| I have to teach my inernationally-bound students not to spit in the corridors, stairwells or on the classroom floor. I achieve the latter by insisting they get a mop and bucket. It only happens once per class per semester. We REALLY are provincial out here. The spitting is so ingrained in the culture that it rates mantion in most "traveling to China" books. Our new building on South Campus features 'no spitting' signs. This isn't just poor workers. Business men (and women) wearing more than I earn in a month (on a foreign teacher's salary) can be seen - and heard!! readily. It's the huckering up (Jack of Titanic style) that gets to you (funny, that in english parties, this scene is always chosen for re-enactment by some group). Sometimes you have to spit, but a flower bed, garbage can or toilet bowl are about the only places I'd even consider it! I'm sure it's a major disease vector here. But despite a few of their habits, Chinese are a really friendly people. And you have to respect a government who, for all their faults, makes all the airline execs stay airbourne over Y2K! |
