Day 9, a Friday, and I'm approaching the end of this trip. After a sleep in, some yoga and coffee at Base, I jumped on the bicycle for one last hurrah around Shichahai. I stopped to sit and chat with a swimming unkle who asked how the outside world saw China's military build-up. I gave him the popular view, then my own, and his thesis seemed to be that "a strong China results in a stable region".
Lunch on a rustic rooftop was off the charts, I had forgotten how much I love "ma dofu" (not to be confused with "mapo dofu":
In the evening I met my old colleague Henry who is still doing an amazing job at Jagermeister China. We met at his hotel in Chaoyang and had one more Beijing duck meal for good measure (this one was slightly more oily, which is only appropriate for a Shanghainese friend):
After dinner, we hit Solo and caught up on ten years of growth and office politics of Jager in China, as well as some of the ways that netizens show their derision of official pronouncements without getting censored:
From there it was over to Dada for the fourth and final time, and I made it count!
The owner Michael even presented me with a participation trophy :)
"When one door is closed, many more are open" - Bob Marley
"不比较，不计较，心存感恩" - Henry Shen
