On a trip to China in 1999 I was reading the Bosworth bio on Diane Arbus. We kept each other company for several weeks and a lot of miles. I was in some remote western province at an outpost hotel that was certainly basic, where few people (maybe nobody) spoke English or were used to seeing westerners. I was traveling with a limited wardrobe and often had laundry done at hotels (in the third world it’s not expensive). Around 2am I answered a loud knock at my door and confronted a young hotel employee holding an armful of my folded clothes. He spoke no English and after handing me the clothes, he gave me the bill and pointed to the total while repeating the figure I did not understand. I had not exchanged currency yet and when I held up dollars, he shook his head and repeated the figure. We did this back and forth for another few seconds, before I realized in my sleep stupor we were getting nowhere. I handed him back the clothes, waved him off with thank you’s and closed the door.

The next morning, I met my translator in the lobby and told her the story. Is it normal for hotels to deliver laundry in the middle of the night I asked? She was surprised and somewhat embarrassed, and took to the front desk to track down the laundry and the issue. When I returned from shooting that evening there was a big bowl of fruit and flowers, a bottle of wine and this broken English letter from the hotel.

"Thanks for you staying in our hotel. At first, please allowing us to make an apologize for the mistake in our jobs on be help of the Qinghai Hotel "since service and homely stay" is the principle of our hotel. So we'll take every effort to avoid making such mistake. Please accept a boundle of flower to express our sincerity. Welcome you stay our hotel next time. Thank you! 1999.4.21"