Beijing: Land of Commerce

I've been back in Beijing for two days, and that means three things. One, I'm sleeping on plywood again. Two, everyone has a cough. But the most important thing of all is that we all get to engage in commerce again. Yesterday I bought 400 RMB worth of books to keep me company in the next four months, and I don't regret a single jaio of it. A lot of them are books that I have read at various points in the past, but the point of my purchase wasn't to learn new things, it was go get things that provide comfort during my uncertain four months. Along the same lines, I bought new headphones, as I left my old pair in a Guyuan hotel room. The great thing is, I don't feel bad about spending money, because what the hell am I going to buy during the rest of the year?

Along the same lines, we've been going out every night and eating American food (I had Eggs Benedict last night!), and drinking American drinks (Manhattans! Manhattans with my Eggs Benedict!). There's a large concentration of places to go near the embassy district, and we've been trying different ones out. Tonight's my last night in Beijing, so we're going out again. We'll see if getting home is as weird as it was last night. Speaking of which, I'm beginning to really hate Beijing cabbies. Last night it took us half an hour to find someone who would drive us back to Xidan, and when we finally found a cabbie that would take us, he promptly called Irene, the head of the program and the woman whose business card has our address on it, to yell at her about directions. Then, when we got back to CSETC, he refused our bills until we satisfied him by giving him all of the small bills in our pockets, which was significantly less than cab fare.

This also reminds me of a previous transportation experience that I neglected. Our trip back from the last camp at Guyuan was . . . eventful. When we got into the van that was supposed to take all of us back to Beijing, there were two Chinese men in the van whose purpose was never explained to any of us. The van was already overfull with all of us in it, so these two extra people were really, really not what we wanted. It gets weirder, though. We hit a police checkpoint, and just before this checkpoint, the two men exited the van, walked past the police checkpoint, and then promptly got back in the van. Nobody batted an eye at this behavior. We later dropped one of the men at the side of the highway. Who knows where the second guy ended up.

We went to the Great Wall yesterday, and it truly is a great wall. It's very steep, and there are a lot of people climbing it. I realized quickly that the easiest way to deal with he stairs is to run up them, so I actually ended up running a significant portion of the wall, which actually felt really good. We got to the top, took a photo, ate some jerky, and then began our descent. Quickly Ish discovered that sliding down the railing is a much easier way to get down, and I followed him. There is still rust on my butt, but I got down quickly, had fun, and offended nobody. I feel like I should write more about the wall, but there's not a whole lot to say. It's big, it's old, and it's steep. I climbed it. Nothing else of note happened.

I leave for my post tomorrow at 1PM, and I get a 17 hour long train ride out of the deal. At least I have my books, my music, and probably more than three games of Chinese Chess with Miles. The next time you hear from me, I'll be at the place I'll be living at for four months. I really hope it doesn't suck.

-Cooper