MONDAY 08/25

-Went into the IBC one last time. I hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to Maria the night before. The whole research room was completely packed up into boxes—they really waste no time ‘striking the set,’ as it were.

-Ate breakfast and teared up watching the ‘closing credits’ on the commissary TV set (the Closing Ceremony had just finished airing in the States). Someone did a really good job putting those credits together—spectacularly beautiful scenery from around China and a lot of very moving moments from the Games. It was also cool to recognize so many of the names popping up along the side of the screen.

-Met up with Victor and former Changchun co-worker Alan, along with several of Victor’s friends, in Wangfujing for an astoundingly good hotpot meal. Alan was on his way to Sichuan but had a few days to stop over in Beijing.

-After lunch, Victor, Alan and I walked slowly through central Beijing to Jingshan park. Jingshan park is a small park directly to the north of the forbidden city. Most of the park is taken up by a mountain which was created with the dirt dug up while constructing the moat around the Forbidden city. From the top of this mountain you can get an astounding 360° vista of the city. We hung out on this mountaintop for a while, enjoying the perfect weather and the golden sunlight.

-Leaving Jingshan park, we caught a bus to a certain hutong a few minutes away. Victor, I realized, had quietly planned and led the entire day so I never had to worry about what I was doing next; for that I am extremely thankful to him.

-The hutong was an experience. I still don’t know quite what to think of it. It was an old, traditional Beijing hutong on the surface, but behind the doors and storefronts were campy boutiques, trendy art and clothing shops and coffee shops which somehow reminded me of the Beat Generation. We met up with Matt, one of the people with whom we’d had lunch (also an ACC graduate and a very accomplished Chinese speaker).

-Met up with some of the research room for dinner at Din Tai Fung, a world-famous chain of restaurants specializing in dumplings. Apparently they’re on the New York Times’ list of the world’s top ten restaurants. It was probably the nicest place I’d ever eaten in China. Victor did a great job ordering, and true to their reputation the restaurant delivered some mighty fine dumplings. I think this was also the first time I’d ever had real xiaolongbao (soup-filled dumplings).

-Bid Alan goodbye (at least until the next day) after dinner and went back to the Media Village with Victor, who had to collect his laundry. We hung out until his shuttle to the IBC arrived. Then we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

-Found Brian in the logistics office. After he got off work we spent a few hours sitting outside enjoying the weather and talking.