Sorry for the absence, folks, but it's been tricky trying to get an internet connection. I've been asking various different people at the management and leasing offices where I can get connected, both in English and (very) broken Chinese ("Wo xiang shangwang"). Someone at the leasing office who spoke English managed to tell me that I had to go to Xibahe and apply there. My first question was the rather obvious "where is Xibahe"? I was curtly told that any taxi driver would take me there. So, emboldened with the knowledge that internet access couldn't be far away, I got a taxi and said in a fairly confident voice "Xibahe". He had no idea where that was. So I told him in my broken Mandarin that I wanted to get connected to the internet. He got out of the cab, conferred for a few minutes with his colleagues and came back to annouce that he could take me (I assume that's what he said, for he garbled something in Chinese, turned to smile at me and drove off). We ended up touring around quite a lot of Beijing while he got out at various points to ask people directions because he had no idea where he was going.

Eventually, through some persons excellent directions or by sheer, blind luck we arrived at a road called Xibahe. The taxi driver, generously (endearing him to me), waived most of the fee because of the frankly ridiculous length of the journey (something that must be said for the Chinese is that they will not rip you off, or even attempt it. It's been known for waitresses to come chasing people out of the restaurant with change that was meant for a tip. Whatever you might say about Chinese culture, we westerners have something to learn from them about that) and pointed at the building I should go in to get the internet. I walked into the building and confidently announced in Chinese that I wanted an internet connection. They showed me over to a computer and logged me in. They thought I wanted to surf the net for a few minutes and had kindly offered their services for free to help me (it turned out the place I was in was another bank). Humbled, I tried to get across to them that, yes it was very kind to allow me to use their connection to surf for a few minutes but that I wanted the internet piped into my apartment. It took a few minutes but eventually they understood what I wanted and then, amazingly, apologised to me for wasting my time! I couldn't believe it. Here were staff at a bank (of all places) letting me use their internet connection without charge (where would you find that in the west, eh?) and then apologising to me! One of the staff then took me a bit further down the road to China Netcom, where the taxi driver should have taken me, where I signed up for an internet connection.

My affection for Chinese people and the way they want to help is growing by the day.