If nothing else, it set me up for the remainder of the evening, which had me sitting on the sidelines while A. danced – I attempted salsa years ago, having met an attractive Jewish tea trader from Curaçao, living in Amsterdam, on a flight to South Africa, and came away with an understanding that this was not a form of dance intended for me, with legs that would all too easily knot themselves in unexpected places. At least, unlike last time, I had the good sense to explain to A. that I would not be dancing, but admiring her from the sidelines; I know that salsa addicts, which are people that have taken the trouble to attend salsa classes and spend long hours learning the intricate moves, have their favourite partners at their favourite clubs, so there was not an issue here.

For me, much of the entertainment was watching the band, which did very well but took full hour breaks; and watching some of the very astute Chinese dancers. Nobody will ever accuse the Chinese of having rhytm – if you've watched the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony, you'll have noted they do well in organized expressions, but I had not expected the wanton and expert throwing of limbs and dance partners I would witness. In particular a tall and quite large Chinese gentleman moved with the grace and expertise one does not expect from a Sumo wrestler, lifting, throwing, inverting and sliding his tall and impossibly thin female partners, that showed clearly they had enough trust in him to be thrown off the Eiffel tower, having been promised he'd be downstairs in time to catch them.

Indubitably, he was, and A. was a delight to watch too – she spent three months in Guatemala, in between Ohio and Beijing, and it showed, she moves. The Chinese guy was something else though - he'd throw a dance partner above his shoulders, that's five-plus feet, to catch her with millimetre precision, never missed a beat.

A. is no longer the very German exchange student I met sometime in 2003, although she approaches the dance the way Germans approach everything, from cars to sex – with engineered perfection and that intense look on the face, Spaß machen wir im nächsten Jahrhundert. By about midnight, though, the party crowds rolled in, and the place became just another nightspot. A row of reserved tables right in front of us, at the ege of the dance floor, had been decked with fresh fruit, bottles of Chivas and water, and sure enough, a group of gentlemen that had seen too many Jacky Chan movies eventually rolled in, were seated and spent a good hour drinking whisky and talking to each other, without any interest in the action on the floor, or the young Chinese and Western women, some of whom made it very clear they were so available. There were a good number of expats, as well, here only to dance, sweat away the rigours of a working week in a town of which many do not speak the language.

We have been talking about A's career, on and off, throughout the week. Part of the reason I am here is to give her a mental boost – as happens with talented people, she has reached a milestone in her young life, and while one thing finishes, she doesn't have her next move ready. Hearing this during a few of our Skype conversations after she had mailed me, I resolved to go over and see if I could be of any help – I pretty much understand what makes her tick, and a true face to face is always more helpful than some kind of call. Like me, she managed to leave home and embark on a path of achievement, and like me, she gets stuck along the way, here and there. Embarking on a career overseas is really hard, if you do not have a supporting infrastructure – I recall all too well how little understanding I got from my Dutch circle of friends, or my family, for that matter,whose perspective was mostly to get their careers settled in their home town, and then float along on the waves, until it was time to retire.

It had not surprised me to find A. in Beijing; she has that push to be different, I just did not know whether she'd achieve that or not, and she has. Now, she needs a new focus to aim for, and like many, she is, hopefully temporarily, looking in the wrong direction. It is curious how her experience mirrors my own – at some stages of your life, it seems like everything stops working – no prospects in your job, a relationship that ends, nothing to keep the mind occupied, and it is then really hard to see the positive opportunities through the negative developments. Eventually, I learned that all change is good change, that it is just a matter of focusing, and that whichever way you push, it always gets you to the next stop on the railroad. I suppose that isn't too different from selecting a dance partner, and then trusting him to catch you, after he has so expertly flipped you upside down. It can be scary stuff..

It wasn't until after I arrived in Beijing that I realized the Olympic thing wasn't over, the 2008 Paralympics were about to begin. Over the past couple of days, that became more than apparent, as more Chinese volunteers manned the information stands all over town, and when I visited a couple of tourist traps, participants, easily recognizable by their Olympic outfits and large ID tags around their necks, were all over.

