General weirdness

Obviously China is a very different place than Australia. Having said that, there are a number of randomly weird things that I've witnessed while living here that I thought I'd write down:

• Passengers holding umbrellas on motorbikes.   When it's raining, rather than getting some wet weather gear on, I've seen a driver on a motorbike be protected from the rain by his passenger holding an umbrella over both of them. Hilarious.

• Girls raising their voices to a high level on the phone/speaking like an old woman. A couple of my female coworkers have very soft, pleasant speaking voices. Except when they're on the phone.  Then they raise the pitch of their voices and screech like an old woman.  I don't think they're even aware that they're doing it.  I'm not sure how widespread this is, but I've seen other women do it outside of work as well.

• Both men and women getting out and about in their pyjamas.  Seen this on many occasions - someone just going for a wander over the road to the supermarket still dressed in their pyjamas.  Dressing gown usually included, fuzzy slippers, the works.  Something I don't think you'd see anywhere else.  Well, maybe Broadmeadows.

• Animals wearing clothes....even in the summer. Chinese people seem to love dressing dogs up in clothes to make them look cuter. At least that's what they seem to think - I feel sorry for them whenever I see them walking around with jumpers/vests/hoodies on.  I can understand it in the winter when it's freezing outside, but in the summer as well?  Not cool.

• You can't pump your own petrol at a petrol station. I haven't been to many petrol stations since I've been in the country, but every time I've gone, it's taken ages to fill up the tank.  This is because the stations are all manned, a la 1957.  Only the attendants are allowed to pump petrol, and there aren't enough of them. So they scurry from one pump to another while lines of motorists form up.  Not the best way of doing things.

• Guy on one motorbike pushing guy on other motorbike with foot. I've only seen this once, but I'm sure it happens a lot.  It's the motorbike equivalent of a tow - one guy driving, the other guy in front and just to the side steering a dead bike - being guided by the foot of the guy on the bike behind.  It actually looked quite impressive, although extremely dangerous of course.

• People on motorbikes carrying things they have no business carrying. Motorbikes are by far the most popular form of transport over here.  As a result, it is inevitable that people try to transport goods via this transport medium that really shouldn't be.  Giant crates stacked on top of each other, half a dozen huge water bottles, a massive stack of cardboard - those funny pictures you see on the internet with the crazily overloaded motorbikes are real, and a lot of them are probably from China.
  

• The call of nature in public. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen this.  Out running, in a taxi going out somewhere, even walking home from work - there over on the side of the road is someone answering the call of nature.  Most of the time they (always men of course) get mostly out of sight or wander behind a nearby tree, but sometimes it's just been right out in the open. Bizarre.

• Pictures with westerners. On a couple of occasions (Beijing-Tianenmen Square and Shanghai-Science Museum) I've been approached by a group of complete strangers asking if they can have a photo taken with me.  It also happened to the friends that visited me throughout the year.  I don't know what the attraction is or why the photos were requested, but it's funny every time it happens.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for the moment.