China can't stop the madness

Today at work someone asked me if I could know a random statistic from my life, what would it be? I of course wanted to know how many cups of coffee I've had, and how much I've spent on coffee in total. Rent, I remember, says something similar: "How do you measure a life? ...In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee..."

Somewhat related is the fact that I've been out every night from Tuesday through Saturday - a personal record for me. But not all of it is happy - friends leaving Beijing and having goodbye get-togethers.

I've also had a brief brush with the Beijing police on Friday night - which was considerably more than I've ever interacted with them anywhere else. For some reason we decided that it'd be a great idea to bike into the construction site of the new CCTV tower - possibly the most sensitive construction site after the Olympic stadiums - and, you know, check it out. So the security gate was up, the guards were just lounging, and we zoomed straight in. Nevermind the guys shouting at us or the security guard who gave chase on his own bike - we were pretending, I guess, not to understand or speak Chinese. But unfortunately, the road dead-ended, so we stood around and stared at all the night construction until the fuming security guard caught up and escorted us out. It might have been over then, but as it turns out, the security guard was extremely upset (he was definitely justified), called the police and proceeded to guard us. Keep in mind that we were all somewhat tipsy at the moment, having just come from drinking cold foaming beer. And the cops arrive!

But as it turned out, I didn't get to go to the police station, becasue as my friend rather chivalrously assured the cops, there was no need for me to go. So I'm sorry to have missed the "after party", you know, the part where they question you and threaten to take your money or keep you overnight, but end up just letting you go.

And the best donuts in Beijing are in Shunyi!