Going out to do some shopping, chatting with taxi driver.

 Me: I want to go to Yashow, please.

 Driver: Ah, you are going to buy clothes! Spend money, ha ha!

Me: Yep, China is very cheap. Back home is much more expensive you know, a beer is 40 RMB.

Driver: (shocked) REALLY?

Quiet, pondering the shocking price of foreign beer.

Driver: Here you can get a beer for TWO RMB, you know!

Me: I know. That’s good.

Driver: I KNOW! 40 kuai! Sheeesh!

What to wear on a hot Sunday afternoon in Beijing, walking the dog or riding your bike? It should be comfortable, relaxed, have a loose fit, in short hen shu fu (very comforting, comfortable) and wouldn’t it look super if it came in small print, flannel and a matching top and bottom?

For these particular requests, God gave the Chinese the pyjamas.

The first sign that pyjamas season started was the sight of my middle-aged neighbour walking his tiny dog around lunchtime, sporting a white flannel pyjamas with  a chique black polka dot print. A couple of hours later, an old man in his baby blue PJ’s was chatting away with the guys at the car wash, flanked by a woman dressed in an apricot version of the same garment. Passing them in the street, a woman on a bike pedaled away clad in pyjamas with an endearing flower print.

In the West, we obviously did not embrace the full potential of this particular nightwear. Perhaps we should. After all, being able to spend the entire Sunday in your pyjamas, not changing to go shopping, having coffee outside or walking the dog, must be the epitome of a lazy Sunday. Hats off to these guys, I think they got it just right.

  You think that you’ve seen everything? Getting blasé of people acting the way you expect them to? Come to China!

Going to work this morning I was feeling slightly bored, Beijing not feeling very exciting anymore. I leaned my head against the window when I suddenly registered a moving figure on the pavement. It took my brain a while to realize the slight absurdity of the situation, because the figure that I saw was a nicely dressed woman in her sixties walking down the street - backwards. I looked again, and yes, she was indeed walking backwards, with the same carefree expression on her face as a woman strolling down a shopping aisle in the supermarket.

Once in a while you come across these backward-walkers in China. It can be an old man in a park, or anyone strolling down the street. Walking backwards is considered healthy, in what way I don’t remember, but it has something to do with strengthening your back. The more obvious risks of not seeing where you are going and falling down a road construction pit, does not seem to deter these Chinese health addicts from striding, bum first, in the most bustling of city environments. As I watched the woman casually re-winding herself down the street, not anyone paying any particular attention to her but just gently getting out of her way, I caught myself thinking: I love China.