A while back I heard about the Christmas Bazaar held each year at the Germany Embassy here in Beijing. I heard that it was really awesome and a not-to-be-missed event. Having lived in Germany I was even more interested because it was supposed to have all the typical German Christmas foods. Life got busy and I didn't think about it for a while. On Friday, December 1st I was looking online to see what activities were going to be happening that weekend and I came across the Germany Charity Bazaar (the actual name of the event). I looked into and saw that there were advanced ticket sales, but not online. They were only selling tickets at three locations around town none of which were anywhere close to me and considering the bazaar was the next day it wasn't going to be possible to get an advanced ticket (I never considered the fact it would be quite so early - it doesn't really feel like Christmas around here even now on the 12th). According to the event website tickets would be sold at the door depending on availability. They had to sessions one in the morning and one in the afternoon, beginning at 2 o'clock. I had plans for Friday night and live about 1.5 hours away from the German Embassy so I didn't figure I could make the morning session, but I thought, "If I show up right at 2, it should still be early enough to get a ticket." I shared the word with my coworkers and a few of them decided to join me. One had been the year before and she hadn't had an advanced ticket, so I wasn't too worried. I should have been.
I arrived at the Germany Embassy just moments before 2. My directions actually had me coming up the opposite side of the embassy from the bazaar entrance and so I came across a REALLY long line. I decided I didn't want to get into a line that I didn't know what it was, plus I saw people had tickets in their hands, so I kept walking. And walking and walking. Eventually I found the front of the line and sure enough it was a good thing I hadn't gotten into that first line. It was for people with advanced tickets. The line to buy tickets was on the other side. I found that line and there were some people speaking Chinese who had tickets in their hands. Thus, I told them in Chinese that they were in the wrong line. They thanked me and went to find the correct line. I then stood in line for a long time. After a while I started speaking to the people around me. The women in front of me were Chinese so I spoke to them mostly in Chinese. The couple behind me were a Canadian woman and her Chinese boyfriend. I spoke to them in English. My own friends arrived after I'd been waiting in line for about an hour and a half. They decided they didn't want to wait that long and decided to skip it, but I figured they were letting people in until 5. They would clear the line of ticket holders and then start selling tickets. Since many people had dropped out of the line, I thought I would make it. The couple behind me thought the same thing. We were wrong.
Around 4 pm (after I've waited in line, in the cold, for a little over two hours) a couple of people working the bazaar came out to inform us that there was zero chance of getting in. They had so many advanced ticket holders that they would not be selling any tickets. The gentleman behind me didn't really believe it. Meanwhile, another gentleman was clearly upset. He went up to them and in German explained how they had stood there for two hours and it wasn't right to turn them away. The staff told him (also in German) that they were sorry, but there was absolutely no possibility of getting in. He continued to disagree with them and they continued to be firm and tell him it wasn't happening. I very quietly translated this conversation to the couple behind me. The girl looked at me, "I think you're a secret translator. You speak Chinese AND German. Do you speak Arabic too?" (I would like to learn Arabic, but in case you're wondering, no I don't.)
While I was in line I also met a Chinese girl and a Hong Kong British citizen (meaning she was ancestrally from Hong Kong and has a Hong Kong residence card, but a British passport) who has literally lived all over the world (and is completely fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin) and her Chinese coworker (they were somehow friends with the gentleman behind me and had joined the couple in line). They invited me to go to another Christmas Bazaar that wasn't too far away so that the long trip wasn't a total waste. I decided to go and we took a DiDi (the Chinese equivalent to Uber) to the Hutongs and went to a Tapas bar that had a little Christmas Bazaar going on. I had a good time, but I didn't get the good German food I had been planning on (we were all quite hungry because we had eaten very little lunch in anticipation). Next year, I will make sure to buy an advanced ticket (and probably to make the morning session as well).
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