【正确答案】

A Japanese Student in Shanghai

One fine autumn day, Miss Hirooka set out on a journey to China to further her studies there. To her, China was a mysterious country. On the way, she indulged herself in wonderful imagination, and a desire came upon her to write articles on what she would see and hear in China. In less than a year, she has had fifteen short articles published successively in Asahi News, Japan. It is really no small achievement for a foreign student majoring in music.
Differences in material and cultural life between Japan and China made it easier for her to notice what others often ignore. Shortly after arriving in Shanghai she was greatly amused at one thing. Why does the dumpling-like thing that is similarly made up of a flour wrapper with meat stuffed inside have two totally different names, jiaozi and huntun? After careful study, she learned that jiaozi is stuffed with more meat and the wrapper is thicker, while huntun is stuffed with less meat and its wrapper is thinner. Huntun has soup to go with it; jiaozi is without soup. Southern people love to eat huntun, and people in northern China prefer jiaozi. She was happy with the discovery, as she would now clear up the doubts of other puzzled Japanese. But one thing remains unclear to her. Why so many shop assistants, restaurant attendants and local residents in Shanghai do not speak putonghua? So, she somewhat
complained, "Now I realize the spoken Chinese I have learned is merely Beijing dialect."
Having stayed in China for a long while, she has naturally made many friends. Nearly every one of them would say to her, "If you need any help, don't hesitate to say so." She believes these words are not like what the Japanese often say just for the sake of showing courtesy, but are from the heart of her Chinese friends.
She now has a deep love for Shanghai, not only because it is in this international metropolis that she has found the man she loves, but more importantly because she finds the people here to be so close and friendly to her.