unique observations about beijing (aka things we never saw in the states)

the pre-dinner rush pep talk…our first few days here, as we were wandering through the city to get our bearings, we would often pass some of the restaurants and see a collection of servers all dressed alike standing in very orderly rows outside the entrance to the eatery.  in front of them would be someone in slightly different dress shouting at them like a drill sergeant and getting synchronized responses from the server “soldiers.”  sometimes, if we were lucky, they’d even be singing a song, chanting, marching.  (“oh, wee, oh…”)  while an interesting means for getting people fired up before a shift, in a country where tipping is rare, perhaps this is necessary for troop morale?

split-back pants…it’s pretty common to see the wee ones running through the city with their little bums occasionally exposed because their pants have an intentional slit that runs from the back of their waistband to the front.  Apparently, diapers aren’t big here for toddlers and as we witnessed, it’s totally acceptable when your two year old tugs on your hand and says she has to go to the bathroom to park her in the corner of a temple entrance in the forbidden city, have her do a quick squat with her pants pulled up and let the business just flow right out from the split in her pants.  we’ve read that potty training happens a lot earlier here, and while we’re quickly adjusting to this sight, we can’t help but be caught off guard by it sometimes.  on the plus side,  we now know what we’re getting quinn, jack jack, damen, mikey, cj, hudson, henny, julian, grady, will, finn, carson, jack, reese, avery, mini-marks, “nugget” and berry girl #3 for christmas this year.

an aversion to revolving doors…having lived in chicago for almost a decade, revolving doors became commonplace.  sure, there were always regular doors right next to them for handicap accessibility or in case you had a suitcase too big to whip through the revolving glass with you at the same time super important lawyer man with the cordovan shoes enters on the other side and gives you a look through his wire-rimmed glasses that indicates he has zero time for patiently pushing the doors on his side so that you don’t fall on your face and get trapped under your samsonite, but they were rarely used and in most cases, were almost always locked.  I’ve noticed here that despite their prevalence and the enormous signs that say “revolving doors please” in both chinese and english, most people go out of their way to AVOID using the revolving doors, and in fact, they look at me kind of strange when I do.  while I’ve received a lot of theories on this – fear of death, some sort of twisted logic about king kong not having opposable thumbs, a desire to stick it to the man. – I can’t help but wonder what the story is with this dynamic.

midnight construction…there is that horribly tired joke regarding chicago that says there are two seasons – winter and construction.  here in beijing, it seems like there are two phases to the day – daytime and construction.  for whatever reason, at least in the area where we are staying, we rarely see any active construction when the sun is out.  but every evening when we go to bed, we can hear the sounds out our window of the construction crews firing up their equipment.  at first, we thought maybe that it was sort the same deal as rapidly growing cities like dubai – 24 hour shifts, but the progress on the jianguomennnai walkway project would indicate that’s not the case.  every night, when I leave work, I see the sidewalk crews beginning to gather and every morning when I head to the office, I notice that portions of the walk have been transformed with new stone overnight.

cyclists have the right of way (sort of)…prior to our arrival, we were fairly warned  that being a pedestrian in beijing would be a perilous lifestyle.  it’s just that it’s lower on the food-chain than bikes and cars.  look for more on traffic in an upcoming, all-inclusive, traffic-themed post from sean.