This Ain't Your Mummy's Pony!

It is true that in China, the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.  Last night, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, I got a first experience of how wealthy the noveau riche really are. 

 

It started when my Mother's friend asked me if I wanted to spend the afternoon at a race track.  Having never been to a race track, I readily agreed.  After an hour of driving to the outskirts of Beijing (about 15 minutes past the airport to anyone who knows Beijing) and driving through a tree lined street, we arrived at a seemingly modest ranch entrance.  What a disguise!

 

After being fascinated for a few minutes while we drove past some beautiful, well-fed horses, I was told that those weren't the nice horses at the ranch.  A few minutes later, after driving through a good sized man-made pond (I later found out it's where the racehorses exercise), we drove into a little parking lot filled with various models of Porches, Mercedes, and the likes.  I was already impressed - it was the first time I've seen a Porch in Beijing.

 

So it turns out that this was not just an average day at the racetracks.  The event was actually a dinner party held by the man (and his family) who owns the ranch (and of course, all the animals in it).  Along with my Mother's friend's family, there were also a few other guests as well as a German jockey and his family (he later turned out to be quite a wanker!) all hanging around the large clubhouse porch that overlooks the racetrack and stable.

 

Before we sat down, we went for a little tour around the racehorse stable.  After passing enclosures filled with geese, ostrich, various kinds of pure bred dogs, and a tennis court (and that was just a small part of the ranch), we finally arrived at the racehorse stable.  I've been to a few stables before, but this is definitely the pimpest stable that I've been to.  Think Kentucky derby stables.  That's how nice it was.  The stable keeps about 20 racehorses (like I said before, all owned by the one guy).  I've never seen a racehorse before yesterday - what beautiful animals!  They're huge animals, larger than most normal horses, and the ones kept at the stable were all very nicely groomed - extremely sleek coat and well trimmed manes and tails.  Very impressive!

 

After the stable visit and a bit of tennis (it felt so country club - only we were in the middle of China!), we formally started the dinning.  The dinner was a five course meal AND a barbeque!  You had your typical salad (ceaser), soup, spaghetti bolognese, steak, and cake, all while having really nice chicken wings, beef fillets, and lamb kebabs (served with English mustard, of course) served to you every 5 minutes.  And this was just dinner - I haven't even talked about pre-dinner oer deurves!  Of course, with good food, there also comes good drinks.  Long story short, the night was filled with many glasses of nice wine (red & white), champagne, cognac, and cold beer.

 

While the evening was very, very nice, at the end of the night I couldn't help but think...if I ever come across that much money in my lifetime, I would certainly never invest it in horses, of all things!