Slight furrow in the brow

Beijing is full of vagaries and mysteries which have been confusing me for the past week. It has finally dawned on me that these things are what make China and the Chinese so ...... well .... Chinese I suppose.

Security
Security is very visible and everywhere.
And yet they don't make me fill particularly safe, rather I feel .... watched??
Perhaps the use of pre-pubescent boys doesn't necessarily breed a sense of security.

There is also the utterly pointless use of security guards ....
.....at every train station with a baggage x-ray which in theory sounds reasonable. However in practice, it is used haphazardly with some guards asleep in front of the computer display screen. Again two rake thin guards making feeble attempts to get people to place their bags on the x-ray conveyor belt.

There is a certain sense of "what's the point" but then there is also a realisation that this is very Chinese. Thin layers of frustration which the Chinese just BEAR. There seems to be a lot of BEARING in this society. A lot of things which seem to warrant a shake of the head, a grit of the teeth....and then...well you just do it. Because what is the point of complaining.

Even if you complain....what can rake-thin-boy-guard do really? Other than say, it is what I have been asked to do.

It was rather comical to see the number of guards that they posted to the little Newcastle supporters section during the football match we saw last Tuesday...ratio was close to 2:1.


Although we Newcastle supporters (or rather supporters of anything Australian) were a rowdy bunch. Not sure we warranted that much security attention.

But that is the Chinese way.....

Orderliness
There is a certain sense of order to most things here. Which is quite astounding considering the sheer size of the place and population.

But it seems streets are generally straight....
With the compass points having overriding naming rights....the north bits of are street are generally called X street north etc etc

The subway system runs on time and remarkably smoothly considering the volume of people it hurtles around the city. People get sheparded at interchange lines, sometimes by arbitarily placed barriers. But they seem to just be able to bear these small inconveniences if it means the general populace can benefit.

The one place orderliness has forgotten....the roads. The roads are a free-for-all mix of buses, cars, taxis, bicycles, weird boxed three-wheeled motorbike things and pedestrians.

The general road rule seems to be, if you are turning right, you have right of way....even if that means driving through someone.

Even knowing this general rule....pedestrians also seem to run on their own rule of, find a pocket of space in the middle of the road, stand there and make the cars go around you.

The one place you think there should be some order....it seems to be distinctly chaotic.