Mad dog! Mad dog!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!
Look, I have a little rule about travel: if, in a given situation, you have a choice between having a good time and having your dignity and you can't have both...go for the good time.
Not to the extreme of punishing others, of course. But I was determined to get this photo in the Forbidden City and if onlookers smiled and giggled as I trial-and-errored my way to the right exposure and composition, it was still cheap!
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Lesson of the day
I learned nothing about China's grand tradition of emperors during the four hours I spent tramping around the Forbidden City this morning.
I only learned that I would probably suck as an "Amazing Race" contestant.
(Now lying in bed in my hotel room, furiously rehydrating and wondering if I'll want to get up again anytime in the 18 hours before I check out tomorrow.)
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None Too Bright
My first IQ test upon arrival in my room, after crossing half of the planet's time zones: how do you get power in the room?
None of the switches worked and it was dusk. Finally, as I pondered using my iPhone as a flashlight, I re-interpreted the writing on this panel: insert your room card /and keep it in there/ to power the room.
Click!
It's a slick way to conserve energy and guarantees that nobody will leave the lights and TV on all day while they're away.
(Also, a way to make sure that I can't charge up any of my stuff while I sightsee today. Hmm.)
I also note that the wall switches are upside-down, compared with the US standard. Here, "down" means "on." In the US, that's an electrical code violation. It's a holdover from the days when there were big, heavy knife switches: you can't have the force of gravity turning on a huge machine while three child immigrant laborers were inside it, doing some cleaning.
Well, you could, of course. But it was frowned upon because you'd have to start cleaning the machine all over again, resulting in downtime and decreased factory productivity.
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Shoot First, Quarantine Later
My plane landed on time in Shanghai...but nobody can make a move until hazmat-suited Customs officials board and start taking temperatures. If they get answers they don't like...congratulations! You've just won a weeklong stay as guests of the People's Republic!
(I was taking my own temperature for two or three days before leaving. I don't know what I would have done if I found that I was running a fever on the morning of my departure. Probably I would have packed a few notebooks of novels I've been meaning to write.)
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The Great Firewall of China
Ach. Due to "ethnic violence in Xinjiang province" (according to a news report) China has shut down access to Twitter.
Not that I was going to do anything earthshattering via Twitter, but still: noteworthy. Flickr, Google Reader and other sites I find important are not a threat to Peace, apparently.
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