China - never a dull moment!

[Cruiser Elite]

Nope just blew the cough out of the charger - phone still perfect

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Snapped this lady riding her electric bicycle outside a factory way out in sticks from NKG - check out the gorgeous little kids on rear peering out from under their hats:



And:

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Now if we had not seen this we would never have believed it. See this picture taken in a very dark bar in 1912 bar street in NKG - Blue Marlin bar to be precise - no time to try to set up for pic - just had to grab phone and try to snap in an instant:



Hopefully you can make out a barman pouring a drink? I was sitting / standing at the bar with TheEmu having a convivial or 2 after dining at Jimmy's new steak house in NKG - you people would have seen those beer / drinks towers that are filled in bulk at bar then placed on tables for all to share? These are so prevalent in China - seems the Chinese do not believe they have 'been out for drinks' unless they have shared one of these - they are everywhere.

I noticed one on a table half full of Guinness I presume as it was black liquid and saw the guys drinking it get up and leave - I then followed bar staff as they cleaned table and returned half full drink tower to bar. I prodded TheEmu and said watch this pointing to tower - we followed it's journey from there.

No it wasn't emptied and washed - it sat on bar top in all its glory for a good 5 mins or so - we watched every second - then it was passed from one barman to another who proceeded to 'top it up' - that's the pic I tried to snap. It was then delivered to a waiting waitress on other side of bar who proceeded to deliver it to a totally different table of people on far side of bar area.

OMG - you just had to see it to believe it - Chinese recycling / sparse asset conservation at it's finest - I do hope the end users enjoyed their drinks - little did they know just how many of their countrymen they were actually sharing with!

 

[TheEmu]

You can make out the stream of froth overflowing from the tower into the slops bucket on the bench under the beer tap. At one point they poured some of the liquid from the slops bucket back into the tower while holding back the froth... :shock:
T'was indeed a sight...
Last year companies were prosecuted for "recycling" cooking oil from out of drains and re-selling it! :shock::shock::shock:

 

[Aeolus]

Hyper yuck!!! Hope both your drinks didn't go through the same treatment. :shock:

 

[TheEmu]

Hyper yuck!!! Hope both your drinks didn't go through the same treatment. :shock:

My beers were ok: in a bottle - not too sure about Cruiser's G&Ts tho...

 

[Aeolus]

My beers were ok: in a bottle - not too sure about Cruiser's G&Ts tho...

As they are so enterprising, they could pre-bottle the recycled stuff too?! Just hope that the alcohol content is still there and strong enough to sanitise any polluted substances.

 

[mushez]

Spare tire anyone, spare tire on one of the container trucks today loading out our containers in China, the others on the truck were no better, and have seen this on many a truck here. Still inflated? She'll be right!!!

 

[mushez]

I love in China they have such a thing as a max and minimum speed on certain lanes on the highways. Not that is enforced and is more a suggestion, but still it is the thought I like.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

As most are aware Google now totally useless in China - I have however found that Bing works perfectly - go figure.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

This is probably a long shot but any other regular visitors to China tried to use AFL International Live Streaming this year? It worked a dream in past years but I just cannot get it to stream this year - seems the Great China Firewall is playing havoc - of course AFL are claiming they know nothing of this problem when I contacted them - happy to take your money but totally lacking in assistance when the product undeliverable.

 

[mushez]

This is probably a long shot but any other regular visitors to China tried to use AFL International Live Streaming this year? It worked a dream in past years but I just cannot get it to stream this year - seems the Great China Firewall is playing havoc - of course AFL are claiming they know nothing of this problem when I contacted them - happy to take your money but totally lacking in assistance when the product undeliverable.

Get a VPN and live stream it through your VPN service assuming you are on an ok connection? I watch the odd time - and watched youtube fine for most of the day on Wenesday this past week in China through my VPN.

Yes the Great Fire Wall of China is continuing to grow stronger and stronger over the past 18 months, each month or two there are even more websites that are blocked/banned. I am even starting to find it is blocking certain pages on news websites I frequent, for example during my last visit the past two weeks, on one news service I use and always have fine in China, anything a little titillating, relating to cough or cough - like one article regarding pole fitness was blocked last weekend, but the rest of the news website was fine. One of my clients, that sell maternity products came to be blocked in China 14 months ago. I assume it has to do with their desire to block and lock out cough.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yes clearly I could use a VPN - that wasn't my question - AFL are declaring nobody else has contacted them re this problem - I call 'bah humbug' to this - regular visitors to China will indeed know about the Great Fire Wall of China - first timers / irregular visitors may not. Before I go back to AFL and tell them I think they tell 'porky pies' in declaring I am first to experience this problem I thought I might just ask the question and gain confirmation that others who may have experienced same.

