On Saturday we rested in the morning. I have decided that anyone who writes about travelling as if it is easy going must be very young, and/or very fit. I am neither and SG was tired a lot too. Come to think of it BMW was too when we went to Beijing in winter. We had a look at Xiu Shui market and bought a little. Shining girl liked it and wanted to go again. I found it very tiring.
In the evening my friend Margo (name changed) came to the hotel for us and took us to a one-hundred and forty year old Beijing Duck Restaurant, where we were served a beautifully cooked duck and given a certificate telling us the number of the duck. They have kept a record of every duck they have served since opening. Ellen now has the card and it was 1.15 million and a few score thousand. A nice experience in good company. Margo paid with characteristic Chinese generosity and insistence even though I protested that I had invited her. (See, I don’t only note the negatives in Chinese behaviour.) She offered to take us to the Great Wall the next day and had already arranged a driver. I met Margo at work where she came as a translator. We have a common interest in writing poetry.
I had a little gastric problem which I was treating with medicine and hoped I would make it to the Wall but in the morning realized I ought not to risk it. I had heard too many stories of people having to hang their private parts over the edge of the edifice in emergencies and it seemed that I would receive several urgent SMSs from Nature during the day. I rang Margo who was happy to take Ellen anyway. The two of them had a good day together and Margo even succeeded in getting Ellen to eat food I would never have got her to try. My daughter is a mannerly young lady. Margo’s generosity continued and I must find a way to do something nice for her in Wuhan.
I slept most of the day and was a little concerned about the next, as that was the day we were going to Tianjin to see BMW.
I was fine in the morning and we got to the station in plenty of time to take a train to Tianjin. As we were walking along the platform towards the exit BMW rang to say she had finished her exam and was on the bus coming to town. Good timing. I located the Goubuli dumpling restaurant where we were to meet and sat there with SG for about fifteen minutes before a sparklingly excited BMW arrived. The girls warmly accepted each other immediately and spent the rest of the day hand-in-hand as ‘sisters’ ought.
We went to BMW’s university and ate at a Coffee Shop that has recently opened there. Students can work in it to get experience with English. There is a lot of non-Chinese food on the menu and overseas staff and students often eat there. BMW goes with foreign friends.
All of us needed food and were refreshed after the meal. I wanted to go to a street in Tianjin that had antique shops and stalls so that’s where we went. Many were fake – Victrola gramophones with shiny labels, Art Deco lamps the same in two shops. I did see some interesting things there which appeared authentic and I wouldn’t mind spending more time there if I get the chance one day. It would be necessary to browse around for a while, maybe one or two visits, asking prices and comparing things before buying. And, what the heck, some of the fakes are good enough to buy. Who can afford to buy real antiques anyway and what’s the guarantee they are really real?
I hoped that there would be a train back to Beijing in the late evening as BMW could have spared that amount of time but the last train was at half past five and that was the one we had to take. I felt quite sad leaving BMW, conscious of the heavy load she was bearing. She was studying till one every night and rising again at six. It showed in her features both as strength and as tiredness. I hoped SG would write to her and they could stay friends independent of me.