Beijing Diary: Part 10

Good Friday, 22 April.

Our last full day. But we are exhausted. So we decided, after looking at the possibilities both near and far, to head for the park on the other side of the main road that runs past the entrance to our hutong. It was sunny though cool when we left, and the previous day’s rain had obviously caused the poplar trees to shed more of their seeds; it was like walking through a light snow flurry!

We got to the lake and followed the bank towards the north. Some men were fishing, I would hope for sport and not for food, since the water did not look too clean, an impression supported by a dead fish which floated by. Further on we saw first one, then several men swimming across the lake. They had to make their way through a coating of poplar seeds on the water’s surface but they were obviously keen and not at all put off by the quality of the water or the cold. And then we saw the public notice with four warnings: one was in Chinese (with no translation, and the meaning of the graphic was not clear); a second one asked visitors to keep off the grass; and the third and fourth said “no fishing, no swimming.”

That was as far as we went, and so retraced our steps to the Drum Tower where we listened, outside, to the drum performance. Then lunch in the “Sculpting in Time” café, where we settled just ahead of a group of three German ladies, of a group of 10 Scottish persons, and of a thunderstorm. The café proprietors were in no hurry to move us out, so while Heather went to explore a nearby shop “for an umbrella”, I sat on watching the rain and the bicycle rickshaws now covered with tarpaulins, some completely leaving a small gap for passengers to look out, some just the roof.  Some drivers had adequate waterproof protection, some none at all, while a third class rode with one hand on the handlebar, the other holdng aloft an umbrella they had probably borrowed from their wife.