HANGZHOU – It’s official. Seinfeld has made its way to China.
On my first evening in Hangzhou, I decided to visit the absurdly enormous supermarket/shopping mall that is about four or five blocks from my new apartment. It’s one of those classic Asian mega-stores that make Wal-Mart look like a 7-11. It’s at least seven times larger than any store a non-Chinese person would ever want to shop in, and there are at least three bigger supermarkets in downtown Hangzhou alone.
As I made my way past the mid-sized aquarium that is the live seafood section, I spotted a middle-aged Chinese woman with George Costanza’s favorite break-up line printed in stylish black lettering across the chest of her tank-top: “It’s not you, it’s me.”
I can’t imagine she has any idea what that means, but I was, of course, thrilled.
PS: I live in Hangzhou now.
I’ll be here for the next three weeks doing an Olympics-themed summer camp for primary school students. After that, it’s on to Beijing for what could be the most interesting Olympics of my admittedly short lifetime (I wasn’t around for the 1980 Games in Moscow), and what will almost certainly be the most crowded ten days of my life (which includes the four days I spent sleeping on the floor of a restaurant at a fully-booked hostel on Koh Phangnan when every hotel on the island was booked for New Year’s).
Mike's Adventures in China 