Golden Week End

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Bill's was to buy some pottery at Enchantment. They were having a moving sale and everything was on sale at 50% off. It was inexpensive to begin with. I bought the 2 sets above, 21 pieces in all, for $32.

Saturday morning I started out for Bill's house in ShunYi, planning to take the 9:50 shuttle bus to River Gardens from the Holiday Inn Lido. I confirmed with the concierge that the bus would arrive at 9:50, but at 9:40 a different bus pulled in and both the concierge and the bus driver insisted I should take that bus. I didn't want to do it and even got off the bus, but the concierge brought out a schedule and showed me that there wouldn't be another bus until 3:20 that afternoon. I really didn't believe this, but I decided to make it into an excursion. This bus would follow the same route we took every day last fall and it would be interesting to see where I was in relation to those things.

One of the the things I saw was that the old, interesting facade of the Chaoyang Acrobats Theatre had been replaced by a lifeless, institutional sandstone. Too bad. After dropping passengers off at China World we sat for five minutes then headed back to the Lido. Along the way we passed a very long stretch limo trying to maneuver its way along the crowded Beijing streets. The bus driver was quite impressed. The limo was carrying a bridal party. The driver, in deference to his American passenger, I believe, switched the radio station to Bah Bah Qi (88.7). What a relief to hear programming that was enitirely in English. This was a discovery worth the price, which was mostly my time, because I rode into the CBD (Central Business District) and all the way out to Bill's which was up until not long ago considered the country for 10 kwai...less than a dollar fifty, and I was the only passenger all the way from China World to Bill's house.

The shuttlebus arrived back at the Holiday Inn, and there stood the concierge in his red uniform and cap, smiling and waving; he even saluted me. He looked as if he was feeling very happy to have helped me in such a big way. I bet he never realized that the bus that arrived 5 minutes after he sent me in the wrong direction was the bus I really wanted to take.