Before I moved to China one year ago, I spent a week in Taipei with my dad. As he attended work conferences during the day, I went sightseeing. After sundown, we explored Taiwan’s famed night markets together. It was the trip of a lifetime.
One daytime excursion brought me to the National Palace Museum. When Mao drove Chiang Kai-shek off Mainland China in 1949, Chiang took the nation’s most valued ancient artifacts with him. Much of what he could not carry later met a sad demise during the Cultural Revolution. As a huge history nerd, I was slurping back spittle as I made my way into the first exhibit. What I did not expect was someone behind me to call me by name.
Well I’ll be damned – it was Mandy Limm. Mandy was one year ahead of me in high school, and we were both long-distance track and cross-country runners. Unlike many all-star athletes, Mandy is prodigiously humble. She’s also a total babe aside from the natural smile that betrays how genuine she is. Straining to contain my excitement in a museum-friendly volume of speech, I learned that Mandy had come to Taipei with her boyfriend to celebrate surviving the first year of med school. Smiling broadly, we hugged and said our farewells. I had not heard from her in five years, and I have not seen her since.
Fast-forward twelve months. A few days ago, a few friends and I went to Beijing’s famed 798 Art District, a hip neighborhood of abandoned warehouses transformed into modern art galleries. After making our rounds, we shared laughed over food and drink at a Yunnan-style restaurant in a pristine but scarcely frequented shopping mall.
Waiting on the subway platform for a train to take me home, I spotted a young Asian man who looked strikingly familiar. We made eye contact, but it elicited no reaction. Thirty seconds later, we stood beside each other on the same subway car. Peeping over his shoulder, I noticed that he was reading English text on his iPhone. It must be him. Timid as I felt, I mustered the strength to tap the man on the shoulder.
“Excuse me, are you Nathan Chang?”
Just as I suspected, I had bumped into my old JV Cross-Country assistant coach. I had not seen Nathan since I was a high school freshman and he a newly minted graduate. Incredulous at the chances of finding each other in a city of 20 million, we swapped phone numbers and made plans to go running together the following week. After disembarking at the same stop, we learned that we live not five minutes from each other.
Next week, I’ll find my old track jacket and jog to the nearest art festival. China can be so delightfully surprising that I’ve begun to expect nothing else.
Note: To protect the privacy of my friends, I changed their names before posting.
一年以前，我搬到了中国。在这之前，我跟我爸爸一起去台北住了一个星期。白天爸爸参加工作会议，我自己到处游览。日落以后，我们一起去台湾著名的夜市玩。快活极了，这真是一生中非常难忘的旅行。
其中一天我一个人去游览了故宫博物馆。一九四九年毛泽东驱逐蒋介石的时候，蒋介石把中国最有价值的古文物都带到台湾故宫来了。可惜大多数那些他无法带出来的古文物都在文化大革命的时候被破坏了。我这个人很喜欢历史，看着这些古文物展览品让我兴奋及了，没想到身后有人叫我。
回头一看是林曼迪。在高中她比我高一年级，我们俩都是跑长跑和越野跑的运动员。跟很多明星运动员不一样，曼迪非常谦逊。 她长得非常漂亮，脸上常常挂着真诚的微笑。激动极了，但是因为是在展览馆里，我们只得压低声音聊天。从我们的聊天中，我得知她是和她的男朋友来台北庆祝他们生存了第一年的医学院的。之后我们笑着互相拥抱告别。一别已经五年了，我从此再也没有跟她见过面。
快速前进十二个月。 日前，我和几个朋友去看北京很著名的798艺术区，那儿有很多废弃的仓库改造的现代艺术画廊。参观了这些画廊之后，我们去了一家购物中心里的云南饭馆吃饭聊天。
回家的路上，在我等地铁的时候看到了一个看起来很熟悉的华裔。我们彼此看了对方一下，但没有让出对方。我注意到他在用他的iPhone看英文。肯定是他！我轻轻的拍了他的肩膀一下，问他：对不起，你是不是张来生？
正如我所猜想的，我碰到了我以前JV越野跑的助理教练。自从高一之后，（他那时刚刚大学毕业）我还没跟他见过面。能在一个二十万人的城市碰到让我们很惊讶；我们很快就交流了电话号码，也打算下个星期一起去跑步。下车以后，我们发现我住的房子离他的房子很近
下一年，我会穿上我的旧的运动衣，慢跑去参加最近的艺术节。中国充满着让人惊讶得事，谁知道我又会碰到什么样的事情。