American idols

Guests invited to the Independence Day celebration at the new US Embassy last week might not know what to make out of the compound. It's ultra-modern, yet it has a whiff of traditional China in it. The earth tone and the narrow passageways are reminiscent of a Beijing hutong. A smattering of bamboo and a lotus pond are faintly southern China.

Sitting on a 4-hec block in northeastern Beijing, the embassy looks very serious and does not call attention to itself - this in a city where new edifices scream "look at me".

The self-effacing opening on August 8, 2008, coinciding with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, adds to its low profile. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP, Architects (SOM) of San Francisco, with landscape by Peter Walker and Associates of Berkeley, California, it broke ground on May 28, 2004, and cost $434 million.