Bye Bye Bing Bing Bao Bei

After far too many attempts, I'm throwing in the towel on Bing Bing Bao Bei. My final two or three weeks in China involved a dizzying and exhausting trip to Shanghai and back, a lot of goodbye dinners, and an unexpected amount of work to wrap up loose ends.

That only left me snatched minutes here and there to sketch out blog posts, and I just don't have the energy or will to fill out those missing days any more. It's a shame too, because some exciting stuff happened. Simon and I fed a duck to a tiger (only to be trumped by Mark's cow tipping into the lion's den); we each bought several bespoke tailored suits; we saw a guy get hit by a go-kart; and of course we packed in plenty more odd food, Harbin Beer, and pointlessly competitive 'sports'.

After I'd seen Simon off at Pudong Airport, it was back to Harbin but the pace never slackened. I found myself in a petty haggling competition settling my landlord's bill (in the end, we'd argued over everything in the flat - the door, furniture, even rent - but at least they gave me big packet of Harbin sausages for my journey home); checked out Harbin International Beer Festival (where short-skirted model after short-skirted model strolled down the catwalk holding identical bottles of beer); and I tried to get as many training sessions of TKD under my 绿带 as I could, managing a personal best of 24 hours total training in the final six days. It paid off - I found I'd lost 7 kilograms during my trip, even with my all-beer, all-meat diet!

I want to lay this blog to rest and avoid any more tweaking. I'll look back on it from time to time, just like a diary, but there'll be no more major additions or edits. It's not because of any reservations I might have about 'journalistic truth', it's just that I'm so tired of the whole thing.

I'm pleased with myself for avoiding the worst of my negative impulses, and devoting more time to the good things than the bad. I'd rather leave a record of the things that have interested and pleased me, rather than those that have frustrated, or horrified.

Sure, everyone might have a novel in them, but from this little taster, I don't think the majority of people have the patience or self-control to go through the self-examination, censorship and research needed to be a success. Add to that the vital ingredients of imagination, experience and inspiration, and I'm surprised anyone writes at all.

So that's it: Bye Bye Bing Bing Bao Bei!