Tales of Old China

This is a true story by the way. It doesn't matter too much, but I guess it's worth you knowing that.

My name is….. Well my name isn't important. What's important is that I'm now in my late 20's, male, tall, fit, dark haired, blue eyed and have been told that I'm good looking. Got that in your mind? Ok, let's go.

Three years ago, I spent about fourteen months in the Far East, first in Korea, but mainly in China. Around February comes the Chinese New Year, which is a big deal there (obviously) and I was given a month off from my job as a middle school teacher. I used that month to travel. I went down the Yangtze into Yunnan Province then up into Sichuan, where I came to the city of Cheng Du. A place famous throughout China for its liberal lifestyle. My second day there, I'd just been buying a train ticket for the next day's journey onto Chongqing, when a smartly dressed Chinese man addressed me in perfect English as I was crossing the street. We made small talk and he invited me to share some tea with him. The place he suggested was by the river and looked intriguing, I decided to accompany him and continue our conversation. He was very intelligent, a professor of English at the local University. We discussed many things, from Shakespeare to Politics, he also asked me a number of questions about myself. Where I was from exactly, my education etc. After an hour or so, a friend of his showed up. He was another well dressed, cultured Chinese gentleman, but without the fluent English. It was getting late; they invited me to dinner with them.

Now, at this point I was wondering what the hell was going on. This was beyond simple politeness on their part. They obviously wanted something from me, but I didn't have a clue what it was. It didn't feel like a sensible thing to do, but my curiosity took hold and I went with them.

They drove me to what remains the most exclusive restaurant I've ever been to. The car park was filled with the kind of long black sedan only used by Communist party leading lights.