Vignettes

1. Despite the fact that I have been seeing military men (and a moderate number of cops) everywhere in China, until yesterday, I had yet to see any of them interact with the general public. Then I stumbled upon an arugment between a man in a yellow sweater and motorcycle policeman. I'm not sure what it was about and I couldn't exactly ask anyone, but it was still fascinating to watch (everyone in the vicinity either watched the entire thing intently or at least took a peek on their way elsewhere). For about 5 minutes, the two men were alternating between yelling in each other's faces and pretending to walk away. And most interestingly the civilian actually bumped the cop and pushed him a little, but the cop did not do anything in response! In New York, that guy would have been fucked. In the end, the civilian walked away (with a ticket maybe?) and the cop drove away smiling. Impressive restraint.

2. I know that I keep writing about Chinese people trying to rip me and other Westerners off, and it's true (although they are just as happy to rip off other Chinese people). However, I've now realized that once they know that they are not going to make a sale, these people have actually been very friendly to me. In fact, last night alone, I spent an hour talking some guys who originally tried to sell me fake crystal versions of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (coincidentally Nick was an hour late to meet me...but still, these guys were friendly). Communication was pretty flawed with my minimal Chinese skills and their minimal English skills, but the effort was there. And this has been a consistent thing I've found. In a similar vein, I'm visiting Lu in Hangzhou tomorrow. Should be fun.

3. A guy tried to sell me and Nick some watches and DVDs yesterday. When we said, "Bu yao" for the millionth time, he tried another trick. He offered us sex DVDs, complete with full Borat "sexytime" hand motions. Can't say I wasn't tempted.