In the wee hours of this morning, *Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra* tour manager *Timothy Secomb* wrote about the group's post-Beijing concert celebration:
"After the concert — We were in the mood to celebrate after our Beijing concert, the last of the tour. Clusters of tour members assembled in the lobby and ventured out into the freezing night air. Our group fortunately included Larry Lang, who knows Beijing well.
"One stop on the subway took us to a street with a row of restaurants that are open late. In front of each was a man trying to persuade us that his restaurant was the best. We settled on one after Larry negotiated a special deal with them. The ten of us sat down at a round table with a Lazy Susan. After a while a stream of dishes arrived such as tofu soup, spicy pork, dumplings, lotus root, deep fried fish (we had inspected it while it was still alive), Peking duck with little tortillas, Chinese 'pizza,' fried eggplant and various interesting fungi and vegetables.
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"All that and 10 big bottles of beer made a memorable and delicious meal, for about $11 per person. The variety of food in China is much more than we find at a typical Chinese restaurant in the U.S.
"Getting back to the hotel was not easy, because the subway was closed. Normally it would be a pleasant 15-minute walk, but not at near-zero F temperatures. Taxis were hard to find. Eventually four of us piled into a little 'black-market' taxi for the short ride to the hotel."
