One day just didn't seem like enough for Mexican Independence Day, so Ambassador Jorge Guajardo has been hosting events for most of the past week. New embassy chef Yessica Hernandez got a baptism by fire - she's been cooking almost nonstop since Monday.

A garden reception for diplomats and press kicked things off on Wednesday, as the sounds and aromas of a fiesta drifted around Beijing's Sanlitun embassy district.

On Thursday night the embassy invited the capital's Mexican community for a traditional El Grito celebration. That's the evening bell-ringing and "cry for independence" that sounds annually on Sept 15 in every public square in Mexico, from small villages to the capital city's Zocalo plaza. (It's a cry heard round the world, at every embassy and consulate, too.)

Virtuoso guitarist Paco Renteria kept the rhythm going with a public concert on Friday and a private performance Saturday before setting off on his China tour. Solo Mexican pianist Monique Rasetti wraps things up with a Sept 18 concert of Bach at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.