THE PHANTOM OF BEIJING

 I've planned a series of visits to Beijing before the end of the term and so have booked a hotel in a different area owing to the rising costs of those in the area I normally inhabit. I set off after lunch having booked the train with the help of my students. This time I've arranged to meet my old friend and colleague Adrian from last year who has moved to Beijing, and my Chinese friend Phantom. The hotel I've booked is a charming 200 year old courtyard, presumably an old house. Sadly the weather is very poor today and I get to the subway station from Beijing West easily enough, but have to walk around in the wet, cold, grey and drizzle to find the hotel.

I have a vague idea of where it is and plunge into a warren of hutong behind the station. Unsure of my bearings I show the address printed in Chinese to a policeman who points me in the right direction and as luck would have it I find the hotel in the next few minutes. It's full of rustic charm and I'm glad I've booked this one. There is a feeling of having entered another world and another time, of having left modern China behind and I feel transported back in time to the very first visit I made to Beijing in 1997 with Sarah.

The hutong around the hotel are fascinating although a little tawdry, with numerous sex shops around and I suspect, streetwalkers. I have a slight cold so have a hot shower which really restores me and wander out into the gloom to meet Adrian in Dongcheng North.

 Now there is supposed to be a new line extension to Shichahai Station in Houhai, but I find to my dismay that it hasn't been completed and tired as I am, I have to make 3 line changes to get there. So I just have time for a quick beer and a sit down before we meet at the station at Shichahai and I'm glad to see him: we catch up with each other over a couple of beers in Great Leap, followed by a meal in my favourite Indian restaurant which is not far away.  

Sadly the meal takes a long time to arrive as the place is very busy tonight, and we fetch up in Great Leap again at around 9.30. Adrian mentions as time goes on that we need to make tracks before 11pm if we are to catch the last train on the subway.  

 However we arrive at the station at 11 to find it closed: the last train has gone and I'm not sure what to do. At this point I don't panic and suggest we can get a cab: however I don't know exactly how to get to my hotel, and I've left my Beijing map in my room thinking I wouldn't need it! So I call Phantom and ask if she can explain to the cab driver (at such time as I can get a cab) how to get to the metro station near my hotel and she kindly agrees. Adrian knows how to get home, so we try and hail a cab.  

 But this proves difficult, as we can't seem to find one for hire, they're all engaged and Adrian explains that in China everyone books a taxi on their phones. So he suggests we start walking south towards where we both live at present: I know the general area and we walk towards Jinghshan Park. Adrian thinks we will be able to find a cab around the Forbidden City area, however as we go on the city becomes more and more deserted with fewer and fewer cars. It becomes eerily quiet with a slight mist developing, and I become uncomfortably aware that I don't have my map with which I could have walked back to the hotel, even though it must be several miles away, the subway network is closed, there are no taxis around and I don't know how to use the buses. I'm effectively locked out of the transport network. As Adrian's confident we can find a cab at Tiananmen Square, we walk along the side of the Forbidden City, passing a shadowy and silent watchtower on the corner in the gloom. The road passes outside the massive walls of the complex and the moat, so all you can see is trees, but it seems to go on for ever, reminding me of the immense size of the palaces, and we begin to despair of reaching the other side. I'm still basically optimistic and feel a sense of adventure as even I can't imagine not making it back to the hotel. I call Phantom again and she says she is OK with my calling at any time should we find a taxi.

 At length we come to the immense boulevard in front of the Forbidden City and on the other side of it is the Square. It's teeming with traffic but of the many taxis we see, none are for hire, so we wait for some time until Adrian suggests we cross to the other side of the road. At this point when we've crossed over he hails two Chinese ladies and asks in Chinese, as he can speak some functional Chinese, if they can get us a cab on their phones. They try for a few minutes and my hopes rise at this, however a policeman asks us all to move away from the road. I still feel hopeful as these ladies seem cheerfully willing to help,but my hopes become fruitless as it ultimately proves impossible. We thank them for the attempt and at this point a cab arrives with a for hire sign on it: so I jump over and show the driver the address of the metro near my hotel which Adrian's written down for me in Chinese, but he starts saying “No,no no.” By this time I'm becoming desperate, so I lean in through the window, half in the cab by now and call Phantom, giving him the phone and asking her to explain what's happening. There is some lively exchange but he won't take us so he finally drives off with me smiling and saying “F**k off”. Phantom later explains that for taxis to pick up-around this area is actually illegal.  

 We set off south again and I'm now faced with the prospect of sleeping rough, trying to find another hotel or crashing at Adrian's place. It seems hopeless. Adrian finds a hire cycle and scans it with his smart-phone to unlock it, suggesting we take turns to cycle. As he pedals along I can see at the end of the street, a taxi with its hire light on in the distance about 400 yards away, which turns and stops, so I ask Adrian to pedal over and see if he can catch it. For some reason its hazard lights are on and I reach the cab to find it empty, but the driver is not far away : presumably he has gone to relieve himself, and I show him the address. He agrees to take me but he wants RMB 100 for it, which is absolute robbery. I fix the highwayman with a horrible glare but I realise I have no choice. As the saying goes, at least Dick Turpin wore a mask! So I reluctantly agree and pile into the cab, while Adrian cycles home. We speed off but sadly the cab driver seems to get lost and travels up and down Zhushikou West Street (where the station is) struggling with his sat-nav until he eventually finds it, dark and unlit and drops me off. I try to get my bearings and realise I'm on the wrong side of the road: however there is a footbridge not far away, I can see the hutong from here: so I walk over and inabout 10 minutes I'm back at the hotel, weary but relieved, and I text Phantom and Adrian to let them know. It's about 1pm and I realise that in the future I can't afford to miss the last subway if I have no map and am miles from where I'm staying. Beijing is safe enough but is a big place to get stranded in!

The next morning is bright and sunny so I walk around the local area, which is bustling and very old fashioned with Mongolian-style hot-pot and duck restaurants like those I saw in 1997. It feels a lot like Chinatown in London. Wandering around I soon arrive at the south gate of Tiananmen Square, whereupon I realise that if I had only had a map I would have realised that when I was on the north side of the Square I would have been 20 minutes walk away from my hotel! Following this I hole up in a charming and old-fashioned bar where I write this up over a pot of green tea!

  

 Later that afternoon I meet Phantom at Great Leap: I'd originally planned to visit the Sanlitun area but neither of us is able to stay out too late as I'm too far away from my hotel and she has plans for the next day. (I do want to find some more interesting bars even though I like it here. Sanlitun tends to be full of bearded, slightly geeky, bespectacled young American men looking for a Chinese girlfriend) So we stay for a few beers and have a heartening talk followed by a visit to 4 Corners where I can have some stuffed squid and spring rolls, all very tasty, as Phantom does not tend to eat in the evening. We also chat to the owner who looks Vietnamese but is in fact Canadian of Vietnamese heritage. He has the extraordinary English name June, about which we have an interesting conversation: he is quite a fascinating character who seems to have been travelling most of his adult life.

 Finally we finish the evening in our favourite bar near the Lama Temple.

The hotel is very pleasant and I wish I'd booked it again. I look into this but as time goes on it seems to get more expensive so I live with my current choices. I arrive back at around 10.30pm and have a walk around the area, but I've had enough to drink and so stop and buy a Big Mac, which as it turns out I forget to eat when I get back to my room owing to my tiredness and state of inebriation, so the next day it's still intact in its box with one bite taken out of the edge like something out of a comic. It actually makes a passable breakfast. I set off for Beijing West at about 11am and the train journey to Baoding East passes off smoothly.