A peasant with a three-day growth of beard and a manic grin rushes up to shake his hand.
Mothers bring their children by for a look.
Shopgirls ask for autographs. For the past dozen years he has been the ubiquitous foreigner on the country's heavily poticized television, the comedian whose shtick is that he is more Chinese than the Chinese. He has been so successful that he is regularly featured on Chinese New Year TV extravaganzas seen by 900 million viewers, and he flies around the country to appear on game shows, variety shows and talk shows. China's best known foreigner, though, has yet to turn fame into fortune. But the mix of politics and cultural expectations that made Mr. Rowswell famous has typecast him, and being on TV in China is no way to make money.