If the clove-like sweetness of this dried berry seems familiar, that's because it's allspice—albeit more dusty and peppercorny than what you get in the States.

The water was full of microscopic organisms.

Underground boards also carried handy programs for scanning telephone codes and raiding credit card companies, as well as the usual obnoxious galaxy of pirated software, cracked passwords, blue-box schematics, intrusion manuals, anarchy files, porn files, and so forth.

He led me along a dog-legging route through the fifteenth-century alleyways that were the lacework holding old Beijing together. Hutongs, as they were called, defined China's old capital, their grey stone walls pierced at intervals by weathered wooden doors that opened onto four-sided courtyard houses.