NANCHANG

With the advent of technology in communication, Aldous Huxley lamented that people in America would be instantly apprised of a member of the Royal familys' whooping cough and other minutiae. With that in mind, we did today all the things a parent does for a baby and we will leave it at that.
We went to a local park for a couple of hours. Other than people practising kung fu with swords - almost in a slow dance - the park was like any you might see in the United States. With no visible government presence, people went about their business, playing with their children and lounging in the grass on a hot and humid day. The local people were generally warm and friendly, often stopping to say hello to the adopting families and their children, and good-natured about having their photographs taken.
We then returned to the hotel for the afternoon. It must be remarked that on the drive back, our bus driver nearly ran over countless pedestrians and persons on scooters. This was not all his fault. In a country obsessed with certifying everything, traffic lights and directional lanes are, as one person in our group put it, merely suggestions. Pedestrians cross anywhere and do not increase their pace as vehicles approach. What is strange is that the vehicles don't really slow down either. A scooter driver literally made a left turn without signalling across multiple lanes, whisking just in front of our bus. There are countless examples which would be redundant, but it was incredible when an old woman with a cane sauntered across the street in front of our bus and the bus driver did not perceptibly slow down. Nonetheless noone was hit and we saw no accidents.
After dinner we took Claudia for a walk through some of the back streets by the hotel. Again, people were friendly and receptive. They walked up to us and spoke to Claudia. One woman and her daughter offered her two cookies. Even for people from the New York area, the population and crowds of China take one aback. People will cut in front of you to get into a doorway, up a stairway or into an escalator without so much as an "excuse me" or a "pardon." Even carrying a baby gets one no special treatment. However, there is no malice or rudeness in these actions, it is simply the way it is and after the first few times one simply acknowledges that reality.