Hot!
And steamy. I've traded sagebrush and cool temperatures for palm trees and 200% humidity.
Had another very productive meeting yesterday, and was treated to a fancy hotel buffet for lunch (the tongue was bland, but the pork excellent).
Hefei might be even less of a tourist town than Lanzhou. I had a good walk around last night, including a few blocks of pedestrian mall. I was attracted to the al fresco fried chicken, but went inside to enjoy some air conditioning (and wound up eating at a chain that I had been to in Beijing). I'm still a little bashful about dinner alone in the sit-down restaurants. In Lanzhou, I tried again, but they made me share a table with another solo diner, and wouldn't let me look at a menu. My choices were a 5RMB bowl of soup or a 3.5RMB bowl of soup. I had the smaller bowl.
Over the past few days I've noticed something that I've never seen before. It happened on campus in Lanzhou, and now three times in Hefei. I've seen arguments in a lot of places, but these have a level of physicality to them that is a bit disturbing. I'm talking about slaps upside the head, pulling of arms when a person attempts to walk away, arm twisting, and pinching. It's really disturbing to watch, and until last night I thought it was male-on-female violence, but last night I saw a woman doing it to a young man as a policeman was leading him away. I think it was his mother, but I'm lousy at judging ages.
When I first saw this in Lanzhou, I had to stop and see what other folks were doing. Many passersby would just avert their eyes, but enough stopped and watched that I got the impression it's not allowed to get out of hand. And with the cop yesterday, people just seemed amused by the abuse that this woman was heaping on the guy. The cop was trying to maintain control, but eventually he had to shove the mother away a bit. The regular police here are completely unarmed: no guns, no sticks, no handcuffs. Not even pepper spray.
Come to think of it, they don't wear uniform shoes either. Yesterday I saw a lady directing traffic in high heels. I also saw man with a monkey. But that's another story.
Had another very productive meeting yesterday, and was treated to a fancy hotel buffet for lunch (the tongue was bland, but the pork excellent).
Hefei might be even less of a tourist town than Lanzhou. I had a good walk around last night, including a few blocks of pedestrian mall. I was attracted to the al fresco fried chicken, but went inside to enjoy some air conditioning (and wound up eating at a chain that I had been to in Beijing). I'm still a little bashful about dinner alone in the sit-down restaurants. In Lanzhou, I tried again, but they made me share a table with another solo diner, and wouldn't let me look at a menu. My choices were a 5RMB bowl of soup or a 3.5RMB bowl of soup. I had the smaller bowl.
Over the past few days I've noticed something that I've never seen before. It happened on campus in Lanzhou, and now three times in Hefei. I've seen arguments in a lot of places, but these have a level of physicality to them that is a bit disturbing. I'm talking about slaps upside the head, pulling of arms when a person attempts to walk away, arm twisting, and pinching. It's really disturbing to watch, and until last night I thought it was male-on-female violence, but last night I saw a woman doing it to a young man as a policeman was leading him away. I think it was his mother, but I'm lousy at judging ages.
When I first saw this in Lanzhou, I had to stop and see what other folks were doing. Many passersby would just avert their eyes, but enough stopped and watched that I got the impression it's not allowed to get out of hand. And with the cop yesterday, people just seemed amused by the abuse that this woman was heaping on the guy. The cop was trying to maintain control, but eventually he had to shove the mother away a bit. The regular police here are completely unarmed: no guns, no sticks, no handcuffs. Not even pepper spray.
Come to think of it, they don't wear uniform shoes either. Yesterday I saw a lady directing traffic in high heels. I also saw man with a monkey. But that's another story.
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