Not having planned this trip, hordes of tourists in wheelchairs took me a little by surprise, though. Not only that, the athletes are in performance wheelchairs, you know, the leightweight ones with the wheels at angle, and they think nothing of getting on an escalator in that wheelchair, pulling themselves up until the wheels are wedged on two steps, then hanging on by the siderails. I stood and gawked, mall security got totally confused. But the rest of the staff on Silk Street couldn't care less, whether you were in a wheelchair, blind, or amputee, they're going to sell you stuff. Now you may have had the derogatory comments from correspondents about the wheelchair lifts the Beijing subway has recently installed, but look at the accompanying pictures - they didn't just install them, they're using them. And the person being elevated wasn't a tourist or Paralympian, he was an ordinary Chinese disabled man. They may have to work a bit on letting people use these lifts without seven people assisting (five of whom the ever present volunteers you see everywhere, recognizable by the red armbands), but it's a start.

Sitting here in my hotel room watching the Paralympics opening ceremony, I can't help but think that this must be even more of a dream come true for the disabled than for the able bodied. For me, it is a sudden and unexpected realization I am only a few miles from the Bird's Nest, where all this happens as I watch it, on Chinese television, smack in the middle of downtown Beijing. We (A. and I) were supposed to join an expat Mahjong game tonight, but she got stuck Skyping with her folks in Germany, while I spent time commiserating with a suddenly divorcing friend in Australia.

As I said, it caught me a bit by surprise – there were dozens of cops at each roadway intersection, some helmeted and with Kevlar overcoats, I guess they ensure that the members of the Politbureau and the many foreign dignitaries could get through easily. I was accosted by multiple “welcome to Beijing” folks, as I walked through a couple of neighbourhoods, but as they all said they had friends or relatives in Chicago, I expect they were Chinese security agents in plain clothes - they suddenly materialized today, in all the tourist spots. They could have at least mentioned different towns.. Next time, give 'em clipboards, Beijing Tourist Administration nametags, and have 'em say they're doing a visitor survey - we're used to those.

All in all, I must say I am very impressed with the effort the Chinese government has made – even more so now that I am here and am getting a feel for what the place is all about - and it is very different from what I read from most reporters. English language CCTV Channel 9 – American commentators have stated this channel is not broadcast within China, guess what, idiots, I am watching it in Beijing, it is available in all of China – has provided extensive programming about the Chinese athletes taking part in the Paralympics, while Olympic subway advertising has partly been replaced by Paralympic advertising, featuring disabled Chinese athletes. And as I am watching this, I am wondering why I didn't buy tickets to attend this opening – I guess that is what happens when you make an unplanned trip. When I mentioned to A. that this is where we could have been, she had the same "am I stoopid" response.

Owell.

Beijing, Day 11

Throughout Beijing, a different type of urban planning than I am used to is clearly visible. A planning that, as much as possible, works to keep a city of seventeen million people on the move and working. Eight and ten lane avenues cannot be crossed except at intersections and via abundant pedestrian overpasses – above one intersection, I even found a four way overhead crossing. They're uniform, have slip roads on either side, and the use of trolley- and regular buses, rather than trams, allow for optimal flexibility in public transport. Subway trains run every two or three minutes, throughout the day. To enable communication, all cellular carriers (not just one or two) have repeaters throughout the subway system, and especially the younger people spend most of their time texting. The picture to the left shows how this works - the blue structure to the left is the 2nd floor entrance to a department store, which can be entered directly from the pedestrian overpass (there is one every few hundred yards) - the white fence you see to the right in the street is the central divider; except for some major crossroads, there is no cross traffic to impede the traffic flow. The electric trolley buses are able to change lanes to passenger stops, and to avoid other traffic. They are fitted with diesel engines for use where there is no overhead wiring.

I've never had to wait more than four or five minutes for a cab, just hailing one in the street – considering half the cars are off the streets, that is quite a feat. And most taxi rides cost less than four dollars. Just like in Singapore, the hutongs are being razed, and replaced by modern accomodation. Life, considering Beijing is a metropolis, is surprisingly affordable, although I must plead guilty to not knowing anything about wages here.

All in all, this country is fascinating, and I have the same feeling I had when looking at it from afar – China may be what America was in the 1980s. Everybody is here, wanting a piece of the cake, and the Chinese reap significant benefits from the influx of capital and expertise. At the same time, high schoolers in the United States have begun learning Mandarin, and the three French teenagers sitting at the table next to us at lunch in the Pacific Department Store frequented by Western expats were completely fluent, and comfortable. Many ads from Chinese companies I see have bilingual slogans, and to give you an example of Chinese innovation, the Chinese cellphone I bought earlier in the week has a backup battery that lets you swap its main battery without losing service – or even a connection, if you're on a call and on the speaker or Bluetooth. I have a lot of cellphones, but not one that does this. And I watched somebody on the subway text in Chinese – that really requires a complete interface redesign from what we're used to, with our simple alphabet. So there are different solutions here, for different problems, problems that we in the West are often not cognizant of.

