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If you ever wished you had met Harry Potter in person, I am glad to let you know that he lives in China now; he is a tour guide and his second name is Charles. He likes hip hop music, drinks plenty of green tea daily and eats both vegetable and rice, as most Chinese do. The peculiar thing with him, however, is that he learnt Shanghai from the steps of others, that is, by following unsuspecting strangers who used to walk fast or even run downtown. As he felt another ‘‘dot’’ in a computerized city of twenty-five million people, he used to follow his special crowd figures, because he thought this was the best way to become familiar with the backstreets and the pleasant corners of Shanghai. But, first, let me reveal you some inside information. Chinese people and Harry dislike the number four, because it reminds them of death and dead people. Some artistic and sophisticated hotels avoid giving the number four to their rooms. On the contrary, they like eight very much, as it symbolizes the infinite, and, just for the record, the Olympic games of Beijing took place in 2008; they started on eighth of august at eight o’clock. After this parenthesis, it is pretty clear why Harry Potter never smoked a cigarette outside number four. My friend has a different culture mentality beyond the overwhelming Chinese expansion. He is fond of water canals and Suzhou; he prefers shrimp dumplings to pork ones and rides the bicycle. He is an emotional guy but really keen on online shopping through Alibaba; he has downloaded several mobile applications that connect city life with smart devices. Comparing myself to him, I am just a blind romantic waiting for the things to come in the twenty first century, whereas he has everything done with a button confirmation: OK. Although there is still no application for the traffic to go faster, he is the winner and I am who has stress with technology and cables’ arrangements. My friend Harry spends much time at the Long Xing restaurant of Suzhou with the tantalizing Asiatic smells. If you ever have a talk together, you will be amazed how he describes the Maglev train of Shanghai. He is mad about the floating experience that makes you fly even for a few seconds. When I had the chance to live it, I said to myself: “OK, now, the cables’ nightmare is over. You are flying, girl”. And Harry was sitting next to me that time. Writing about my Chinese friend, by the way, I have to reveal that he is a shy person. He does not introduce himself as the children’s hero but tries to familiarize tourists with the Confucius country. On the other hand, hip hop is charming to him wherever it comes from. He may listen to the Greek hip hop artist ‘‘twelfth monkey’’ again, from time to time, on YouTube. At this point, I do not want to puzzle you anymore. The coincidence Charles looks like Harry Potter occurred at random, after an accident that endowed him with the hero’s identical scar. After this scary experience he thought of adopting Harry Potter’s name given that he had the same haircut and appearance. Actually, he found a witty way to make tourists remember him. I did not reveal my identity up to here. Well, I am the annoying person of the story. In other words, the leader who pushes the guide for the best of the group. The tour leader. While being in the Bund Area of Shanghai with Harry, I decided to enter the famous Peace Hotel, a Fairmont one now. The glory of the past and the luxury of today cheered me up. On the way out, Harry was smoking electronic cigarette. “This is a good brand”, he mentioned. All of a sudden, it started raining. I remembered the huge blossomed magnolias of the spring and I imagined the raindrops on them. The sky met the earth again, I thought while crossing the crowd towards the group meeting point, in a mindful silence that happens when rain absorbs you and myths travel with you.