The actual conference does not begin until tomorrow (see schedule here), but today is the warmup. Starting with a tour of the Forbidden City, the U.S.’s leading property law scholars and practitioners joined about 50,000 other people (it seemed), and took the obligatory look-see.
These days, it hardly seems “forbidden.” To anyone. It felt like 1/2 of the population of Beijing was there. Most definitely a change from the last time I was here.
Tonight is the reception at the U.S. Embassy in honor of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. I won’t be able to bring you any photos of the event. For security reasons, the Embassy forbids (there’s that word again) cameras, mobile phones, and similar. If we’re lucky, an official photographer will be there and I can cajole him into letting us access a photo or two.