Attending a meeting in the US Embassy in Beijing on 5 May I was also invited to the Marine House, the private club of the Marine detachment, a nice setting within the high-security compound that the Embassy has become recently. All a bit sad because the embassy area has a special charm and was nice to walk and jog. With all those North Koreans jumping walls, terrorist threats and (not-so-spontaneous) protests, the Sanlitun embassy has become very uninviting area with guards, barbed wire, fences all over. With the detours to get to the compound – imposed by the road blocks – it was a bit confusing to remember at first the spot where I came so many times in the early eighties. Indeed, the US Embassy was one of the four embassies who in turn opened their doors every Friday evening for “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday). All foreigners could attend and the ambiance was great, anyway there was nothing else to go to, so for all poor expats like me it was the most important event of the week. And we sure had lot of fun and booze.
I did not find back the room where it was held that time, the compound has changed quite a bit since then. The US is currently building a new embassy close to the Hilton Hotel, to be ready by 2008.
Enjoying the chili con carne with a beer I met an old acquaintance of those old times, a bit of a (happy) shock. He did not recognize me at first – I had the advantage seeing him regularly on CNN and CCTV when he is doing his job. He then introduced his wife and it was like – wait a moment – we know each other – and then the door to memory lane went wide open. We quickly pieced it all together, talking in our secret language. Many memories of the tumultuous times of the eighties, of jobs, love stories, marriages, separations and the hardships of the time (like waiting in the bitter cold at the door of the embassy, trying in vain to call for a taxi that maybe would come).
I walked back through the road blocks to Ritan Nan Lu, lifted an arm and in 5 seconds had a taxi. Beijing 2006. The taxi driver was of the super social type and rattled on till I got home, testing the very limits of my bu-hao Chinese. Pity I cannot talk more with them – they are sometimes real funny and full of interesting small talk about the city…