Today was our trip to the Fragrant Hill and free time, which I planned to spend with a friend of Mrs. Moran's.
I vaguely remember Fragrant Hill being introduced to us at our pre-departure meetings as having some cultural significance as a garden or other pastime for the Emperor and entourage. When we went there, I found out that it is mostly seen as a good place to get exercise for most Beijingers. The Fragrant Hill is a small mountain on the outskirts of the metropolis areas of Beijing. It is probably a third of a mile high, with a winding staircase/footpath running all the way up. It was a pretty warm day, and I didn't buy any water for the trek, so I was pretty thirsty at the top. The haze was minimal and so the view was very good from the top. The layout of the summit and the rest of the mountain reminded me of Mt. Katadhin. You couldn't really see the bug skyscrapers of downtown, but it was cool to see what you could of the city. The walk down was more grueling then the walk up. My knees and ankles both ached from walking down the flights of stairs, but it was well worth it. It was nice to get some real exercise and get a nice view of the place where we have been spending the last two weeks. After the hike, we went an upscale restaurant for what Dr. Gao called the most authentic Peking Duck in Beijing. The restaurant was the fanciest we went to, though we were a bit under-dressed in our sweaty hiking clothes. The meal was very heavily duck themed, with all sorts of duck dishes. The most important of course being the duck meat for rolling Peking Duck rolls, which was very tasty. We had all sorts of other tasty dishes, most of which we had seen in other restaurants. There wasn't any repellent food except for the mysterious "fish balls" served with dragonfruit, and the split duck heads. Dr. Gao also explained that after lunch many of the office employers who were eating there would take a nap before getting back to work, which was a feature of the workplace that he missed about China. I think that rest time is an important part of the work day, though I can't force myself to nap and so would probably just spend that time loafing around, which is just as important to do.
We went back to the hotel, and I waited for a call from the friend I was planning on meeting for supper. One of the Chinese girls, Ruby, informed us that we were "switching rooms", so I sent an email to my friend that I would be located in Ruby's room, and to try to call me there. He emailed me back immediately asking me to call him when I got the chance. I then found out that we were actually moving to another room further down the hall. I finished moving my stuff into the new room and then tried to call my friend, but all the outgoing lines were busy and I would just get a busy tone when I started to dial out. I tried every other phone I could find in the hotel except the front desk, which had a long line. I sent a new email to my friend that I had now moved to a new room, and to please call me there or tell me what time to show up by email. I kept trying to call out over the next hour, and hoped that he would read my email and call me in the right room. About 2 hours after his last email, I finally got an outgoing line and interrupted him in the midst of a meeting. He said that he would call me back in an hour, and I said to check his email for my new room number, he said that he had, and before I could say that I meant that I was in a third room and to look at the most recent email, he said "I'll call you back" and hung up. I waited for several hours until it became evident that I was not going to receive a call, at least not in the correct room. I had ramen for dinner and got in touch with him around 10PM, when we arranged to try to meet one last time on Friday afternoon, which means I will miss every non-mandatory trip that has been arranged during free time because of failed appointments with this guy.