Invited English Friends to

　　I Invited English Friends to Drink Black Tea

　　I asked James and Max, "How does it taste？" As English，they certainly knew better about Black Tea than I do. "Very good！" They said unhesitatingly. It was 7：05 p.m.，November 6th. A few minutes before，we were strangers. I met them on the street and invited them to drink Black Tea in a cafe on Sanlitun Bar Street.

　　James Whitehouse is studying for a Ph.D. in the Open University of England and Max Marshall is a nurse at a London hospital. They arrived at Beijing in the morning. After they got off the plane，they went to Tiananmen Square，and stayed there until late evening. They were thinking of having Beijing Roasted Duck as their first dinner in Beijing when they met me，a journalist working for the news column International Friends Eating in Beijing.

　　 "What other Chinese dishes do you know except Beijing Roasted Duck？" I asked. "Yuntun！" James and Max replied and told me that Chinese restaurants are all around England and their number is the biggest among the foreign restaurants except that of Indian restaurants. James likes Chinese food best and Max likes both Chinese food and Indian food. "You should taste some real Chinese dishes in Beijing，" I said proudly，"We Chinese are good at cooking. You see，we can even make real good traditional English Black Tea." "You said real good traditional？" James and Max smiled to each other and said，"The Black Tea here is good，but not the same as traditional English Black Tea. We usually add milk into the Black Tea." I felt a little uneasy. I had taken their polite words to be a praise of Beijing Black Tea. I changed the topic and said，"I know you English like drinking afternoon tea and now I'm treating you to evening tea." "Well，drinking afternoon tea is old-fashioned. We English people today have dropped the habit because the life pace is much faster."......

　　 James and Max are leaving Beijing today and will continue their tour around China. Maybe I'll never see them again，but our talk which was a little more than half an hour revealed to me the truth that it takes time to know oneself and to know others.

　　 “味道怎么样？”我问道。詹姆斯和麦克斯爽快地回答：“好，很好！”我颇为自豪地说，“中国人是不是很擅长厨艺？你们瞧，连英国红茶都泡得很正宗！”“你是说正宗？”詹姆斯和麦克斯相视一笑，“这里的红茶确实不错，但跟我们家乡的还是不同。我们喜欢在里面加牛奶，你们不加。”一时间，我有点不好意思了。我居然没听出来，人家刚才夸茶好是客气。“你们不是爱喝下午茶吗？我这就算请喝傍晚茶吧。”我解嘲道。“不，那是过去的事儿了。现在英国人生活节奏很快，已经没有这个习惯了。”……

　　 与两个英国小伙子短短半个多小时聊天儿，让我记住了一个道理：了解自己和了解别人，都不那么容易。(李海青)