The Chinese are ...
More observations from China:
The Chinese revere their elders, or at least gray-haired men. Subway riders offered seats Wednesday to Steve Ahillen and Nick Gholson, the two oldest journalists on the Scripps team, during our ride down to Tiananmen Square.
The Chinese are optimistic. When I asked a Chinese security guard whether I could take a short cut to the Olympic SuperStore, he asked me if I could speak Chinese. Me speak Chinese? I’ve learned just two Chinese words: Nee-how means hello and shay-shay means thank you. The guard only knew about 10 English words, so eventually we settled on sign language. His final answer: “No shortcut.”
The Chinese are not familiar with a soft-sell approach. While shopping for souvenirs at the SuperStore, we were swarmed by salespeople if we hesitated for even a split-second by an item.
The Chinese don’t like helmets. We’ve seen hundreds of bicyclists on the Beijing streets, but not one been wearing a helmet.
The Chinese aren’t any different than Australians, Greeks or Italians. At every Olympics I’ve covered (Sydney, Athens, Turin and Beijing), there has been a McDonald’s in the Main Press Center. The restaurants are incredibly popular, but not one of them has ever sold milkshakes. Big loss.
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