It is widely acknowledged in Beijing that if you want to capture the vivid colours of autumn then Fragrant Hill is the spot in Beijing to go. My phone supplier notified me that now was the time to go but beware of transport issues if heading to the hills but when Stuart and Kaz announced they were going on Monday and invited me along I swiftly agreed.
I was mindful that I had recently been on crutches, significantly heavier than I had been and that maybe a mountain hike might not be in my best interest, but I ignored my main worries by binding up my knee and taking walking poles with me. I had been to the hills before and was confident that slow and steady I could do it. The hills are in the far west and by subway and train it would take me an hour and half to get there. My cadres would take longer as they had to come from further east.
I left the apartment bearing in mind that we would meet at 13.00. I was surprised as I neared Niujie Station to see that hoardings that had surrounded the former Cangchunyuan Park for the best part of two years had finally come down to reveal a beautiful new park with a lake. It turned out to be its opening day and by coincidence I happened to be one of the first enjoy the beautiful landscape the planners had created.
My journey ended up being an hour and I arrived 30 minutes early. Their journey was slower than anticipated. I found a cafe to while away the hour wait, though in retrospect it would probably have been better for them if I had given myself a head start.
Being over 60 meant that I got to go free but Kaz needed a ticket and when I went to show my passport and that I was entitled to free entry the ticket seller waved me away, clearly thinking that I was as old as Methuselah.
It was a day of blazing sunshine and the temperature having dropped was on the rise again. I had dressed for the cold and for much of the hike once we had met up and begun our climb I felt a little hot and bothered. My memory, which I often cherish as being perfect, had not served me well. I did not recollect there being so many steps, steep, steep steps. And it was only when we reached the top that I realised I had taken a different and clearly easier route. The company however was fun and though every 80, uneven block of stone I had to rest, good humour prevailed. It was slow, it took us two hours, but the numerous Chineses on their descent, showing their delight at seeing such an ancient laowai, huffing and puffing, his way up the climb also made it worth while.
The downward journey seemed easier but feelings of exhaustion by the time we reached the base were only assuaged once we were at the subway and begging the long trek home, seated!
I had the travelling bug and on Tuesday I decided I would go to a memorial park next to the military museum. Nothing to strenuous but it would get me out and exercising I cycled to Line 1 a Fuxingmen and headed west again. I was engrossed in sending a friend Birthday wishes and discovered I had missed my stop by two stations. Two stations on and I was at the International Sculpture Park, two stops back and I was at my destination. I decided to stay on the train and go to the Sculpture Park.
I had visited it before and I was surprised once I entered to see that it was a completely different collection than the one I had seen in 2021. Some of the work was impressive. Some, a bust of Charlie Chaplin for example, was a little underwhelming and unflattering, certainly to our Charlie. It was a dull day and after a while;e I decided to go for a tea and to sit and do some work on a script that a friend had asked me to do.
I remembered that I had been to a cafe the last time I had visited and I had a guess at the direction and location as I could not remember the name. I felt extremely smug and pleased with myself when I found it. For 2 or more hours I toiled at the script and by the end I had not done much and any sense of self worth engendered by my remarkable sense of direction had evaporated and I was berating myself as a very unfunny individual. I left the cafe and it was only when I found myself outside what turned out to be a monumental Bath House did I realise I had gone in the wrong direction.
Luckily for me Peng had made arrangements to eat with his parents on Wednesday which meant a quieter more relaxed day. Mindful that I was dieting they had prepared a light meal for us of tofu soup and bing. We wiled away a couple of hours in a nearby cafe we had once visited before home.
I was feeling a little the worse the wear from the weeks exertions so Thursday was blissful as I spent the day indoors and then Peng drove to Universal Beijing Resort in Tongzhou where I was meeting Kaz to see ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ in the IMAX cinema. I had not seen it since I had taken Harvey and Cole when they were children and I don’t know if it was seeing it on the IMAX but I was really impressed by it. After this film Peng joined me in the same Cinema to see ‘Venom, The last Dance’. We did not get home till 1am.
Friday was an indoor blur and on Saturday due to the high level of pollution that day we stayed indoors. It was youngest son Cole’s 29th Birthday and the push that gave me to old age was softened by a lively birthday chat. . Sunday though was the day we had put aside to lunch at the restaurant we had randomly selected from my Beijing Bites book. The pages had opened at a traditional Shangdong cuisine restaurant called Cuiihua Lou. The meal of mushrooms in toon sauce and fried aubergine was delicious and a free bowl of rose petal soup with glutinous rice balls topped it off nicely.
After dinner I finally got to the Shijie Hutong Museum. This was an excellent education in the history of hutongs and hutong life and as it featured much information about number 20, the dormitory of the actors of the Beijing People’s theatre it had added resonance for me. Coffee then a cycle home closed the week and I realised as the day closed that I could no longer put off working and I prepared myself to begin painting the first of the rooms in the apartment.
