If he doesn't talk to me, and he doesn't walk around with me, and he doesn't travel in the same compartment,' I said, 'I don't understand why he wants to come with me.''To make sure you are comfortable. Hospitality. You are our guest ...

I could tell he was worried by what I would ask to do next. I spent the rest of the day trying to elude him and his deputy, and at last, in the market, I succeeded. It was late in the afternoon. We were all (Mr. Fang, his deputy, the driver and I) admiring a stack of vegetables, and when I saw they were transfixed by a shaggy mound of blue cabbages I slipped away.

Using an extremely clever if somewhat fanciful Chinese technique for ensnaring awkward visitors, they insisted that I was too important to travel alone and so stuck me with Mr. Fang.

When I considered that it was still illegal for a foreigner to talk at random with any Chinese citizen-the old rule was seldom enforced, but it was a well-known rule nonetheless-I was grateful for this frankness. The healthiest sign in China was this straight talk.