Christmas in China

Last night we went to a hot pot place. Hot pot restaurants, where you cook your food yourself in small pots of boiling broth, are extremely popular. When Stephen tried to make a reservation, he was told there was at least a 2 hour wait. So we decided to go elsewhere but Stephen gave them my cell phone number in case a table opened up. We went to another restaurant that served both Chinese and Western cuisine and had just ordered some steaks (with some apprehension) when I received a text message from the hot pot restaurant saying that we could come now. We sheepishly abandoned the steaks and ran to the hot pot restaurant.

We had a great but not too heavy meal with slices of lamb and beef, various types of seafood and vegetables, cellophone noodles and rice cakes, and the long-stemmed skinny mushrooms that we have often eaten. And several bottles of Suntory beer. The waitresses were very friendly and helpful. I continue to be impressed by the customer service we are getting everywhere, despite our limited ability to communicate in Chinese. Stephen seems very comfortable here, even though he still speaks a microscopic amount of Chinese.

The only thing that marred the meal was that the restaurant played nonstop Christmas carols. It was as if we were eating inside some American shopping mall. If you can't escape the cheesy American Christmas carols in China, where can you? China seems to have adopted the American secular and commercial version of Christmas. There are decorated Christmas trees and poinsettias everywhere. Lots of waitresses and store clerks wearing Santa hats. But absolutely no sign of the original religious meaning of Christmas.