Marijke and Harry have established a tradition of packing their table tennis gear when going abroad and playing wherever they can. In October 2016 they were on holiday in Shanghai.

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The hotel concierge had arranged a meeting with an English-speaking coach for us. The taxi driver dropped us off at the address written down for him in Chinese. Upon entering the tall building we found the reception of a small hotel. The girl behind the desk didn’t speak any English, but through her smart phone’s translator app we found out that the hotel was not allowed to take foreign guests, just Chinese travellers. Somehow, we got the message across that we were looking for a gym, rather than for a hotel. Fortunately, someone with some command of spoken English appeared and offered help. This very friendly guy took us across the street, asking several of the neighbours, but no one seemed to know where the gym was, until he found a leisure centre tucked away in an apartment block around the corner, past a cast-iron gate with a real guard. Up a few flights of stairs, we found an empty room with two tables of dubious quality and partly torn nets. Looking at one another, we started to play.