REFLECTIONS ON CHINA

As I reach the end of  my China odyssey, I can now reflect on the past and the future. Am I changed by the experience? Has it been a good experience? How do I feel now? Looking back. What does it signify, if anything?

I’m surrounded by the familiar land of my heritage. It feels just as it did before I left, and I suppose it will always be so. If anyone asks me about my time there they ask if I have enjoyed it. Or express only a passing interest. I cannot imagine I will spend a great deal of time talking about it, as I think few will listen. But those few will be important to me. I have come back laden with stories, that I think I will tell if anyone wants to hear them; and that is the legacy of life.

In many ways I had a wonderful time, in others and at times I found myself frustrated beyond endurance. I made some wonderful and unique friends, and I found others to be not quite what they seemed. I did things I wasn’t sure I could do. And I think above all two things stand out about this experience, the visual and the personal. I’ve tried to convey in this journal something of the visual quality of China, which is outstanding and unique, and the personal fascination and experience generated by getting to know the Chinese people.

I suppose there will always be a part of me that will be a part of China. There are hidden stories too, of things that went wrong or complex personal thoughts which I’ve only been able to hint at: they are not really for sharing however. I can hardly believe it happened.

The familiarity and the smallness of England, plus the peace, really appeal to me. I’ve seen a few of my fellow villagers who always ask about my time in China and if  I’m staying. I can’t rule out another overseas post, but for now I’m content. I hope my China experience has made me more patient, more able to exercise good judgement. For now I’m looking forward to spending the summer with Sarah, and the ordinary English weather.

HOME AGAIN

What more is there to tell? Sarah drives me through the villages to one of our favourite pubs for lunch of fish and chips, the afternoon we spend together is quiet, with gentle conversation. It's as if we already have said the things we want to say. Sometimes I feel it's as if I never left.

HOMEWARD

During the night I sleep badly as I can't stop myself worrying about the last stage of the journey, particularly because I have so much baggage. I imagine I will take the tube but wonder if this is wise because I have 4 bags, there are no lifts in Whitechapel station and it seems signal failures causing severe delays are common. I suppose I could try and take a taxi, it's only about 4 miles to Kings Cross, will take about 20 minutes and cost around £24.

In the end I check the status of the underground and it seems there is a good service, so I check out at around 9am and slowly make my way to Whitechapel station with my cases. I have to carry them down a short flight of stairs but its OK if I take my time, and with careful planning I avoid them getting stuck in the gates. The journey to Kings Cross passes off without incident and once there I have about 45 minutes to wait before boarding the train. I prefer this to panicking at the last stage!

The train departs on time, although the ride is rather bumpy. I suppose I've been spoiled with Chinese trains which are as smooth as anything. As I travel further north, I anticipate my long- awaited reunion with Sarah! I update my blog on the train, and the journey passes very quickly.

When I arrive at the station everybody hurries off the train and I let them go on ahead, waiting for a couple of minutes with my bags as I want to be by myself with Sarah.. In the next moment I can see her running down the platform: she runs into my arms and bursts into tears.

And so we hold each other in our arms as we did when I left from Nottingham Station in 2015. The wheel has turned full circle.

IN LONDON

I can hardly believe I've made it. I decide to take things easy so once I've booked in I have a cool shower and change then set off out for the evening. I take the tube across the river to my favourite pub in this district, the Prospect of Whitby.  

I stay for a couple of beers but cannot bring myself to order food as I'm just not very hungry. It's important to remember that if I do so it's the equivalent of eating at 3am. So I just saunter back to Whitechapel thinking of a portion of chips but this is unavailable in this area or at least I am not sure of the food hygiene locally. I therefore eventually go back to my digs and doze off for the night: it's fitful but I hope enough. At least, at last I am back in England. I message Phantom to let her know I am safe and call Sarah, which I have been longing to do. We have a cheerful chat and she's glad to know I'm OK. My accommodation as I say is student lodgings which is now free for the summer, so I have a relatively cheap if basic place to stay for 3 nights.

