Julian Tavalin, Bagel maker.

"She had no idea what a bagel was," he says. "But I told her the butter was free."

He assured her that he wasn't giving her a pick-up line, that butter was free with a bagel for everyone.

Tavalin is still bright-eyed with excitement as he describes that encounter with "the mystery woman".

"She said 'thank you' and took her bagel and her butter and went away."

But she came back. It turned out she lived almost right above the shop.

"I was kind of new to Beijing and a little bit lonely at that time," says Anna Nasuta of Belarus. "I didn't have a lot of friends, so we talked a little bit. It started like that."

Earlier this spring, the two got married.

"If all else fails with the bagel company," Tavelin says, "I got what I wanted out of it!"

Tavelin came to China almost by accident.

"I'd never been anywhere, and I was living in a small town where nothing ever happens," he says.