Unlike the anti-Japan riots of April 2005, journalists outnumbered demonstrators Tuesday as about 30 Chinese protested Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including 14 war criminals.

The lily pond and rose garden at Beijing's China Academy of Science Plant Research Institute are a brief respite from skyscrapers and smog.

China's punk rockers include Lei Jun, 31, lead singer of Misando, a skinhead band named after a traditional Chinese dessert. Their T-shirt sold out months ago.

On the road to Sale, a remote village three hours from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province. Our taxi took a bunch of stranded villagers up the hill first, with their watermelons, eggs and dying chicken. Pic by Andrea Bruce, who said the road would collapse if we stomped too hard.

Two boys compete for lunch in Dacitan, a Hui Muslim village several hours from the capital of Gansu, the second poorest province in China. Much better pictures by Andrea Bruce at previous link.

Young couples in Beijing increasingly prefer Western wedding photo sessions, spending serious time and money to pose in front of a Catholic church even if they're not Christian. Here, Liu Ting, who sells cosmetics, and her fiance Sheng Yue, a telephone equipment manager, both 24, are prepped by staff from the Miracle Love Marriage wedding photography studio.