Beihai Park - Last Day In Beijing

The night I found out where I was placed I spent time down the park doing a bit of research in the hopes of perking myself up. Unfortunately the research added to my disappointment, I wiped the unwanted tears from my cheeks and tried to push away the months of visualisations, me teaching wee children, making use of my many finger puppets, wandering through village streets and traipsing up empty mountains… Ok, it may have been a bit idealistic, but certainly the age of my students and desire to be in a more rural location had been strictly stipulated when I made my payment to Immerqi.

I knew I was indulging in self pity, but I figured I was allowed one evenings worth of wallowing, especially as I learned a few fun facts about my new hometown:

• Most famous for its 7.8 Richter Scale Earthquake in 1976 during which 255 000 + died. It reduced the city to rubble and there remain echoes of its impact.
• Population of a very small… 3.3million… so much for my village
• Experiencing a particularly hot Autumn with most days around 28 degrees and 50 – 60% level humidity (why had I lugged my poncho from Australia to here I now know not)
• Top thing to see / do in Tangshan? Visit the Earthquake Museum…

I did contact my Immerqi rep, but to no avail. The most frustrating thing was that there were four people who didn’t want to go to Mongolia… one person who did, and they wouldn’t make the swap. I was glad that I atleast tried, I would not have liked wondering if I had just asked would I be hanging around the tomb of Ghengis Khan right now? 

So one positive is that I have become more assertive since commencing this trip, so silver linings and all that.

My evening of wallowing now spent, I asked Attilla and Sam if they’d like to go to Bai Hai Park in Beijing for the afternoon. Apparently the Aussie couple Dani and Joe were heading in a similar direction so we all clamoured back on the tube and made our two hour journey to our next destination.

The walk from the Uni to the train was delightful, one of those fortunate days when the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the haze and smog seem to have dissipated and you cant help but have a skip to your step.

But as we came to the surface from the tube we heard a howling, a blowing, the clip clip clipping of hard rain on thick clear plastic. There was a wall of Chinese cowering from the storm. But you cant scare off two South Africans and three Aussies with a bit of weather! We pushed our way through the crowd, when we saw the sky – admittedly – there were a few expletives uttered, the sky was black and ominous, the wind blew the words from our mouths and down the street. Tree branches slashed like dark characters from a Tim Burton film…

“Umbrella” yelled a vendor, looking at this peculiar group of weather warriors, “No… No!” we chorused back… umbrella’s indeed (although sneakily in the back of the group Joe pulled out his bag cover bag to keep his backpack safe…) at first I queried this, but within twenty minutes he’d be singing the theme tune to Sponge Bob Square Pants, so I figured this pedanticness was one of many character floors ;-)

We saw the lake – that looks nice… with its white capped mini waves and trees arching back to the wind… - lets find a bar!?

Fortunately, or sadly – depending on your perspective – the storm passed quickly and suddenly the sun was shining once more. Two rainbows shimmered in the distance and the Chinese became elated, almost hysterical! Dani informed us that it was good luck to see two rainbows. I informed them that two rainbows meant it was a normal day in Albany… aka its raining again!

We wandered along the streets and suddenly came upon a lake, hemmed by stone banks and weeping willowesque trees. We had slipped from busy Beijing down the rabbit hole into a sanctuary of peace. People wandered amiably, ride-on taxis politely tooted as that took tourists too and fro, the buildings on either side of the estuary looked authentic with their ornamented roofs and mauve / orange walls.

We continued our wander and came across what I imagine was a ‘bar street’, one karaoke bar, two… another, another! The singers voices mingling with one another and floating down the river in an orchestra of confuzzlement and confusion – much, ofcourse, to our delight.

Atila, Sam and myself decided to stop by the river, above the melee of music, and have a coke, a beer and a champagne respectively. Dani and Joe headed off to a micro brewery where we’d meet up with the later for what can only be said to be… the best burger I’ve had in my life!

It was a perfect way to spend my final afternoon / evening in Beijing. I’m sure I’ll pop back to see the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and a few other sites…

Tomorrow at midday myself and Therese would be sat on a bullet train heading to Tangshan… I set my usual need to prepare to one side and instead accepted that the unknown would remain as such until I arrived in my new home.

The next morning I made myself my daily treat of delicious Dilmah tea, I double checked the room and ensured my case was secure. I hauled the 22kgs of possessions on my back.

Monkey sat on the bed. I stared at Monkey... Monkey stared at me.. 

"Here we go, then" I said, 

Monkey nodded and off we went,.