Note: below is a reflection of my thoughts on my way back to home on a very late Saturday night/ early Sunday morning based upon the events that occurred earlier that day in Beijing. I am assuming that most of the readers have watched Tarantino movies!

Legend - L: Lady | R: Manager | M: Yours only, Mits

M: Ni Hao. I am really really sorry. I didn't have anything from this. I just had a little snack.

R: Okay! How much you can pay?

M: If I will pay that much I will have to sleep on road.

R: How much?

M: I don't have any money. I am a student. I am staying in a hostel.

R: Don't waste my time! How much?

M: I didn't even touch the tea. I just had this little snack.

R: Okay pay for the snack and take it with you. 100 kuai. I can't go below that.

M: I am sorry. I will never do this again. I have no money. If I will pay you that much I will have to sleep on road. Please take 50. Both snack put toghether is 50. But I will pay 50 for one snack. I will not even go to the Police. I will just go home.

R: You can go to the Police.

M: I have just 50 kuai. Please take this. I will be thankful to you.

R: Okay. Give! Don't waste my time.

M: I have only 100 kuai.

R: Okay give! I will give you back change.

While he was looking for a change in his bag...

L: No! Don't give him back anything. He is working. He is lying. He is not a student. He told me.

M (shaking hands with the manager): Thanks man! You are really nice. You are a great person.

L: I thought you are nice and rich. But, you are so cheap and poor.

M: I am sorry.

L: I will find you. I will come after you.

 

Introduction and walking to the tea house - getting hooked

I was waiting for my friend to call me to join him for the dinner. He had suggested me to meanwhile hangout in the Hutong Area.

L: Hi!

M: Hi! 

L: People are very rude here. I want to talk to them in English, but they don’t respond.

M(wondering, what’s happening): Hmm. Okay!

L: I saw you were requesting people to take your picture but no one was helping you.

M:hmm

L: Are you visiting Beijing?

M: Yes! And you?

L: My parents live here. I study in a university in a different province. What are you doing now?

M: I am just hanging out.

L: I can show you around. I am from Beijing.

M: Okay. I don’t mind a company.

(To my defense, in the past I have had strangers helping me in random places. In this case, a Chinese speaking company was definitely worth. So we started walking in a certain direction and I was responding to a constant stream of questions such as where I was from, what I was doing, How old I am etc.)

L: Where are you staying now?

M: Nearby. In Qianmen.

L: Which hotel?

M: Not hotel. Hostel.

L: Which hostel?

M: Some weird Chinese name. I can’t pronounce and don’t remember.

(I was staying in 365Inn. A very comfortable and clean place for bag-packers. I highly recommend)

L: What’s your plan for the evening?

M: I have to join my friends for dinner.

 (There was a public toilet on the way, I waited outside. She was super quick...less than a minute. I think she went to signal my arrival. Walking through streets, we reached on to a road.)

L: Let’s have some drinks.

M: Sure. I have some time before dinner.

(We walked into a tea place on the other side of the road)

 

My mind playing games – watching too many movies

Having gone through all these, I suddenly started to worry about my unlocked cupboard at the hostel.

I arrived at 2pm earlier in the day at my hostel (365Inn) in Qianmen and learned that I only had a small cupboard to lock my luggage in a four person occupancy room. In order to reach the Forbidden City before it closed I was in a hurry to leave the hostel and I didn’t lock my cupboard. Hence, with the feelings of distrust at their peak from getting conned, the first thing I wanted to do was to rush back to my hostel with a lock.

As I was walking on a busy road, looking for a hardware shop, “I will find you. I will come after you.” echoed in my mind and I started to look back if someone was following me. Suddenly, I couldn’t recognize Asian people one from another which previously didn’t feel like a problem after spending two weeks in China.

I purchased a lock for eight kuai and on my way to subway, my mind quickly scanned through all the spy and sci-fi movies I had ever seen in my life. I started with taking out my contact lenses while walking on a travellator. Yes, that’s a skill I didn’t know I had. Then I wore my leather jacket inside out which I agree looked terrible and used the hood from the T-shirt I was wearing.

Thus far, I could not locate anyone following me. So I decided to give my imaginations another boost. I assumed that my ‘hypothetical’ chasers might have lost me and they were now hoping to spot me again at the Qianmen station where I was supposed to get out of the subway to go to my hostel. That’s what happens if you watch a lot of movies.

After boarding the train, I changed my location inside the train by walking from one end to the other end. Then, I didn’t get down at Qianmen. Instead, I got down at the next station, i.e. Hepingmen. Little I knew that I will end up walking through more sketchy areas. After walking extra 2 kilometers, I reached my hostel and met my roommates, who I soon discovered were from Chile, UK and Australia. My luggage was safe!

 

Crisis management

Break-up of the 850 kuai tea bill was as following:   

Jasmine Tea       320

Green Tea           380

Snacks (2)          50

Room service     100

Total                    850

"Leave my hand and open the door. Then I will pay." The moment she left my hand I sprang into another chair farther from her. She intended to move into the chair next to mine. I said, "First open the door, then I will pay and leave." Having any kind of harassment charges was the last thing I was looking for in an alien country. With a huge reluctance, I got the door opened. Phew! “I do not want to talk to you.” I demanded to see the tea house manager.

