Tony's Guide to Contemporary China, Part 1: The Rules

I have spent two days touring in Xi'an, China. While this has been a largely exciting experience, I feel a need to impart my experience to others planning on touring the region. I will do this with three rules.

Rule 1: There are no rules.

Posted rules, such as road signs, lanes on the road and traffic lights -- rules in general -- are formalities that are rarely observed. The breakneck pace of driving in Xi'an is enough to make even a hardened video-game driver like myself freak out. In our taxi today, we spent a good 25% of the time in the other lane -- i.e. the lane going the other direction. It's not like this lane was clear of traffic, either -- we often had to swerve to avoid other cars. It was hair-raising.

Rule 2: There are no rules.

My favourite example of this rule actually occurred today while we were visiting a Buddhist temple. Posted quite clearly was a sign: "This is a Buddhist temple. Please be quiet, no photos and no smoking." Immediately underneath this sign was a fellow with a cigarette in his mouth, camera in hand, waving at his friends/family yelling: "Hey! Move over here so I can get the Buddha in the picture too!" Brilliant.

Rule 3: If there seem to be rules being applied, they are likely being applied to you.

Today as we were entering the Saaxian Provincial Museum, we encountered a sign, "Bags are forbidden." So, like a good tourist, I had my bag confiscated by the baggage check people after being politely, and then rudely informed that I would not be able to bring my bag in, and that I could just hold my damned water if I needed to drink some.

It was a grand total of 2 minutes before I ran into someone that had a bag -- INSIDE THE MUSEUM. I rationalized this because it was a she and she was holding a handbag. This moment of peace and calm was immediately shattered when I saw another man with a bag. A big bag. A freaking knapsack TWICE the size of mine. And then within the next 15 minutes, I saw another four people with backpacks... Believe me, I was pretty cheesed.

Of course, the sucky thing about forieng places is that you don't understand the language, so you really have no recourse. That sucked. I was not too happy about that.