BEIJING -- Right now over a dozen people are sitting, standing or squatting in different parts of Beijing's mammoth transportation system, all converging on this location. Well, almost.
Caleb is on the subway ring line from Xizhimen, Zach's in a couple with a couple other people, Jean is walking/skipping from Guomao and I'm not really sure the girls are.
If my life in China was a television program, today would be the season finale. With classes over, the plan is for things go on hiatus for a couple months. Most people are scheduled to return for the next season, some are the fence and a few have confirmed that they won't be renewing their contracts.
In the calculating style of television Sweeps Week rating events, tonight nearly every important person from the past four month is scheduled to come down here and send out the Spring Semester 2007 with some debauchery.
I have no phone, so I've made sure to get down here early. Here is the Sanlitun area, where we can find nice restaurants, sleek bars and fashionable clubs. There's enough sweets and booze to guarantee I won't have excess RMB to dispense at the airport tomorrow.
Walking here from the Indian Embassy (last-minute visa pickup), I passed many places that featured the past few months: the Mexican restaurant with salty chips, the Swisshotel that hosted the worthless job fair, a beverage stand where I once bought two yellow Gatorades. But there were also unfamiliar places. I realized I'd never taken this route to get from Ritan Park to Sanlitun. I wandered down a hutong in the direction of Sanlitun, only to be turned back by three security guards, jovailly yelling "No!" and pointing me another way around the building. Why couldn't I go in that way? What else didn't I know about this area of Beijing where I spent so much time the last four months? And If this the part of the city I understand, what about the thousands of acres where I've never set foot?
Stay tuned.
