Global Village

SHANGHAI Love rat exposes letter

Remember the days when young lovers would exchange sappy poems on scented paper, before curt e-mails and brief text messages replaced conversation? Okay, so maybe the perfumed notes were reserved for wholesome movies like Grease, but it's nice to know romance is not dead.

Greg of Shanghai obviously thought so. On receiving a "great love letter" last month, the French speaker was spurred to share it with anyone who stumbled upon his blog. The love rat clearly had no problem exposing what purports to be a woman's secret anguish.

"Every day you are the very man I want to see. I feel nervous and exciting at the moment you appear [sic]," the letter says.

"Probably you will think how silly and foolish I am. But I don't care. I just want to express my feeling. I feel I am ill. I can't stop thinking of you.

"Everyday I see... your back and I like the smell of your smoking when you pass by me. Though I hate people smoking."

Greg claimed his "friend" received the letter in June from an assistant, whose name is deleted from the blog post. Though curiously, when a netizen says she hopes the amorous lady's desires were met, Greg responds: "sadly I don't think she was very happy with the result of her letter.... I did not go for it."

LIUZHOU, Guangxi

Shopping for a taste of home

Grocery shopping has become a cause for celebration among expats in the small city of Liuzhou, in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the first Western food store opened early this month.

Previously, satisfying a cheese craving meant crossing the Tropic of Cancer, en route to the region's capital city, Nanning, 255 kilometers away. A long bus ride to the outskirts of town, plus a cab ride into the central hub, was the usual method for foreigners hungry for a taste of home.

On his popular website, Liuzhou Laowai claimed the honor of being the first customer to The Pantry. The author said the foreign community had, "a bit of a celebration", to welcome the new store, a second venture for the owners of the Nanning business of the same name.

"I was tipped off an hot-footed it round there first thing in the morning. Friendly people! I managed to be their first customer," Liuzhou Laowai says.

"I wandered round looking and marveling at strange food I haven't seen in years!"

Finally, the blogger settled on a "lump of cheese, a bottle of gin and some tonic waters", reasoning: "what more does a man need?"

Liuzhou Laowai is a nominee for this year's Best Blog in Asia Award, published by the Misohoni website.

(China Daily 07/27/2007 page19)