TravelPod encourages its contributors to come up with clever blog titles, but I'm starting to run out of ideas for Beijing (I’d considered "I Want You to Play with My Beijing-a-Ling" for this entry) which makes it good that I’ll be leaving tomorrow. It’s hard for me to believe my stay in China is almost over, but I got to see everything in the area that I wanted to check out, ate great food, and have some magnificent memories to take with me to Thailand.
The morning after I got back from the Wall, I had a video chat with my girlfriend Jill, and told her how surprised I am that I haven’t seen more Westerners here. I’m staying in a touristy area, but almost all of the tourists here are from other parts of China. I’m not complaining, because it makes for a more authentic experience, but when you do meet a couple of friendly Anglophones, you’re just happy to have someone to talk to. One of these individuals was Kent, an electrician from Denmark. I told Jill that I didn’t know if I’d see Kent again, but if he were still around, I’d probably spot him because he’d be “the only other white dude in the hutong.” Sure enough, right after my video call, I walked out into the alley and ran right into Kent. Because I still had yet to try authentic Peking Duck, I invited him to come along with me, because tackling an entire bird would be a challenge (or so I thought). We made a plan to meet later in the evening, and went our separate ways for the day.
I ended up heading out toward the suburbs, to the 798 Arts District, a huge former electronics factory complex that’s been reborn as art galleries and cafes. To be honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but I ended up spending the entire day there, gawking at some of the best, worst and weirdest artwork I’ve ever laid eyes upon.
On the way back, I stopped at a bank ATM to replenish my cash (credit cards are all but useless here) and sure enough, my card got stuck. Two nice ladies behind me saw it happen, and then motioned for me to stay put while they found a bank employee. The first worker asked if I had another card so she could push my debit card in farther and see if it would take. I flat out refused to hand her another piece of plastic, and gave her a business card to work with instead. Then, she managed to pull a David Copperfield and make my card disappear completely. It took five bank officers to finally liberate it from the jaws of the machine. After that incident, I’ve decided to make future withdrawals at the window whenever possible.
After my return, as I waited on dinner time, I inspected the cheaply made guitar sitting at my hostel. Besides being terribly out-of-tune, it was missing a string as well, and I’m pretty sure the remaining wires attached were not meant to be on a guitar, if they were meant for any musical instrument at all. So, I set out for the nearest music store, and bought a set of $7 D’Addarios. Then, with the help of my trusty Swiss Army Knife and a washcloth, I tightened up the tuning heads, cleaned up the bridge, reset the nut, and strung that bad boy up the way the Gods of Rock n’ Roll intended. It wasn’t a perfect repair, but at least I got it back in playing condition. Since then, I’ve been strumming it on the rooftop lounge in the evenings, to an excited staff who should be working instead of watching me play. But, the bosses here don’t mind, because they’re so thankful that I fixed it. It’s been another profound experience for me. In America, strings are an afterthought, when they break or get old, I just go to the store and buy new ones; in China, most people don’t have the funds for such a luxurious purchase.
At the last minute, Kent and I were joined for dinner by Sarah and Ashley, two friends from England and Ireland teaching in Brunei and South Korea, respectively. The more the merrier, I thought, as we set out to eat an entire duck. But, it turns out the Peking Duck was so delicious, I could’ve easily eaten the whole thing myself. Nonetheless, it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal, and I washed it down with a new beer, Yanjing, a local brew that touts itself as a proud sponsor of China’s Space Program. Of course, none of the beer here is that good, but it actually tasted better than Tsing Tao to me.
Today, I went with my dinner mates for a breakfast of steamed dumplings, and then led them to the Forbidden City, where I’ve already been, but they wanted to see before they leave town. After saying our goodbyes, I left them under the giant picture of Mao and decided to check out Jingshan Park, a massive hill that was constructed using the dirt excavated to create the Forbidden City moat. If I had known how cool Jingshan Park is, I would’ve visited it many times before today. There is a Buddhist temple atop the hill, surrounded by four pavilions, and the views are the best to be had in town. While that is reason enough to pay the $1.50 entrance fee, the park itself is quiet and relaxing, a real rarity in bustling Beijing. There’s also a lot of history in the park, including the still-standing 400-year old tree where Chongzhen, the last of the Ming emperors, hanged himself as an army of half a million revolting peasants invaded the capital.
So now, I have a few hours until it’s bye-bye Beijing and Hello Bangkok. I’ve already booked a taxi to take me to the airport at 5:30AM, so I’m going to try and crash early. As for dinner, I’m thinking one more round of Peking Duck. But this time, I might enjoy the whole thing alone!
