Babies

We have noticed that babies in China are different - they are very content, rarely cry in public, never have a "dummy" in their mouth, rarely travel in pushers, and are obviously very precious to their faimilies. So what else is different?



People around here just throw rubbish on the ground, it doesn't bother them. After all, it is someone else's job to clean it up later, so don't take their job away. I even got told off by one lady when I stowed my ribbish in my bike basket to carry it til I could find a bin - she was very definite that it should go on the ground.

Chinese toilet rolls are a bit funny. Many of them don't have a cardboard core, and they are quite a bit wider, and the paper is more like crepe paper. It has perforations, sort of, but when you try to tear it, first it stretches, then it tears the other way into long thin streamers ... It takes a really strong grasping in both hands and a good tug to tear a piece off. If you really persist with pulling it, sometimes it just king of explodes into tiny pieces which float down like confetti.

And by now you are wondering where this is going, ay?

The toilet paper is used for everything - so I guess it’s not necessarily "toilet paper" as such. It is quite acceptable in a homely restaurant for them to discreetly hand you a little rolled up piece of this paper instead of serviettes - at least I think that is why they hand it to you! Most people use it and throw it on the floor of course. (They also clear their throats and spit there, but it’s best not to think about that too much!) Better restaurants actually have a little holder with the roll in, and a hole in the top so you can delicately pull it out when you need it - except there is nothing delicate about tearing this paper, it really is a two-hand job, as I said! At least if it as an 'al fresco' restaurant (i.e. bright pink plastic chairs on the pavement) then the roll of paper doesn't all go blowing away.

But, back to the babies. Can you imagine how it would be if everyone threw their disposable nappies on the ground like they do the paper? So, isn't it good that they don't do that??



Babies don't wear nappies, except maybe tiny babies - you don't see many of those. They wear split-crotch pants. The little boys and girls tend to dress alike, and it could be hard to tell which is which until their hair grows long enough to put in piggy tails (for girls) but this way you can soon see what sort of little kiddy it is. I was looking at some little trousers the other day, and realizing that maybe they would be just a bit breezy for them! I am waiting to see what happens in winter. Maybe they come to some other arrangement.