Summing Stuff Up In One Word

A nondescript (read I'm not entirely sure what I was eating) piece of fish tried to kill me today by wedging at the back of my mouth and choking me. Fortunately I managed to breathe in just enough to knock it down the right pipe and I'm here to tell the tale. I'm also here to tell you about two things - Urumqi's buses, and Chinese pop concerts.

When I travelled on Shanghai's buses (or in fact, on any of Shanghai's public transport vehicles) I immediately had to give up personal space, and get used to having my face in close proximity to several people's armpits / chests / faces / other body parts. Here the problem is less pronounced, but still exists, especially at rush hours (whereas Shanghai has PERMANENT overcrowding on public transport) ... I can think of three solutions:

* Use more buses. Clearly there are too many people for some routes, so put more of those buses on the road.
* Change your bus style - another reason they appear horribly crowded is for the most part there are only rows of single seats and a massive aisle space for people to pack into. Put more of the double-seat styles on the road and limit the number of "standers" and you'll find it a lot nicer.
* Invest in LONGER or TALLER buses, like other countries. Another way of maximising the amount your vehicle can carry. Maybe make them WIDER too.

Oh, and at some point, whenever you reach "developed country" status (instead of leaning on your "progressing" crutch, despite having hosted the Olympic Games, honestly what a ridiculous farcical situation), your population will have to learn some basic manners and common courtesies such as saying "excuse me", queuing rather than barging, and not coughing / spitting / sneezing on the buses.

This is irrelevant to my post, but I dearly needed to exercise my complaint gland. What's INTERESTING about the buses is that on the more well-funded routes (the buses from different routes, or maybe their parent companies, I'm not sure, are easily distinguished by colour and state of dilapidation) have TVs on them, at the front, broadcasting songs, adverts, and insane drivel. This brings me onto point two, about Chinese pop concerts.

Sometimes they show these on the TV - the singer is modern enough, snazzy haircut, silly designer clothes, a dancing troupe surrounding him / her putting down their funkiest moves (often not so funky, but what do I know) ... and the audience going wild. Except here's the thing. They are cheering / clapping / whatever FROM THEIR SEATS. The entire auditorium (many thousands) is seated and the people remain in their seats, waving these giant lance-looking wands above their heads in time to the music. Maybe 10 000 people all cheering and waving these things together. What on earth is that about? Where's the freedom of expression? Where's the liberty to get up and dance / mosh / whatever these kids call it?

Ahhhhhh yeah.

China.