Post by Evan Y Hacker 何艾文

One of the strangest things China did to me was turn me into a morning person. Before moving there, nobody would have expected to find me awake at 5am, unless I hadn’t gone to sleep yet. Yet there I was, walking through Shaoxing before sunrise with the local grandparents. One summer, I stayed at a house along 八字桥 (Bazi Bridge), an old stone bridge in one of the city’s historic waterways. Most mornings I was out the door before the sun came up. The canals were quiet and streets were empty. And the only people awake seemed to be me and an army of Chinese grandparents doing laundry and getting their morning exercise. They were surprised to see a foreigner. I think they were even more surprised to see one out in the wild at 5am. When people think about China, they often think about megacities, high-speed rail, or skyscrapers. Most of my favorite memories are much simpler. A canal. A stone bridge. A morning walk through an ancient water town while the rest of the world was still asleep. By the time 早饭 (breakfast), my favorite meal of the day, rolled around, the day already felt like a good one.

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