The next morning the first thing I do is to walk out for some breakfast. I'm not normally a breakfast person but this time I feel I could use it. I can recall a cafe nearby where I can get a good English breakfast but cannot seem to remember where it is. I come across it eventually, and have a full English with coffee. Most restaurants, cafes and shops around here cater for Indian and middle Eastern customers so I'm glad I found this. On getting back to my digs I take the tube to King's Cross to collect my rail ticket to Newark, the last stage of my journey. In doing so I map out the number of times I will have to use stairs and while it is not ideal I think I can cope if my back holds out. Anyway in the worst case scenario I will have to take a taxi. However once I have picked up my ticket a discouraging thing happens: suddenly there is a signal failure on the Hammersmith line and I can't use it to get back; fortunately I can plan an alternative route fairly easily as I know the tube network so I take the Picadilly and Jubilee lines to Canada Water, the tube station I passed through on my very first solo trip out to China (in 2015, ) where I stop at the riverside pub and have a beer while I call my father at home, whilst looking out over the river. It's the same scene I recorded 2 years ago on my first voyage out to China.

I can't decide what to have for lunch so I take the tube to the Prospect where I order a chicken platter, which is a sharing starter. It proves too much for me so I can't eat it all and I then go back to the accommodation and write up some further notes. I'm planning to go out to the Prospect for dinner but I feel so tired I decide to have a nap. However I wake up at 9.10 pm and decide this is too late for bars and dinners so roll over and go back to sleep. I wake at 3pm and am unable to sleep again after that, try as I might. So at 5.30 I give up and sit doing a bit of writing. By now I've had about 10 hours of sleep, slightly interrupted. I know I'll get there eventually. Later that morning I get up.

This morning I continue writing as it's so early, shower, then walk out in search of breakfast. I do feel very hungry and am beginning to feel that going without dinner 2 nights in a row may be unwise. I walk to the breakfast bar I went to yesterday but it doesn't open until 8 am, and it's 7.30. So I find another little breakfast bar close by that happens to be open and give their English breakfast a try: it's not half bad and a bit cheaper!  

After breakfast I decide to do a bit more writing. I'm unsure what to do today anyway as I'd prefer to avoid too much tube travel. I decide to do a bit of shopping and find there is a market nearby, called Petticoat Lane Market. It so happens that this is in the middle of the district haunted by Jack the Ripper in the 1880's “Autumn of Terror”. Also I'm in the middle of Victorian London, but close by are the modern architecture of the Gherkin and other recent creations. It's a sharp contrast of old and new.  

I buy a couple of T-shirts as I'm running out of clean ones, then explore the area a little, and it isn't long before I manage to find the “Ten Bells,” famous as the haunt of the Ripper's victims. No doubt of it's status as a tourist attraction as the beer is quite expensive even for London. However I stay for a couple of beers then make my way back towards my accommodation in search of lunch. 

One pub only does Thai food, there is an American diner but it only does chicken hot dogs (which seems odd to me) so I settle for a Japanese restaurant where I have sashimi and miso with hot sake. Following this I continue writing in my room and have an afternoon nap, setting my alarm for 5.40.  

I notice while I'm here that there is a marked fashion difference in London. Most of the men seem to wear jackets and sport designer stubble with bouffant haircuts. Ladies of course wear a variety of fashions but I tend to notice lots of Eastern influence. There is something very European about London at least in this area. I can see why they are all so keen to remain in the EU: London isn't really a part of Britain anyway, it's an extension of Europe. I don't actually hear many indigenous British voices. 

My alarm wakes me and I take the tube to Wapping for one last meal in the Prospect before leaving tomorrow, so as it's Friday and I haven't had it yet, I plump for this jumbo fish and chips, which I eat quite slowly in order that I can polish it off!  

I have a couple of beers and look out over the river at the docklands and Canary Wharf: it's a tranquil and pleasant scene, and helps dissipate my travel anxiety about the next day. I head back to my digs quite early as I'm looking for a fairly early start tomorrow and I'm tired again.

LEAVING CHINA

Phantom and I have arranged to meet between 6and 6.30 am the next day, so I set my alarm for 6. I'm planning to leave not later than 6.30. I sleep a little intermittently but on the whole not too badly. My alarm wakes me at 6 (after some lurid dreams: the stress is definitely coming out) and I get up very carefully to pack my PC and associated gadgets ready for the off. However, Phantom is ahead of me: I get a call just after 6 to say she is on her way so I ask if we can meet in the hotel bar. Moments later there is a knock at the door of my room and there's Phantom calling out my name; I ask if she can wait quietly as I don't want to disturb the guests and at present I don't have any clothes on so I hurry to the door trying to put on my underpants. Realising I'm still stiff with my lower back problem I sit on the bed to put them on. The next moment I'm rolling around on the floor hollering in excruciating pain; my back has suddenly gone altogether and the muscles are spasming. Phantom bursts in and helps me sit up, still sans pants, and embarrassingly for me she has to help me to get dressed. For a few minutes I'm almost paralysed with pain and try to roll gently on my back to ease it, a trick Sarah learned from a physiotherapist. Phantom worries whether I can get to the airport at all in this condition and I reply that I haven't much choice as my China visa expires on Saturday.