Needing a larger suitcase, due to some incessant shopping, I found a below ground urban Wal-Mart, not far from a subway station. On my way there, I noticed that one subway line has a long video screen mounted on the tunnel wall, that synchronizes its image with the speed of the train, making it possible to view the image as the train rides along. By my calculation – the image is visible for over 23 seconds – that screen would be some 1,000 feet (300 metres) long. And there is a plethora of other technologies, at competitive prices, certainly available cheaply enough for the Chinese middle classes.

Standalone induction cookers have replaced the hotplate or electric rings. I tested one – at a 1,000 watt (this is at 220 V, that would be 2,000 watt for us in America) setting (the midrange setting) the thing boils a litre of water in three minutes. A 1,000 watt electric kettle takes five minutes. The induction cooker then is able to keep the water against the boil, only intermittently using 300 watts of power, it can sense the amount of energy dissipated in the cooking vessel. That'll be wonderful for cooking pasta. As it does not get hot or radiate heat out, an ideal and very safe appliance for small apartments, and most importantly, like the electric moped and the trolley bus, more efficient, better for the environment and cheaper to run. The cost?: 299 Yuan, US$ 40. Probably still a luxury item here, but getting there. Apple's iPhones are both widely available – every electronics stall on Silk Street has them, unlocked, to work with any GSM carrier (AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile in the US), in amongst hundreds of other phones. The 3G costs around $450, this before haggling, which I didn't do, as I own 3G and 3.5G phones.

Water heaters for the home, electrical, cost around $100. A split unit airconditioner, without installation, $200 to $400. And all of these appliances are now electronically controlled, so are far more efficient to use than their older counterparts. The water heaters, for instance, have multiple temperature settings, so you can leave them running on low when you are out to work, or asleep, and don't imminently need piping hot water. You flip the thing to “hot” just before you shower, or do the laundry. The "roof" below is actually an 800 yard long television screen, sheltering a shopping plaza, at night it mostly shows underwater displays.

I keep being told the city is much more livable due to the Olympics, traffic better, subways run at a higher frequency, although I think I see more traffic coming into town, and for the first time I noticed a five minute wait for my subway train. It rained over the weekend, and while the sun briefly burned through the haze this morning, much of the day has been overcast. What I don't know is if this is pollution, or simply cloudy weather – I expect the former, although I still see very few trucks in the streets. I do think that some of the comments I get from A. may have to do with Beijing being the very first metropolis she has ever lived in. I myself don't really see huge differences between Beijing on the one hand, and London and New York City on the other, both places I lived in for many years, with a similar economy and population. I find that some of the traffic solutions here are worthy of studying, cities around the world might benefit from abolishing pedestrian crossings on major thoroughfares, and replacing gasoline fueled mopeds and scooters, and diesel fueled buses, with electrical equivalents, as has been done here. It is kind of curious that the entire Olympic world press hasn't noticed, either...

All in all, then, China is much further along on the path to civilization (if I may abuse the word) than for instance Indonesia or India. Where in the latter two countries technologies are being introduced, but the living environment isn't able to keep pace or be controlled effectively, here, the government has looked at the common urbanization problems, and has put into place and is enforcing a number of simple measures intended to “make things better”. I think many of the reporters that write about Beijing are failing to deduct the circumstance: this is a metropolis with seventeen million inhabitants, and that simply is too big a city, it has gone way past the point where a concentrated population makes life easier and more efficient. I wonder where the cutoff point is, at what size a city becomes an overconsumer of facilities, simply to maintain its size, without a net return. It will be interesting to see, a year from now, what net benefits the increase in infrastructure and services, put into place for the Olympics, has provided. Putting seven new subway lines into the cityscape, and reducing the price of public transport, isn't nothing.

I have little doubt the fare reduction, and the simplification of the flat fare system, were put into place to get the commuters off the streets, before the partial vehicle ban was enacted. For now, that's worked, I see hordes of commuters on the new subway lines. Will that continue?

Beijing, Day 12

A. had suggested she take me to her doctor in Beijing, a traditional Chinese physician, at the outpatient department in the hospital at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. Apart from what one reads about and hears about the seeming magic of the pulse reading doctors, the Chinese have universities for both Western (or “modern”) and Chinese (or “traditional”) medicine. My instinctive response was that I really didn't want to go and do quackery, but then I thought about it and realized that when you are in the capital of China, where tens of thousands of Chinese are treated in this way, you'd be really daft if you didn't try it, so I rapidly changed my mind.

