Our guide here in Nanjing is named Min. Her husband is a police officer. When she told him last night that we would drive to Yangzhou (about 2hours away) today to visit the SWI, he insisted on calling his friend from YZ, who is also a police officer. As they chatted about this, the friend insisted on treating us all to lunch at a famous Yangzhou restaurant. Now, when Min was originally telling us this, I thought she said that the friend owned the restaurant, so I didn't think much about him wanting us to have lunch there. I also didn't know what to picture for a "famous" restaurant, having seen all kinds here in China. However, this place was beautiful; we were shown to a "VIP" room separate from the rest of the place; the table was beautifully set, complete with a lazy Susan so we could eat family style. And it was the best meal I'd had since arrivng here, maybe the best Chinese meal I've ever had. Min was the only bi-lingual one there (the police officer, his wife, and our van driver were there as well), but we all talked about China and America, and it was very pleasant. We offered politely to split the check, but the young (couldn't have been much older than us) man insisted that he would pay, "because we are friends". He said it was enough that we enjoyed our meal.
It was very kind and an unexpected blessing.
PS- I could spend another post on the driving part.... yikes!... and on how many layers Chinese mommies use in dressing thier children. I was warned of this by many people, so our son was wearing knit pants under his jeans, and a long sleeved Tshirt, flannel shirt, and heavy coat through lunch... however, the young wife still insisted to Min that "he was cold" because he didn't have four layers on....