She carries my cases downstairs (she is physically very strong) and declares that she's calling a taxi. I'm in no position to argue. Painfully I haul myself up and with Phantom's help manage to make it downstairs to check out. She is remarkably together seeing as she was a bit drunk last night and I have to say that without her I doubt very much I would have made it. I have to sit down in the hotel bar and Phantom does everything; calls a taxi and carries my cases outside while the lady at reception offers me a drink of water. I wait for what seems an age and when the taxi finally arrives a kind Chinese gentleman helps me to stand up and walk to the door. Phantom and the taxi driver put my cases in the boot of the car and she helps me into the back seat, then we set off. I'm still in some discomfort but a long way from the agony of about 30 minutes ago when I got up. In the front Phantom's busy talking to the driver in Chinese and sending messages to her partner. I just sit and try to ignore the pain; all my medicines are packed away and it's too late to take them out now.

Arriving at Terminal 5, Phantom gets a trolley while I pay the driver and he helps me out of the car. I'm positively crippled at this point and moving like someone 30 years older with severe arthritis. Eventually I follow Phantom with the cart into the airport: we are in plenty of time as the check-in gate has not opened yet. Phantom waits with me for the gate to open, so we join the queue while it isn't too long. Standing up I feel a bit more comfortable and the check-in procedure doesn't take long; 3 of my bags go on the plane and I'm left with the small suitcase carrying my gadgets. A fear that I wouldn't be able to travel in this condition slowly dissipates. I've got my boarding pass and Phantom offers to wait with me until I go to the departure gate, which I decide to do before 10 am to go through security. So we go up an escalator to Burger King where I get a burger and coffee for breakfast; Phantom has had breakfast already of steamed buns as she woke at something like 5.30. However she has a burger too and we sit chatting for a while about this and that, until 9.30 when she suggests I make my way to the gate. So at this point we hold each other and say goodbye, both agreeing not to look back as we leave. Phantom is my good friend, a friend to rely on; possibly even a friend for life. I can't thank her enough for everything she's done for me.

The walk through security isn't too bad, I seem to be ahead of the crowds and apart from having to take my belt off which means my shorts almost fall off me is fairly painless. In less than half an hour I'm in the departure lounge where I sit down and message Phantom, Seven and Iris. However when I walk to the gate for the plane I'm a bit confused as the departure time has been altered to 12.15; when I go to the check-in counter to ask what's going on the guy there tells me there has been a system failure: this happened before to BA and was all over the news as it led to flights being cancelled for up to 48 hours. I begin to have visions of being stranded in the airport. In addition I was expecting a jumbo and the plane seems much smaller; I'm assured it's the right plane but I can't help feeling that the one I booked the seat on had a bigger seating plan. I have a paranoid vision of an over booked flight.

I go and get a bottle of water then sit near the gate watching what's happening. No change is made to the information board but the gentleman at the desk said that everything was in “chaos”, not encouraging. However everything does seem to be proceeding as normal. Eventually passengers start moving onto the plane but I remain where I am as during my stay in China I've learned that you can wait until the last minute to tag onto the back of the line:- there's no benefit in standing there for ages and besides my back is still very delicate. At this point my heart sinks as not one but two large groups of Chinese schoolchildren appear, over-excited, noisy and seemingly uncontrollable. My imagination goes into overdrive about how bad the flight will be. Eventually however I get up and check with one of the attendants which line to join, then attach myself to the end. Just as I get there the attendant ushers me over to the next line, and I hand over my boarding pass: she scribbles out my seat number and I wonder what's going on until she utters the magic words “Hold on sir, upgrade!” On the plane I'm moved forward to the next class up, an upgrade worth £600! This means a bigger seat, china tableware, attentive service and various other small comforts that will render the whole journey much more comfortable! I can't believe my luck! OK I'm not near a window this time, but that is to cavil too much!

