Adventures in Beijing

I had never seen so many flies. They seemed to descend by the dozens, speeding to cover every spare surface. No one placed anything on the table- glass, plate, bowl, chopsticks, they had to be in constant motion, or fall prey to the unrelenting black buzz.

We had come to the outskirts of Yunnan, China to ride horses. Everyone told us Shangri-la is akin to heaven on earth. There are no fields more green, skies more blue or beauty more bright than here; no one told us about the flies.

The stable was makeshift at best. Horses roamed the vast area and had to be reined in for tourists to ride. An accompanying inn served as the reception and a bed and breakfast, or even dinner - "if you'd like to stay, of course. I'm expecting some old friends", he said.

His thick, country accent challenged my inexperienced ears accustomed to perfect, news program style Mandarin. I wondered if his friends would speak the same and I would spend the night deciphering riddles. But the water had already begun boiling; “We are going to have hot pot under the stars.”

A round table was dragged to the middle of the rough, sandy courtyard and ten stools were sat around it: five for my family, one for the worn inn keeper, one for a long-bearded businessman who shook his left leg like a twitch, one for a horse saddle maker who looked over sixty but insisted on forty-five, another for a property tycoon who came without a wristwatch in faded blue jeans, and lastly, one for the young carpenter from the furniture shop who had recently refurnished the entire place.

There was never a silent moment. Between rowdy yells of “bottoms up”, there were stories of years in the village further south, discussions of Chinese politics and the constant buzzing of flies. Somewhere after the third pitcher of homemade plum liquor, “almost fifty percent alcohol” he proclaimed, the incessant drone settled to a deep, rhythmic hum. I had never experienced such resounding laughter.

As night fell, it became harder to discern the blanket of flies from the dark sky and the crisp Beijing accent from the rich Yunnan dialect.