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.

BAODING LIFE 5

The weather fluctuates between periods of warmth and relative cold, with mostly cloud-free days. On occasions when it does become cloudy the drop in temperature is noticeable. Life in the shacks carries on as before, but now tables begin to appear outside and soon, barbecue stalls will be placed outside as well. Since the end of the winter break the area has been restored to its former lively atmosphere, although it will be some time before spring really arrives, perhaps three to four weeks. At any rate I am able to walk and cycle around the area without wearing so many layers, although sometimes I know I'm being premature because occasionally I do become chilly. I don't need the heating on any more however. At night it still becomes cold because of the clear skies and the street outside the campus has a night market which bustles with street vendors. I spend some time making my own meals although I do eat out fairly often, perhaps more often than I should. I aim to visit the hutong around the old town and the old campus more, as there is a wider selection of food and drink available.

So I arrange to stay overnight one weekend in the rooms I was accommodated in when I first arrived and my former flat was not ready. I can get there by bike and I am to spend a little time in the old town. I also cycle out to Route 66 and come across my old acquaintances from the time before I went o Guangxi. I have a pleasant evening but I know things are no longer quite the same and I've learned to live with it. I need things to look forward to so I spend quite a lot of time online with Sarah organising our summer holidays when I get back to England, and also planning the rest of my time in China. I'd like to visit Beijing once a month before I leave so I go online looking for cheap hotels, which in Beijing is becoming more and more difficult if you don't want to sleep in a dormitory. However I do manage to find three or four: the ones I stayed in before are either too expensive or are now unavailable. Perhaps something is happening to the Chinese economy.

 I feel the need to make much more of my own food but I haven't done much food shopping apart from a few vegetables, so for the present I'm just managing with some meatballs and salad this week. Next week I guess I will need to think about getting some more supplies from the Chinese supermarkets.

 So I cycle to the town centre with an overnight bag to stay on the old campus: (it takes about 20 minutes to check in as they spend an inordinate amount of time reading my passport) and that evening ride out to 66 after a hot shower which relaxes me, where I treat myself to a pizza which I'm unable to finish so perhaps that' s a mistake! There is no-one around so at 7.30 I ride back and I feel utterly exhausted. I feel the tiredness is due to emotional stress so I have an early night at around 8.30. On and off I sleep over about 11 hours and wake at 8 the next day. I feel I need this change of scenery. In 66 and other places I'm sometimes irked by the seeming rudeness of Chinese diners, especially the women. They constantly bark “FU-YUAN!” (service) which is a little bit like shouting “Garcon!” in France and is generally regarded as rude even by younger Chinese.

The next day I decide to walk around the area. There is a video shop about a mile away which I visit to see if I can find anything worth watching but I fail to find anything I like so I take the bus to the shopping malls on the other side of town where I stop for sushi: there is a restaurant there which sells good quality sushi and sashimi, with dishes on a conveyor belt like those in the UK. It's still relatively early after this and I'm anxious to avoid drinking alcohol too much as I take the bus back to the campus area and walk around looking for a tea shop and fail to find one so I finally remember there is a coffee bar in the University, so I hole up here for a while with a bottle of water. You would be surprised to fund out how difficult it is to find a good tea shop in this area. In China there is a strange custom of drinking hot water ( as the tap water is not filtered properly from the sewers) So when I want cold water it has to come from a bottle:in the sushi restaurant there is a water tap like the ones in English sushi bars but of course the water is hot, which tends to taste terrible, although cold water can be the most refreshing drink in the world at times. There are a number of students here, some of them asleep. The Chinese capacity for sleeping in public is astonishing. You find them sleeping in restaurants and offices,on buses and trains, (although this is not so remarkable as train journeys in China can take days) in shops and by the roadside.

Balloon seller outside  the shopping mall

Kite market at the military school park.