I told her that I would first talk to my friend. "Buddy I am in a fix.” Before I could even finish, my friend understood the whole situation, as if this was a common thing there in Beijing. He offered me to speak to his friend as his friend could speak Chinese. I requested her (my friend's friend) to speak to the manager. All this while the beautiful young lady, my escort, was shouting at the top of her voice and tried to snatch away the phone at least a couple of times. I don't know what my friend spoke to the manager, but the manager handed over the phone to the lady.

While all this was happening, a guy with a better build than the manager and a tough face showed up several times in the room. Initially, I just looked at him and didn't pay any attention. Manager asked him to leave. When he came back the 3rd time, I couldn't control myself and greeted him with a ‘Ni Hao’ and a cute smile. But that guy didn't buzz and continued to display his tough demeanor. I wanted to burst into laughter but then I felt pity for the poor guy. Probably, he wanted to smile and say back a ‘Ni Hao’, but, sadly, he was on duty to scare me.

The lady was continuously shouting, but this time in the phone. I once again assumed in my mind that I understood Chinese and sensed that the phone conversation was heating up with the exchange of superior expletives. Seeing her engaged, I took this opportunity to have a quality conversation with the manager.

At the tea house

The waitress closed the door behind her after we came and sat down next to each other in a room with a table and four chairs placed on the two adjacent edges of the table with two chairs on each side.

L: What do you like? Beer?

M: Okay. Do you want a beer?

L: No. Tea.

M: Okay. So let's do tea.

(Waitress had come back inside. She was ordering two tea pots. I didn’t know how much a tea pot costs in China but 350 kuai for a pot felt very expensive. So, I told her to order only one. She said okay. She was speaking to the waitress in Chinese.)

M: Wait! Why are we ordering a full tea pot between two of us? Why not just tea cups? Let’s order tea cups.

L: But, I have already ordered a Jasmine tea pot.

M: Cancel it.

L: Ohh! They have already made it.

(Wasn’t it too fast?! I thought the same. The tea was ready in less than 30 seconds.)

M: Okay!

(Two tea pots arrived with some snacks. I was growing uncomfortable and I tasted one of the snacks. I need to consume sweet when I am super tensed.)

M: What’s the name of your university?

L: $#%$#%#$ (some Chinese name that I didn’t understand and of course do not remember now)

M: Can I see your ID card?

M: I am feeling uncomfortable here. I want to go to the Police.

L: You can pay first and then go to the Police. I will come with you.

M: No, I need to go to the Police now.

(She firmly grabbed my wrist. I was surprised as it didn't feel the same way that I am used to of when a human being of opposite sex grabbed my wrist/ hand in the past. She asked the waitress to bring the Cheque, resulting in my eyes to bulge out having looked at the bill total of 850 kuai.)

 

The never ending night – some solace/ more amazement

Not having slept the previous night (read as straight 40 hours) and having gone through a Tsunami of emotions, I reluctantly joined a friend of the Chinese student counterpart in an exotic club later in the night. The floor manager asked me if I would like to have some nice girls to sit with me to enjoy drinks. I was like...umm...umm...umm...Okay. I thought with my hesitation he would get the idea. I shared this little conversation with my friends and asked them to tell him no.

To my surprise, within 10 minutes he actually showed up with 3 beautiful women. "Sir, which one would you like?" In my mind, "This guy is totally crazy! I haven't yet coped up with the events from the evening; I am absolutely looking for no more trouble and...anyways". I said, "naaaah..."

He said "no problem sir, I will get more for you" and even before I could tell him anything further he disappeared and was back within 5 minutes with 3 more and "Sir, which...". I was like...looking sideways and again a big "naaaah...".

The only thing I wanted to do was run away, only if I could. So I decided to talk a walk on the floor in an attempt to find someone to talk to. Having spent what felt like 30 minutes in that fluid state of mind, I returned to our table only to find him waiting. "Sir, look at these!". Looking at my watch which read 3 am at that time, I was again taking to myself, "God! When will this adventurous day end! Probably, I shouldn’t have come here in the first place". I told him, without even looking at the subjects of interest, "No. I don't like anyone." That's when I decided to head home to get some sleep before going to the great wall on the same day after a few hours. Hence, I took him aside, "I will let it pass tonight…May be, some other day. But, I appreciate it. Thank you so much!"

 

Sides/ after thoughts:

Before I left for the late night excursion, my room-mates at the hostel shared with me that

- one of his friend took a Taxi to the Great Wall and 10 kilometers before the Wall the driver demanded an amount twice of the agreed payment otherwise threatened to leave his friend at that point in the middle of nowhere

- few days back he saw a group of Chinese youngsters beating up a young foreign traveler

- few guys seeming very friendly tried to con him into the tea house scam, before that he thought only women were employed

Does that deter me from trusting strangers and continuing my journey? No. I am heading to the Great wall tomorrow, oops! today.