In face of this my anxieties disappear, as I'm so delighted. I manage to message Phantom one more time and she's pleased for me. When the plane taxies away and finally takes off I gaze through the nearest window and look at the receding cityscape of Beijing for the last time.

The flight turns out to be one of the most pleasant I've ever had, with a well-done and quite tender fillet steak for lunch with potatoes and vegetables accompanied by a salmon salad starter, a sponge pudding, bread and butter and red wine for lunch. Dinner toward the end of the flight is ravioli and another sponge pud. I have plenty of films to keep me occupied and I do try and doze off but this turns out to be impossible. Probably it's a good thing as it will help me to adjust to the new time-zone if I stay awake.

As the flight draws to a close and the plane descends, I can see the familiar landscape of England. A strange feeling comes over me, a feeling of my time in China rapidly becoming a memory, almost a dream. The familiarity is so great that it can't be shaken. There's something charming about England, with its smallness and in some cases, familiar mediocrities.

I get through border control very quickly as I can use an electronic channel, however I wait for what seems an age for all my bags to come through; it's inevitable as I get to the baggage claim before they begin to arrive and I try in vain to convince myself they haven't been lost (it's happened to one or two colleagues of mine.) At length though, they all arrive and I walk off through customs to the Heathrow express. Getting through the tube system with 4 bags isn't easy, I have to carry them up flights of stairs although I use ramps and lifts wherever possible. Plus at one point my bags get stuck in the gate to the tube as it closes before they are through. Thanks to a couple of good Samaritans, I am helped through the gates and up the stairs with these cases. I'm highly impressed by this kindness as it's not something I normally tend to associate with London. At last I make it onto the Hammersmith line to Whitechapel station where I learn there is no way out except by using the stairs and as I say a kind young chap helps me up the stairs and through the gate. About 10 minutes or so later I've slowly walked my bags to my accommodation in London, which is one of the halls of residence for the universities.

LAST DAYS IN CHINA

The morning arrives and I check all my packing, pack my PC and weigh my bags as Iris has lent me her bathroom scales. It seems I'm well within the weight limit so I hope they are accurate, and I go into the school to print some remaining travel documents. I have time to clean the kitchen and wash the floor. There's still some food in the fridge so I pack this up for Iris. Sadly I have a hangover from the previous day. I keep myself busy making sure everything is prepared and look around my apartment for the last time: it's been my home for 2 years.  

Seven has very kindly offered to drive me to the railway station for the trip to Beijing, where I'm staying for a few days before flying to London. The train leaves at 11am so we have arranged to leave at 10: I very much appreciate his generosity in doing this as it removes the anxiety of taking a taxi. So I see Iris and James to say goodbye and pass over the last of the food. The flat is nearly empty now although there are a few items left that can be used: like my inflatable mattress and desk lamp. Iris asks if she can come with us as she wants to buy a rail ticket there, but after a quick phone call this turns out to be unnecessary, so she comes anyway to see me off. I pass the keys to Iris and with a last gaze at the apartment, reluctantly close the door on a chapter of my life.  

 Seven and Iris are kind enough to help me with my cases and they take me all the way into the station. It seems they would like to come into the waiting area but this turns out to be impossible as Seven does not have his Chinese ID card ,so I say goodbye to them at the gate to the waiting area when I show my ticket and passport to enter. Iris later tells me that they actually waited there until I left to board the train about 30 minutes later! I wasn't aware of this.

I arrive in Beijing and owing to the amount of luggage I have, I take a taxi to the first hotel. (I've booked 2.) The queue for the taxi is unfortunately about 30 minutes' wait and again it's hellishly hot, but there is a slight breeze and some shade which makes it bearable. It takes about 40 minutes by cab to reach the hotel, a small Chinese one that I've stayed in before. I booked it last minute to extend my stay in Beijing . Checking in is easy as the lady there speaks English quite well.

