HAIDIAN, SUMMER PALACE, AND A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

I decided to do this as a birthday treat but had been thinking about it for some time. This year is the 20^th anniversary of the first visit Sarah and I made to China in 1997, so I've planned to visit the same area and hotel that we came to then and to see what it's like now and how it feels.

Ultimately I don't stay in the hotel as it has some worrying reviews, so I book a Chinese courtyard hotel nearby. I've arranged to meet Phantom and Adrian whilst in the area. However on the first night I stay again at Red Lantern House, the hostel I visited in April, and I'm delighted to find I have the same room as I had the first time!

 I have lunch at 4 Corners in Houhai as there doesn't seem to be anywhere worth visiting where the hostel is, and afterwards I take the tube to see if I can locate the hotel Sarah and I stayed in. I travel directly from Houhai, having initially planned to walk back to the hostel and then take the tube. I'm glad I didn't as it's fiendishly hot and like being near a blast furnace! I can't remember being this hot since we visited Las Vegas in 2008.  

So I take the tube to Beijing Zoo and more or less immediately I can see the hotel ahead so I stop by and take a few photos.

The hotel seems smaller than I remember it, and the interior looks very grand. I almost regret changing my booking. But it does feel very impersonal and formal: I feel a little intimidated. Walking around the area in the hot sun I keep drinking one bottle of water after another: I am not surprised although I'm sad to find that all the hutong old bars, restaurants and shops have all vanished, and all there is to see now is more big hotels and modern flats. The area seems soulless and devoid of its former charm. I'm glad and relieved, to leave after about an hour. I suppose it goes to show you can never recover what is past.

I'm very tired by the time I get back to the hostel at 5pm, so I try and have a doze, but this is difficult due to the stentorian voices of two female backpackers in the hostel restaurant talking at the tops of their voices. They probably don't realise it but sound carries very easily in this building. So I try ear-plugs which only work when I use two pairs and stuff them right down my ears! Also they are laughing constantly. I can never understand people like this, call me miserable if you like, but life just isn't that funny! What do these people find to laugh about so much? I manage to have a light doze and set off into the night for dinner. I walk back into Houhai on protesting legs and have a very good lamb vindaloo, while half-listening to a German guy and his local squeeze talking in 3 different languages. Following this I drop into Huxleys where I chat to a couple of expats about beer and other things, then on the way home I spot a charming little bar where I end up sitting outside talking to a group of Chinese guys for about two hours about life and art. I should have gone home much earlier than I do but I'm having too much fun!

The following morning I've arranged to check out of the hostel at 2pm so I have breakfast which for once is not disturbed by by noisy backpackers and set off on the tube to visit the Summer Palace. The weather is hot again but not as bad as yesterday's crucible. Sarah and I visited the Palace in the winter of 1997, so again I'm walking down memory lane. The lake was frozen over then but now it's summer and the park is in full bloom. I buy a through ticket which gives me access to the whole complex so I can go inside the palace walls and see the view over the lake.

 Walking down through the complex, there are Chinese tourists everywhere taking selfies. I walk by the side of the lake to the Seventeen Arch Bridge. Most of the the structures you can see were built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. There was an old Summer Place that was destroyed during the Opium Wars. The bridge goes out to an island on the lake, and as I walk over I can recall our last visit 20 years ago and it feels so different this time. It is actually quite cool in the park as there is a great deal of shade and by the lake the air tends to be cooler anyway.

I walk back up the hillside to the North Gate where I came in and decide to try and have lunch near the hostel before checking out. As luck would have it I find a small fish restaurant and when I walk in the manager, a young Chinese lady called Ann, comes out and she speaks English, so helps me order. There is a kind of freshwater crayfish common in China so I order this in a garlic sauce.

