Dave Barry is covering Beijing:
First you go to the hotel front desk, which will be staffed by 17 people. This is one of the nice things about China: There are always plenty of people around to help. For example: In some men's rooms, there are attendants whose sole function, as far as I can tell, is to direct you to the urinals. You walk in, and there's a guy, and he makes this gesture toward the urinals, which are roughly two feet away, his point being, ''Here are the urinals.'' And no, you do not tip him.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/08/fallows-has-some-competition/213156/
