Costner: Pond skating in China

The people in the more ancient parts of this city are hospitable and accepting. I am yet to fully comprehend their manners, but they regard my incredible foreignness with smiles and well-wishes. At no other time has this been more apparent than in putting on my pair of metal-heeled boots to move around on the frozen pond in the area I hear them refer to as the Ho-Hi. As I glide around, grinning and occasionally falling, the smiles sometimes turn to outright guffaws. I cannot begrudge them that; me in the steel boots on the frozen water is sight I wish I could capture with one of the new image capture machines from France. How I wish them to be here for purchase or barter in the Orient! After a long morning of perspiration and achievement with friends, we moved into the thin alleyways of the surrounding courtyard terraces for Italian bread and cheese as well as some lager beers. The afternoon will no doubt prove to be a slow and pleasant one.