摘要
I was born and brought up in Shanghai.Later, to follow my husband, I moved toBeijing. From the start I was impressed bythe courteous way the residents of theformer imperial city addressed people andtheir pleasing speech patterns, with curlingtongue to add an "er" pronunciation to manyof the Chinese words - so different from theflatter speech of Shanghai. Over the years inBeijing, I learned how to mimic the accentand found that the people of the two citiesare interestingly different in many ways. I was accustomed to sharing taxis when Iarrived, for in Shanghai, if you are going inthe same direction, strangers double up forcheaper fares. In the capital, however, it ishard to find someone willing to get in ifsomeone is already inside. One weekend,
