Sophia's Mum has a Premonition

Off we went to Beidehe (28th Oct) in hot foggy weather. No wonder they dreamed up steamed dumplings in this country; that's what my skin is beginning to resemble.

We travelled light, just for a couple of nights, and I was wearing a chunky long cardigan over a thin top and had a woolly thing in my bag. Sophia's mother had insisted it would be cold so I'd added my scarf and vest.

More blasts of horrible music on the train, which my iPod lost its battle with (try listening to Bach's concertos for 3 and 4 pianos with Chinese Kylie Minogue-a-like. Go on, just try!), so I arrived hungry (this is my permanent state now, and am more or less Imodium-free) and not a little taxed.

A colleague of Sophia's father's picked us up after the 4 hr journey and drove us about a hundred miles to our hotel. On the way he pointed out the President's holiday home, a huge European-style mansion, near the road and behind vast, presidential, black iron gates. Near it were slightly smaller houses, and down the road huge estates of white or stone villas adorned with balconies and turrets. What did it all remind me of? Ah yes, my only visit to Torrivieja in Southern Spain! The same but bigger, mucho mucho bigger.

All these belonged to members of the government; for their hols.

Someone had told me before I came to China that Beidehe was now full of government elite, and fat wealthy Russians. Well, there was the evidence, a lot of hotels and shops and restaurants had Russian names. They were closed after the summer. They'd all gone home. In fact everybody had gone home. The streets were almost deserted apart from a couple of bikes heaped with sacks of Stuff which, presumably, the put-putting tractors were too rickety to carry.

We turned left up a small lane uphill to our hotel at the top. "Mmm," I thought, as we drew up beneath the huge portico held up by ten fat pillars, "This is better than Butlins!" I must have been very very tired!

We trooped across acres of cream and black marble to the tiny figures at the far reception desk. Unsmilingly, they gave me the keycard to our room, and the static crackled from their acrylic suits.

This cheap deal was cheap because it was the end of the season and the breakfast was disgusting, absolutely disgusting. Cold fried egg, cold pre-boiled greens lying in their water, a doughnut-type of croissant was grey and limp, the teacup was dirty on the inside, and unrecognisable things lay in despondent heaps on the lidded "hot" plates. Oh Imodium, My Imodium ...

We went for a walk down to the beach in hot foggy twilight, and looked at all the fun people might have had a few weeks ago.

Next morning, walking out on our breakfast and deciding on an early lunch in town later (if you see what I mean) we set out for the beach again. The fog rendered the horizon null and void, and most of the coastline, but I took photos anyway from a rocky place on the end of a spit of sand that divides the beach into 2 small bays, both safe for swimming and pedalloes, judging by the rows of them. We paid 80p to walk on the sand, and joined a platoon of soldiers practising ... shooting at targets! I smiled and nodded for all I was worth and we did that silly sandwalk past them.

Granny gave no clues about the whereabouts of the bungalow they built at Beidehe. She and the boys, all 3 of them, are photographed swimming there with my grandfather, and they are sitting on a wooden raft with seats on it. I'd seen this raft in a book at the Old China Hand Reading Room in Shanghai, which I didn't buy, damnit, because it was so heavy, but I needed it now. I didn't know where to start. I know! Let's try the museum.

We got there in the end; miles and miles away for under a pound's taxi fare and were dumped at the bottom of its long flight of steps. He drove away. We went to the ticket office. No one there. We called (my best Nihao!). We only heard our echoes. So I took pictures of one of the many "ding"s; huge bronze vessels for good fortune, on the steps, and some of the roof, close-up.
We went into town, via a park, and there was the real Beidehe. Oh what a shame. Another sprawling city but one without grace, and never will have as all the money goes to the beachside villas and roads where the government spends its summers. We walked down a grotty side street on the lookout for a McD's which we'd been told about. The pavement was blocked by 6 rows of bikes and scooters all in their rusty glory, and in front of some shops were street vendors selling Stuff and 3 crates of puppies, some of which look sick. I nearly was.

We entered the haven that was Mc D's (did I really say that?). I had nuggets and sweet and sour sauce and pear drink, and as I sat writing notes an old woman gesticulated to me through the glass door. She came in to beg and was ushered out by the manageress. Seconds later in walked a policeman in cap and shirtsleeves, and Sophia said he was Traffic. Probably in for his lunch. Next thing, he was clearing a table and wiping it down! And then another, and another. His mobile rang and he answered it with his right hand while expertly mopping the table with his left. He sauntered out, swaggering a bit, and then returned 2 minutes later to continue where he'd left off. We reckoned he was married to the manageress because Sophia said his father-in-law had just helped himself to some water from the old drinks machine! Was his office here as well?!

On our way out Sophia spotted this large sign in Chinese above a hardressing salon. It read -- International Designer Of Bird's Nest. Then we couldn't help noticing that a lot of women had just that kind of hair!

And then it hit me. This city must have a bookshop. It did, it was huge, and I bought a couple of cutout and stick-on books for Ji Ji as I looked for maps. And then it hit me again (Granny has not ruled out clubbing my head in her ghostly way!), it might have a book about old Beidehe.
Well it did, and Sophia looked at the photos charting its history and there was a photo of the first building to be built on the British area in 1912. The area was nearly 68 acres. But where? I thought it must have been near the sea, near the centre of that resort, because my grandparents would have visited here in the early days; I imagined from 1910 onwards. 1912! Sophia read out a name of the road. It didn't mean anything. I bought the book (oh, I'll just have to charter my own plane at this rate!!) and she translated it properly for me.

I see. The name of that old road is now the name of the district. Our hotel's on the seaside edge of it! I looked at the photo more closely (it wasn't foggy in there) and could just make out the beach below the wooded hill the building stood on. There was the spit of sand and the rocks at the end of it. I'd already taken a photo of the right area, in the fog. My dear little camera (thank you Jane and Martin) picks up every available light source. And there it was, their wooded hill.
That dark and stormy night meant clear skies the next morning, but with a bitterly cold wind. On went the vest and scarf. We walked along the beach for seconds 5!

It took many many hours to get back to Tianjin, involving cold waiting area at station, so we escaped to McD's again to drink terrible tea and giggle at another Traffic policeman in uniform, younger and bespectacled like, his dad? His big brother? Uncle? What? We wanted to know! He cleared the tables diligently and then puffed off to return pushing a big cardboard box full of Stuff along the floor to behind the counter. As he disappeared round it we could see his ample backside peeking over the top of his belt (I hope you're not eating your lunch or anything -- we were!). The train was cold (the government doesn't switch on the national heating until Nov 10th), the long queue for taxis was in a cold wind tunnel, the first driver refused to take us any further than the car park outside where it was cold and raining hard, and the second took us a hundred yards further and dumped us in a dark street. We were 2 hours standing in the cold rain before Sophia's mum came to the rescue. Why were we dumped twice? Because the drivers wanted double fare because it was cold, dark and raining!

Yesterday I bought a long down coat for 35 pounds in a sale. This morning it was -4C and its been snowing all day and we were a long time outside praying to several gods at a Buddhist temple this morning.So if you don't mind, I'll go and have a nice lie down!