Beijing and Beyond: Eating (and spending) our way through China, with personal reflections on China?s coming-of-age criminal justice system... and of my fellow travelers, 1981

Three years after the death of Mao Tse Tung in 1981, China was in transition, emerging from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution.The country had only just begun its leap into the dynamic economic powerhouse it has become. There was no pollution, hardly any cars, and cities like Beijing and Shanghai were still flat. Along with the rest of the country, the criminal justice system was also in flux, and in that environment, I was able to join a tour designed to get a glimpse into her prisons, People's Court, Juvenile Reform School. university law faculties, mediation committees, etc... But in addition to these seldom- seen institutions, this book also provides a glimpse into what it's like traveling with 30 high-powered American lawyers, judges, researchers and advocates spending and eating their way through China in transition. The cross-cultural observations are numerous, but so are the descriptions of the friendships that developed as well as the internal squabbles and drama within the tour group itself.