Dumplings, Green Tea and West Lake
YoYo welcomed me to Hangzhou with an impromptu language lesson, dumplings and a walk by the lake.
When I arrived in Hangzhou, YoYo was there to meet me. She was around my age and had recently joined the company after moving from Shenzhen. I was surprised by how far she, too, was from home.
Her work involved encouraging potential students to take an interest in the English courses. That day, though, she was helping one very inexperienced new teacher find her feet.
In the taxi, I told her I wanted to learn Chinese. She offered to teach me.
Lesson one began at the hotel, where she tried to get me to ask to check in. I don’t remember being particularly successful.
My room was a change from the Holiday Inn. It had a bed and a view over an alleyway, where e-bikes passed a little baozi kiosk. I was still learning how to judge unfamiliar places, and it all looked rather makeshift to me.
YoYo gave me about five minutes to put down my things before taking me out to explore.
Our first stop was a restaurant below the Yingtai shopping mall, where she ordered dumplings and noodles. Despite some instruction from colleagues in Shanghai, I was still hopeless with chopsticks.
YoYo asked the server for a knife and fork.
It seemed to take about ten minutes to find them. I sat there feeling conspicuous, but the food was worth it. After discovering Yang’s dumplings in Shanghai, I was beginning to realise that eating might become one of my favourite parts of living in China.
Next came West Lake, the place whose photographs had helped persuade me to choose Hangzhou.
At first, the surroundings felt more landscaped and resort-like than I had expected. Even so, I was already imagining spending my days off walking beside the water.
We continued along a traditional shopping street, passing shops displaying qipaos and stalls selling green tea. I remember the tapping of a silversmith working on bracelets and rings.
An older woman invited us into her tea shop to try some green tea. We sat down while she and YoYo chatted in Chinese. I couldn’t follow the conversation, but I was happy to be included.
As we left, I asked how much I owed.
‘It’s free,’ YoYo said.
That small invitation made the city feel welcoming. I had arrived expecting to struggle through unfamiliar situations, and here was someone inviting me to sit down for tea.
During our walk, I asked about my future manager. His name was Andrea, although people called him Andy, and I still knew very little about him. Someone had described him as ‘a little eccentric’. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
YoYo said he had been worried about me. Perhaps my lack of WeChat hadn’t helped.
She told me he had a Chinese wife and a young daughter, had lived in China for years and hoped to make it his permanent home.
I was still treating my own stay as a temporary experiment. The idea that someone might build their whole future here surprised me.
By the end of the afternoon, I had eaten well, attempted some Chinese and accepted a stranger’s invitation to tea. Tomorrow, I would meet the people I was going to work with.
Hangzhou was beginning to feel like somewhere I could get to know.