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Chaoyang Theater, Beijing, Friday night: We went to see an acrobat show. [Yes, that's a man balancing on a board on cylinder, holding curved bars on his head from which a woman hangs on either side and on top of which a boy balances on a board on a cylinder... and rolling the board so he can flip bowls on to his head. You know, nothing overly impressive. Impressive would be doing it without the three guys standing around.]

In answer to the question of whether it was better than Cirque du Soleil: I haven't seen Cirque du Soleil. It was undoubtedly far less expensive that show--that much is certain.

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Me sitting in the park at Jingshan Gongyuan. (I'm guessing "gongyuan" means park because all the parks on the map have that in their names.) This was taken on Halloween morning (hey, it was as close to a costume as I had on hand).

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Forbidden City: A pagoda or something.

(I really make you feel like you were there, don't I?)

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Forbidden City: A small tower atop a rockerie in the Imperial Garden. (We'll keep this caption simple.)

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Forbidden City: A pigtailed little Chinese girl eyes me with wonder in front of a bronze lion statue. (I won't tell you how long I had to wait for her to turn around for this shot. Stop thinking that.)

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Palace Museum, a.k.a. the Forbidden City, Friday morning:
Just north of Tiananmen Square is the palace where, long ago, the emporer lived and the commoners couldn't go. (The haze was pretty bad that morning.) I believe this is the Hall of Supreme Harmony.