Cup of Cha
This is China

One of the great things about living in Beijing is the wacky things that happen and the opportunities that come your way. The other day a friend rang and asked if I would be interested in attending the “Qinghai International Mountain Documentary Film Festival” – for free, care of the Qinghai government.

After an extended, two-second pause, I told him that I would be delighted and asked that I be forwarded details.  He said that details were sketchy but that these would come soon enough. This did not seem important as the festival was more than a month off. The Thursday before the festival week the friend called again to ask if there was anyone else I could think of who would like to come on the trip. A Chinese friend, a documentary film maker with experience in the US and China came immediately to mind. I discussed her credentials and all seemed positive. Then I mentioned that this friend is Chinese. This was met with a downhearted sigh.  It was suddenly clear the no small part of the Qinghai government’s generosity was to insure that we could be the “International” in “International Documentary Film Festival.”  Seeing the opportunity to provide a few more friends with a junket and some fun time out of Beijing I offered up a couple more names. (A blonde American journalist and long-haired, distinctly Indian, friend – that should provide more than enough internationaless to balance my initial friend’s extreme Chineseness.)

With less than 36 hours to the earliest possible departure date a few concerned phone calls from potential attendees caused me to call the organiser and ask for at least details regarding when we should be at the airport. I was told that a bus had been organised for the afternoon of the day of the departure, Sunday. At this stage we knew that we would leave Beijing in Sunday and would probably come back on the Thursday, and pretty much nothing else.

Sunday arrived and all went well, bus to the airport, check in, flight, bus pick up at Xining airport direct to our hotel. A brief discussion was held and we decided on a restaurant for dinner and to move Wednesday’s planned trip to the Ta’er Lamasery to Monday. Rooms were sorted out, we settled into our, really very nice, hotel, then headed for a local dinner.

Monday was a bus trip to the Monastery, back to the Hotel, then a dinner out of town. Tuesday, a trip to Qinghai Lake, which included providing tech support to my office in Beijing from a several thousand year old Tibetan temple on top of a mountain whilst sleet and vendors’ umbrellas flew past the doorway horizontally and it seemed yaks would follow, a boat trip across the lake and a spot of swimming – for which I was chastised by the guide for whom this was a form of sacrilege.  Tuesday night was a state banquet prior to the following morning’s opening, followed by group karaoke till late into the morning.

Wednesday morning saw us attend the opening of the festival. This was held in a large exhibition hall displaying works from the associated landscape photography exhibition. Following the usual speeches, mercifully brief, we were subjected to an hour or more of the same awful beat based tune playing for a “fashion show,” while most of us viewed the assembled collection. That afternoon there was a filmmakers’ forum or free time to wander Xining, and in the evening the Awards and Closing Ceremony in the local TV station’s largest studio. This was a complete farce and something that deserves it’s own post. The closing ceremony was followed buy drinks at a Xining club/bar till late. The next morning there was just time to eat a hotel breakfast, check out and get to the airport.  I was home in Bejing by four in the afternoon.

One country crossed; one lake swum; banquet, opening, closing and awards ceremonies endured; much beer, wine, whiskey and baijiu consumed; many contemporary and classic pop songs, English and Chinese, murdered; many questionable dance moves attempted; vistas of incomparable beauty cemented in the memory; never more than one hours warning regarding any event and not one film viewed – one very enjoyable, very Chinese, Film Festival attended.

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