When I woke on the morning of 13th January 2025, I sensed a heaviness about my being that made it difficult to drag my limbs out of bed. it wasn’t a heaviness of body, or of heart but one of fatigue and aches and demeanour. I did get up though and went to the Post office to send a New Home card to Peng’s cousin Jieyu and his wife Cui. I then went for a walk in the Xuanwumen Art Park but as I progressed I felt so bad I had to return home and thus a week of virtual inertia happened.
Other than the renovation of my flat in Brighton the highlights of the week was a failed attempt to visit an art gallery in Baiziwan on the 15th with one of my Chinese ex-colleagues from Universal. I was meeting Devin, who had also left the resort and was now working for a film studio painting models before permanently heading off to the warmer climates of Guangzhou in the south. I suggested a gallery as he is an artist but the gallery was shut and instead we walked to SPK-S mall where a selection of extraordinary AI art was on display including 2 chimps on Mars playing a futuristic game of chess.
I did go to the cinema and I did clean the windows of apartment with Peng and put up traditional window flowers and did the same on Saturday at his parents but that really was the extent of my activity as for most of the week I profoundly felt that everything was an effort.
I was therefore glad when the new week began on the Monday the 20th and I resolved to try and change the prevailing wind of fatigue. I exercised a determination to drive away the desire for inertia. The new week bought with it the final solar term of the year, Dahan which translates as Major cold, celebration products start to appear and both Coti Coffee and Luckin coffee launched new flavours give away stickers and window flowers, Cheung Hua. they could not be delivered so at 7am on Monday 20th I found myself going out in the cold to Wumart at Caishikou to get coffees and the giveaways. It is not far, but for sure it was freezing and an overly fresh and active start to the week. The morning continued with booking some flights for future travel plans and in the afternoon I went out for a walk with Peng for a tea, who had a meeting in the financial district with a bank manager. A simple day but I did start to feel myself having more interest in doing again and I made plans with friends for later in the week.
I had been looking forward to Tuesday which was devoted to going to the Buddhist Zhihua Temple; Temple of Wisdom Attained. But first I honoured one the traditions of preparing for the New year and went for a haircut. The salon was busier than I had ever seen it and once the haircut was finished I had to wait to have my hair washed again before being sent off. We waited so long the stylist kept snipping at the hair which got shorter and shorter.
I had paid a visit to the Zhihua Temple before I went to Taiwan but it had been closed for renovation but with the new lunar year about to start it had reopened and on a day of blistering sunshine wow made the pilgrimage across town to Chaoyangmen in the Dongcheng district. The temple is a well preserved complex built in 1444 by the Emperor Yinzong’s chief Eunuch Wang Zhen. It is the repository of a variety of aspects intangible cultural heritage, including traditional music, Chinese civilisation and ‘the endless wisdom of the Chinese Ancestors’. what is astonishing about the building is that has remained intact since the Ming dynasty period in the Old City area of Beijing and in striking contrast to its appearance and the surrounding hutongs is the monolithic, futuristic SOHO Galaxy mall which looms but not overshadows the exquisite buildings. I discovered that a group of musicians regularly performs centuries-old ritual music which has been handed down over 27 generations every day though we were too early to see their performance that day, but it did ensure that I will be returning to hear this heritage. of particular note one of the walls of one of the halls are also painted with Ming dynasty murals featuring the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, Yanluo Wang, the Ten Kings of Hell and other Buddhist figures.
We went for coffee in one of the Hutong’s cafe’s’ formerly a rice house and then cycled to Wangfujing through the hutongs. On our way home we went to a supermarket at Taoranting which involved more walking and cycling. As always despite my underlying malaise I did too much and felt quite exhausted bye the end of the day. It felt good though to be tired from activity rather than wallowing in lassitude.
Wednesday 22nd of January, or the 23rd of December in the Lunar calendar, was important as it is the day the Kitchen God is sent of to report to the Jade Emperor on the year in the kitchen. Therefore the day began with sweeting the mouth of the God with offerings and smearing their lips image with honey. Not wanting to loose the momentum of the previous day I went out for a walk in the neighbourhood of Caishikou taking in the calm environment of the local Ming Dynasty Fayuan Temple. When night fell it was time to send the kitchen god off which ment setting fire to the image. A most satisfying ritual and one I hope bode well for a year of slimming down.
