Three years ago I travelled to China to see the country. I had always been fascinated by the rich history and wonderful places that China offered. I went there by plane. The plane took off from Melbourne Airport and landed in Shanghai after eleven hours. I went from the airport to the hotel. At the hotel I slept for eight hours. I then woke up and went downtown to see the city. Shanghai is a big city. It is bigger than New York and London. People there speak Chinese. I took my camera with me and took many photos of the streets, the buildings and the shopping centres there.
When I went back to the hotel I didn't find my passport. This was a big problem for me because I was supposed to travel to London and Paris after that. I spoke to some people woh worked at the hotel but their English was not good enough. Then I asked to meet the manager. The manager was a lady who spoke good English. She felt sorry for me and told me to inform the Australian Embassy in China about my losing my passport. She also made some phone calls and told me she would take care of the problem.
After some hours the manager rang me in my hotel room. She told me that someone had found my passport and gave it to the police. She gave me the address of the police station and told me to go there at once.
I took a taxi and went to the police station. The officers there spoke good English. They explained to me that a lady had found the passport at a shopping centre and gave it to an officer at the police station. I felt happy.
I insisted on going to the lady's house to thank her. One officer took me to a taxi outside the police station and told the driver in Chinese where to go.
After a few minutes I arrived at the lady's house. She was so beautiful. She spoke good English. I thanked her for finding my passport. I offered to give her some money as a reward for saving me a lot of trouble. She refused to take any money and thanked me politely.
I offered to take her out for dinner and she accepted. We went out together the next day. She showed me around Shanghai. After a few days we fell in love and I asked to marry her. She accepted my proposal and we got married in Shanghai. After a few months she came to Melbourne and we started living together. We have been living happily ever after.
Discussion:
What do you know about Shanghai?
Why did the writer travel to China?
How long ago did he travel there?
What airport did the plane land in?
Where did the writer go after leaving the airport?
Why do you think he slept for eight hours?
Where did he go after waking up?
What did he do with his camera?
Where did the writer lose his passport?
What did he do after finding out that he lost his passport?
Who did he talk to at the hotel about losing his passport?
What did the manager promise to do to help the writer?
Who did the manager telephone?
What did the manager tell the writer on the phone?
Where did the writer go to get his passport back?
Did the officers at the police station speak good English?
What did the officer tell the writer about the person who found the passport?
Where did the writer go after leaving the police station?
Why did the writer go there?
what did the police officer give the taxi driver?
Did the woman accept the money the writer offered?
Why did the writer offer to give the woman some money?
Where did the woman take the writer?
What happened after that?
Did the woman agree to marry the writer?
Where do the couple live now?