I'll spare you the usual “it is thousands of years old, so there has to be something to it” - the first thing that struck me was that this is an extremely efficient way of doing medicine. It took the physician all of four minutes to “read” both my left and right pulse, without knowing anything about it other than that I was A's friend, not Chinese, and anything else he could see. The diagnosis was immediate – did I have back pain? And indeed, I have two conditions that affect my back – one is an immune condition that affected my spine, many many years ago, but the second is a misaligned vertebra in the lumbar region, something that has been giving me problems (as in, physical therapy, X-rays, multiple specialists, MRI, etc.) since the beginning of the year.

So that was impressive, as there is nothing outwardly visible, to the best of my knowledge, and he was looking at and listening to A. while I sat down, so any clues due to my movement would have escaped him. Long story short, he wrote a prescription, we handed that in at the pharmacy at the front of the clinic, and I have been taking the herbal remedy (which is prepared in-house and given to you in single dose liquid packages) since today. Will keep you posted – the only stipulations were that I had to stop my Western medication for the duration – he gave me a six day course, until I get on the plane again – and that I can't eat or drink anything cold. Try and have a lukewarm Coke, and you'll understand the hardship.... First time ever I have picked up a prescription that was still warm when I got it...

Of course, checking in for my flight back to the U.S., I completely forgot about the two pouches of medication in my backpack, to take during travel. You know the limits on taking liquids on board an aircraft - I never carry any, except small capsules of contact lens fluid, so I never even realized what was wrong until the security officer went spare - taking my backpack through the scanner three times they could see there was something there, but couldn't find it, backpack was kinda stuffed. She eventually managed to remember the word "liquid", at which point I realized what had happened, dug out the pouches, the security officer took 'em to her supervisor, supervisor said medication was OK, and I boarded with herbal tea. The officer wasn't too happy, especially when it turned out to be OK. Duh.

Beijing, Day 13

Over the past decade or so, China has become our major supplier, but all we've done is share our inventiveness and designs from West to East. What has not consistently beeen done, is finding Chinese concepts, and finding ways to apply them to our hemisphere. Yet there are many “Chinese ways” I see that are very different, and very effective.

They range far and wide. If we assume a Chinese physician is indeed able to find organic information in the pulse, and I see no reason to doubt it, then the way in which a patient's condition is diagnosed in a few minutes, at no charge, could be employed to turn our primary care completely upside down. Think about it – no doctor with a battery of tests and half an hour of expensive time, five minutes of diagnosis, treat the primary condition, then the patient comes back for a further, similar, assessment. The doctor is paid out of an academic budget, no bills, no uninsured sick people, and the herbal remedy is cheap – 180 Yuan, $26, in my case, and A. opined this was a relatively expensive mix of herbs. I wonder, seriously, what percentage of sick patients are fully cured this way, and don't have to be processed deeper into the system. I am sure the Chinese can tell us this.

Interesting too is that the diagnosis doesn't depend on the patient's complaint, of the patient's view of what is wrong with them. The diagnosis is based on biological signs – no possibility of bias or discrimination, a pulse is a pulse, whether black, white, or purple. The price is the same for all – no charge (there is a 10 Yuan administration charge - a buck fifty. No doctor preference on the part of the patient, either – no bedside manner, etc., I am sure you get my drift. Maybe this isn't a way to diagnose complicated ailments, but that isn't how a doctor starts with a patient. Think about it.

A.'s brother, H., arrived last night from Singapore, where he had participated in a triathlon meet. I had promised I'd treat them to a Peking duck dinner, tonight, and so we found ourselves at A.'s favourite restaurant in the downtown shopping district. The food was out of this world. I had never tasted Peking duck like this, and even the green tea I drank with dinner was astonishing in taste and smoothness. Service was superb too, and we even received a certificate with the number of our particular duck, the restaurant, in business since 1846, has served more than 1.15 million ducks since then...

Comment of the day: H. gets a call from Germany on his cellphone, from somebody who has no idea he is abroad, and tells the man: “No, I am not in the country, I am in Peking, eating Peking duck”. - the caller wasn't sure whether H. was joking or not...

