Nothing overly fascinating to report this week, or so I thought until I tried to post this update to find my website blocked. Yep, the government of China has taken offense at my personal travel blog. And I was starting to think that there was rhyme and reason to their blockage of sites. After all, sites like Faceb00k, Tw1tter and Y0utube (all still blocked) can be used to spread rumours and false stories like those that have already led to the loss of too many lives in the Urumq1 “inc1dents”. But I can count on my fingers and toes the number of people who read this blog and let me assure you there are no terr0r1sts, separat1sts or people otherwise intent on the downfall of the glorious motherland amongst them. There is something paranoid about a government feeling in any teeny tiny miniscule way threatened by little old me. Thankfully where the front door is locked I know the back way in and so, for now at least, i can stay up to date on my scintillating weekly updates.

I’ve moved into the room, have been going to classes and catching up with some friends. I also spent a whole afternoon searching for the Kyrgyz embassy and organising our visas. There were two addresses listed on various websites but I went to the one listed on the official embassy website. Mistake, they’d moved. I was the second in line when the embassy opened at 3pm and managed to finally get out of there at 4:30 having given in Brett and my forms, passports and a formal letter explaining our purpose for visiting Kyrgyzstan. I should be picking up the visas on Friday as well as the translations which I ended up having to get at the 664 kuai babelfish place. This time though I was told they could be done in a week at that price instead of having to pay double to rush them through. They were going to charge me more but talked them down, that’s one thing about China, things change depending on who you ask.

On Saturday I went to a mixed martial art event where fighters from a variety of disciplines get in the ring with a minimum of rules. I’ve heard about these fights and was pretty excited to go but in the end a little disappointed at how few stand up fights there were, most of them ended up down on the mats wrestling, which I find pretty boring really. About half the fighters were Chinese and the rest South Korean, Mongolian, Thai, Polish, Uzbek, Swedish, French and Bulgarian. We saw 11 fights in total and the only one won by a Chinese fighter was when two Chinese were fighting, much to the dismay of the majority Chinese crowd. It wasn’t the most sportsmanlike crowd with some boos thrown out there when the young Uzbek fighter beat a much more experienced Chinese favourite. It was one of the quickest fights we saw and I’m still not really sure what happened; the starting bell rung, a flurry of action and the Chinese guy hit the mat. It was incredible. The fight between the Polish guy and a Chinese guy took longer – 10 minutes in the first round and a 5 minute second round. Mr Polish must have had a past injury because within about 30 second his right eye was almost closed up and very bloody. He was patched up and went back to the fight with only partial vision, insisting he was good to go. Not a guy you’d want to meet in a dark alley, he’ll probably go from fighting straight to being the bodyguard for the Russian mafia. Seriously scary.

After the fight we went to the best Ethiopian restaurant in Beijing. Not a difficult feat, but even if there were more than one the food here was fantastic enough to make it the best. We ate a sampler of dishes served on a huge round pancake of sourdough bread. I have no idea what any of it’s called but it was all amazing. The flavours and spices they created in a stew of lentils that looks like something I wouldn’t want to step in was unbelievable and we stuffed our faces as we watched two dancers in traditional costume convulse on the stage. Ethiopia is now firmly on the list of places I must see.

It’s a bit hard to summon motivation to go out and do much apart from the admin stuff I need to get done; the weather is just so hot and humid. Thankfully the apartment is down on the ground floor so it’s usually pretty cool, only in the past few days have I actually needed to use my air-con. It often rains in the late afternoon, sudden downpours that send torrents of water rushing into the street, hopefully washing away all the kids’ piss. I looked out my window in a break from studying the other day to see a little girl squatting on the steps where people from the compound hang out near a couple of trees. Mum was sitting right next to her. When little darling was done she put her undies back on, wiped her hands on her dress and went back to playing with the other kids. What a charming little princess.

The classes have been really good but make me realise just how much vocabulary I’ve forgotten. Since the end of 2004 when I stopped studying and started working I haven’t really used my Chinese all that much, only basic conversations that use minimal vocab. I’m now in the process of trying to learn it again but I’m not sure how much progress will be made before I leave again. And then there’s the question of whether there’s any point to me trying to keep my Mandarin? Anyway, for now I’m enjoying studying again so I’ll just keep working on it and see what happens next.

Tags: Beijing, China