It's delicious but there is so much work to do removing the shells that you get tired doing it! I'm looked after like royalty here so I imagine they do not get many foreign visitors. The lady asks if she can take a photo with me, and as always I agree. I imagine this may be used in in future advertising. I'm also given an apron to keep the sauce off my clothes, free green tea and free noodles. The lady fusses over me so much it's slightly embarrassing but it does make for an entertaining lunchtime and is great value value for money! As I leave the lady asks me to come back again soon, so effusively that it feels somewhat pathetic.

 Following lunch I return to the hostel and check out: it's now time for me to transfer to my next hotel: Michael's House. This is the courtyard hotel I booked in place of the one I had originally chosen: I was disappointed to do this however the reviews spoke so persistently of astronomical deposits, hard beds and poor service that alarm bells rang! On the other hand those of Michael's House were consistently glowing!  

 I can't seem to get a taxi (Adrian later tells me this is getting more and more difficult in Beijing) so I take the Tube. At the other end I do succeed in hailing a cab and it takes me to the hutong where the hotel is. As soon as I arrive a young Chinese lady hurries to the door, grabs my suitcase, (which is not much smaller than she is and is also quite heavy) and lugs it indoors! I try to dissuade her from this act but to no avail. Furthermore she seems to know who I am without asking, scans my passport and checks me in over something like 10 minutes which is not unusual in China and she has to take 2 phone calls: but I do not feel anxious as I have in some other hotels and I feel in competent hands. I'm also offered free fruit juice and my case is trundled off to my room! The hotel is delightful, the room is charming and spotlessly clean. I'm slightly disappointed as the description online mentions garden furniture and a garden view but this refers to the courtyard and is not specific to the room. However so far I'm quite impressed.

I make myself at home, and as it is now about 5pm I take the tube into Houhai where I have a draught IPA in Huxley's: I'm meeting Adrian in Sanlitun later, so I travel to Tuanjiehu station where we meet up for a burger and a beer: actually I have a non-alcoholic cocktail this time.) We sit at a table downstairs but soon move upstairs to a pleasant balcony overlooking the street: this is partly owing to the loud and obnoxious behaviour of a group of young Americans in the bar yelling, swearing and bawling out inane songs: they are clearly blind drunk and in England would be labelled hooligans.  

 We wander around a few more bars and the streets are very crowded, with a number of streetwalkers as well, and have a good chat about work, life and politics but I have to take the train back at 9.30 so we part at the station. I decide to stay in Houhai for a couple of beers and talk to some Irish visitors back at Huxley's, after which the tube has closed down so I walk along Houhai lake: it's quieter now and cooler, and I walk past many Chinese couples locked in romantic embraces. I reach the hotel but it's locked, however I ring a bell for the concierge and the little Chinese girl lets me in after a moment of panic when I imagine being shut out!

 I sleep well as the bed is very comfortable although I get bitten during the night by mosquitoes, so the next morning I ask at reception if they have any insect repellant and this is gladly supplied. There is a good Western-style buffet breakfast and on the whole I do feel well looked-after and am enjoying my stay.  

The guests all seem to be more mature people rather than the backpacker crowd I tend to find in hostels. They are all European, and there do not seem to be any Chinese guests. The hotel is generally very quiet. I have a light breakfast and had originally planned to visit Chaoyang Park near Sanlitun today but I'm feeling too lazy. So I stay in the courtyard and do some writing, taking the opportunity to relax and unwind. At 3pm I'm meeting Phantom at Great Leap as we're going out for the afternoon and evening.

At around 11:30 I set off on the tube for the Lama Temple area which is not far away. I'm quite hungry so have decided to have lunch at Stuff'd, of sausage and mash with a glass of ginger ale as I don't dare drink beer yet even though they have a good range of microbrew beers. It's excellent and is the only bar in China where you get brown sauce and mustard: these are extraordinarily difficult to obtain in China so I'm very impressed by this: although I'm disappointed to find I get a very small portion of mashed potatoes and when a Chinese woman orders the same thing I'm annoyed that there is twice as much. If I had had a Chinese friend with me I would have had a mild complain. It's another example of how restaurants in China appear sometimes to prioritise local people over foreign visitors and how Chinese females appear to receive preferential treatment. This is possibly due to the tone of voice they tend to use which sounds harsh and commanding. However this is not a significant enough matter to spoil my day. 

