A Day in The Life . . . . . . Of China: Free to Fly Inside the Cage

A beautiful day for a wedding -- crisp, clear and, for China in midsummer, relatively cool. The latest typhoon's high winds have swept away the air pollution, and under a brilliant blue sky the guests are chatting in the hollow of a terraced field beside a single spindly tree -- symbolic decoration in a country whose scant arable land continues to disappear. Arranged neatly alongside the makeshift altar, the gifts intended for the bride's parents include a new refrigerator, a 24-in. color television set and a jet black Yamaha motorcycle. The presents are ogled, but atop the TV a photograph of...