I don't wanna... go to... Chelsea

One of my reliably vexing employers in Beijing (in fact an English company, but thoroughly Sinified in the way they do "business" here) was trying to persuade me to take a jaunt out of town to deliver a few business English lectures next week.   I don't have that much on, and I need the money, but...   Well, I won't name the destination city for fear of offending its residents, but, among both my Chinese and foreign friends who have any knowledge of the place, it is invariably rated amongst the 4 or 5 shittiest shitholes in the entire country.  And that's an ugly contest.   Still, I need the money.  And I had assumed they'd be paying me a full day rate for each of the days involved.  That could be a very useful piece of change.   They've pencilled in three of these little lectures in just over 24 hours.  Unfortunately, the first one is the evening before the other two.  And their budget doesn't run to airfares, apparently.  Well, it's not that far away, I suppose.  The "fast train" only takes 4 or 5 hours these days, they assure me.  But then you've got to add the best part of an hour at least either end for getting to and from the train station; more, in an unfamiliar city, trying to make it to an unknown venue, via an unknown hotel.  Figure 8 hours as a minimum, on the outward leg, at least; even with an optimally timed train, I'd have to be leaving soon after breakfast next Wednesday.  And the final event on Thursday evening finishes just a bit too late to get the last train back, so I'd have to stay over another night in Crapville, come back Friday, probably not getting back home till well after lunch.   So, I'd be losing three full working days here in Beijing.  You'd think, wouldn't you, that they'd pay at least a two-day, if not a three-day rate for that?   But no, their "policy" is that they can only offer the standard by-the-hour, per-lecture rate that I'd get for doing these things right here on my own doorstep.   What's that word again?  Ah, yes, that's it - NO.