In Beijing I've arranged to meet my old friend and colleague Adrian that evening, and Phantom, who has not only offered to see me off at the airport, but has actually booked a neighbouring hotel on the last night! Adrian and I meet in Houhai in a bar called 4 Corners, which I know well. Sadly this particular bar has been consistently heading downhill over the last few months: the owner left, and a new guy took it on, a Canadian of Vietnamese heritage. The food he produced was excellent although the bar stopped supplying one of its draught beers and sometimes ran out altogether. Now he seems to have left himself: the menu is the same but this time when I go in the bar has been moved, there is blue wallpaper covering sections of the brick walls which looks hopelessly out of place, the furniture is cheap and shabby-looking, the partition between the bar and the lounge has been removed, and the place looks tired. What was once a charming and lively evening venue has steadily deteriorated and I cannot see it remaining open much longer. We move on to the Indian restaurant I found on my first visit to Houhai last year and have a very good Indian meal, if a bit expensive, but I don't mind the cost: I want this to be a holiday. On the way home there is a violent thunderstorm and we just miss getting caught in it! So I'm pleased I got the chance to say goodbye to Adrian, who is travelling the next day. I'm transferring to 161 Lama Temple Hotel, one of my favourite places in Beijing. It's a small and charming courtyard hotel, a bit expensive but worth a treat, as this is my last hotel stay in China!  

However I have trouble finding it even though I know it is only a few minutes' walk away. The hutong seem unfamiliar and I feel lost. I walk around in circles for about 10 minutes until I finally manage to find it: the distinctive circular sign outside has disappeared and all the little bars along the alleyway have closed down. Once again the hutong have fallen victim to the Beijing government's gentrification of the Dongcheng area. I feel disappointed.  

I have breakfast at 161 and hope to check in at around 12 noon, but the room isn't ready yet so I have to store my luggage and go somewhere for lunch. I'm not really hungry yet so I go shopping around Lama Temple Road, have a hot dog for lunch as its too hot to eat much, then have tea in a charming little tea shop near the hotel.

I get back to the hotel just after 1pm and something odd happens. The room still isn't ready so I just decide to wait in the hotel bar until 2pm, as I have to go out then to meet Phantom in Sanlitun at 3. About 20 minutes later a young Chinese lady comes over and tells me my room is ready, so a couple of the staff help with my cases and take me to a charming room on the ground floor. 

She tells me some basic information about the hotel and leaves me to my own devices, so I decide to go out for a while. In the reception area one of the ladies suggests I might like to move to another room upstairs. I reply that I'm satisfied with the one I have. She goes on to say it is a better room. I repeat I'm happy where I am. She then tells me the room I'm in needs repair owing to the storm. I answer that I still see no reason to change my room: I've only just got into the one I have. She becomes insistent and I point out I have 3 heavy cases to move. I don't understand. I ask them to show me this other room and it's clearly a lower grade than the one I am in. The lady tells me this is a better room. Obviously this is not so. Finally I call Phantom and ask her to find out what's going on in Chinese. It turns out that they offered me a higher grade room than the one I actually booked for one night as I seemed tired and they wanted to help me because my own room wasn't ready. Reluctantly I allow myself to be moved having been in my original room for a matter of minutes. I could have stayed there one night but felt this was a pointless exercise. Later Phantom tells me that during the conversation with the hotel lady, she asked if this had been explained to me which it hadn't owing to language barriers. I'm really very annoyed and cannot understand why I so often have problems getting into hotels. This obviously well-intentioned gesture turns out to be a mistake. Finally in my room and bitterly disappointed I go out and meet Phantom, arriving about 10 minutes late. We have a great afternoon and evening together, and end up travelling back to the Lama Temple area where we fetch up in a couple of hidden but edgy little bars, where we enjoy the remainder of the evening.

  

That evening I sleep well and the next morning have a light breakfast in the hotel bar: following this I walk into Houhai to go gift shopping, and decide to make the most of my new baggage allowance. 

View from the balcony outside my hotel room

 The hot sun beats down on my head so I use an umbrella as a parasol, Chinese-style and I remember to use sun-block on my skin. In Houhai I browse around the shops and buy a number of things I hope everyone will like: I think I'll just have room in my bags! I take the morning to do this with a break thrown in around Nanlogouxiang where I relax over a cup of honey ginger tea and buy a few more items, then return to Houhai to finish my shopping. I'm pleased with my purchases although I half-wish I'd brought some bubble-wrap with me as I had plenty in my flat. Looking for a convenient place to have lunch I drop into 4 Corners which still has stuffed squid on its menu despite my concerns about the direction it's heading in, and is open! So I have this as a light lunch and at least the food is not like most local fare! Remarkably I notice this iguana basking in the sun on the floor of the bar and he doesn't seem to mind having his picture taken. I wonder of he (it) lives in the bar or is an uninvited guest!

Following this I pay a visit to Great leap, where Ringo very kindly buys me a beer when he learns I'm leaving China.