Since being in China I have liked to have a physical representation of the coming year’s animal and the stylishly modern snake I ordered arrived. I had a busy weekend planned and so I decided to take it easy on myself but I still wanted to exercise so we decided to go to Xidan to Joy City mall and languish in the relaxing CA cafe. The lights for New Year Temple Fairs were now on and we decided to finish the day with a walk to Guangyanggu City forest to have a look and to see the red lantern tree that we could see at night from the apartment.
I had arranged to meet Stuart and Kaz on Friday to look at the Yongdingmen gate and the nearby 24 columns representing the solar terms. Despite the cold there were a few locals loitering on the banks of the river in the 24 Jieqi park. they were fascinated to see a collective of laowai and insisted on photographs with us. The area felt remote but it is literally a couple of hundred metres away from the South Gate of the Temple of heaven and I would have expected to see plenty of laowai there. It was pleasant though to be lauded by the locals. We walked through the temple of heaven park to a nearby location for tea and coffee. I learned from Kaz that he was familiar with the area as we passed the famed ‘Pearl market’ I was shocked as it turned out be at the bottom of the road the hotel I had stayed in when I first arrived in 2020 and was also the location where on my first trip to Beijing in 2018 I had been ripped off to the tune of 250 ponds. As always I had a marvellous and hilarious time with them.
When we parted I cycled to Qianmen where I was meeting Peng to visit the newly opened relic site of the ‘Water harnessing beast’. I was early and sat in the sunny cold air sorting out photos and was surprised when I was asked again to pose for photos with people. The relic was a small exhibition but it was the remains of the Ming Dynasty bridge that crossed the moat from Qianmen Street to the magnificent Zhengyangmen Archery tower.. it was only the second day this archaeological site had been open to the public and thanks to Peng we had been amongst the first to obtain a ticket and see this fascinating relic. The day was concluded with a walk through the Chang Dian temple fair to experience the lights that have now been put up.
In preparation for New Year it was an important day for eating only pork on Saturday and as this isn’t an option for me we ordered a faux braised pork from vegan restaurant Godly. It had the look of pork with the fat made from winter gourd and the meat from gluten. A feature of my life at Universal Beijing Resort had been a weekly play reading club where we would meet in the basement each week and read a selected play. It was always a joyful experience and one, now that I had left I was no longer able to take part in. To my delight as a couple of performers were no longer living in the park they had set up the club to include reading of site. I was immediately signed up and needed to be in Tongzhou to read Bug. I arranged to spend the afternoon with my friend and ex colleague Mandi at the Cat Wharf Temple fair at Tongzhou canal. It really was a mission as the location was 35 km away but it was worth the trek. I had a wonderful time with Mandi exploring the fair and then walking along the ancient canal which was established in the early 5th century BC. and extends from its beginnings in Beijing 1776 km to Hangzhou and beyond connecting with both the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. When we tried to leave the canal side to cross a bridge to the South for a coffee we discovered we had to walk even further than the few kilometres we had covered to be able to cross. We exited the park and got a Didi to Jiukeshu and New world Mall for tea.
From there it was an easy journey to the play reading location which was the home of ‘Play club’ founder Sarah. It was good to meet up with several ex colleagues and really good fun to play read again. I look forward to more opportunities. We had finished by 9.30pm and I could not face the arduous journey back to Caishikou. I got a Didi for the 36 km journey which cost me the equivalent of 9 GBP.
Having languished the previous week I had filled the days with a lot of activity and was in danger again of a burn out and as New Year was only a couple of days away I limited my activity on Sunday to a deep clean of the kitchen and preparing an advert for the letting of my Brighton home. I had achieved a lot in the week and whe approaching Lunar new year was going to be even more busy; my promise to shake off the inertia that had settled on me had succeeded and the energy to embrace my fortune to be living in the big, beautiful world of China returned.
