Before going to China, I studied spoken Mandarin for two years using the ROSETTA STONE CD-ROM method. It is a very effective method, as addictive as a game. I don't claim to speak fluently, but I can ask if this is the correct bus to the Confucian Temple, or how to turn off the heat in a room, or even explain that Karen Carpenter is not what young people listen to in America (she's still hot in cold Harbin!)

Since China guidebooks do not dedicate more than a few pages to inaccessible Harbin, I relied in part on the VIRTUAL TOURIST web site.

The best guidebook about Beijing is always the one with the most recent copyright. I used the FROMMER'S GUIDE, because it was the only one with an up-to-date map of the subway. Changes are occurring at a furious rate in pre-Olympics Beijing, and one must expect disappearing restaurants and even vanishing streets (the renowned Silk Alley).

I planned my trip very slowly, but I organized it at the last minute. I was lucky to use the services of Madame Vivian Bao, from the Los Angeles office of US CHINA TRAVEL SERVICE. I heartily recommend this agency for your China needs. Their tours look just dandy, and their independent travel service was top notch.

For the long-haul flight, I investigated amusing itineraries such as changing in Seoul, but no airline could match the prices and the convenience of UNITED. All the way from Harrisburg to Beijing, United provides a superior product. 

The Beijing to Harbin domestic flight was on CHINA SOUTHERN, which has just absorbed China Northern. Wasn't there a fairy tale about a nightingale that started from a similar premise?

In Harbin, Madame Bao booked me at the SHANGRI-LA, an elegant and comfortable hotel part of a prestigious Asian chain. There was little Chinese atmosphere (the elevator music was "Sweet Georgia Brown") but the breakfast buffet was superlative.

From Harbin to Beijing, I took the night "soft sleeper" train. I expected a wild adventure. The waiting room in the Harbin station was a zoo, with Russian families heading North carrying huge bags of goodies. But the Beijing train itself turned out to be extremely comfortable, with clean linen and slippers.

In Beijing, I asked Madame Bao to book me at the BAMBOO GARDEN HOTEL, a unique place far from the international shopping area. Instead, the hotel is on a quiet Hutong not far from the Drum Tower subway station. The Bamboo Garden is not Shangri-La fancy, but it is comfortable, quiet, and very Chinese.

The Beijing Subway is easy for Westerners to figure out,  if not particularly modern. Stations are clearly signed and announced in English. Chinese taxis are reasonable but the drivers do not understand any English. Unless you can read Chinese, which I can't, you tend to get lost now and then. And that is sincerely part of the attraction.

The food was great. All the restaurants were very clean, with polished floors like in an American department store. The service was very friendly, but occasionally awkward and timid. There were many servers in each restaurant. In some places they almost spoon feed you while in others they hide in fear of the big nosed foreigner!

Incidentally, for the "gotta go right now" crowd, there are restrooms everywhere in China. That is because public restrooms are widely used, not just by visitors.

And what about the lack of civil liberties in mainland China, you might ask?

I was concerned about that. My interest is Chinese civilization, high and low, but my love is not so blind that I did not notice the presence of soldiers, policemen and secret service everywhere. The Chinese people I got to talk with were always cautious. They did express their doubts and frustrations, but they did so very carefully. It must be a great weight to bear to spend one's lilfe in a country where information is limited and one can't just sound off freely. If anything it would make me want to sound off all the more.

You could argue that early 21th century China is a seductive fraud: the gray gloom of the 1960s and 70s has been replaced with up-to-date trappings, sometimes carried out to garish extremes. Liberties have evolved too, but not as fast. Optimists trust that they will catch up.  The Chinese certainly deserve a happy century or two.

For more information about the less felicitous aspects of mainland China policies, you might want to visit  Ugly Chinese, a provocative web site which our friends on the mainland can't reach...