I do have a good time as I get talking to a Canadian about China, he's about my age and has been here about the same length of time as myself: there's also an Englishman present who offers to take my picture with Ringo. It turns out he's a junior doctor who has just completed an internship in Ullan Bhatar, Inner Mongolia, which is a fascinating story. So we have a good chat about many things including the NHS: it's quite revelatory. I'm tired after this, so return to the hotel and drop off my presents then have a light sleep. In the evening I walk out to Stuff'd as it's nearby, where I have pie and mash; this turns out to be a bit of a mistake as by the time I'm finished I'm pretty stuffed myself and waddle off bloatedly to Fangjia Hutong. Here there's a bar Phantom and I sometimes visit, but without her it isn't the same.

Stuff'd.

Local bar, Fangjia Hutong

There are two young Chinese girls sitting next to me and they order a quantity of food and drink that astonishes me: a taster platter of 6 (more or less half-pint glasses) of different beers, a fruit beer, a stout,and two more beers until they are surrounded by empty or partially-drunk glasses of beer plus something like 5 plates of food. They just go on ordering and ordering and eventually I feel nauseated at the sight of gluttony on this scale so I sit elsewhere feeling a bit prudish but also rather nauseous. Drinking 6 or more beers at the same time is something I can't imagine most people doing. I decide to walk further up the road to another small bar called El Nido where Phantom has taken me before and it's still hot so I'm grateful for the air-conditioning inside.

 I quite like these kinds of places as they are kind of seedy but fascinating: like outpost bars in old thrillers. I have another IPA here and fetch up in Antlers, the trendy little bar Phantom and I found last night. I'm glad I did as I end up chatting with Tim , the owner and his Swiss friend Ivan, who both make me welcome so the evening trails off pleasantly over a few bottles of Loatian beer called Beer Lao: I found it in Yangshuo. Today has been a good day if a bit long and tiring. I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow, I'd considered going to 798 but I fear I won't have the energy in this heat!

I wake the next day with a mild hangover so decide to avoid beer at least until the evening. I'm also somewhat tired so I spend the morning updating my blog online and for a time I work in the hotel bar over a coffee. I've risen late anyway at about 9am, so this takes me until about 12 noon, when I feel hungry as I've skipped breakfast, so I walk out to Stuff'd again, this time for sausage and mash with home-made ginger ale. It's not as big as the pie but I'm still a little full at the end. Back at the hotel later I have a cool shower as the heat is truly oppressive and I drop off to sleep for a while: rising at just before 4pm, when I fetch up in the tea shop a few minutes' walk away in the hutong. Here I while away the the time over some China tea while writing my blog notes.

I find a bar on nearby Fangjia Hutong, an alleyway famous for its bars and at one time, small art galleries. I haven't been to this one before so decide to give it a try. It has a rooftop terrace and I think Phantom will like it.  

I just have a fruit beer and moving on to Phantom's favourite bar on this street I try the chicken wings, but I'm uncertain about these as the meat is red: this is common in China but as I need to be healthy for my flight I end up leaving most of it. After all the unpleasant things I've seen happen as a result of eating poultry carelessly I have learned to be cautious. Unable to decide what to have for dinner I try the little hot-dog stall but it seems they have run out of hot-dogs. Just opposite I notice a little French bistro style cafe and bar which reminds me of the one Sarah and I went to in France when we visited in 2003, so I decide to try it: it's laid-back and has pastis which I haven't had for a long time so I have one of these and there is an American lady there who asks me what I'm drinking, so she tries it and is impressed. After two of these I decide to finish the evening with a burger at the hotel as I'm looking for something plain and am by now very tired. I'm surprised at this but maybe it's anxiety of perhaps I've just been doing more than I thought.

The following day is my last in China:Phantom and I are spending the day together. In the morning I re-pack my cases and distribute the gifts around them to protect them from damage. I just need to be completely prepared for the coming voyage. One thing I'm unsure about is that fact that my lower back is aching and feels weak right now, so I worry about taking the train as it may involve carrying my heavy bags, 4 of them, up and down stairs. The only alternative is a taxi and if I take this I need to be in plenty of time for the flight at 11am the next day. I decide to discuss this with Phantom.

