More from Beijing: Monday

I’ve just had my first ‘Red Bean Fleecy’. They are all the rage in Beijing. But more of that in a minute. The day began with a planning meeting and then off to get video footage for the website (which you should be able to see soon).  We then went across Beijing to Peking University to meet Zhao Yang, a professor in linguistics at Beida (as the University is known).

The taxi journey took about one and a half hours, if not more, by taxi (we have not mastered public transport yet). By the time we got there the light had gone from sunny to dusk to dark! Our taxi driver was brilliant and just through the energy we were exuding knew we were getting later and later for our dinner appointment with Mr Yang.

No sooner were we out of that taxi then we were in another one, going back towards the centre. Mr Yang very generously took us to one of the top ten restaurants in Beijing with food from Hangzhou. The decor was beautiful, traditional old style, very elegant. Once again, we were not disappointed. Among the dishes was aubergine with chilli and garlic which is a favourite of mine and I know Rachel liked the unusual bean curd dish. We have been working with Mr Yang on developing 100 Words at Beida but now he has a promotion and a new job title so we have to look at a different way of working together.

Full up, we headed back to our hotel to meet writer Wang Le. We went to a cafe round the corner. Wang Le took part in the 100 Words workshop we did in the spring in Beijing. Since then, she has written a feature film and is working on a book. I was amazed to find when she spoke slowly I could understand quite a bit. However, to keep the momentum going we conversed mostly in English. We did a reading of her play during our residency at Soho with the National Youth Theatre. We were able to show her pictures of it and the website. We’re hoping to be able to continue working with her.

Feeling very full, I decided to just have a drink – a ‘Fleecy’. You can get different flavours of ‘Fleecy’ which is crushed ice but not so crushed it’s mushy (that’s quite important). Mine was red bean topped with tapioca and then ice cream. I can honestly say as a drink there’s nothing like it.