Some Things

Thought I'd make some general observations regarding 'how things is in china', as follows [the list is exhaustive - there is nothing else note worthy, indisputably]:

1) People spit. They hawk, and then they spit. Do not wear flip flops for this reason (a lesson I am yet to learn)

2) People are bad at queuing. Not as bad as some would have you believe. But still, when the train stops, the people get on - fuck the people getting off.

3) Babies and young children will piss (fortunately only witnessed one exception there) in the street in: Bins, street drains; plant pots; grassy areas. The normal method (because I KNOW you want to know) is for the parent to hold their legs back against their body, the child's back to the parent's stomach, and let fire. Someone I spoke to said she saw this method employed with exceptional aim into a bin at the train station. Now, as you may gather from that last remark - this occurrence is not limited to those areas without toilets - of which I've seen none - it can be anywhere. And it isn't because you have to pay for the toilets - you don't.

4) Chickens feet and so on are sold everywhere. Interesting meat WILL appear in your food no matter what you order, this is unavoidable. However, there are also lots of pleasant foods, including the presence of cake shops all over the place. As long as you avoid the sweet looking breads that happen to have meat (of some kind) in them, you're fine. I've also had some very nice things which I can only describe as slightly crisp fried lamb in pita breads with a kind of slightly spicy soy sauce - something I hope to replicate when I get home. The fried green beans with salt (possibly to dry them a bit), garlic, and chili are also surprisingly delicious.

5) people will talk to you in Chinese even when it is entirely obvious that you don't speak a word of Chinese at all.

6) Sign language for the numbers is different here. 10 is the index fingers crossed (which looks like a 10 in chinese), 6 is the 'rock' symbol in the West (fingers down except pinky and thumb), and I can't remember the others...which causes some problems as I can only remember how to say numbers 1,2,3 and 10.

7) There are a lot of card games and Chinese chess games going on on the streets. These are social games, with many observers (often). There are also (but less frequently) mah jong games on the street, and visible through house doors/windows. This makes me smile - although I try to avoid doing that over the table, wouldn't want to give any hints after all - but until I find someone who speaks English and is playing, I don't think I'll play as I know Hong Kong rules and Chinese rules are a bit different I believe.

8) All road signs in China (I think, presumably it's only the straightish ones), have compass directions on, generally in Chinese. Thus, learning Mah Jong has aided my navigation in China - fantastic. Not hard though, North looks somewhat like an N, West somewhat like a W. I know East and South (although the symbols I know are different I think) but you of course don't need them if you can recognise the other two.

9) Within seconds of posting, I remembered this one: People will ask to take photos with you. Not, "They'll ask you to take their photo" - they'll ask a friend to take a photo of them, with you, in fact sometimes they won't ask, you'll just notice that someone is covertly taking a picture of you. The former (avec asking) happened yesterday at the top of Purple Mountain Nanjing. It's all quite harmless of courses, keeps me amused.

UPDATE: 02/10/08

10) Sitting waiting for my bus I remembered some more noteworthy things, some common some less so. Firstly - everyone smokes. Or, all the men do at least. Women might do, but not as publicly.

11) I have more than once (although not too often thankfully) seen these half length cubicle toilets, with what is essentially just another large urinal trough to squat over behind this minimal door.

12) Offensively I forget to mention that, for the most part (con artists and some taxi drivers, some [but by no means all] officials) people are very friendly here and generally very helpful. Having said that, there is obviously a reasonable amount of amusement over the Westerner's lack of comprehension over the most simple thing - buying tickets, ordering food, eating, etc. But I use the phrase 'reasonable amount' for a reason there...

UPDATE: 06/10/08

13) Wedding photo couples will be anywhere attractive. I walked along the beaches in Qingdao on one nice day and stopped counting at 40 brides. There were easily 50. Had I gone up to the church I would have found at least another 10. They seem to arrive in dresses (with jeans underneath and trainers on) in mini-buses and then all have photos taken in the same setting, explaining the huge number of wedding photo shops around some of the places I've been.

I'll add to this exhaustive list when I think of some more things. It's almost like Catholic moral law in that sense.