 We meet in the hotel bar at around 10.30 am and discuss our plan for the day: close by I have found a quite famous Beijing duck restaurant in the hutong and suggest this for our last meal together; Phantom agrees to look at it then we can decide whether to stay or go to another restaurant we know. It's simply that this will be my last chance to have Beijing duck in Beijing during my stay in China. Following this I hope to visit Great Leap one last time, then visit the bars we know in Fangjia Hutong. Phantom is happy to go along with whatever I wish: so we visit the duck restaurant fairly early as they tend to fill up quite rapidly, and have a pleasant lunch together.

 We order a half-duck as we feel that will be enough for two, with some vegetable dishes, salad and fresh fruit with tea. During this time we discuss the phenomenon I mentioned of Chinese ladies seemingly binge-eating and drinking. Apparently the Chinese nanny-state tries to discourage wasting food. As we talk a group of Chinese ladies behind me order 4 huge bowls of crayfish (a kind of freshwater prawn common in China) which are difficult to eat as you spend a lot of time peeling off the shell, plus salad, vegetables and a whole duck! The amount of food on the table is positively enormous and it's hard to believe anyone could possibly eat it all.  

At the end of our meal it's still fairly early, about 12.30, so Phantom wants to show me another bar however this one is closed so I show her the French bar and introduce her to the pastis: she hates it and tells me if she had known what it was she would never have tried it!

We have a good time talking to the manager, Justin, a young Frenchman about Paris, where he comes from an outskirt of, and French food and drink. I also confide in Phantom about feeling sad to leave China and the friends I've made, plus apprehension regarding the coming journey. She sympathises and much as I would like to focus on seeing Sarah soon, things on the other side of the globe are rendered insubstantial by the distance.

 Following our time in the French bar we walk along the hutong (I take my time because of my back aching) and I use my umbrella in the fierce heat to somewhat ineffectually shade us from the sun. We walk to Great Leap where I drink ginger ale and later my first beer of the day, and see Ringo for the last time

As we have a long day and Phantom has to check into her hotel near mine, we agree to have a break afterwards and meet up in my hotel at 7pm. Its about 5.30 by the time we get back, so it gives me time to shower, shave and sleep if I need to.

At 7 we meet up in the bar. I rarely feel so supported and I'm grateful for the friends I've made in China. Phantom wants to contact Seven and Christine so I exchange contact details after making sure everyone is OK with this. We go out to Fangjia Hutong and I show Phantom the new bar where we have a few bottled beers and follow this with a trip to Antlers.  

Phantom thinks that I have introduced her to a whole new world of drinks and bars, I'm unsure whether this is true but it's true the first “craft beer” bar she went to was Great Leap when I took her there last year! In Antlers I have some bar food, buns filled with meat cooked in subtle flavours and spices, already becoming quite famous in Beijing. It's a kind of fusion food with Taiwanese and Chinese influence. At any rate it's very good but I do struggle to eat it all. By now I am so tired I find it hard to make conversation. I didn't see this coming, it's crept up on me the last few days. We chat to the owner, Tim, (originally from Taiwan) about his plans for the future; he fears that the area will soon lose its bars owing to state intervention, which is a shame, as these bars are very original and unique. Although he will be there at least until October the future is uncertain at present. It's almost a secret bar even though it's in the middle of a big city!  

 We leave after that; by now I'm almost exhausted and Phantom is getting drunk. We sit up on the rooftop terrace of the bar we visited earlier, and we become rather melancholy. It's difficult to enjoy the time now as we will miss each other and I will certainly miss China and my friends. It's hard to say goodbye. I look across the gabled rooftops of the Beijing hutong at the darkening sky, with the trees slowly turning into silhouettes as the sun fades, the one close by illuminated like green lanterns by the floodlights below. The cicads chirp all around and it's a peaceful but melancholy scene, as I realise this is the last time I will see it.

Phantom finally declares at 9.30 that it's time for her to go back to her hotel, we are both tired out and a very long day awaits me tomorrow. We part at Lama Temple Road as I'm looking to round off the evening with a pastis or two at the French bar, but as it turns out it's completely packed so I give up and phone Phantom, who has walked on ahead. I manage to persuade her to stop outside my hotel where we catch up and say goodnight. I consider having one more beer in the bar but this is habit more than anything and I'm really so tired I need to be sensible and go to bed (Phantom has said so herself) so I go straight up and have a somewhat fitful night because of my aching back, but I know I have to get as much sleep as I can. I manage to doze off eventually but I feel I am heading into the unknown again.