A full day in Beijing today. Up at 7, breakfast at the hotel buffet at 8, and at 9 a.m. we descended to the lobby to find Lilli, our guide, waiting for us. The car and driver were outside the door, hotel doormen rushed to assist us in climbing into our car, and we were off. First stop, the National Art Museum. There was an exhibit of current art from China. Interesting, some of it. I am not a modern art kind of guy, but I'm big on representational art. So are the Chinese in large part. Upstairs was a restrospective of Taiwanese art from 1960s to the current time. Our guide was especially taken by a conceptual artist who did things like rope himself to a woman for a year during which time he and she never touched each other. He has a number of 1 year projects -he lived outdoors in NYC for a year with only a sleeping bag, he stayed in a cell for a year, he punched a time clock once an hour for a year and made a movie of himself after each punch. It was interesting stuff in a way but I figured the guy was nuts and had found a socially acceptable way of living through art. She thought it illumned the meaning of life.

On to the hutong tour - the hutongs are the old lanes and alleys of Beijing and they are being destroyed at a quickening pace by the citys refurbishing for the Olympics in 2008. We rickshawed through some narrow lanes, and visited a family. They said that dad, who had fought the US in Korea, was now in his late 80s and had a government pension so he had moved to a new apartment building which he liked a lot.

Lunch was at a restaurant the locals liked. There was a little kid outside the door with a gong, and every time a new customer walked in the door, he banged it good and loud. The entire staff was good and loud. I think eating there if you understood Chinese would be a horror show. Perhaps you have eaten in SF's Chinatown restaturant with the waiter Edsel Ford? It was just like that. Everyone yelling, rushing around. Great food -we recommend the noodles -and by the way, Pepsi is virtually unknown in China, Coke is it. I'm in heaven.

In a shopping street (ie a road blocked to vehicular traffic which has a lot of shops on it) we found the pickle shop that Anthony Bordain featured on his show (have not found the scorpions yet) and wandered through the crowds. Everywhere it is the crowds, not least of all in the middle of the streets with cars, buses, and bicycles racing past them. Mary Alice hit a shoe store, which had made shoes for Chairman Mao, and now her, and it was off for duck.

Peking duck is a big deal in Beijing, and a must eat on every tourist's iteninary. Several restaurant's feature it, and we were booked into the main one. Henry Kissinger, Arafat, the Senior Bushes, all ate there. Being booked in advance is the deal. There was a long line of people waiting and we breezed past and got a table. How superior I felt to those huge tables of Western tourists eating their first ducks. Mary Alice and I had a private table, and we had come to an understanding of the basic premise of Chinese dining. You are not going to eat everything that they serve you because the good host always has more food than you can eat. They don't have doggy bags, either, so I hope the poor are getting the wasted food.

After dinner, what else? We went to the opera. The Beijing Opera, that is. Here again we got a taste of how the truly rich must live. Our guide got our tickets and led us past at least 100 people lined up to get in, we just sailed in and took our seats, ordered glasses of wine, and were ready for the opera. The opera here is light on plot or singing, and heavy on acrobatics. Astounding feats, and luckily for you, indescribable. When it was over we walked out the front door and there was our car with the driver standing by it, the rear door open for us. We hopped in and it was off to the hotel after looking at the lights of the Forbidden City at night. Its a hard life but someone has to lead it.