Beijing - Day 13

So last night (I think it was last night, it was so long ago) we decided to play MAFIA!! Otherwise known as KILLER!! So about fifteen or so of us crowded into Sirui and Gino's room, cause they somehow got a huge huge room, and sat down to play mafia. I wasn't too sure on the rules, so I let the more experienced of us narrate, or as we called it, MC. The two clowns, Carrie and Subrina, MC'd the first time. It took a little rule explaining and rule figuring out, but once we started we were on our way. So Derek and I were picked as the killers. Derek picked most of the targets, and to the civilians it seemed as though we were on a green killing spree. Har har! Unforunately, we couldn't pull it off and we were both found out eventually. Chunping was instrumental to this. He was ridiculously observant. Annie was also really really smart and I think she figured Derek out. Monica had some weird intuition hocus pocus going on and picked me out from the beginning. Except nobody listened to her until towards the end. So that was round one. Round two. It was a lot harder being a civilian. People dying left, right and centre and you're trying to figure out who it is. Worse if the town suspects you, votes you and you're not the killer! But that wasn't me. In any event, the two killers this round were very, very good. Chunping was his usual self, making observant points and formulating theories which backed up his accusations. We were down to the last few people, and still the killers hadn't been found out. William and Connie could have saved the day, but they needed Amanda's support. And it was not to be had during the vote. So the killers won. Who were they? One was Clara. Very quiet. Stealthy. And the other was...CHUNPING!!! That's right folks. Our lead theory formulator and 'hero of the people' Chunping was a killer. If mafia was real he'd be Don Giovanni. He's that good. His behaviour never changed from either round, so we naturally assumed that since he wasn't a killer the first time, he wasn't a killer the second time. His theories meant that the attention was on other people and not him. And check this. Kenny, who was sitting next to Chunping, told us afterwards that every time it was time to kill someone, Chunping would poke Kenny in the side as he pointed to disguise the sound of his movement. What a gangster.

The morning of our fifth and final day in Beijing would be spent in the presence of a former Chinese olympian and Athens gold medallist swimmer. It was a forum, and not a lecture, so it followed a more question and answer format. Essentially we were allowed to ask the olympian whatever we wanted.



She's really quite young, I don't know why she retired already. At the moment she's studying at Peking University I think, international relations.


Har har, nobody to wake me this up this time!



Sirui has a question!



The rest of the day would be Olympic themed as well. After lunch, we endured a three hour speech from Mr He Zhenliang, an IOC member and the man credited with bringing the Olympics to China. That's him.



The highlight of that? Finding a bottle of water with the brand name, 'Wahaha' and also finding that Leehom Wang (王力宏) endorses it. 'WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'



For most of the speech me and Krissy swapped messages on my notepad. Monica and Sirui also got their moment of glory.



Finally it was time for dinner. Now ever since we'd gotten into Beijing, we'd been hankering for the opportunity to go out and have 'real' Peking duck. Like, Peking duck in Beijing, or Peking. Tonight was our chance.



So how was it? Not that great. It tastes pretty much the same everywhere. In Sydney they actually cut it up for you as well. Perhaps we didn't go to a good enough restaurant? Not sure. In any event, our experience of it wasn't that fantastic. So at dusk, we left for the Beijing train station. Time to catch a train to our final destination, Shanghai. Note the blue sky. Amazing.



From the outside, the Beijing train station looks exactly like it does in the movie 'Together' (和你在一起).



However, down the bottom, where you can see the lanterns in front of the screen, there are no revolving doors as there were in the movie. And there is no grand staircase, ambient lighting or marble floor. It's not quite that opulent, unfortunately.

So onto the train! The trip this time was much more comfortable, since I wasn't sick. Annie took a liking to this train man who kept walking up and down the corridor. More on him later. This train had better lighting than the train we took from Xian to Beijing, but it didn't have individual TV screens at the foot of each bunk that were on the other train. Me, Sirui and Kristina worked on the show that each group would have to perform at the farewell party. Really, we didn't do much besides figure that we'd just recycle a few skits that Sirui's group had performed in the group discussion at Peking University. This trip was also much more fun than the last. My face doesn't say so but I'm actually having fun. Don't know about Subrina though.



Eva and Monica tried to (forcefully) get their 'make-over revenge' on me. Key word. Tried. Oddly enough, every other guy was being demasculinated that night.



Meanwhile the real men were pitting strength against strength. Or more realistically, one arm versus two. Unfortunately I couldn't beat Carrie yet, but I will beat her one day.



William gave me a damn good run for my money, but in the end we agreed on a draw. Oh, and remember how I mentioned earlier that apart from the Kung Fu Kick photo, there was another photo that was a contender for the best photo of the trip? Yea, here it is. This is affectionately titled, '14-people-in-a-4-person-cabin'.



And the coolest thing about this photo? On the small screen of a camera, you couldn't tell which way the photo was oriented. Too cool.

The night ended with us playing a slapping game called 'Bing, Bang, Boom!'. Yes, slapping was a big part of CSP. A big part.