I feel tired and sleepy myself so I go back to my room and have an afternoon nap, which is not something I normally do. However I feel this is due to emotional pressure as, owing to mounting administrative pressure, personal difficulties which this journal is not the right place to record, and deep seated worries I have become anxious and sometimes depressed. I wake up after an hour and decide to cycle around the corner to a bar I found last year called the Big House. This one is a good choice as it sells a variety of of teas including Lapsang Souchong, Sarah's favourite tea. So I sit with a pot of this for an hour or so and do some writing. Finally at around 6.30 pm I go and have dinner in a nearby restaurant where they do a good if expensive prawn and cashew nut dish which I have with fried rice, and following this I've planned to cycle into the old town. The old traditional restaurant I used to visit last year has sadly been turned into a Chinese bar although it still ha s a stage for music as the owner is a musician. I feel the place is an extension of his music but now it doesn't sell food which is a shame as it was my favourite restaurant. So I cycle into the old town where in the quiet alleys I see some streetwalkers who call out to me as I pass a doorway. When I go in I'm made very welcome although it's hard to talk due to our mutual language barriers. I take something of a liberty and phone my friend Abby who knows the owner and we talk through her for five minutes. (She warns me to be careful cycling home.) There is a young man there who speaks a little English as well, so I show them some of my Guangxi photos: they also have a short jam session.

 I begin to relax and feel something of the warmth I felt last year. Cycling back through the hutong the same streetwalkers are still there and I feel sorry for them.  

 Finally I get back to the Big House, where I have one more beer and get talking to a student and the owner of the bar. Like the boss of the other bar he's pleased to see me although we have to talk through the student. We have a warm conversation and I get back to my room at about 11pm. The next morning I feel refreshed and I also feel I have dome myself good by having this change of scene: this and the long sessions of sleep I've had seem to have restored some of my energy.

SPRING APPROACHES

 As March arrives the weather begins to move slowly away from the savage cold of December and January. The sky tends to be clearer and the smogs are far less perceptible. At night however it still becomes bitterly cold, mostly owing to the lack of cloud. It does become very windy at times making cycling somewhat dangerous. There are more re-erected shanties appearing around the campus border and more of these are becoming occupied but for how long it's impossible to say. The most compelling sign of an approaching spring is that the trees around the universities are starting to bud.  

I hear from Seven and Christine, something like 3 weeks after my original message but I'm pleased. We arrange to have dinner together in a traditional old-style restaurant in the old town, where to food is mediocre but the surroundings and the conversation are good. I hope to see them again. They seem sad that I'm not coming back to China after the summer.

In the shacks the local Chinese never seem to eat anything but soup noodles: these horribly undignified dishes consist of a bowl of soup with doodles, boiled egg and some sort of meatball. They are truly disgusting and I'm constantly assailed by the sound of people slurping on these things. I do manage to find a new shack that makes a good fried rice although I have to order it in Chinese which is frustrating due to my ineptitude and I do some more home cooking: curried crab with rice and an omelette, spag bol and chicken curry. I also visit a local hot-pot place one evening with a colleague: it's a place I've tried before but have been unable to order due to language barriers.  

It gradually becomes warm enough to occasionally sit outside in the sun with only a light coat on, which is very encouraging, and there is a feeling of spring in the air: although in my experience winter can take a long time to disappear. I encourage the students to work outside the classroom as there is a huge skylight on the floor and a lot of space, so there is an atelier atmosphere!

THE NEW TERM BEGINS

As I try to settle in to my fourth and last term in China, at least for the present, I meet my students and review last year's work as well as explaining what we will be doing this term. As time goes by, I realise I haven't heard from anyone since I left for Guangxi and I begin to get worried about this: of course I can contact them myself but am rather wary of doing so, as it can become tiring when you have to do all the work yourself! I do email my friend Abby and we meet up for some pizza: I also try Seven and Christine but do not get a reply so for the present decide to leave it to fate. As I say it's too tiring to try and make people spend time with you when they don't want to. I wonder if I will ever hear from them again? Last term I had a similar experience and as I recall I took matters into my own hands, emailed a number of people and asked how they were, and this led to a number of meet-ups, following which I cycled out to R66 and met up with some expats. I am sure I will bump into them again at some stage. I've been through this before and each time the only solution has been to go out and work on expanding my social circle. But I can't do this forever as there are a finite number of English speakers n Baoding! I make some chilli and one or two simple Chinese dishes at home for lunch and dinner.