Beijing, Day 14

The only discord in my visit is the laundry, or rather, the absence of it. I went and had my washing done at the laundry across the road, last week, but when I went there again yesterday it was closed, and workmen were ripping out the shop front, and replacing it. As I didn't know of other laundries close (although I am sure there are some) I simply went to Wal-Mart today, and bought some more underwear and socks, still had enough clean shirts and Ts to get home. Wal-Mart, as it turns out, has some 180 stores in China already – differently from what I am used to, this particular one is close to downtown Beijing, a couple of blocks from a subway station. It is large, situated in two adjoining basements of office buildings, and its location in a shopping plaza means shoppers can get there by car, bus, or subway. I guess the U.S. concept wouldn't work here, as most Chinese don't own a car. I noticed a similarly large hypermarket owned by French supermarket giant Carrefour just down the block.

I've been taking my morning cappucino at “The Coffee Club”, a small restaurant and coffee shop about ten minutes' walk from my hotel. I found it accidentally, the other day, when looking around the neighourhood. It turns out the owner, though ethnic Chinese and born in Vietnam, comes from Germany, and so we speak German, unless one of his locals, a Dutch software developer whose office and home are both close, saunters in for his morning coffee, and we switch to English. I can recommend the bacon-and-egg sandwich, it is out of this world, and like everything in Beijing, cheap. There is a full menu, anything from breakfast to a delicious chicken curry, with a stiff drink or a German pilsener if you feel like it. And free WiFi - ask the waitress for the WEP code. Take the loop line to Andingmen, come out through the West side exit (which, for reasons I don't understand, is on the East side), walk down Andingmenway one block (i.e., not towards the roundabout), turn left (you'll see a small bus station on the right hand side), go about half a mile, The Coffee Club is on the left side, on a far corner – next to a few restaurants and a cosmetic surgeon.

Just one more day, and then a horrid run home, they stuck me with a 12 hour layover in Toronto. Ridiculous. I didn't check and so didn't notice until earlier in the week. I tried to get Expedia to find me a better flight, but no luck – the rep never came back on the phone after speaking to the airline, and the airline said there was no earlier flight – which is a lie, they show a flight leaving Toronto 40 minutes after I arrive. I appreciate that that is likely cutting it too close, but telling me there is no such thing..

Beijing, Day 15

T-Mobile USA still offer something called Hotspot@Home, and I think they have a couple of other names for it – it is a wireless technology called UMA, which lets phones equipped with the technology connect to the T-Mobile cellular network using broadband Internet and WiFi – it works at Starbucks, Borders – but it also works on any “open” WiFi connection that does not require a browser login, the type you often find at hotels and airports. It is a bit like VOIP, the type of phone service that Vonage and others sell, but here you don't need carrier equipment other than the phone, it is a cordless phone, cellphone, and landline, all rolled into one. They sell a preprogrammed wireless router for it, but if you are able to program a router you can use it with any wireless router – 802.11a/b, 802.11g or 802.11n. There are neither minutes used charges nor domestic call charges, all you pay is (I think) $9.99 a month. There are four phones that are compatible with the service – one from Nokia, one from Samsung, and a couple of Blackberries. No surprises here, either, the Nokia and the Samsung cost $50, if I recall.

Anyway, arriving at my hotel, I found it provided an open WiFi connection, free of charge with a “business room”, so I went out and bought an 802.11n (the latest 2.0 draft standard) router at an electronics market – after some haggling, I got one, made by TP-Link, for $28 (plus a $2.50 credit card processing fee). Once programmed, I can run both the phone and my laptop over it, and I am able to make and receive calls to and from the United States for free. In fact, since I subscribe to the Skype Unlimited World deal that gives me unlimited calling to some 40 countries ($9.95 per month, but $75 if you pay a year ahead of time, which is superb value) both from the Skype software and from my cell- and home phones, I can even dial into the U.S. number Skype gave me for this service, and connect out from there. Calling American tollfree numbers, not normally possible from overseas, can be done too – your phone behaves entirely as if it is in the United States, no prefixes, operators, or anything else.

I am not suggesting you do this if you don't have the skillset; but if you travel a lot, are able to program a router and can use or open a T-Mobile cellular account, it is a great way of curbing the cost of overseas calls and roaming. The call quality is excellent; but as I said, that really requires you to play around with the router settings a bit. It is not bad for the kids, too – from home, or from their dorm room, they can spend hours on the phone with their friends without incurring any charges, and always using the same number. In the case of Beijing, China, if you aren't willing to spend some time figuring out a router whose customer interface is presented entirely in Chinese, don't go there. I guess (interestingly) that the manufacturers use this as a way to ensure cheaper parallel exports don't make it into other markets, where their products are generally more expensive – this router, the TP-LINK WR841N, typically retails for around $70 overseas. Do make sure you know how to enable good security on the router – hotels are hacker country, many traveling business types and IT people sit in their rooms, late at night, playing around on the Internet, and once you connect your laptop via Wifi, the hackers have several ways to get into your system – enabling Windows' firewall isn't going to protect you, you have to be able to do better than that. On the flipside, if you know how to program a router, and set it up restrictive, you have much better hacker protection than if you put your laptop directly on the hotel network. I am not kidding - I have carried a small router to hotels for years, and as you can get it to log network interaction, I can tell you I have sat in hotel rooms where there were dozens of hack attempts per hour. If the hackers run into a router (they're expecting a PC) they'll move on to the next sucker; most hotel guests do nothing to secure their network connection.

