Getting ripped off by "dancing and massage girls"

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Beijing has changed greatly since my last visit: it is more polluted, to the point that I can't see 150 to 200 meters down the street. I haven't seen the sun since I set foot in the city. As soon as I return home and wipe my face, the towel is black. Mendicty, corruption, prostitution, homosexuality and other so called “plagues” who are said not to exist in modern China are unfortunately blatant everywhere. It has gotten to the stage where you fear getting out of a taxi anywhere in the city, as you know you will be assaulted by beggars, offers for "Ladies Bar", postcards and "students" who only want to speak to you and share a drink. The authorities made a big show of clamping down on pirated goods in the city yet I am constantly offered pirated DVD's, most of them to be found in the embassy quarters, in front of all the guards who stand so rigidly and smartly at attention. Beijing has lost, amidst all the pollution, the gleaming new towers and the prostitution, all what made it charming, friendly and pleasant: the easy- going, relaxed attitude has long since disappeared. I fear the approach of the Olympic games and the increased influx of foreigners with large Purchasing Power will only feed the newfound greed and increase prostitution of the once great Chinese culture.
My trip to Tibet has finally been arranged, after many problems and hours worth of negotiating. I can’t wait to go, I can’t wait to leave the city, find some fresh air and some space and not be constantly surrounded by the omnipresence of the uniform and the restrictions.

My last few days in Beijing were terribly busy. My arrival here signifies the end of phase 1 of my trip, the journey from London to Beijing by train; phase 2 is the Himalayan section of my trip and phase 3 is the Middle East. A third of my trip is already over; it feels like I have left London only last week. When I look at a map, I find it hard to believe that I have already covered 12,000kms by train. Bene (who arrived yesterday from Mongolia) and I are leaving this evening by train to go to Chengdu. The journey lasts 40 hours and, merely for the fun of it and the experience, we have booked tickets in third class, that is dormitory class, with the Chinese. I expect it will make for a great blog. From Chengdu, we are taking the plane to go to Lhassa (sadly bus is not allowed for foreigners), remaining 4 days in Lhassa before taking the plane on the 23rd to Katmandu, where I will remain until the 04th of August. There, I take my plane to the exciting Closed Kingdom of Bhutan.

I have had the huge pleasure of staying at the French Embassy in Beijing; the ambassador is a rather humorous chap with sarcastic but very pertinent views of the world. He makes very good conversation and is great fun to be with. The ambassadress is an extraordinarily kind lady who made me feel at once at home in her residence. She very kindly invited me one evening to see a performance of the Peking Opera; it was a rather fun experience, even if the music is painfully loud (it sounds like a cat got his tail stuck in door) but it is also a mix of acrobatics, circus acts and nice costumes. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay with them, they have been exceedingly kind and I am most grateful; they have invited me to numerous delicious meals with them (compliments to the chef) and invited me to join them at the 14th of July celebration, both at the residence and the super smart Peninsula Hotel. I sung the Marseillaise with great vigor.

The Belgian Ambassador has also kindly received me and looked after me here. We had a few meetings at the embassy and he very generously invited me to a most splendid dinner he gave at his residence. He is a truly very interesting man, with a passion for the arts and decoration. It shows in the way he has renovated the residence: it has become a palace of good taste, well manicured lawns with fountains and lighting effects. The residence resembles a comfortable art gallery; truly a pleasure and an honor to be invited to such a magnificent occasion.

I have done all the touristy things in Beijing. I had already done most of them before but it was a pleasure to do them again. The forbidden city, still stunningly beautiful, has unfortunately become a Disneyland with souvenir shops and thousands of tourists, all queuing up politely at every place and gently paying the extortionate prices requested. The Lama temple is still the most interesting temple of all but there are smaller quieter temples in the city, who may not have the same architectural merit but benefit from a bit of peace and quiet, away from the army of tourists. I, of course, went to the Army museum and the museum of the People’s Revolution, both most interesting but the curators of both must suffer from an unfortunately selective memory in his telling of Chinese history.

