Both Used to Work There

San Li Tun is pretty sterile these days.  There’s a big outdoor mall with things you could find anywhere in the world and lots of young traffic marching here and there.  It was once a place that felt new and certainly, it no longer does.  Somewhere back in Egypt I said, “how about Tuesday for lunch” to a young person I’d been introduced to by a mutual chum.  He mentioned he was based in Guo Mao.  I naturally said let’s meet for lunch in San Li Tun.

The Di Di takes the southerly approach west on Gongti and up San Li which is probably the least encumbered way to go and before long I’m saying “ni jiu fangbian le” and cracking the door, before opening it so I don’t force a collision with a bicycle and then hop out into the wet, summer heat.  I always think of Beijing as dry, but this summer, coming home from a proper desert land, this feels nothing but humid. 

I walk past the last-resort Page One bookstore that will never had precisely what you want but will often have something you could want and walk not far behind an attractive young lady before veering right to the Apple Store.  I want to see how much it will cost to replace the damn earbuds I lost in Brooklyn.  Up the stairs, along the wall and they’ll be about three hundred dollars.  I liked them a lot but I’m not prepared to drop that kind of money today.  I know it will be only a few months before they’re invariably lost again. 

My first meeting isn’t where we’d discussed.  “Starbucks” can mean many things.  He’s over, across the main street at the Starbucks at Yinke Zhongxin.  He and I both used to work there seven or so years ago.  The Starbucks has been upgraded and replanted and I plod across the scrum that forms to cross the road at Gong Ti and San Li, heading south.  There are two ATMs in the first floor of the large building on the corner.  Neither work.  That’s OK.  Starbucks will take a card.  My friend comes to meet me in the parking lot.  He wants to introduce me to his brother, whom I’d met before but hadn’t remembered being so challenged, dentally.  My friend and I recount the last time we were here when a young person overheard our conversation and introduced herself, suggesting she was looking for work. 

Not long after I return back to meet the person I’d been e-intro’d to for a salad at Element Fresh.  He is young and educated so excited to be back in China.  We have a lovely conversation.

Tuesday, 7/23/19