The UMA technology isn't widely used, it does require some doing on the user's part, but I noticed that Sony Ericsson is about to introduce a high end smartphone with all the bells and whistles, that supports UMA too. The Coffee Club restaurant I mentioned earlier provides free WiFi, and once the owner gave me his WEP key I had the phone working on his network in three seconds. If you do travel, and you like to avoid roaming charges, it is a very nice thing to have, especially since the phones aren't expensive – the network cares not where in the world you are, it just knows you are on the Internet, and that's all it takes. In my case, the new router was a good buy, as my routers at home are all still 802.11g, and the 802.11n router can run up to six times faster than the old standard allows.

Beijing/Toronto, Day 16

I belatedly realize that one reason I am beginning to feel at home in Beijing is that I am a city kid, and this is a Real City. I've spent most of my life living and working in urban areas, from large to huge, like London and New York. Beijing is, to all intents and purposes, a modern, large, metropolis, and I recognize the cityscape as much as the urban population, which pretty much dresses the same, and behaves the same, as commuters, subway riders and city dwellers in London and NYC. The only thing that is different is that people keep offering me seats, on crowded trains – coming back from the hospital, the other day, a young woman saw I was carrying medication and a clinic appointment book, and got up to offer me her seat! And last night, two elderly ladies stopped a commuter from sitting down in a vacant seat next to them, and pulled me by my camera bag, motioning for me to sit down. As they got up at their destination, one of them turned around, and with a big smile, said “bye bye!” clearly all of the English she had.

Heartwarming stuff, that, and it follows very much that China is opening up. Opening up, because it wants to, and is ready. For younger people to respond to you is one thing, but the older, communist, generation... It is surprising and has made this place very welcoming, and very nice.

I did go overboard shopping – the little roll-on suitcase I brought from the States is now inside a huge suitcase I bought at Wal-Mart, earlier in the week, together with the things I bought, mostly gifts, always love doing that, bringing back gifts from far away for people who don't have the chance to go see for themselves. Prices are reasonable, but not as low as you'd expect, you're better off shopping in Chennai, Jakarta or the Philippines, this despite the U.S. Dollar going up, in recent weeks.

Last night, I said goodbye to friend A., and her visiting brother H., and as they are German we found a German restaurant and ate good solid German food. We are none of us used to these large amounts, though, and neither A. nor I were able to finish our meal. H. had no such problem, but then he is a triathlete, so needs his fuel. A. was the reason I was here, she was a bit in the doldrums, so I decided to come over and cheer her up a bit, and I think that worked, especially as I arrived just in time for her birthday. Then her brother's visit, he had never visited her abroad before, and she's been abroad in the US for much of the past decade, so that was truly a treat for her. Life consists of single mercies, and I can well imagine that being so far from home will occasionally get to you, even though she has learned to speak Mandarin. One thing, I think, one cannot become, is Chinese....

Yesterday was a brilliant, sundrenched, day – H. commented, when he saw me last night, that my tan had deepened even in the past couple of days, and it is true I've spent a lot of time walking, looking around this wonderful city, with so much to be seen. I expect I was especially lucky to be here just as the smog restrictions for the Olympics were in force, with some 35% of traffic banned, and the factories closed, some even relocated. It was easy to get around, and pollution wasn't really much worse than it is in Londen or New York, and much better than Chennai or Jakarta (though I understand that it is a lot worse without the restrictions.

Back at the airpoirt, I hadn't paid too much attention to the security when I arrived, but this day it was little short of massive, and the bag checks were thorough. Without thinking about it I had put two pouches of Chinese herbal medication in my backpack – security went spare. Then, of course, it was medication, so it was OK (that's why I never twigged - I am so used to carrying enough medication for a week in my carry-on, lest my checked luggage goes astray). My lighter was confiscated, though, I somehow hadn't thought anybody had emulated TSA, which has in the meantime abandoned its “no lighter” rule, and I don't recall security in Hong Kong had a problem with it.

