Filth

I've written that China is a dirty place, so I figured I should justify this statement.

Yes, there is pollution, more than I'm used to. Although I shouldn't complain because Dalian is apparently one of the cleanest cities in China. As far as the air goes, it's at the bottom of my list of grievances. There is a lot of garbage on the streets, and that's during the day when cleaners are constantly sweeping. Late at night the roads are an absolute pigsty. There are heaping piles of trash in front of some homes. There is also constant construction going on everywhere, causing huge mounds of debris and dirt to accumulate. Restaurants dump buckets of dirty water into the street. Everything looks old, stained and lacking maintenance. The sidewalks have cigarette butts, stickers and dirty blotches all over them. The standards for restaurants are miles from what we would consider acceptable - we have often seen roaches while dining (once a few even crawled across our table).

Oh, and children go to the bathroom anywhere they need to. Babies don't have diapers, they just have an opening in the back of their pants. So suddenly you'll see a kid squat down to take a dump in the street, or pee in the middle of a store (once it went straight on the floor, another time the mother had the decency to make him pee in a plastic bag).

But the thing that disgusts me the most is the deluge of spit. Everywhere I am, I hear the repulsive sound of someone hawking up a big ole phlegm ball. And nowhere is safe from the onslaught of flying saliva. Streets, malls, restaurants - they have all been defiled! Men, women and children are all guilty. It doesn't quite shock me as much as it used to, but it still makes my skin crawl.

There, I feel I have substantiated my comment.

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deadites: As far as nose-picking goes, yes, I've seen it plenty. However, i usually avert my eyes before I see whether they flick it! Ew.....