Yes, I'm back at last.
Although I was not 'away' as much as I'd hoped. A vaguely planned side-trip to Dali and Lijiang was abandoned, and hopes of a seaside jaunt to Dalian were thwarted not once but twice. I did manage two six-day breaks, in Yunnan and Hubei, sandwiching a five-day spell of pretending not to be in Beijing (mostly skulking at home, diverting myself with books or DVDs, and isolating myself from the noisome outside world by refraining from using the computer or the telephone).
It has been a nicely revivifying break - although, alas, it has tended to reinforce my dissatisfaction with Beijing. Everywhere else in China... the climate is nicer, people are more relaxed, car drivers are more considerate and safer. It's only in the capital that selfishness, stupidity and aggression seem to be so rampant - as if connection to the centre of government somehow breeds a sense of entitlement, and a callous indifference to the needs of others (it could be so...). I had been back in the city for all of about 3 minutes when I nearly got into a fistfight with someone: a pot-bellied oaf - typical dakuan type: pink polo shirt, crewcut, sunglasses - who thought he was too important to have to queue at the railway station exit and started roughly elbowing his way to the front. I am not the kind of guy you elbow (twice). Especially not when I've just been on a train for 15 hours and had bugger-all sleep. I indicated to him that unless he retreated once more to the back of the line, he was going to get punched very hard in the face. He saw my point - but not without a lot of yabbering and whingeing.
Beijing - SHIT.
Still, I've had my first taste of smalltown China for years, and that was thoroughly delightful. I am seriously contemplating moving to such a place - not permanently perhaps, but for an extended retreat, maybe two or three months over the winter, to try to get some writing done. And to give myself another respite from bloody Beijing.
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