Bejing Airport can only be described as cavernous, and it is well stocked with shops, restaurants, and all the other facilities a modern airpoirt needs to have. Medical emergency posts are liberally dotted around the airport, fully stocked with whatever a sick person might need – I snuck in one and can tell you it looked like a pharmacy. The duty free shops stock everything, from Davidoff cigars precious metals and jewellery, today there were dozens of returning Paralympians shopping as if there was no tomorrow. I had ended up with a $98 charge for overweight baggage, from the shopping I had already done in Beijing, so left it at that. A carton of Chinese cigarettes set me back 90 Yuan- a steal, you'll say, but the same carton, down the block from my hotel, cost only 45 Yuan.. $8.

As was the case on the way out, the movie system in my Air Canada Boeing 777 was malfunctioning – even after rebooting it, which takes some 40 minutes, entire rows of screens were not working, overhead lights were controlled by armrest buttons in other rows, so I can neither read nor watch a movie. But I have the entire row to myself, so maybe I'll catch some Z's, on this 12 hour flight. I made myself a reading light by sticking my Philips stalk webcam, which has an LED light built in, in the USB port in the seatback in front of me, so at least I can read. Yoho.

Beijing/Spotsylvania, Day 17

Phew. The 12 hour flight was followed by a 12 hour layover in Toronto. Not fancying a night in the Pearson International airport, I checked into the airport Sheraton, which would have been reasonable, at $159 per night, but the Canadian dollar is worth US$1.14 these days, so it wasn't. As my morning flight was due to take off at 6:12am, I really didn't get a lot of sleep, but then I'd had oodles of that on the plane from Beijing. And it was nice to be somewhere everybody spoke English, and banter with the barman. If one thing overrides, in Beijing, it is that nobody speaks English, and that includes all those who think they do – excepting coffee shop owner John, an ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, who speaks fluent German as well, as he lived there much of his life. He'd actually had to learn to speak Mandarin, when he decided to move to Beijing, two years ago.

So, a day or two later, I am sitting here in the wee hours, the jet lag is ferocious. I've not been able to stay up a full day, taking naps late afternoon, when my body thinks it is 4am, and my brain stops functioning. The house is in fine fettle, although the lawn badly needs a trim, and my pre-holiday treatment of the pool worked, it is sparkly clean, all I need to do is vacuum, there have been some high winds, while I was in China, there are plenty of branches in my driveway, and lots of leaf in the pool. I had given the house a full clean, before I left, but of course, with half emptied suitcases all over the place, it is now a mess. No matter though – I've gone and got my mail, food and beverages, cranked up the A/C, turned the water pump and the hot water back on, and stored away my guns.

Car, keys and guns I leave at a friend's house, when I am traveling, he lives 15 minutes from Washington Dulles International airport, that way, should anything happen to me, somebody can get into the house. His number is on my MedicAlert. The guns? If there is one nightmare you do not want to have, it is that your guns get stolen in a burglary, and used in the commission of a crime. Try and prove it wasn't you... Arriving back on a Sunday morning, it took only a little over an hour to get home from there, as going from Dulles to Spotsylvania you basically avoid all the main Washington, D.C., peripheral highways.

I've taken the TP-LINK WiFi 802.11n router I bought in Beijing, and installed it in place of the U.S. Robotics 802.11g router I had in my home network, and it works a treat. It is clearly faster than the U.S. Robotics, even on 802.11g links, and it has (due to its MIMO antenna arrangement) more reach and a stronger signal, that'll be part of why it is faster. The induction cooker I bought at Wal-Mart in Beijing refuses to work, which I guess may be due to it not liking the 240 volt 60 cycle power supply I feed it on – it is designed for 220 volt 50 cycle AC, I guess it needs the frequency reference for the D.C. power it generates to drive the inductor.

The little Everex laptop I travel with is completely backed up to my server, and I brought up the desktop I use for stock trading in time to see the Dow drop a depressing 500 points. I am considering getting out of the market altogether, something I did during the last major financial meltdown, when I went into real estate. Let's wait out the week and see... But it is good to be home. What's next? Would you believe, laundry?

