The Place on the Way Out

We have stuff in storage.  It seems to cost as much as a small apartment.  The idea was to only keep it there for a short while, but we’ve put off sending it all somewhere by another month again and they want to get paid.  And there’s a late fee for every day you are late.  My stepson and his wife who’ve only recently relocated to Beijing after nearly a decade in Japan both talk repeatedly about how poor the service levels are in China.  Someone will say: “Yeah, you need to pay for this and then you can start.”  “Yes, but what is the process?”  “Oh, we’ll do it with you.”  “No. I want to know what you’ll actually do.  Please explain.”  That will never change unless people insist on something better. 

The easiest way to make this transaction happen, it would seem, is to take out cash and give it to my daughter in law.  She can then send it to these people through her bank and so we suit up for the cold and take the north exit from the compound and walk up to the ICBC on the corner of the road.  I wasn’t sure if I could withdraw as much as one-thousand U.S. dollars in a day, but it gives me what I ask for and soon this task is done and she’s called the persistent lady who has been nagging my wife, to confirm receipt of payment.

Passing back to the gate we pass “Geek Wine.”  My stepson has suggested it’s not bad and I imagine the taste of a dry white and am soon looking around the shelves. The young attendant is on the phone and doesn’t get up from her seat.  That is just fine for me.  There is something particularly galling about someone strong-arming you to buy something they haven’t even tried themselves.  I buy a bottle of Portuguese white as much for the color and the price as anything else. I haven’t a clue how it will taste. 

Tonight, I’d agreed to head all the way over to Xicheng to join a friend who wanted to introduce me to some entrepreneurs who had started and ed-tech company which leveraged machines learning.  The conversation was good though I fear I missed some of the nuance of why what they did was so special.  The food, however, was remarkably tasty Sichuanese food.  This is the second time in a month I’ve wound up somewhere informal with exceptionable Sichuanese food.  I photograph the place on the way out and once I’m in a cab try to properly consider just where it is I am in Xicheng.

Monday, 12/09/19