In summary

Our holiday has been excellent. We were never in a bad place. We were never hassled by thieves, pick-pockets, officials or police. There was no trouble of any kind. As I said of Mongolia, no-one has so much as glared at us. 

To my surprise the Chinese section of the trip was the highlight. I thought it would be the tour through central Asia. But Beijing is superb - a magical place, so huge and full of variety, from great palaces and squares, sweeping boulevards, towers and skyscrapers, through to vendors selling tat out of brightly lit and garishly decorated shops, to back alleys where the real life of the city is conducted. We have seen uniformed school-children, each distinguished by a red neckerchief; babies aplenty, often dressed in the distinctive split trousers of the Orient; we have seen the true variety of Chinese physiognomy. How anyone could say that all Chinese look alike defeats me. A single ride on the Beijing metro would give the lie to that notion.

We have seen perhaps five beggars over an entire weekend in a capital city. In London you can see that many during a half hour lunch break. Now here is a difference between Beijing and London: In London the very many beggars are almost invariably able-bodied white Anglo-Saxon men under 40. In Beijing the beggars are at a different level of misfortune, perceived or otherwise: the few we saw were blind, or missing half a face, or with arms or legs missing. We were told a story of a beggar seen recently in a night-club who had neither arms nor legs. Compared to that, the able-bodied men trying to sell the Big Issue on Victoria Street in SW1 cut no ice at all.

I know of only one country with more closed-circuit TV cameras than China. That country is the United Kingdom. The uniformed police in Beijing seemed polite and smart, but they were quite literally everywhere. There were coppers on foot, in cars, and in mobile police stations all over the place. You might have to work quite hard in Beijing to be more than a mile or so from a uniformed policemen - and of plainclothesmen and secret policemen, of course, we know nothing.

The one thing that remained in our minds and hearts was the generosity and hospitality of Emma's host family. This couple welcomed us into their home for dinner on the Friday night, serving wine and spirits too, and they took us out for snacks on the Sunday evening, refusing to let us pay even for the taxi. Only by great effort and persistence were we able to press money on them as a contribution to the snack evening. We were in their debt. This was "inclusiveness" as one of the four aspects of "Beijing Spirit" that we saw advertised all over the city. The other three aspects were patriotism, innovation, and virtue. 

After the snacks I returned to the hostel alone, whilst the girls had their nails done. When they returned, not long after a welcome thunderstorm, they bore a further gift for me from mine host - some binoculars. What am I to do in the face of this kind of open-handedness? 

The answer comes back from all around and from the Man Above: "go thou and do likewise!" You might think that in a city of 23 millions in a Confucian culture, that the individual does not matter - but you'd be quite wrong. For two individuals, one couple, one family, made such a difference that my impression of this great city of 23 millions is brightened and burnished forever.