I can vouch for the lack of hostility after the latest incident. My husband (late of Siberia) is now going to be fixed in Shenyang for a bit over 2 years. he hasn't reported anything. The only thing that he's fighting against at the moment is EEC beaurocracy which is hampering his work!

He has got a very swish apartment in the city, and has acquired a decent bike to use around the place. He says the car drivers are absolute anarchists, but the only sign of any "road rage" he has ever come across was the fist-fight between a motorist and the moped rider he had just knocked off! He says the taxi drivers are all very friendly. The city of Shenyang has a strip of pretty parkland through which he says runs one of the most polluted rivers he has seen. He says it is black and oily with all sorts of crap (probably literally) in it. Where the level has risen and gone down it has left a crusty deposit. The river runs into a lake, and he says now that it has thawed the stench for as much as 20 metres away is awful. It is full of dead fish!

He often cycles down to the local markets to buy his vegetables and really is only bemoaning the lack of cheese and ground coffee in the shops. He doesn't like the beer, which he says is flavourless and weak, so he is making his own!. He's a bit concerned that while he is over here his rather zealous cleaner might tip the bucket of "dirty water" away!

It's early days yet, but I think if it wasn't for European beaurocrats (it's an EC job he's on) he'd be really enjoying himself. Takes his driving test when he gets back.

Andrea