Random Facts About China Part One

So, having lived here for six weeks (and also from visiting before), I have been gathering interesting random facts about China and Chinese culture.  As you probably can tell, I'm a big list person, so I thought I would start one.

1.China is on one time zone.  If you look at the outline of the time zone that China is a part of, you will see the typical strip of land, with the outline of China in the middle.  Everyone is on Beijing time, which makes it weird for people in the West, who should be three or four hours different.

2.  China doesn't follow daylight savings.  Our afternoon classes have been bumped up a half hour to let people get home before dark (at 5.30 during December and Janurary.

3.  Chinese medicine is based on a totally diferent system than Western medicine.  The whole internal temperature liked to spiritual energy thing.  Apparently a lot of it really works. 

4.  Chinese people sleep on wood boxes, for the most part.  Or with a slim, hard foam pad.  I have two slim, hard foam pads.  I am on the hunt for a nice foam pad.

5.  Chinese people tend to wear the same outfit for a couple weeks in a row.  They will wash it at night, but wear the same thing.  This is less true on the college campus, and the weather has been changing so people have putting on warmer clothes.

6.  It's rude here to talk with your arms crossed.  I do this when I teach, so maybe I should cut it out.

7. Weekends are not as reverent as they are in the States.  It's common to work on the weekends and there are very few 'weekend warriors."

8. Chinese women don't shave their armpits or their legs. 

9.  The 'comfortable' air temperature for houses and airplanes is ten degrees higher than the comfortable air temperature in the States. 

10.  Whenever the foreigners are playing sports, we draw a crowd.  We played a few rounds of volleyball and we had at least 20-30 people and children watching us play.  They just had an hour or two to stop and watch us play.  We played kickball afterwards in a field nearby and the same thing happened: 15 people showed us to watch us play.  It was almost like they texted their friends and said that some laowai (foriegners) were playing a weird sport and you should come and watch.  This happened in Tai'an as well, anytime we played games with the kids outside, we drew a crowd lined up along the fence.

This is good for now, I'll write more at a later date.  They will probably come in 10 list installments as I encounter them.