Every Westerner in China, except weirdos and traitors, eventually gets tired of eating Chinese food every day and begins to long for change, and more than that, for old favorites from home. If you live in Beijing, Shanghai, or another large, modern city, there’s a good chance you can satisfy these desires. But if you’re like me, living in little Lin’an, you have few options.
So when I went to Hangzhou last week I intended to make up for that, and hoped to, at worst, find a Pizza Hut. We did that, my girlfriend and I, and also ended up having a nice surprise. A little treat. Earlier in the day we went to a large public square, I’ve forgetton the name already, which was lined with many booths of sellers hawking various odds and ends — mostly junk, but interesting none the less. I was rather daunted by the surging mass of Chinese flowing, bumping, nudging against and around me to the point I quickly lost my appetite for shopping. But as we made our way through this morass of humanity I spotted something unexpected: a sign with a large ‘D’ immediately followed by a large ‘Q’. Bliss! “Follow me woman!” I ordered my girlfriend, and pulled her along.