"Here you go, these are all Chinatowns. I only know these five, and there may be more, but I don't know." Zhou Xiaoli snatched Hong Tao's map, took out a pencil, and drew a few forks on it.
Then he threw it to Hong Tao.
"Five!? Are there so many Chinese here?" Hong Tao looked at the forks on the map, which were almost all over the city.
"There are too many. Hong Kong has the most people, and there are also many from Taiwan. You from the mainland came later, but the scale is getting bigger and bigger. There are tens of thousands of international students alone. In many middle schools, the entire class is Chinese."
"Then why are you still here? Isn't it the same as going to school in China?" Hong Tao didn't believe it.
"How do I know this? Just go and see for yourself when you have time." Zhou Xiaoli drove the car very fast. There were not many cars on the highway anyway, and she soon entered the city.
"We're almost there. You can make a call. My company's phone number is also on the phone. I'll buy you a phone card when I get home today." As soon as we entered the city, there were more and more people and cars. Hong Tao opened the car window.
He went to watch the peep show, but it wasn't until Zhou Xiaoli took out her cell phone that he remembered to call Zhou Dajiang.
"In front, in front, I saw him, the one in red." Hong Tao had sharp eyes and saw Zhou Dajiang standing on the roadside from a distance. This old man was wearing a red down jacket.
The collar was still open, revealing the large gold chain about the thickness of a chopstick.
Zhou Dajiang's house is also a two-story small building, but this type of small building is in a row, one next to the other. There is no lawn or garden in front of the door. As for what is behind the house, Hong Tao can't see it.
"Then I'll leave first. You two, please be safe and call me anytime if you have anything you don't understand." Zhou Xiaoli said a casual greeting and drove off.
"Brother, is this really your boss? It doesn't look like it to me!" Zhou Dajiang pointed at the back of Zhou Xiaoli's car and asked Hong Tao with a smirk.
"It's necessary. You're really the boss. As an elder brother, you can't talk nonsense." Hong Tao was noncommittal. He didn't know how to explain it to Zhou Dajiang, and there was no need to explain it too clearly.
"That's it, boss, just boss. Let's go inside to warm up." Zhou Dajiang led Hong Tao into a small building next to him.
The layout of Zhou Dajiang's house is similar to that of Zhou Xiaoli's house. There is the foyer at the entrance, the stairs to the second floor on the opposite side, the living room on the left, the dining room and kitchen on the right, and the bathroom and back door next to the stairs. However, the decoration and decoration here are more Chinese.
Even the sofa in the living room is covered with a small blanket with Chinese characters printed on it. There are also two pots of green plants in the corner of the room, the kind called lucky bamboo.
"Brother, can it be just the two of us? I can't understand a word of English." Zhou Dajiang brought Hong Tao a cup of tea.
"Tsk, don't worry, you can't lose it. I can understand English, but it's not easy to speak, and we have a map. My boss just said that there are Chinese people all over the streets here, and we can be lost.
With my heart in my heart, let me take a look. Let’s go here as our first stop. It’s relatively close to your home.
"Let's try it first. If it works, we'll continue shopping. If it doesn't work, let's come back. Do you think so?" Hong Tao took out the map again and pointed to a fork on it and explained to Zhou Dajiang.
Zhou Dajiang didn't know whether he understood or not. He stared and neither nodded nor shook his head.
"Set off!"
"Set off!"
After drinking half a cup of tea, Hong Tao and Zhou Dajiang got dressed neatly, cheered each other up at the door of the house, and took the first step of shopping with a fearless spirit that would never regret it.
The place they were going to was very close to Zhou Dajiang's home. According to the map, it was less than 3 kilometers away. It was a street called steelesAve.
"Brother, I think what your boss said makes sense. Brother, I counted carefully. When we left my neighborhood, we saw a total of 14 people who looked the same as us, as well as 3 foreigners and 2 black people." Zhou
Dajiang walked around and looked around.
"I can't say for sure. I heard that the area where you live is a Chinese community. It's not surprising that there are more Chinese people. Hey, look, isn't this the aunt who goes to the morning market?" Hong Tao was refuting Zhou Dajiang's point of view.
