Lots of snow in Beijing!
Just been Jiang nan - south of the river Yangtse - into a milder climate and even some rain again for the very first time since my first couple days in Shanghai 4 long months ago. Houses and hills, patches [but no swathes] of green; still factories and ramshackle China too. Warmly welcomed in Hangzhou and Shaoxing and blessed to be guided through some of its culture and scenic beauty by a wonderful host. Such a retreat from Beijing, especially Shaoxing - I want to go back.
Not for my lost suitcase that is! Spent another day in lovely Shaoxing and an unforgettable time with the traffic police on the prowl for the missing piece of laowai luggage in the boot of a taxi - telephoning all 20 taxi companies in Shaoxing - so they said [are there really 20?] - and putting the ad on the traffic radio: that they certainly did! Ha - such fine treatment :) But I wonder how the refugees are handling things right now in Western police stations?
Then back six years later to Mike and Zhong's family [now in the town of Xiangshan - Elephant Mountain, formerly Shipu], the ever-humorous Da Ge, off to Mike's engagement banquet in Ningbo - an incredulous display of Chinese pomp and tradition.. for Mike's sake, I should say I guess the food was good [well, damn good! shark fin's soup and lobster and what not, the seafood delicacies of his hometown of coastal Shipu [Ningbo's own extravagant Shipu Restaurant] But the atmosphere felt strange, the table so big that one could barely get a word across to anybody more than two places way, which meant 1/Mike and laoban grandpa did all of the talking 2/ Grandma subordinate did absolutely none; and 3/ Mike’s mum and his in-laws to be said nothing to each other over the course of the dinner. Zhong and Dan Dan's younger cousin attempted to clarify how it wasn’t appropriate to be comfortable at this dinner.. how fucking strange, while at the same time the to-be-groom must endure countless glasses of wine toasted to him and risk getting completely off his rocker. Then shocked to learn that my gift of very traditional and engagement-appropriate Shaoxing wine was handed over to laoban Grandpa [of Dan Dan] at none of my doing…even though I personally handed it to the fiancées before the meal. What was I going to do in a scene of centuries-old appropriacy - snatch it back with my bare hands?
There's one thing China is certainly not - easy-going! Fuck, I love my country!
Li family guanxi from the Ningbo tax office paved our way in their city with a room in the Tax Department's office building itself and another over-extravagant - and utterly wasteful - lunch [not that I could stomach much] Mr Huan likes to stare at me like an alien. And even while he offers for me to travel the country with him - must be on a tax rort - how could I spend that money or put up with such treatment? That's not why I came to China. Even in Ningbo! - according to Mr Huan, "on the list of the 6th richest cities in China"! I certainly couldn't care less. Unfortunately masses and masses in China do.
They're moving, that's for sure.. so why shouldn’t I try and push the steering wheel too :)
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