Retrospective: 10 fun facts about China

Some "weird facts" about China, as seen from a Westerner's point of view.

1. You can get hot drinking water nearly anywhere, but getting cold water is much more difficult.
2. Hotels seem to believe that every customer is a potential thief: a deposit of (often) double the room rate is requested and on leaving, the room is thoroughly checked before returning the deposit.
3. In advertisements, sexy Lolitas don't lick a lolly pop, but chew a chicken foot.
4. Older people do all kinds of funny exercises while walking on the street: they make swimming movements with the hands or clap them alternating in front of and behind their back. People also dance in the street, both to traditional and modern music.
5. The "One China" policy means that there is only one time zone for the whole country (Beijing Time), meaning it's still light at 22:00 and still dark at 8:00 in Xinjiang, the westernmost province.
6. All Chinese television programmes are subtitled, as there is one written Chinese language, with many spoken dialects.
7. People run around in their nightgowns (sometimes including slippers) on the street, so you can easily spot a man wearing a teddy bear imprinted pyjamas in a cafe. The Chinese even seem to export this habit: we saw Chinese people in Osh doing exactly this.
8. Small children don't wear diapers, but trousers with an opening in the middle. Children freely do their toilet everywhere on the street.
9. On markets, living animals are sold by the kilo: fishes, frogs, tortoises and prawns are scooped up from their containers and put in plastic bags.
10. Every now and then, you can spot a whole squadron of waiters and waitresses standing in position, receiving orders at the start of their duty. This sometimes includes a run around the block in formation, the waitresses of course wearing high heels...