Crowd Control
In Australia, the Army is pretty invisible. While you might expect to see the ADF out if a hurricane blows down a town, otherwise you’re pretty unlikely to see a uniform let alone on-duty. It’s a different story here, though. Recently, I made an ill-fated trip to Hangzhou and saw this in person. After a hiatus of several years, an annual fireworks display was scheduled for the Saturday night that I visited. Such was the interest in securing a good view of the fireworks by the side of the West Lake, that almost the entire area was sealed off. By mid-afternoon, trucks were pulling up and disgorging units of young soldiers to keep the crowds under control. It was quite a display – just what sort of trouble were the authorities expecting? Clearly more than the handful of drunk & disorderly Australians that would cause problems at an event in Australia (or anywhere else Australians and alcohol are allowed simultaneously).
Army on patrol in Hangzhou
Zhujiajiao water town
Last week I made a day trip to the “water town” of Zhujiajiao. I call it “the Venice of the Eastern Zhejiang region” – which, if you aren’t familiar with Mandarin, may be easier to say – and it’s not hard to see why. The canals and bridges are very scenic indeed. A friend drove me there through the fiendish traffic in lovely autumn weather.
Unfortunately, not much weird stuff happened to me there, which is kind of nice but doesn’t make for great anecdoting. Here’s the best I can do. Firstly, we caught a toad. Secondly, I ate snails on a boat (they weren’t good.) Thirdly, I visited a Qing-era post office, where a security rule that the original rider had to come with the message occasionally resulted in corpses being lashed to horses along with the mail. Other than that, here are a couple of photos.
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A call from the Centre for Disease Control
While I was out apartment hunting today, the Chinese CDC apparently confirmed that somebody on my flight to Shanghai was carrying the dreaded Swine Flu H1N1. The hotel accosted me when I got in and the CDC called me to inquire very politely about my health. They are going to check with me tomorrow. Hopefully if I’m still fine (and I feel great considering the amount of sleep, food and exercise I’ve had which are not enough, barely enough and too much respectively) they’ll give me the all clear to go about my business. If I feel ill, going out and shaking hands with more agents is probably a bad idea.
The temptation to wear a mask and cough on the subway is quite strong.
Hassles
Qantas have cancelled my flight to Shanghai – I now have to go via Hong Kong, getting to Pudong several hours later (and missing the maglev). What a drag – I was looking forward to that.
The couchsurfer I was originally going to stay with seems to have disappeared overseas, so I’m now without accomodation as well. Something else to do today. Luckily, I expect Shanghai has one or two hotels.