For the present I've abandoned my plans to make new artworks and try to have a show as it has simply been too difficult to obtain the materials I need and organise space at this stage. I should by now have completed the first set of paintings and be working on the second. So it looks as if I will have to wait until I get back to England. I could get the university to help but that would mire me in endless drudgery so I feel it is best to wait. I can always change my mind.  

I see my colleague Sean for a meal and have a nice evening but most of the time I fall into my old habit of hanging about the shacks, watching the people and have coupled this with watching horror films in my flat at night!

The weather is bitterly cold, but it seems to be rapidly changing, as on some days the sun is out, the sky is bright and it's warm enough for me to lose one or even two of my layers! However at this time this alternates with cold spells and one day it snows: the flakes are very small and it looks very fine, but it settles and continues for several hours to form a thick blanket on the ground. The trouble with snow is that the after-effects of a snowfall can last for days or even weeks: but it does thaw after a day creating some minor floods. In the shacks it drips off the roofs sometimes cascading inside so I find myself avoiding miniature showers. All the same, I feel spring is in the air early this year!

Many of the roadside shacks were demolished during the holidays, however somewhat to my delight the families who ran these have returned and built new ones! I usually only tend to go for a beer there anyway and occasionally chat with colleagues. I make plans for my eventual return journey to England (I hate using the word “trip”, it's trivial.) also for the holidays in the summer and at Christmas: it helps to keep me sane! In addition I plan to visit Beijing again a few times before I go back: perhaps once a month.

One day the gloom has become too much for me so I cycle out to my favourite hutong near the old campus of the University where I stayed when I first arrived in 2015. This lifts my spirits as it's much more colourful than the area I'm in now. There is a huge indoor food market with a large number of stalls offering different kinds of Chinese food: similar to the one in Guilin, plus outdoor shacks in the hutong.

Today the sun is bright and warm so I have a pleasant walk around and have lunch in the small restaurant where I first met Abby and her friends. I decide to order prawns with cashew nuts and rice which is the closest I've come so far to the kind of Chinese food I used to eat in England since I came to China.

Following this I return to the campus and bump into a colleague in the shacks, so we have a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine chatting over a few beers! In all this is a good day.

As the teaching continues I find it to be the high spot of my week: we revisit the installation we made last year and the weather continues to be good. I am beginning to lose some of my clothing layers.  

GUANGXI 16: EPILOGUE

And so I've reached the end of my Guangxi experience. To me it has been something of an adventure rather than a break: although at times I was just able to kick back in a bar, restaurant or on the verandah at the hostel, talk, read or write. I planned the entire thing meticulously and apart frome the hostel only taking cash when I arrived, which was easy to resolve anyway, I've had no real problems. It has had its ups and downs. I've met old friends and made new ones, experienced a variety of cuisine, seen some spectacular and fabulous places. I've cycled, hiked and travelled by boat on the river, all the things you are meant to do in Guangxi. I feel quite good about having done all these things: for me to travel solo around China like this feels like an achievement.  I've hit the bars in Yangshuo and Beijing, and had a good time. The one thing I've failed to do is let go of my anxieties altogether and relax: it's hard to do when you are by yourself. At times I've come close, but not entirely.

In the 19th Century adventure stories I read as a boy the travellers come to the end of their adventures having carried away some fabulous treasure or having their lives enriched by the experience or both. For the present, I no longer feel the need to fulfill some ambitious travel agenda. I've done all the things I really wanted to do in China apart from making new art. There is always more to see and do in such a vast and diverse land as this, but for the time being I'm content. I'm glad I do not have to contemplate further marathon train journeys, stressful station transfers or endless queues. I will no doubt confine my China travels to Beijing for the remainder of my time here.

At any rate a romantic version of events is for me, the penetration of an almost prehistoric land which has always held an element of mystery. I've had visions of Guangxi in my head for years. Having been there and experienced it as fully as I can, I feel I have collected some very special memories. My only regret is that Sarah has not been here to share it with me: this journal is my own poor attempt to share the journey with her and others.

