Arrived in Beijing (have I explained? Beijing is Chinese for Peking) nice + early, to be greeted, of course, with confusion from without and irritability from within, but really it wasn’t too long before we were at the hotel. Our directions had not been precise, but by good fortune we had interpreted them correctly. That should have meant the end of our problems, but it was another 2 hrs before we were settled. In Beijing, it is compulsory to book all hotel accommodation thro’ CITS, + tho’ the hotel, way down in the south end of town, did have its own CITS rep on the premises, he didn’t open till 8, so we had no alternative but to sit around + wait. Even when we were finally granted an audience, he was unhelpful. No, he didn’t think there was a dorm bed available, but we could wait + try later. Alternatively, we could take a double room (at a ridiculous price) or a triple (which would work out at just a little more than the dorm price per person, provided there was a 3rd person. No, he wouldn’t allocate a 3rd person to us – that we would have to arrange ourselves. Thanks a bunch, mister.
So we sat down outside, + waited for a 3rd person to come along. Fortunately, we got someone quite quickly, a Norwegian girl. She had slept last night on a camp bed in the girls’ dorm, but tonight she wouldn’t be allowed to, no-one could tell her why. That was, however, our good fortune, + we were able to get a triple room assigned to us – it may or may not have been the last one (who can say?) Problems over? Not yet. We now took our authorisation slip down to the front desk, but ran immediately into difficulties, when we found them to be the most incompetent, inefficient bunch I’ve ever run into. Eventually tho’, they sorted out the mess they had made of things, + we could get into our exorbitantly-priced room.
We showered, of course, especially when we realised a few days in hard seat had elapsed since the last. I was on my way to the shower when I ran into Laraine – we keep thinking we’ve seen the last of them, + keep running into them again. No complaints mind, they’re good company, especially David, whose flat speech delivery only emphasises his wit. Laraine too is friendly + fun, but as usual it’s the male I get on with best. During the last 3 years, I think I’ve only really enjoyed the company of one woman (with one other notable exception, natch): Heather, the Kiwi in Rarotonga. Oh, maybe Marg in Sydney too.
We chatted with D + L for an hour or so. They’ve been a week in Beijing already, + have done very little – that’s their style. We rode into town with them on the bus (about a half-hour journey, only made bearable by the fact that we get on at the terminal, so can get a seat, in one direction at least.) They were going to visit the Forbidden City, but we didn’t feel up to sight-seeing just yet. Our aim was the Friendship Store, of which we were expecting great things. Perhaps inevitably, we were disappointed. The supermarket section, our prime aim, was poorly stocked, with really no greater variety than we’d found elsewhere. The best part was the section selling bread, pastries, cooked meats, milk, yogurt – we gorged ourselves here on homemade ham sandwiches.
Once surfeited, we wandered back along Chang’an, Beijing’s main thoroughfare, a quite amazing street, something like 10 lanes wide, and carrying about as much traffic as an ordinary high st, out of the rush hour, back in England. We took a brief look at the only slightly faded glory of the Beijing Hotel. It is actually still a very smart place, but has been superseded by Beijing’s newer, Internationalese hotels (which boast of American management.) And then we strolled into Tiananmen Square, a remarkable place. It’s bordered by Tiananmen Gate +the Forbidden City to the north, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall to the south, the huge museum to the east, and the Great Hall of the People to the west. These are all large + imposing edifices, but are dwarfed by the amount of space they enclose, enough, I read, for 6 (or was it 10?) football pitches, or a dozen Trafalgar Squares, I’m sure. We didn’t explore, merely walked across, + then down the small street flowing out from the southern end.
We decided to do without dinner, after our hearty feast plus numerous fizzy drinks, ice creams, + yogurts, we weren’t at all hungry so caught the bus back. In the evening, we socialised once again with D + L, then went down with them to watch the hour-long Olympic programme on the communal TV.
Beijing is the pretty universal name for the place now, so my explanation at the beginning is somewhat redundant, with Peking only associated with the duck dish nowadays.
Good to run into Dave and Laraine again, all the more so for being unexpected. Seem to recall the athletic highlight was seeing Zola Budd trip Mary Decker, which we ungraciously enjoyed immensely.
