The world is flat. REAL flat...

Susannah: The last time I was in China, in 1996, the McDonalds in Beijing was a big deal, and the lackluster shopping mall was a major destination. About half the people on the streets were wearing army green "Mao jackets." We haven't been to Beijing this time around, but wandering the streets of Xian (at 3.3 million, a small city by Chinese standards), it was obvious that China is no longer shy about capitalism. There are at least five clothes or shoe stores for every restaurant or noodle stall, and every woman on the street--all wearing high-heeled boots and tight tight jeans--is carrying a shopping bag. I spotted Gucci, Fendi, and Prada stores, and struggled to resist entering Haagendaas.



To be honest, although we were a bit dismayed at the lack of "exotic-ness" on the streets of China, we went a little nuts when confronted with such plenty. Not that we went shopping for clothes. The indulgence was more in the line of junk food.



We also could not resist stopping in Starbucks. There were four in Xian alone, and although at home we sought out the local coffee joints, the appeal of a latte was irresistible. Stepping off a Chinese street into the coffee giant's warmth was disconcerting, like passing through a worm-hole into a place we knew by heart. Even the soundtrack was the same.



We couldn't help sharing our surprise with the cashier, and when he heard we were from Seattle (Starbucks' home, of course), he proudly produced a photo of the original store in Pike's Place Market from his corporate shrine.



By the time we reached Chengdu, our next destination, we were not surprised to hear that a Wal-Mart had just come to town. I considered it our journalistic responsibility to check it out.



Wal-mart, unlike Starbucks, has taken a tack of adapting itself to local tastes rather than attempting to convert its customers. Most of the store was full of groceries, and though they had some soggy pizza, many of the products on offer were quite foreign:





We did find some time for more conventional sight-seeing, including the famous terra-cotta army and several Taoist and Cha'an (Zen) temples.





Unfortunately, China didn't like us as much as we liked their Oreos. In Chengdu I went to get our visas renewed, so we could continue our trip south through Yunnan province into northern Laos. The visa lady sat behind a marble counter twice as wide as normal, and did not look happy to see me. She informed me dispassionately that since we had group visas (the only way we could enter Tibet from Nepal), they were not renewable. At this point our visas were due to expire in two days. With painstaking politeness I asked if there was anything I could do so that we might stay in her wonderful country. "You can fly to Hong Kong and get a new visa there," she said heartlessly. "But make sure you're gone by the 7th."

Booking a last minute flight so we could come back to such a chilly welcome wasn't really appealing. Since there was no way we could make it to the border overland in two days, we sadly abandoned our resolution not to fly and shelled out for a different flight: one to sunny Bangkok.