Kindness

*originally posted 25 October 2007

We just got back to our hotel here in Xi’an to find a note slipped under our door:

Dear Mr Steven

My name is Xin, and I am the Guest Care Manager at the Hotel.

I apologize that our staff, for the time being, don’t speak well. In case there is a language. However I would like to help you whenever in need.

You can call me at —

Have a nice day.

…and then he proceeds to give us not only his work extension but also his cell number, “from 6:00 pm-after.” This guy has already bent over backwards for us. He booked us a driver to go see the terra-cotta soldiers tomorrow and also our train tickets for Chengdu. Now we feel a little guilty for making the comment this morning (amongst ourselves, of course) that “either this guy is really really really nice or he’s hustling us.”

It’s a striking comparison to what happened to us just minutes before. While we were walking home (I call everywhere home–even places I’m only staying one night at, like this one. Guess I adapt quickly!) this evening I felt the zipper of my camera case being undone–just in the nick of time. I whirled to my right and sure enough saw a woman’s arm out of the corner of my eye–and my bag was just about fully opened. I ran up to her and she would not look me in the eye. She was holding a baby, but in such an improper way that Steve swears it was a fake one. Close one! And not that it’s a huge deal in the grand scheme of things (actually I would temporarily flip out if the camera was stolen–all our pictures! Great Wall pictures!) but it was still…unsettling. And yes paps, I’ll be much more careful with the camera case from now on. Don’t worry.

On a happier note, I don’t think there were two goofier people on a tandem bike pedaling fast & furiously on Xi’an’s city walls than us this afternoon.