 So I go back to the the hotel to change as it's fiercely hot again today and I need my hat to keep the sun off my head! I have a cool shower: actually the water does get very hot so I have to control the temperature carefully, change and walk out at just after 2pm. I arrive at Great Leap just after 3 where Phantom is already waiting so we discuss the itinerary for the evening over the first beer.  

One thing I've really wanted to do to cap off the weekend is to have dinner in the revolving restaurant at the Xiyuan Hotel, where Sarah and I dined in 1997. It's the first and consequently the oldest revolving restaurant in Beijing. It seems fitting to mark the anniversary of this with another visit and Phantom thinks this is incredibly romantic! The trouble is Phantom doesn't eat in the evening owing to some weight-consciousness even though she is as thin as a rake! Now this would not normally be a problem as we've had dinner together before and she just has a beer, or we go to a bar that serves burgers or something and I eat at the bar. But this time the restaurant is a buffet with a fixed price so I fear I will have to pay for both of us even if Phantom doesn't eat. So she offers to call the hotel to see if we can just order the buffet for one, but she cannot get an answer on the phone so suggests we visit the hotel and ask there. I'm hopeful it will work out.  

So we visit another bar where I have a couple of fruit beers: these are very refreshing and Phantom asks me to try one of her favourite IPAs, but this is far too bitter for me: I can't recall a time when I've had beer as bitter as that so I decline and stick to fruit beer.

We talk about Phantom's ambitions to be a photographer and I make one or two suggestions from my own experience like visiting exhibitions and galleries. Also I offer the contact details of some artists I've met who I know are willing to share them. 

We take the tube to the hotel and Phantom asks the way to the restaurant which is on the 26^th floor so we take the lift to the 25^th and then walk up a spiral staircase, so I imagine we are moving through the centre of the mechanism for the revolving floor above.  At the restaurant entrance Phantom asks if we can just order for myself and it turns out to be no problem, so we are seated by the window looking out over the city.

 Phantom is delighted to be able to share this with me and I tell her a few stories from our original visit, such as the time I had salmon and mistook wasabi, which I had never seen before, for mushy peas (heaven knows why) so stuffed a huge portion of it in my mouth which almost burned my tongue off and had me going “AAAAAGGHHH!!!” probably with my face going purple and me drinking vast amounts of water to recover from the agony! Of course from this I learned some valuable gastronomy! There is plenty to eat, I mostly have seafood; lobster, crab, salmon,.prawns, soup and salad. There is a good selection of non-alcoholic drinks like fruit juices so I have plenty of this to save myself for the rest of the evening. I'm very grateful to Phantom for this and it feels very special. I talk about how different the area was all those years ago.

 When I can't eat any more we go back to Houhai by taxi and drop into Huxley's to celebrate the success of our evening. Sadly the atmosphere is spoilt again by the hooligan-like behaviour of (again) another group of Americans, hooting, shouting, swearing, banging on the tables with their hands and generally being a nuisance. Why do so many of these guys behave like this? Normally they are so polite! I know that America has a very conservative attitude to alcohol and I can only imagine that when they come to China they are letting themselves go but simply can't handle that amount of booze. Phantom is so exasperated she starts to confront these guys about this: I try to dissuade her as I have no idea where it will all lead and I don't want to spoil such a great day so we try and ignore it. At about 10 pm Phantom goes home and I resist the temptation to stay out, so I take the tube back to the hotel just in time and have one beer in the courtyard. Arriving back in Baoding the next day I have lunch and beer in the shacks as is my normal routine when coming back from Beijing.