I remember the corner well because in 1984 my lao wai friends and I decided to celebrate St Patrick’s day. I got the brilliant idea of getting one of the old former soldiers to make me Green Mantou 饅頭. Other friends were assigned to make green beer etc etc. I had to talk to several of these old former soldiers before I could convince one of them to add green food coloring to his Mantou. They all thought I was up to no good and wanted to poison someone. They were innately conservative and wanted no mafan. Talk about culture gap. How do you explain the traditions of turning everything green on Saint Patrick’s day to an old Shandong soldier who spent his life battling Japanese and Communist troops in the trenches of Nanjing or Chongqing? A true test of my Chinese language abilities. Worth it though as my green Mantou were a big hit at our St Paddy’s day party!!!