The item I brought back was one of the weirdest ever, the wrapping paper of chocolate that looked really old. I am not sure exactly when it was used but it' clearly from the 1920's or 30's. The chocolate contained in it was made by Bianchi chocolate factory, located on 23 Nanking Road (Nanjing Dong lu 23 today). The address is written in Latin letters and in Chinese characters on the brown paper. Although I have not been to this specific address yet, it's surely on the beginning on Nanjing lu, around the Sasoon House (Peace hotel today) and the Palace hotel (Peace hotel South wing now). I went to the actual location of 23 Nanjing West Road. This address is the entrance of the Palace Hotel (now called Peace Hotel South Wing). The Bianchi Chocolate shop was certainly within the hotel itself. I guess Bianchi chocolate was the shop on the right-hand side of the main entrance, nowadays selling horrible fake souvenirs for a lot of money.
The Bianchi chocolate shop does not exist anymore of course, but just finding this piece of the old times was wonderful. I imagine walking to buy my chocolate near the riverside. I am walking those busy streets, full of a mixture of trendy office workers, vendors of all kinds shouting to advertise their products and dockworkers. I get to the Bianchi shop, push the glass door. I look at all the chocolates in the shop, talk to Mr Bianchi about his chocolate, good food, life and other topic before getting my simple piece of chocolate, just like I do nowadays in Visage chocolate shop in Xin Tian Di . After leaving the shop, I open the chocolate and starts eating it. It takes me a few minutes to wake up from my dream, holding my 60 years old chocolate paper in my hands. This old relic is so powerful that I still feel the taste of this chocolate created and eaten many decades ago.
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