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.