GUANGXI 15: JOURNEY'S END

 I rise at 8 after a good night's sleep, have a coffee, pack and check out at around 10.30. The train is at 12. The subway ride to the station takes about 40 minutes and is easy apart from the fact that there are no downwards escalators in the stations and my cases are very heavy. There is a lift but it is outside the ticketing area so I do not know how to use it. So I have to carry my bags down several flights of stairs which is uncomfortable and annoying. What would I do if I were elderly and infirm?

The hotel has been very quiet and comfortable if slightly more humble than the last two I stayed in. So there is little more to tell. The train journey is less than an hour and I have a practical routine of taking my bags back to my apartment, then going for lunch and a beer in the local shacks. The sun is shining and it's relatively warm today for this time of the year.

I do have a slight episode when I leave the railway station and the taxi driver cannot understand my pidgin Chinese, also I don't have my address printed. So I have to call one of my students to translate for me. On arriving at the campus area, I'm rather shocked and saddened to find that most of the shacks I used to visit for a local beer and occasional noodles have been torn down: this seems to happen each time there is a holiday. I'm now quite convinced that they will all be gone by the time I leave for England. My friend Jack tells me the police clear them away (there are protection rackets operating.) I end up having lunch in a restaurant. If there are no beer shacks I will be at a loss where to go for occasional recreation. Luckily a few still remain.

However there are very few places open to eat, so it is fortunate that I have some home-made meals in the freezer that I made before I left for Guangxi. I have one of these in the evening.

GUANGXI 14: FORBIDDEN CITY AND HOUHAI

I set my alarm for 9am the next morning and as the weather is so clear I've planned another visit to the Forbidden City, which I visited last year and indeed for the first time 20 years ago: but I've always come away with a feeling that there is more to see. It was once so shrouded in mystery and fear that today it is difficult to imagine its past life, or a sense of its former community. The last time I came my camera batteries kept failing in the cold so this time I take the Nikon. By the time I'm ready however, after a coffee and shower, it's past 11 am so I decide to have a light lunch first: I'm unsure where to go and consider going to Stuff'd, however I spot a tiny cafe which offers hot dogs and potato salad, Sadly though he doesn't have potato salad ready yet so I settle for a hot dog and honey tea. The owner speaks very good English and has been to university in Australia where he trained in “international business” as he calls it. I ask him why he chose to open a cafe and he tells me he has always wanted to do it. I imagine his family is wealthy and probably helped him out with it because it sounds as if they made him get some sort of job before he set up his business. This is an insight into Chinese middle-class culture. In any case this makes for a good light lunch so I set off on the subway.  

 At the subway station I'm approached by a Chinese lady who speaks English well. She says she is from Dalian, which is a city in the south-east of China near the sea, and asks me where I'm from. She seems to want to strike up some form of conversation and asks me if I want to go for coffee: I gently fob her off and say I have to meet a friend . There is something about this sort of experience that makes me feel a bit uneasy. I suppose it's from my childhood days when we were all told not to speak to strangers, after all I have no reason to believe this is anything more than a holidaymaker being friendly. However another one approaches me a few minutes later and I simply walk past into the exit. I suspect some kind of scam although I cannot imagine what form it takes.

Outside the Forbidden City there is a security check with the usual X-ray machines and guards. This is so busy that there is an enormous queue of about 200 or so people, but it does not take too long to get through. I have to say my heart sinks on sight of it. Again, I have to train myself to patience. There are 3 stages to entering the complex: the guard check, followed by crossing the moat over a bridge, then obtaining your ticket. It's about 1pm by the time I'm inside.

The Forbidden City is a must see and a wonder of the world for me. It is incredibly imposing, but it is hard to imagine life inside it as the complex is empty: after the Civil War in China most of its contents were removed by the Kuomintang and taken to Taiwan.

 Following my visit I walk to Houhai and drop into 4 Corners where I have a light snack of seared stuffed squid: this is very tasty and I can imagine having a go at it myself in my flat. I take the subway back to the hotel and shower. I'm terribly tired, I think owing to to so much walking and a late night yesterday.

So in the evening I go back to 4 Corners one more time and have a light bite for supper. I do like this bar and have not been for some time as I normally go to Great Leap but it doesn't sell food. I have some spring rolls which are home-made and very good. The food here tends to take its time arriving but is obviously meticulously prepared.