Since it appears that I am now without any hope of employment, I fear I may have to persist in my recent teetotalism indefinitely. I simply can't afford to drink in this city any more.
Perhaps instead I may revert to the way I used to live in my early days here, hanging out in cheap local restaurants all the time, never paying more than 2 or 3 kuai for a beer.
Or perhaps I may relocate to a sleepy backwater town, somewhere still relatively undeveloped, unspoiled (uncontaminated by Starbucks and McDonald's and "like... like... like"-gushing young Americans!)... somewhere like Dawu, where I spent my summer holiday this year, and which I quickly came to think of as one of the nicest places in China.
Most nights I spent there, I hung out for an hour or two of an evening with my pal Richard at a formica table on the sidewalk in front of a particularly grubby hole-in-the-wall restaurant beside the town's 'No.1 Bridge'. Watching the sun go down over the river, watching the bridge and the riverbank teeming with people enjoying a summer's evening promenade, occasionally bantering with punters at adjacent tables, and sucking back a succession of cold beers (the local brand has the uplifting name Chero - we can easily imagine they mean Cheero).... well, life just doesn't get much better than that. This is not just my favourite spot in Dawu, but probably in the whole of China, and perhaps even in the world...
No comments:
Post a Comment