I Walked Around

I did something yesterday I don’t do much of in Beijing.  I walked around.  Down to the city early for a breakfast meeting, I was done by 9:30AM or so.  I spent some time on a call there at the hotel’s Starbucks and made like the little table there was my office.  This was over by the new U.S. embassy and when I gathered my things to leave, I wondered a bit about where to go.  That part of town doesn’t have much by way of pedestrian possibilities. Tall buildings and empty space between them like just about all of Beijing between the second and fifth ring roads.

I stood there in the street and considered heading west to sanhuan or south towards the embassy and opted for the latter, the road less traveled.  Ambling on to the sidewalk, around the jianbing carts, I wondered down a few blocks then west for a few and pretty soon I’d made my way to Liangmaqiao subway stop.  With every block I considered hailing a cab.  By this time it was eleven and it occurred to me to just continue to a restaurant I had in mind, another kilometer or so, away.

Just north of the old embassy quarter there are a collection of vaguely European restaurants.  Years ago, when my kids were in a Wizard of Oz production near here I had hours to kill every weekend.  One place in particular had a remarkable interior with a big second story window out to a garden.  In my memory, every table was speaking something other than English or Chinese.

I plodded along over the stagnant Landmark River, questioning myself as I went.  Is it down this way?  Is it on this road?  But as I got closer it all revealed itself and I knew where to go, past the Volkswagen building, past the Greek restaurant.  Arriving before noon I had no problem finding a table out on the porch at Assaggi.  It my mind it was a French place, but Italian would be fine as well. 

The sun was strong and the street below was filled with people out from work, having their lunch.  I had something lite and fulfilled my promise to myself not to do emails, but rather just read for entertainment.  Diderot’s “Jacques the Fatalist” was appropriately frivolous, and challenging.  One and then another couple came to join me on the balcony and, for a lunch.  I ate slow and enjoyed my city and its random possibilities.