Listed

When you stay in a country long enough, you start to identify with certain habits and stereotypes. Lists of 'You've been in XXXX for too long, when...' are popular among expats in various countries (here's one about Finland) and China is no exception. Here are a few chosen parts from a longer list about China, most of them I personally identify with, some I just see around so much that they cannot be left out of the list.

You know you've stayed in China too long, when...

...you no longer need a handkerchief to clean your nose.

...you go to the local market in pyjamas.

...you always try to be the first in a line and do not understand why other people are properly lining up.

...you can sleep everywhere in any position.

...you do not ask for somebody's age, but for his year sign.

...you start calling other foreigners laowai.

...you have no feeling for traffic rules at all.

...you stop directly at the end of an escalator to do your daily planning.

...you think its fun to enter the subway before the other people got out.

...you smoke a cigarette before, during and after dinner.

...you no longer wonder how somebody with a yearly income of US$ 4,800 can own a Mercedes-Benz 500.

...you accept the fact it's necessary to stand in line to get a number for the next line.

...you think the best time to stand up and get your hand luggage is directly after the airplane leaves the runway.

...you ask for somebody's income and excpect an answer.

...you always talk louder than really necessary.

...asked for the way, you explain how to go, even if you do not know the place you've been asked for.

...you wonder why the folks at home do not buy 10 DVD's per week.

...you look out of the window and think "so many trees", not "so much concrete".

...you think air pollution - what air pollution?

...you think it's cool to attach flashy lights to your mobile phone's aerial and carry the phone on a coloured strap around your neck.

...you do not need diapers for your baby, as the open-seat pants are so much more handy.

...the footprints on the toilet seat are your own.

...you have the insatiable desire to join a large group of people following one person carrying a small flag.

...you give the 'peace sign' in every picture you are in

...you dress up in pyjamas and home slippers after work, then take your folding chair, shuffle through the alley to the next main street and settle there to watch the nightly show pass by

...you always carry an old jam jar filled with water and some green tea leaves with you.



.....and so on and so forth. Lists like this could go on forever, especially in a country as full of everything as China. Just though I'd share a few favourite picks with you :)

[source of the original text: http://bahlmann.freespaces.com/content/fs_main.htm]