I'm a Beijing native. Undoubtedly, it is among the biggest and most advanced cities in China and possibly the entire globe. I often refer to myself as a city boy since I call the areas I live in "concrete jungles." Naturally, growing up in such a large city has given me an unnatural sense of superiority. I therefore refuse to went back to my grandmother's hometown, a common, rural, and less developed area.

I struggled to comprehend my grandmother's strong desire to return to her hometown. You know that little town is way worse than Beijing. The small town lacks convenient public transportation. We are able to purchase any upscale items in Beijing, but not in that rural town. We offer fine dining, Japanese and Korean cuisine etc.. There is also a ton of entertainment here. So why?

But I continued to accompany my grandmother to make her feel better.

After a while, I started to comprehend why my grandmother loved this tiny, uninteresting (to me) place so much. Here, a morning market is held every two weeks. There were many regional specialties for sale in the morning. When I wake up. I can always see my granny is chowing down on her favorite rice cake. When she was in the fancy restaurants, I didn't really find her smiling and looking satisfied. My granny is a very outgoing person as well. She has many of friends. The tiny room that grandma is in acted as a conference room every afternoon where people were chit-chatting and sharing gossip. I was also secretly listening in on their amusing talks whenever I pretended to be reading a book or watching TV. She was laughing, which she wasn't doing often in the city. She took care of her own little garden, cultivated some vegetables on a little plot of land, and enjoyed working in the fields every day. She also took me to the beach to play because the town is by the sea. The enthusiasm was back to her soul.

I understand. All of my grandmother's favorite pastimes, cuisines, and "besties" are associated with this small town, yet none of them are accessible in Beijing.

My grandma shocked herself when I joyfully accepted her invitation to visit my hometown for a second time.