Second time’s the charm. In ten minutes I should be on my way back to Boston for another exhilarating day of airport bingo and the long march over the Pole to Beijing. So …..until then, keep your emails coming. I won’t be reading them for another 30 hours.
In the meantime, one should read Kaiser Kuo’s tips for foreign journalists.
“Please do not write “Beijing is a city of stark contrasts” and refrain from using any variation thereof — “a city of startling juxtapositions,” or (needless to say) “a city of yin and yang.” Not that it isn’t a city of, um, rather pronounced differences; it’s just too damned lazy an observation to make. A special enjoinder to photographers: please resist the temptation to position yourself in a hutong with a decrepit but charming tile-roofed courtyard home in the foreground and a shiny, hyper-modern steel-and-glass skyscraper rising behind. No using Blade Runner comparisons for Beijing. You’ll want to save those for Shanghai, believe me.”
Don’t feel bad. One time I had to catch a flight to Chicago or somewhere and went to Reagan National when I was supposed to go to Dulles. Life happens.