage- Sweet!

I’m walking down the main strip to the local bus stop as I’m approached my this young man wearing a black fur coat smoking a cigarette. He said hello and introduced himself in Chinese and told me he’s a neighbour of mine living in the building infront. He then points to my face and knee and tells me he saw the clumsy white girl fall over the step and asks if I’m okay. I brushed it off like it was nothing since I was in no pain and felt like such an idiot now knowing that I was watched, but he was concerned. He asked where I was going , I told him I was travelling to Hangqiao and he decided to tag along and show me where to go.

At first I was a bit creeped out, I had no idea who this person was, or where we were going- but I took that risk and ended up having an amazing adventurous day! It took two and a half hours to get to Hongqiao, a bus and two subway trains. We were very lucky on our last train. The doors were about to close as we approached the train. He jumped on, grabbed my hand, and I was then caught between him and the platform with the train doors closed. I had no idea where we were and couldn’t afford to be stuck on my own at a train station. I literally had seconds to bust the door open and shove a crowd of asians to the side so I could get on. The train was absolutely packed. I just made it, thankfully.

Hongqiao was so nice! Very busy area, heaps of traffic and people. We managed to have a decent look around and a little shopping before heading to some street markets for dinner! He paid for the cab ride and even bought me dinner! He couldn’t speak any English, we managed to cope the entire day in Chinese. After dinner we jumped into another cab to a huge shopping mall full of high-end retail shops. He told me his favourite shop was Zara, so we walked into this 4 level Zara shop and spent a decent hour looking around. He kept encouraging me to try things on, but I wasn’t that interested as I had just done a huge clothes shopping spree the night before at Joy City. He was determined to buy me something, I had no idea why, but he wanted me to touch something or pick something up in the shop for him to buy me. While walking around Zara, he wrapped a mustard coloured scarf around my neck and told me he loved it, it suited me, and that he was going to buy it for me to wear. I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. It was a $60AUD scarf. I still had no idea who this person was, but I really do love the scarf! As he opened his wallet to pay, it was full of pink 100 yuan notes, atleast counting into the thousands of dollars. For someone like me who pays everything on card and never pays in cash, I had never seen so much money in my life.

We hopped into another cab which took us to the VMAX Movie theatre, he wanted to watch a Chinese movie. By this time it was about 8PM, and to be honest I was exhausted. I was really interested in seeing a movie though, espescially in Chinese! Again, he wouldn’t accept any money from me- he paid for everything- tickets, popcorn, drinks, even ice-cream- I was in for a real treat! The movie was great, I was able to understand most of it in Chinese by following the characters down in the subtitles.

I can’t even describe the happiness from this day. I couldn’t believe everything that had happened. From a planned independent adventure, lasting a whole of five minutes, to meeting an amazing friend who gave me thr royal tour of Hongqiao, local street markets, high-end shopping and movies. So many adventures in one! I’m so lucky to have met him in such a spare of the moment, maybe I should fall over more often.

#whitegirlinasia #adventures