Fruit Seller ChaoMiao， the one who only became fruit seller in order to properly having time to read， introduces me into the diversity of “lychee” (Chinese： li zhi 荔枝， to be pronounced li je， with a final schwa sound that is located back in the throat). Who in Europe knows that these fruits are from the province of GuangDong and that ShenZhen virtually is the global capital of lychee？ Sure， I have seen these trees in almost any park in ShenZhen， and they are in many settlements， but I was not aware that they were planted really systematically on the slopes of the hills and mountains in and around ShenZhen， and then harvested and exported into all world！ Except， of course， for the tons of lychee that are in ShenZhen sold and eaten at every corner.
Who knows that there are at least a dozen varieties， not to mention the Dragon Eye， one of many li zhi species？ ChaoMiao always tells me in all detail， she is happy about this alien who is struggling with Chinese and wants to learn about her world. One day she shows me a fruit， asking me if I was familiar with it. I deny， she tells me it was a “pi pa”， and I ask her to show me the Chinese characters (we do that with my Chinese cell phone： 枇杷)， then at night I look into my Chinese-English PC dictionary and find that I do not even know the English word – loquat！
But even that hurdle is low – it is an Asian variety of medlar！ First， I confuse the word with the mistletoe， known from the magic potion in the Asterix cartoons (reasonable， for in German the mistletoe is distinguished from the medlar by a single consonant only： mistel/mispel) and which I cannot imagine to bear edible fruits， but the medlar is indeed a completely different plant， and what kind of fruit it bears ChaoMiao has taught me. This fruit is wonderfully acidic and fresh， ChaoMiao’s marketing campaign was a complete success with me.
Far more difficult to be investigated was a different fruit， “shan zhu” (which ChaoMiao persistently pronounced “san doo”， but I found out after unspeakable troubles that this was not standard Chinese pronunciation， but standard Chinese I need to understand or to type into my cell phone what it might be). “Shan zhu” 山竹 literally means Mountain Bamboo， and I thought for one second that it constituted perhaps the fruit of the bamboo. Far from that， it has nothing to do with bamboo at all. It is a delicious fruit that you have to peel out of a hard shell that is 3 to 4 mm thick， and then you will eat a white， soft， fleshy (containing some seeds) interior which consists of several parts and has a fruity and refreshing sour taste. The fruit is imported from Southeast Asia. In English， this fruit is called mangosteen – mangostan in German – from the shell tea can be prepared， moreover this fruit is also used for medicine since ancient times.
Grandma LaoLao is no such simple conversation partner， and her beautiful granddaughter is very quiet. LaoLao is speaking Cantonese， which is as far away from Mandarin， the standard Chinese that I am trying to learn， as Oz is from Oxford English； sorry， this is but my personal impression and not meant to be scientifically exact， true connoisseurs may think otherwise and forgive me. But Grandma LaoLao makes an effort， she tries to speak Mandarin， and little by little I understand better and better.
The bicycle transportation services are a funny breed. They have no easy task， certainly they do not earn very much， make ends meet just about so， I suppose， but I have never seen even one bad-tempered man or woman of this profession. On the contrary， they like to communicate with each other， with others， and – if I address them
– even with me. And they can perfectly relax on their uncomfortable vehicles. I consider my biggest success that I am able to talk to taxi drivers， including my
precious Fang ShiFu， about everything (about his exploits as a lorry driver， for example)， for Fang ShiFu is speaking primarily Cantonese， and most taxi drivers in ShenZhen are blessed with all the dialects and languages， which China can boast， and of these there are a great many. And I’m a little proud that I can talk to engineer Su about birds and how to photograph them， and to craftsman Wang on bicycles to be repaired (and more).