He told us that many US presidents had lain in state in the Capitol's Rotunda. Our guide then pointed out a fresco of George Washington's apotheosis on the Capitol's ceiling, where the hoary president was surrounded by partying allegorical figures.

Below, a painting of Pocahontas genuflecting to be baptized caught Yuyun's attention - typical Western concepts which may appear exotic to Chinese eyes. Yuyun found the glossy-haired Indian Princess charming.

Yet the painting made me sad: Pocahontas' tribe members had turned their backs on her when she rejected the Indian way of life to marry a white colonist. The story of Pocahontas did not have a Disney ending: She died far away from her Virginia birthplace at the tender age of 21. At one point, we got separated from our tour group. We bumped into an elderly gentleman near the men's room, and I asked him the way back to the Rotunda. He just stared at me blankly and floated on. "Don't you know who that was?" someone whispered. "Senator Specter from Pennsylvania!" I cringed.

But Yuyun wasn't impressed by this apparition. "I'd like to see Obama," she said. So we left the Capitol and walked to the White House. On our way, we spotted a motorcade, speeding Cadillacs with tinted windows. Was Obama cruising in one of them?

We stopped in front of the White House lawn. "There's Michelle Obama's vegetable garden!" I exclaimed, pointing to a fresh patch of earth. Soon, a "First Puppy" would be uprooting the vegetables. Obviously, there was a new "First Family" in the White House.

Life in Washington was not as fast-paced as in Beijing or Shanghai, but it had the same transitory, Proustian feel. The US capital city had a large human turnover with more tourists than long-time residents; even the inhabitants of the White House changed every four or eight years.

I suddenly spotted a crocus swaying on the White House lawn, an emblem of the Chinese saying: Dong qu, chun lai ("Winter goes, spring comes").