May, Yang, and I have our bicycle chains oiled and tires pumped up. We are energized and ready to set off on the 15-kilometer bicycle tour along the moat that follows Yongdingmendong Street, located directly south of the Temple of Heaven. The route, although strenuous, is straightforward: we will pedal first to the Panjiayuan Curio and Antique Market and then follow the southern moat to Taoranting (Joyous Pavilion Park) and Da Guanyuan (Grand View Garden). We begin at a brisk pace, taking Third Ring Road to Panjiayuan Bridge, where we turn westward on Panjiayuan Street.

After only 100 meters, we spot the gate to the Panjiayuan Market on our left.

Panjiayuan Curio and Antique Market

Although crammed with shoppers, the market's central area has a tidy organization that is striking. Under the tarped central area, the aisles are clearly labeled, like a supermarket, with their contents: porcelain, traditional folk crafts, bronze and earthenware, jade, and paintings. May, however, prefers the more chaotic western part of the market, and she leads us to where numerous tattered ground cloths covered with various curios are scattered about.

This is a great place to come to find unique gifts to bring back to friends and family: traditional Chinese pillows, traditional instruments, chess boards, masks, snuff bottles, you name it. You may also find that you have come all the way to China to stumble upon that Western antique, maybe a violin or a sewing machine, for which you have been searching for many years.

I spot a bronze horse and ask the price. Before being informed that the price is 3,500 yuan ($420), I am repeatedly reassured that the horse is an antique from the Han Dynasty. The enormous quantity of items in the market makes me believe I can find a genuine antique somewhere. But you don't have to be an expert to know that the bronze horse is not from the Han Dynasty.

Next we stroll along the northern corridor of the market, which houses individual shops selling traditional furniture and Buddhist statuary, before meandering into an aisle featuring ceramics, snuff bottles and bronze statuary. We head to aisle one, where amid scrolls of calligraphy and brush paintings, I stumble upon reprints of advertisements from the early 20th century, including a movie poster with the illustrious Hu Die, a popular Chinese movie star of the 1930s. After an hour amid the curios, we are ready to continue our journey. We continue westward along Panjiayuan Street until we reach Guangqumen Nanbinhe Street. We ride southward along the moat until we reach Zuo'anmenqiao, where we cross over the moat. It's five kilometers along the moat to our next destination, Taoranting Park.

Since the 18th century, when the novel was written, some people have tried to discover the garden that served as a model for the one in the novel. Others have tried to recreate the garden, such as Prince Gong, whose former residence and garden, near the north end of Beihai Park, is open to visitors.

This garden was built as a set for the 1988 television series based on the Chinese classic. Just inside the front gate, we see a plaque issued by the National Tourism Administration designating the garden as one of the top 40 tourist attractions of China. Within Dai Yu's living quarters, we spy a woman who, dressed up as one of the novel's characters, is posing for a photo.

Although the garden is in general quite serene, if you are interested in a little excitement, you may wish to enter the Land of Disillusionment, an amusement ride featuring music with a disco beat and the howls of wild animals. Yang thinks the ride is inappropriate for the literary theme of the garden - too American, she says. Instead we watch the story of the novel presented by a storyteller who flips through a series of pictures. Since the pictures are contained within a large, enclosed box, they can be viewed only by looking through a pair of binocular-like holes. May says we are watching China's original cinema.

We unfortunately can't find Bao Yu's living quarters before the garden closes. It is open daily from 8:30am to 5:30pm, but the living quarters close at 4:30. The cost is 40 yuan for adults, 20 yuan for students.