 

[coolkid101]

good fun - Why do people keep trying to open the plane doors on flights in China?

China flights: Why do people keep trying to open the plane doors?

 

[mushez]

good fun - Why do people keep trying to open the plane doors on flights in China?

China flights: Why do people keep trying to open the plane doors?

Well given these articles are written by those who have little experience to do with Chinese Culture - it is very understandable.

Opening windows or doors for Chinese is common in any situation to allow fresh air in. They don't like or trust recycled air or air condition, so will open up all doors and windows to allow in fresh air - even with aircon/heating on as well.

I find this article the best in explaining it, but also trying to explain it isn't straight forward nor logical to a Western Person outside of China: Chinese healthiness and a passive-aggressive laowai victim | China Hope Live

"....Like fearing cold water, they also fear still air. Air must move, or else when we get old, we’ll die, or something. It doesn’t matter if it’s single-digit Celsius outside and windy; they will deliberately turn your school hallways and classrooms into wind tunnels. And then they’ll wear their winter coats and scarves inside and talk about how cold it is. It’s healthier. ...

....“ventilating the air” to help combat flu season is the reason our youngest and most cosmopolitan employee gave me. But there’s another reason that’s probably at least as relevant: avoiding drastic changes in temperature. It’s not considered healthy to move from cold to hot or vice versa, to put cold things in your body when you’re warm, etc. People’s body temperature stays more consistent when they bundle up inside rather than making inside warm. This thinking is behind eating ice cream outside in the winter, and behind the story a friend told us yesterday explaining why she has bad cramping every month: when she was around 13 she got hot and sweaty from sports one day and went to take a shower. But the water came out really cold, suddenly dousing and chilling her over-heated body. She was on one of her first periods at the time. And that’s why she now has bad cramping every month"


Simply no airline as far as I know tells them not to open or have signs saying not to open the door - and even if they did, the passive-aggressive nature of Chinese people over something that they honestly believe as to the benefit of their health like hot/cold food or air circulation will always disobey the sign or direct request because to them that request is unreasonable and puts their health and well being at risk.

I wouldn't be surprised if airlines don't already have policies of trying to put western people in exit rows/by exit windows if they have any on the flight, to reduce the risk of this, and feel we will only see a growing trend of it happening as more and more Chinese people take to the sky for the first time in the coming years and not being fully aware of the consequences of opening the doors/windows. Likewise I wouldn't be surprised if you equally see them trying to do it inflight for the same reasons - their health and benefit of circulating air to it.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Bought this cover in black for Cruiserette's iPhone 6S when I was in PVG last week - absolutely stunning looking cover:

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[Cruiser Elite]

Arrived in PEK last night after a fun day of delays and headed straight to The Den to catch up to a few mates - lots of long faces amongst the expats and Chinese national alike - the big boss Xi Pinjing has enacted his 'no smoking indoors' policy across Beijing - OMG who would ever have imagined this would ever happen. More here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/chinahealth/2015-06/02/content_20886158.htm

 

[Cruiser Elite]

No harking back to that nonsense about no cereals in 5* hotels - here are the breakfast cereals in Executive Club on 24th floor Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel:



And down in main restaurant LBD on 4th floor:



This is just typical of every 5* hotel I have stayed in right across China for last 16yrs - some do have more - some do have less but they all offer cereal at breakfast.

 

[seanpodge]

Arrived in PEK last night after a fun day of delays and headed straight to The Den to catch up to a few mates - lots of long faces amongst the expats and Chinese national alike - the big boss Xi Pinjing has enacted his 'no smoking indoors' policy across Beijing - OMG who would ever have imagined this would ever happen. More here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/chinahealth/2015-06/02/content_20886158.htm

As with most things here, I eagerly await the actual enforcement of such sensible new laws and regulations.

 

[somebol]

Bought this cover in black for Cruiserette's iPhone 6S when I was in PVG last week - absolutely stunning looking cover:

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Those cases look fantastic. Can they be ordered online and shipped here?