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TIFU by helping a fellow Canadian find a train and accidentally sending him to the wrong country.

So this happened a few years ago when I was living in China for a work exchange. I had only been there for about a month, barely knew enough Mandarin to order noodles without accidentally requesting something with intestines (No racism intended but people love meat and seafood) in China, but I was feeling a little more confident each day.

One afternoon, I’m in a train station in Guangzhou, trying to read the departure boards like I know what I’m doing, when I hear a voice behind me say:
"Excuse me, Do you speak English."

I turn around, and there is a Canadian traveler, backpack and all, looking both relieved and very lost. He tells me he’s trying to get to a place called “Xianggang” by train, and asks if I can help him figure it out.

Now here’s the thing: I had just learned that “Xianggang” is the Mandarin word for Hong Kong. And I knew that trains to Hong Kong did leave from that station. So I light up like a proud little maple leaf and say,
“Oh yeah, I’ve got you! I’ve been here a while. I can help.”

I march us over to a ticket machine, help him buy a ticket (with my extremely broken Mandarin), point him to the correct platform, and send him on his merry Canadian way.

I felt like a hero.

Until three hours later, when I got back to my apartment and started talking to my coworkers about this Canadian I met. My coworker cuts me off and says
"You know there's another place called Xianggang in mainland China."

Not Hong Kong.

Not even close.

He had asked for Hong Kong. I sent this poor man to a rural station in Hunan Province, several hundred kilometers in the wrong direction.

By the time I tried calling the station to fix it (yes, I actually tried), he was already on the train. No phone number. No contact. Just me, sitting in office chair, staring at a map of China and realizing I’d sent someone to the equivalent of “Springfield” without asking which one.

TL;DR: In China for one month, tried to help a fellow Canadian find a train to Hong Kong. Misunderstood the name, confidently helped him buy a ticket to a completely different city. Sent him hundreds of kilometers away in the wrong direction. Haven’t seen him since. Hope he’s okay.

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