Before they even landed, three elderly Asian women walked across the road, pulling a very familiar car in their hands. They were exactly the same as the elderly people who get up to go to the morning market in Beijing in the morning.
"Just wait, I'll go over and ask." Zhou Dajiang became more courageous now. He ran over to meet them, chatted with the aunts for a few words, and then ran back.
"People from Fujian, please put away that map of yours. They said you can just walk straight there. The streets here are all straight, no turning." Zhou Dajiang's chest was straightened out, his steps were longer, and he was humming a ditty.
.
After passing an intersection, Hong Tao saw a large building similar to Beijing Railway Station in the distance, with red walls and a glass roof. Since there are basically no tall buildings here, he could see two rows of buildings in the distance.
Square characters.
"Brother Zhou, cross the road. It's probably the one in front. I've seen the Chinese sign." Hong Tao grabbed Zhou Dajiang, who was still walking forward, and pointed at the big red building.
"Taikoo Folk Village! This name is so kind. Look at the scale of this posture." Zhou Dajiang stood at the gate, looking at the Chinese characters on the wall, smiling so hard that he couldn't close his mouth.
"Brother Zhou, have you been to Wantong and Tianyi?" When Hong Taoyi walked in here, the first thing he saw was the red lantern hanging high, and then a bunch of Chinese signs.
"I go there often. Don't tell me, it looks a bit similar." Zhou Dajiang also turned his head and looked around.
"But there are still differences."
"What's the difference?" Hong Tao thought about it carefully, but he didn't notice any difference. Those Chinese signs were also in simplified characters.
"There are few people and it's clean. Look at how clean the floor is here. A fly would have to do splits if it stood on it." Zhou Dajiang slid his feet on the ground.
Hong Tao walked to the shopping guide of the shopping mall next to him and took a closer look. There were about 400 stalls in the mall, divided into upper and lower floors. There were all kinds of department stores, and there were many Chinese restaurants on the second floor. The two of them randomly found a few stores.
After walking around, I saw that the waiters in shops selling glasses, food, and clothes were all Chinese. Not only could they speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and some Taiwanese, but on the contrary, fluent English was not an issue here.
So popular.
"Brother, have you just come from China? You have come to my store at the right time. My clothes are all made in China. They are beautiful, strong and affordable. Look at your figure.
It's a clothes rack. You can look smart no matter what you wear. Come on, come on.
Sister, help you choose one." Hong Tao and Zhou Dajiang walked into a clothing store. Hong Tao took a fancy to a thick cotton coat. Just as he was about to touch it, a pretty lady rushed over. Hong Tao didn't say a word.
By the way, she has almost finished reading a paper.
"Sister, how long have you been holding back your words? How did you know we had just arrived?" Zhou Dajiang was happy when he heard this. The accent was the same as his, so it was a fake.
Dalian native.
"No need to ask. The clothes and shoes you are wearing are not sold anywhere in Canada, let alone Toronto. If this is not the first time, who would go to China to buy clothes? There are also big brothers.
Your hair style is so cool. The barbershops here don’t have this skill." This lady can really say that her small mouth is like a machine gun.
"Oh, sister, you are so capable. You can even catch up with Sherlock Holmes. Just because of your eyesight, I will risk everything today and buy some clothes from you, but you will give me a discount."
Right?" Zhou Dajiang must have been depressed these past two days. As long as he finds someone willing to chat with him, he will spend money.
"You're just like a foreigner when you say this, aren't you? We don't practice price negotiation here, all prices are clearly marked, but buying things here is not only cheaper than in stores, but you don't have to pay tax," the eldest sister said to Hong Tao.
Looking for that coat, Zhou Dajiang was not ignored.
"What kind of tax should I pay? Don't you have to pay tax when I buy something?" Zhou Dajiang was confused, and Hong Tao was also a monk.
"Hey, I wasn't used to it when I first came here. People who buy things here pay taxes. For example, if you buy a lighter for 1 yuan, the tax rate here is 13%. When you finally check out, you have to pay 1 yuan.
It’s 1 yuan and 3 cents, that’s how they stipulate it.”
