Photos and Videos

An actor prepares prior to a performance of classic Beijing Opera.

The Shengong Shegde Stele Pavilion, at the Ming Dynasty Tombs outside Beijing.

Older Beijing residents play mahjong in one of the city's hutongs, or traditional residential districts.

Beijing's hutongs are being renovated and turned into quaint shopping districts.

A junior suite aboard Victoria Cruises' new MV Jenna ship.

The five-level ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam.

Showtime aboard Victoria Cruises' MV Jenna, on a Yangtze River itinerary.

Sailing the Yangtze's storied Three Gorges.

Tourists board sampans explore the narrow Three Little Gorges on the Danang River, a Yangtze tributary.

Artist Zhang Tao carves wooden tributes to Barack Obama at Yuyuan Gardens on the occasion of the president's Nov. 16 visit to Shanghai.

Though surrounded by newer structures, the 15-year-old, 1,500-foot Oriental Pearl TV Tower still commands the Pudong skyline.

A scale model gives a bird's-eye view of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 grounds now under construction.

A local ferry crosses the Yangtze at Wushan, China.

Craig and Janet Swan of Minneapolis on deck as Victoria Cruises' Victoria Jenna passes through the five-level ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam at Sandouping, China.

Dick Carpentier, senior cruise director on the VIctoria Jenna, sails through one of the Three Little Gorges on CHina's Danang River, now accessible thanks to flooding.

An early snowfall blankets the Great Wall at Badaling, outside Beijing.

Mao and me: At the world-famous portrait of the infamous Chairman at Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

A night of traditional Beijing Opera at the Liyuan Theatre.

Even in the off-season, tourists crowd Beijing's Forbidden City.