My stay in Beijing was mainly a stay in bed: I have spent about 20 hours per day there since Monday night. No skiing and no skating as I planned to do, and I got hardly any work done. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent entirely in bed. Thursday I had an interview with the South China Morning Post (HK newspaper) in the morning, and then an outside meeting with a German client in the afternoon. With aspirin I managed to handle it. I even joined the farewell dinner Qi’s parents had organized in the Russian Moscow restaurant in Xizhimen, in the sidewing of the old Russian-built and Russian style exhibition center. It was the first and for many years the only Western style restaurant in Beijing, and therefore still famous among Beijingnese. A fantastic place (great architecture), but the food was mediocre at best (maybe because I was sick?). After the dinner I collapsed into bed for a 12 hour sleep.

When I got up I felt worse than before with a high fever and hardly able to stand on my feet. I guess I had overdone it a bit the day before. Problem is that we had tickets booked for a 2PM flight to Beijing, and I felt like I would not be able to make it. But after a long hot shower I put on two pairs of pants, two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt and 2 thick sweaters (no joke!), took some aspirin and decided to give it a try. It was extremely crowded at the airport (end of CNY), and the flight was fully booked, but I made it home alive. I had a conference call planned for Friday night 10 PM, but I cancelled that. I took a hot bath and then had another 12 hours sleep. It’s now Saturday morning and I finally start feeling a little better. Just in time for the new working week that starts today 🙂 (this Saturday and Sunday are declared official working days by the Chinese government, and most companies, including China Bay, start work again today)