Once in a while, if it’s not too warm, I’ll sit on a bench under the trees which are located on the corner across the street from my living compound. From here I have a great view of the intersection, which usually gives me the opportunity to observe funny or even hilarious situations. You should know that one of these roads is a busy 8 lane throughway which, coming from the center of the city, goes straight to the south. At a certain point this road crosses the first city ring road, right on my doorstep. This is not a level intersection, so the city ring road goes up and over the busy road by ways of a long overpass. While driving on the ring road you can of course choose to go left or right. You could stay on the right side and this way you’ll stay at the same level. It’s not really an exit but just a part of the ring road which stays level and has also three lanes. But now you need to be across the street exactly where the ring road goes up because the ring road itself is also a busy shopping and residential area. To avoid dangerous situations in the middle of the intersection, there are special lanes for this purpose. When you stay at street level you can turn before the intersection under the overpass and thus end up on the other side of the street. But you’ll have to be aware of the clearing under the overpass and follow the instructions on the pavement. If you’re stubborn, like the driver of the double-decker, and want to go faster you’ll run the chance to lose part of the top of your bus.

And this is exactly what just happened. Huge consternation and a big disturbance because Chinese also love a diversion. Everybody wanted to have a look at the mess and speak their mind about it.

Here, on my spot, one evening I saw a very nice lady walking her miniature poodle. It was very neatly styled as a poodle with a beautiful tuft on its head and tail. But what do I see ? The tuft on its head was colored canary yellow and it’s ears and tail were deep orange. Later I figured out that this was not just an incident. Miniature poodles in China are often colored. Later I saw a couple which were completely colored. Most favorite colors are deep orange, bright yellow and blue. Last week I came across a Maltese dog, which had orange colored ears and a blue tail. These kinds of small dogs are very popular in China. The only problem is that none of these are purebreds, they are really all just bastards. You’ll recognize traits of  miniature poodles, Pekinese, Yorkshire terrier, Keeshond, Chao etc. etc. One even uglier than the other.

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