Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Times are a changing

For some unknown and not spoken reason, security is on the rise here in China. Airport security really upped the checks and fistfights broke out. I do not understand this but it is not uncommon. For some reason when the Chinese are made to wait they get very upset. Big Daddy was at a railway ticket booth that opened five minutes late one time and he said it became a pushing and shoving free-for-all. All Chinese believe they should be first and they cannot accept the concept that there is only 1 first.

Anyway current advice is to arrive 2-3 hours before flight time. This will never work in China. These people are trained to walk up at the last minute and get their ticket and queue up at the gate. The queue has nothing to do with lining up, it is a gathering of people at one point, followed by a contest of who beats whom to the finish point.

One thing I have learned here is that when you train a Chinese person they will never deviate. Changes are not allowed. How the hell are they going to re-train an entire country.

My guess is that being first explains the Chinese airline pilot, that is really Korean by birth, that would not yield to the Mayday of another airplane when landing in Shanghai recently. I am sure the Captain, pilot flying, was urged on by the FO, we do not wait, that is silly, our job is to be first.

Since Piers Morgan thinks the Chinese are the best of best maybe he can teach them to queue. Y'all know Piers gets on my last nerve.

Big Daddy said the heightened security even reached the trains today. A fully outfitted policeman slept next to him on the train. Never saw police on a train before.

1 comment:

  1. We had this coming out of Vienna. A heaving mass of Chinese ignored the long lines of people waiting for immigration and just swarmed to the front. What can you do? It is like herding cats.

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