On Olympic tour, Bush agrees to "slight touch up" at Beijing's premier hair stylist.

On his way to the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, President Bush took the time to stop in at one of Beijing's premier hair stylists and colorists for "just a slight touch up" on Friday. "You know I come by these gray hairs honest, but I'm thinking I could use a little youth-enizing!," Bush said with wink and a nod in the direction of the Chinese officials who had accompanied him to the prestigious Tiananmen Tim's Styling Salon.

Though Bush's bon mot didn't directly translate well into Chinese, once the witticism was explained to his hosts they did volunteer that they found the play on words "quite entertaining and pleasing."

China finishes well ahead of the U.S. in the annual exercise of capital punishment and has a much broader range of criminal offenses where the penalty is applied. "You guys have the gold sewed up on that one," said an upbeat, playfully resigned President Bush to his hosts,"but that don't mean we're not in the running for a medal!" The United States currently ranks fifth worldwide in the execution of prisoners, behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Bush was clearly enjoying his day on the town in Beijing —and the opportunity to "let loose" with his "buddies: Tiny and Chin," as he referred to them. State department officials traveling with the president later clarifiied that these were not the actual names of the officials, pictured here with Bush on their way into Tiananmen Tim's for a "touch of color and a trim." The President has a habit of applying somewhat derogatory —yet good natured— pet names to people in his company. It's all in good fun.

These were actually fairly high ranking Chinese government officials "from what we could tell," said one administration official who remains anonymous for this report.

Still bantering with reporters, as well as his hosts, as he headed in for his preparatory rinse, Bush joked he was a little concerned "what with Chinese water torture and all! These guys invented waterboarding after all!"

Bush's hosts seemed to take his ribbing in stride, nodding, smiling and apparently responding at length in their own language to his jibe about waterboarding, with what seemed to be good humor. The translator assigned to the entourage seemed stumped for a moment, but then smiled: "Suffice to say, it takes one to know one."