Little Things I Love About China

There are so many lovable details about China; I can't write a long post about all of them.  Here's a little summary:

• Hot water everywhere.  Offices, trains, busses, you name it.
• Tea.  I wrote an entire post in this blog dedicated to tea.  Several, actually, and I could write more.

• Kitty. Enough said.

• Sleeper trains. (The bullet train's not bad, either.)

• The ability to eat out all the time and get food that is fresh, local, delicious, and supremely affordable.

• Hunan food.  Those green peppers are my dear friends.

• Xi jiao (and the occasional anmo).

• Face masks that are actually masks (sometimes with camera effects to go with).

• Milk tea with pearls, in all its varieties.
• Street food and other snacks all over the place.

• People eat all parts of the animal...every animal.

• Amazing public transportation.
• Badminton. It's a big thing.
• Calligraphy.  I hope it doesn't get lost in time.

• Little notes from students. Sometimes kids even give you little paper creations that were obviously made in class, when they should have been listening to you.
• People in paper witch hats for the first time.

• (Big) roundtable dinners.  All reasons, all the time.

• Toasting.  Over and over.  It's fun, really.
• Chairman Mao impersonators.

• Old temple architecture.
• Feng Shui.
• Pagodas

• Chinese medicine.
  

• Red pandas.  So cute, it hurts.
• The display shoe is always my size.
• The cheapness of it all.
• Shopping. The market at the train station beats a mall any day.
• The best holiday schedule ever...for foreign teachers, anyway.
• Chinglish.  Yes, it has its moments.

• After-dinner walks in parks.
• Duck.
• Spring Festival and summer vacation.
• Getting around when you don't understand what's going on around you. It's actually quite exhilarating.
• That special feeling when you get on the bus first.  Oh, yeah!

• Fuzzy quilted pajamas that save your life in winter. The locals pair them with high heels.

Enterprising locals. (Here are some selling outside food through the school fence.)

Mahjongg everywhere. (I played once.)

Thanks to Melody for her contributions.