It seems that my main activity in Beijing consists of eating; I am constantly being tempted by something or the other, little stalls in the street or menus outside restaurants. It is Oscar Wilde who said, “I find that I can resist almost anything, except temptation”, how very true in my case.
The food here is one of the few redeeming features of the city, it is plentiful, good and cheap. Bene and I had a most delicious Crispy Peking Duck last night, we first looked for a snake restaurant, couldn’t find it at the address, so we asked at the nearby Shangri-La hotel, the concierge declared that it had been demolished last year, we took a taxi to another restaurant and went past our snake restaurant, maybe tonight…

The Nightlife in the city has changed greatly since my last visit, gone are the small underdeveloped bars of Sanlitun with the cheap alcohol; now it is filled with tourist bars with overpriced foreign beers and promises of expensive fun. I went bowling with Didier (the Intendant of the French Residence) to an all night, largest-in-the-world, bowling arcade. Great fun indeed.

Last night, Bene and I went to a bar called the High-way. It is also a disco. We sat quietly on the terrace and after a careful study of the drinks price, we ordered the cheapest drinks on the menu: two Tsingtao’s, the local Chinese beer. We calmly sit there, adopt a relaxed attitude and enjoy the super-polluted air of the city. The disco and the bar are nearly empty. 15 minutes and half a beer later, two young ladies approach us and introduce themselves as students of English at Beijing university, keen to practice their English. Alarm bells start ringing, we discuss it amongst ourselves in German, decide that if they do turn out to be prostitutes we can refuse flatly and that would be the end of the matter; if not, it is a great occasion to meet some locals. They sit down, make polite conversation and proceed to tell us all about their lives and little anecdotes concerning Beijing life. We all laugh gaily together. They order a large double cognac each; we reflect that they must be wealthy. We laugh some more and enjoy their company. They take us dancing on the vast emptiness of the dance floor; we feel self-conscious and sit back down. They come back and propose for us to go and do some Karaoke; Bene has never done so and is curious, so we agree; they speak to someone behind the bar and he opens up a karaoke private room for us; we wonder at the price but reckon that it can’t be that expensive and, in any case, we will split it between the 4 of us. The girls sing and dance, fruits and nibbles are brought to the room; I assume it is normal and included in the price of the room, just like in Japan (where the room and the nibbles are free, one only pays for the drinks). After 15 minutes and another two large cognacs, the conversation starts to turn to the obscene; they want to know in which hotel we are staying and wethever we would like a massage. We decide that the conversation is turning sour and want to leave the room. The girls block the door and three gorillas walk in. We look at each other and feel a distinct unpleasant situation. The gorillas force us to sit and produce a bill for 2000 Yuans, (200 euros) we sweat heavily and the girls disappear. We examine the bill, it consists of 4 large cognacs at 40 euros the glass, of plates of food at 20 euros, of room hire, of karaoke equipment usage and, most expensive of all, of “girl’s company”. I flatly refuse to pay while Bene is trying to work out how much cash we have between us. We have 600 Yuans. We explain that we have no money; they want our watches and passport. I make to call the police on my mobile phone; they start getting violent and want the mobile. I tell them loudly and full of confidence that I am the son of the British Ambassador in Beijing, that I will call my father, that he will come here with his security and the police. So, I start dialing Ben’s number (a good friend of mine in the UK who, I hope, will catch on soon enough and play his part). They tell us to relax and tell us that they are our friends and we can sort it out by talking to each other, no need to involve my father and the police, they say… I tell them that we refuse to pay, as this operation is illegal and we never gave our consent for those costs. They say we must pay, I call Ben and the Chinese police, they say Ok Ok Ok, we are friends. I remember the ambassador telling me at lunch of a similar story that happened to him in Japan, he asked for a bill and got away without paying it, so I request for a computer produced bill with a name and address of the club printed on it so that I could take it to the police. After much bargaining and arguing we leave each other being the best friends of the world and we have paid all of 500 Yuan (50euros). What an experience, an expensive one but in some ways we got a lively night… “Always look on the bright side of life” say the Monty Python.

I leave Beijing with no regrets but certain sadness at the way it has changed. I was once so enthusiastic about working here… no more so.

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