Last weeks in Beijing

As some of you know, I resigned from my work in Beijing a while ago. My last weeks in Beijing were spent with mixed emotions; on the other hand, I felt it was the time to leave, on the other hand, I realized why I had stayed there for such a long time (long time for me, at least). I counted in total it was about 2,5 years. And to be honest, I am not so sure I will NOT go back. At least I need to go for a visit – too many dear friends left there.  A few days ago when I visited the climbing gym people with whom I’m not even so good friends with knew that I’m leaving and told me that a good friend of mine had been “crying” on Weibo (Chinese counterpart for Facebook) that I leave Beijing.  It is always nice to know that people like you and it gives you a warm feeling inside. (However, I also do know that there are people who don’t like my personality, but that’s just how life is.)

REASONS TO LOVE BEIJING:

An old dude with a gas tank tied into his bike.

My puppy Doudou, of whom I took care for 3 weeks last year. This is how we travelled 12km's so that I could go train.

The next months I plan to commit to climbing. People always tell me things such as: “good that you do things now that you’re young”, or “yes you should go, you are still young”, or “do it while you still can”. Let’s face it, I’m not that young anymore. I am 29, an age in that many already are far ahead in their careers; maybe own a house or an apartment; are married; have kids; live a “decent” life. However, that is not the kind of life I want. At least not right now (who knows if ever). To be honest, I don’t think I ever want to follow that traditional path of a person (Finnish) society expects people to follow; get married, have two kids, buy a house and two cars with mortgage, and schedule your daily life according to picking up your kids from their hobbies. I do not look down on that kind of lifestyle, I am not saying that, not at all. All I’m saying is that it doesn’t suit me. At the same time I envy them. Sometimes I do get a feeling that that kind of life would be nice, instead of all this feeling of restlessness deep inside me. But, what can you do? Maybe one day the flame inside me flickers and calms down, but I do doubt that it will ever completely vanish. It is just how I am and how I was built. I was already thinking about moving back to Finland next year, but at the moment, I am not sure. I will wait and see what the following months bring to my path and decide. To be honest, I do miss my friends and family, new relatives and the “easy” life in Finland so who knows. I have had serious problems with making decisions lately and my plans change all the time (at least I try to plan!) so who knows where I will be in a few months.

So now again, I am keyless. Which equals to being homeless. And I enjoy this feeling. Most my property is in the heavy backpack and a smaller backpack I am carrying, including climbing gear. However, things that people say to me that I mentioned in the previous paragraph don’t make any sense. Why COULDN’T you do something when you are older? I mean, getting older doesn’t mean you still couldn’t do things I am doing now. Like move to China, study, find work, then quit my work and dedicate my life for climbing for some time. I mean, doing these things when you are older might be harder but in now means is it impossible.

So now my path took me by train to Guiyang in Guizhou province, from where I will continue to Getu-valley. My faith and trust into Chinese people is often not very strong, but on my way to the train station I needed to reconsider. I was late and almost missed my train – as a miracle, I got a ride from someone from the subway station to the train station (as there was no taxis nor 3-wheelers). A ride from a really nice Chinese man, who works for Beijing Liandong TV-station. My great gratitude goes to him! Though thinking about him also makes me feel really ashamed – the thing was that he was in his car, waiting for someone in front of the subway station. I knocked on the window, puffing, asking if he would be nice enough to take me to the train station as all the taxis speeding by where full and I was really scared I would miss my train. He was on the phone, police was behind me (that’s why there were no illegal 3-wheelers in sight) and he just said “jump in”, and asked when my train leaves. Then he said he would drop me there first and then pick up his friend. We had a nice chat in the car (he had even been to Finland), and I kind of felt that he would get offended if I offered him money. I mean, I was going to ask even though I knew he wouldn’t accept the money, but something kept me from doing it. (It wasn’t that I was cheap – I was ready to pay a ridiculous amount for a 3-wheeler driver in order not to miss my train because in any way, that would’ve been cheaper than buying a new train ticket and go through all the hassle of staying in Beijing for a few days more). Somehow I just had the feeling that it was not the right thing to do – I mean, he did it just for being a very, very nice person, he didn’t do it for money. But I could’ve asked. So now I am really mad at myself. And I don’t even have his business card so I could send him something as a thanks!

Anyway, with these feelings I arrived to Guizhou-province in Southern China. Here is a picture of my hotel room in Anshun (I had cockroaches as roommates), before I continued to Getu-valley (where I am now).

More to come ;), keep tuned! (Just as a teaser... The climbing is GREAT here!!!)