Amusing Observations In China

After our visit to China, we thought it would be fun to recap a few tidbits that made us laugh, think, or just scratch our heads.

1.  Street-sweepers in Guilin blast It's a Small World while they're driving around.  Kind of like ice cream trucks in the US, but they drive even slower.  Just when you thought driving a street-sweeper around all day couldn't get any worse, boom - you have to listen to It's a Small World on continual loop while people on the street give you the death stare. This must be one of Dante's stages of hell.

2.  The Chinese love to take photos.  In particular, they love to take photos of whatever you are taking a photo of.  If you are admiring a view and taking a photo, someone will be waiting there to take your spot and capture the exact same shot (not from a foot to the right or left, but from exactly where you were standing).  We tested this theory by taking photos of mundane subjects such as phone booths or old plastic chairs.  Sure enough, someone would be waiting to snap a photo of the same object when we were done!  

Testing our theory by posing next to mundane objects.

3.  One day at breakfast in the hotel dining room we heard a familiar tune from our distant past.  They were playing the instrumental theme from Kindergarten Cop.  We thought this was hilarious.

Breakfast anyone?

4.  Nearly all the ads feature Western models - even those for Chinese brands.  It's very rare to see ads using Asian models which is really peculiar.  There are so many beauties in China, I could have picked out ten runway models in one day in Beijing. 

5. In Shanghai, a man selling music sits on the street corner near the Grand Central Hotel. He blasts Bette Midler's The Rose every day on repeat ALL DAY LONG.  We had a few theories about why he did this:
- It's his favorite song. 
- He tested various tracks one week and The Rose was the one to lure in the most sales. 
- Our hotel pays him to help patrons who get lost easily...just follow Bette's voice! 

This song used to make me thing of 6th grade music class. Now I will forever associate it with Jiujiang Road in Shanghai.

6.  A common sight in China is a toddler missing a critical component of his wardrobe.  They call these toilet training pants or split pants, and they feature big opening in the crotch area (no diaper).  The parent/grandparent will regularly fold the kid in half, bum towards the ground, and urge the baby to take care of business.  You see it happening everywhere - on the sidewalk, in the park, over a garbage can at the train station, etc.  One can't help but wonder why it doesn't happen over the toilet?  Anyway, we took extra care to avoid all puddles after seeing this! 

We took this one outside the Forbidden City. Nice choice, kid.

7.  Cat ears are in.  You often see gaggles of teenage girls sporting them.  We were admittedly a little jealous at times.

8.  There is no shortage of toothpaste.  In addition to the normal hotel toiletries, it is commonplace for Chinese hotels to provide you a dental kit, consisting of a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste each day.  Of course, we amassed a stockpile for the rest of our trip.

It is important to save where you can on every round-the-world trip. So who are we to refuse free toothpaste?