I'd prepared myself to totally push my social boundaries this evening:I'd commited to attending a Mooncake party at the Crowne Plaza Hotelat Wangfujing, sponsored by the Beijing Review magazine and bound tobe attended by the European Chamber types. I had the invitations in mycomputer satchel, and...

Because I'm usually the one asking a Chinese person to 'read' Chinesecharacters for me when I don't understand the writing on a product orsign, I always feel tickled when a Chinese native asks me to translatea product printed in English.

My very first, and certainly not the last, such encounter was...

The wedding...just as every region in China has its own dialect, regions also have their own wedding customs, which are still used despite the western influences that also have drifted into Chinese weddings (white dresses, photo albums, candle lighting,etc).

I went to the wedding with Song. He...

At night, downtown Beijing's Houhai district pulses with Chinese dance music, bar owners barking out drink specials and neon lights reflecting off the green-skinned water and ice of the manmade lake. Skinny girls in flashy knee-high boots and purple fur-fringed coats, escorted by guys wearing movie star...