John Abbot

My first vacation in China was, I thought, well planned and well thought out.

I was newly single, having recently separated from my girlfriend of 3 years, the shortest of my 5 long-term relationships with western women, evidence enough that I was incapable of maintaining a lifetime partnership with any woman born and raised in North America.

The Chinese do not take vacations in the same way that we do in the West. We each slot our own time away from work, carefully scheduling that time to not conflict with the holidays of our co-workers or colleagues. Due to school holidays of our children there are busier seasons and slower seasons, but with the exception of a few days around Christmas and New Year, overall life and business goes on as usual with little interruption.

I learned that night that Chinese love to sleep on really hard beds (at least they say they love it, but I suspect it is related directly to their budget because I've noticed that the wealthy Chinese seem to mysteriously opt for very comfortable Sealy's and the like). Most hotels, except for the very top end 5 Stars, have beds that are just too hard for us spoiled Westerners, and this hotel, perhaps a consequence of its Red Army ownership, had a bed that was like concrete covered by a single cotton sheet.

You've taken the giant step of joining an Online Dating Website to pursue your dream of finding your Chinese or Asian soulmate. You've spent a lot of time and effort meeting, messaging and chatting with all number of potential mates, good and bad, and now you've found her. You're sure she's the one, and she feels the same way about you. Now what do you do?

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