Loren's Observations from China

Just a few of the musings on my visit to China

A little background - Beijing has approx 20 million people; Tiayuan (where we are now) has about 4 million people.  Tiayuan is not largely touristy and not many foreigners pass through here.  This is the first time this hotel has been used by our agency so not a lot of English going on here.

I am 6'3" (the average height I would say is 5'8")
Michelle has reddish blond hair
We are both of pasty white Norwegian descent
Not easy to blend in.....

Some folks look at us and smile (laugh?) and seem interested to see us.  We have had our share of eye daggers as well.  Especially, when we are toting Quinn.

I got chased out of McDonalds last night.  The lady just kept yelling at me in Chinese, hands waving and pointing to the door.  Still more than a little confused about that one.

Bikes/Scooters have to outnumber cars 2 to 1. 

The lanes on the streets are only guidelines; I have seen 6 lanes of traffic in a four lane street.  Direction optional.

Here, you honk before you cut someone off.  They will let you into traffic.  Darnedest thing I have ever seen.  You can enter a busy street, cut across traffic to go the other direction and they just let you.....

Pedestrians / bikes do not have the right of way.  Cross wherever you like but at your own peril - no one even slows down

Following is a picture of us outside the police station (Michelle had a little mishap) in Datong.  Actually, we had to go there to get permission to get a passport for Quinn.  This by the way was a 4 hour drive for a 10 minute appt so they could email the ok back to the city we are staying in.  Just when you thought the bureucracy in the US was bad...