Travel

Fleeing Beijing Smog to Hike Great Wall, Sample Mongolian Beef Escape from Beijing: That's the plan. All week the capital has been beset by a thick scrim of pollution, followed by rain, then more thick haze. I'm shocked that I never see the sun for five straight days. So I hire a driver and flee north.

Hate Flying? Take Scenic Boston Train, Roll Past Swans: Review Just minutes from New York, my Boston- bound train climbs gently onto the majestic Hell Gate Bridge, with the towers of Manhattan emerging between the cables of the parallel Triborough Bridge. This vista alone could make you a rail convert.

Breillat's `Mistress,' Dance Marathon, Lang Lang: S.F. Picks Catherine Breillat's ``The Last Mistress,'' with a ferocious performance by wild woman Asia Argento, opened the San Francisco International Film Festival on Thursday night with that staple of the arthouse, a sexy French romance.

Wedding Bed, Garments Adorn Refitted Singapore Peranakan Museum Their weddings lasted 12 days; they mixed Chinese, Malay and Western culture; they loved ornate clothes and furniture; and they had an inordinate weakness for beads.

Boulud's Cool Kitchen, Tin Can Chic Featured in Kips Bay Show Perhaps you would like to enliven your white-box apartment. Have you considered tin can lids for wall texture?

High With Koons, Free Richard Goode, PEN's Voices: N.Y. Picks Nobody looks at a Jeff Koons puppy and thinks, ``That would look great in the living room.'' For one thing, the living room would have to be at Hearst Castle to accommodate Koons's metastasized sculptures. For another, even fans would probably think twice about having the work of such a polarizing artist in their conversation pit. Koons tends to bring out the fisticuffs in art lovers.

South Africa Lifts Ban on Killing Elephants to Control Growth South Africa has done such a good job of protecting its elephants that it's now facing a population explosion. On May 1, the government is lifting a 13-year ban on killing them.

Savoring Van Gogh While Waiting at St. Pancras Train Station Alize Le Maoult is eyeballing Van Gogh's ``A Wheatfield, With Cypresses'' while she waits to board the Eurostar train from London to Paris.

Elephant Polo Pits Bankers Against Ballerinas at Luxury Resort On the Thai-Burmese border, an elephant paints a picture, wielding the brush with his trunk; a ballerina enjoys a leg massage; vacationers scrub elephants in a muddy river; and waiters serve drinks to bankers and oil tycoons in a bamboo bar.

New Orleans Restaurants, Still Limping, Lead City's Revival Ask three New Orleanians about the state of their city and you'll get three answers: It's going great; it's coming along; it's still struggling. Somewhere between the last two answers lies the condition of the Big Easy's restaurant business.