Duck and cover
Unlike in the West, getting sun-tanned for a Chinese woman is a real tragedy. For comparison, it's as if you suddenly got pimples all over your face. Imagine what a shame it is. Everyone would think that you're sun-tanned because you're from a village and work in the field. And all the money you spent on countless whitening creams is wasted for nothing.
So if you left your umbrella at home, and you get suddenly attacked by the bright sun, you have to find something to cover with, and better find it quickly. Like a plastic washbowl, for example.
Street snaps of sexy beauties in Russia
Now I'm shocked: the main page of Renmin Ribao newspaper, the official voice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, has this to say:
Street snaps of sexy ladies in Russia
Well, the Chinese boys and girls do indeed think that Russian girls are amazingly beautiful, unlike some other foreigners. It's not rare when some Chinese person shows me a photo of a Russian girl and says - she is really beautiful, isn't she?
Though I don't understand why they had to delete copyrights from these pictures (look at the bottom). A complete denial of copyright by Chinese government? Not to mention that some of these girls are obviously not Russian and the photos are made not in Russia, which can be proved by tineye.com image search.
Doors in Beijing
One of the striking differences in everyday life of Beijing is what they use instead of doors now, when temperatures are far below zero.
I noticed two types of these ad hoc doors:
1) Thick heavy blankets made of rough cloth, with a window. Looks very barbaric and unaesthetic, but you'd be surprised at the number of places where you can see this - from entrances to public toilets and tiny shops to huge "European" supermarkets like Carrefour.
2) Transparent plastic curtains, sometimes so yellow and worn out that you cannot see through them. This type is used everywhere, too, from small shops to modern multi-storey malls.
Sometimes I come across a mixture of these two types, such as at the entrance to Tiananmen West subway station - see the photo on the left.
Why not install regular doors? The answer, I guess, is that the cold time in Beijing lasts for only a couple of months, and these improvised doors are removed later, while regular doors would only add problems in the warm time.
It’s safer here
One of the most important and striking differences of Beijing (and probably other Chinese cities, too) compared to Russian cities is that when you are walking late at night in dark narrow alleys (underground crossings / avenues / whatever), and some girl walks in front of you, she's not looking back, speeding up, turning or running away. Not even when she hears your steps closer and closer.
Welcome. Welcome to City of Beijing. It's safer here.[1]
Hey there, f*gs!
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians have been troubled by a very delicate problem: how the hell should we address each other now?
The universal word "comrade" used everywhere from the military to friendly talks is now obsolete and you wouldn't call someone a comrade other than as a joke.
But calling someone just by their surname may be inappropriate, too, and some embarrassing situations arise.
Communist as it may be, it turns out that China has beaten Russia as to hating the C-word. Since 1980s the Chinese word for "comrade", tongzhi (同志), is used in its original meaning only in official political circles.
In everyday life, its meaning is much simpler: "a gay". So, before you call someone a tongzhi (comrade) in China, make sure to study kung fu first.