Three days in Beijing. Lots of walking. The many Chinese I have met have been wonderful to me.
The long walks are past the miles of endless ancient and current government buildings. All the endless buildings are intended to be awesome. Awe is one of the sources of power, the other is the total control of life and death that has been the source of tyranny for most people in the world until commerce came along to offer the first air of freedom. For the Chinese the freedom offered by commerce is recent and only exists here in a minor way.
The breath of free air, human scale and freedom for some of the business owners, who accumulate money, is found on the large and colorful commercial streets and in some of the tiny back alleys where little dens thrive. It is fun to walk on the commercial streets where people stroll, chat, visit, shop and enjoy their lives and for the first time in history have the chance to buy personal goods.