Doing that backup is really important – all the pictures I took during my stay in Beijing, my finances, this writing, are on the hard disk of my Everex laptop. Hard disks, I have found over the years, can fail without any form of warning. Granted, it does not happen very often – I think I have lost three hard disks altogether, in 25 years, and two of those were server disks, and perhaps three laptops due to total failure, but if it happens, it happens. Thanks to DL (double layer) DVDs I can now back up all my files while I travel – this trip. I went through one complete DL-DVD (8 gigabytes) and had started on a second. Don't use DL-DVDs if you don't have at least one other computer that supports those (most new laptops now come with the DL burner), or you won't be able to restore if your primary laptop goes South. Use a format that is supported by both your travel machine, and by its backup. Then, when I come home, I do my normal backup routine, I have a server with 1.5 terabytes of RAID disk space that I use for that purpose, and that server then backs itself up automatically, using compression, to another RAID device, with 0.5 terabytes of storage. Overkill? You don't want to be there when the storage medium on which you store all of your data fails, trust me.. During my last trip to London I blew up my entire laptop, sheer stupidity on my part, reversed the polarity on my power supply, but I was able to recover the data from its hard disk, using that backup setup. QED....

Beijing/Spotsylvania, Day 18

In Toronto, Canada, I encountered a situation that was new to me: United States Immigration and Customs officers are based there, so when you fly from Toronto to the U.S. you are cleared before you leave, and the flight is considered an internal one, you get to Dulles (or wherever) without having to clear as an international passenger. For Toronto, this has the advantage that flights to U.S. destinations that have no customs and immigration (airports that do not have “international” in their name) are possible. For passengers, it has the advantage that they don't have to go through another line at their destination.

I experienced this personally – friend D., whose house I had left my SUV at, arrived to pick me up at Dulles airports after I had already gotten a cab, and was halfway to his home (I had no idea he'd planned to come get me, if you're wondering why I left) Only a month or so ago, this wouldn't have happened, but with oil back down to $100 or so per barrel, burning a bit of extra fuel to get to Dulles half an hour early, on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning with some Texas airports at lowered capacity does not now bother the airline, United Express, in this case. The small Embraer jet I was on doesn't use that much gas anyway.

So when I joined the line for customs and immigration, in Toronto, at 4am (my flight was due to leave at 6:12am) I expected the same kind of treatment I am used to getting at Dulles, these past two years – rude and obnoxious immigration officers, disinterested, overworked customs folks.

The customs officer outdid his colleagues at Dulles – he neither looked at me, nor at my customs form, accepted it hunched over his desk, slapped it on the stack of forms already there, mostly from Canadians with party hats, orange wigs and celebration balloons heading for Vegas on a special charter, and grunted while waving his hand in the general direction of the United States. I'd been “cleared”. I was sorry, at that point, that I had not brought a few of the Beijing 2008 Olympics special issue gold plaques. I had been sorely tempted, they were, at $3,800, about $400 above their gold value in weight (50 grams), but special issue, and available in China only. The idea of being stopped at customs with $10,000 worth of gold over and above one's importation limit did not appeal to me, so I had not bought them.

But the immigration guy, Officer Cortez, was a breath of fresh air. He was courteous, friendly, asked me if I had spent the night at the airport, commiserating with the hardship of a 12 hour layover, and after stamping my boarding pass wished me a pleasant day, even offered a “Welcome back!”. This is how I used to be treated, during most of my 23 years in the United States, both at JFK and Dulles, but it changed in early 2006, when the officers started being rude and unpleasant. The idea of paying these people's wages is really beginning to bother me, and as I have the option of returning my green card paying their wages is not something I necessarily need to do.

After this experience, I think I will write Secretary Chertoff. One thing that his department not now seems to understand is that a bit of friendly idle banter between the traveler and the immigration officer can be very significant in terms of identifying possible terrorists and criminals – people under stress, who are lying about their entry, commonly have a hard time with small talk. If the officer is rude to that person, they'll clam up – but so will everybody else, whether they have something to hide or not.

So, I had a really pleasant day, it is amazing how such a small encounter can positively change your mood, especially because I am so used to being treated rudely, that I had completely come to expect that. Thank you, officer Cortez! I don't know if it was because you were manning the aircrew desk, or for another reason, but you “have the right stuff”, as far as I am concerned. Our security stands and falls with the intelligence we gather, and through being rude and unpleasant, the only intelligence you can possibly receive is that the subject of your behaviour doesn't like you.

Beijing/Arlington, Day 19

Pretty much back to the grindstone, I have a doctor's appointment, one I completely forgot about last week, I guess due to jet lag in China – I noticed a note in Outlook, but thought it was a reminder, not an appointment, and then when I called I was just outside doctor call time.