10. Back to school in Beijing, China

By Filipe Morato Gomes	Where is Beijing?
In cosmopolitan Beijing, China, I went back to the good old school times joining my friend Richard - a long-time worldwide backpacker - in a conversational English class. And I also got to know the surprising Beijing wondering along the streets of the new and old quarters, before I walked in the Great Wall of China.

I wandered along Beijing for some days without a plan and guided by impulses until a tempting challenge aroused. Going with Richard Rowe to one of his English conversation classes and participate actively in it. I agreed.

I knew Richard from the internet; we exchanged some e-mail messages before I start travelling around the world. “During the twenty years I have been travelling with a rucksack on my back, around the all world, I had so many warming proofs of strange kindness that I decided to pay back and help other travellers, opening to them the door of my house”, he told me.

Forbidden City in Beijing, China

Richard is a sixty-two-year old Canadian married to Rotjana, a lovely Thai woman who was still trying to get used to the lack of privacy her husband's decision brought about. When I arrive at their place there was another traveller staying there, a friendly Australian guy. I'd say the house was too small to accommodate one more guest like myself but I was welcomed with open arms. The apartment was small; I slept on the floor in the living room but Richard was happy instead of bothered to have someone occupying the entire living room floor. The house was indeed very simple but it was located in an extremely quiet area a little far from the town centre. It was an excellent base to explore the Chinese capital and I had the perfect host.

Richard was a teacher at a small private school. He has travelled and worked all over the world when there was neither the internet nor any other practical ways to communicate with friends, relatives and other travellers. Maybe because of that, he wrote dozens of round-robin letters during all those years, telling about the experiences, the emotions, the meetings as well as the failures of a non-settled life. “You know, Filipe”, he told me, “this is everything I have to leave to my children; it's my life on a paper”. Richard looked happy indeed. “But I do not regret the choices I have made”, he concluded. We could notice in his voice that something very intense agitated his memory while he talked about the subject. He was speaking about the greatest treasure he could offer his offspring. A life abridged in two hundred sheets of paper. His eyes smiled. We hurried towards the school.

When we got there, I was introduced to a first secretary of an African country embassy, to a lovely Russian girl and her mother - student as well - as to some Chinese people doing different jobs. They were the dozen-student class I was going to participate in. They were happy to know they were to have a different intervenient in the class-room. They were not shay at all and kept on asking questions and more questions. About me, about Portugal, about what I was doing in China, about my journey around the world. I answered each question while practicing myself my English skills. Just like in the school from the past: “What have you already seen here in Beijing?”, they inquired.

Richard and Rotjana at their house in Beijing, China

I talked about the Great Wall of China, how motivating it was to experience the opportunity of walking along a part of that huge human construction coiling around mountains till we lose sight. It is incredible how human hands were able to build something so magnificent like the Great Wall of China. I explained them how I got lost in some parks of Beijing. Beijing has got a great deal of them, nice and big. I told them how I have gone back in time walking along the old quarter of Liulichang, observing the renovated façades and their colourful artwork. A mirror of what Beijing was many years ago, I thought. I referred to them how pleasant was wandering inside the amazing Forbidden City. It was very beautiful in spite of the annoying renovation process going on for ages, making the sight of some monuments impossible.

They also ask me, with noticeable pride, whether I enjoyed Tiananmen Square. I answered I got sad when I stepped onto the ground of that huge square. While answering I was thinking about a award-winning photography of an anonymous student, motionless, challenging the power of a war tank car by the time of the big student demonstrations years ago. They didn't understand my sadness. “Sad? But Tiananmen is the biggest square in the whole world!” I didn't insist.

Time passed by and the class came to an end. In front of the all group of students, Richard the teacher thanked me for my presence. I felt I should be the one to thank him. During this week in Beijing I was a diligent student, in a remarkable practical lesson about a traveller's life.

(originally written in Portuguese)

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