It’s almost amusing, after a while, how many times you have those words hurled at your back when you are traveling in Beijing. Usually, it happens when you slip into the kitchen to catch them slaying the fabled Peking Duck, when you pedal onto the expressway in the wrong direction on a 10 Yuan bicycle, or even-imagine!-when you try to charm your way past armed soldiers into the municipal offices with a false identity. Each time (if they catch you), they tell you no, and firmly show you back to your proper place.
There is a very proper place for tourists and foreigners in the Chinese capital. If you didn’t want to, you would never get lost in Beijing. Conversely, you would never get anywhere. The Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall of China and myriad parks and gardens come with audio tapes and audacious English plaques. The central axes of the city are chock full of massive shopping complexes stocked with Starbucks and Tampax. The official guidebooks recommend only the Hard Rock Cafes or the culturally-themed establishments. You uncover the legendary Silk Alley with hopes of making off with, well, exotic silks, but find yourself in a forest of imitation The North Face jackets.
