I remember the lack of Westerm polite queues in China. I saw at airports, and line might form, until someone arrived to work the queue, then it collapsed into a 'funnel' - it was remarkable, at first, to me.

I also noticed an amazing tendency towrd meaningless beaurocracy! Using credit cards, passing security checks, evene exchanging money involved much more work then seemed reasonable to me. On one trip, coming back from Cheng Shaw (Hunan province) to Beijing - I saw one little guy stopping certain people entering the airport and checking their bags - even though security was still operating inside the airport. I was in a hurry to get to the rest room, and was pretty sure he would want to stop me, so I walked through the door aside a group of locals and pretended not to notice him trying to get my attention, then I walked quickly through the airport, knowing he was following, but loosing ground. Apparently he decided it was more important to remain at his post then to stop me, because after a few yards chasing me into the building he gave up, and walked back to his post at the door. Once I had releived my bladder, I walked back through the airport where he could see me, just in case he still had an interets in talking to me, but he turned away. It was an odd encounter - but my experience there led me to believe his task was probably meaningless, and he would probably not fight too hard to complete it.

Chickens Heads and feet? Well, the feet were usually delicious. I don't recall being served chicken heads - duck and sparrow, though, and tehy were good. I was the only one on the trip to gain weight in China. It seems the cuisine agreed with me! And chop sticks? You learn quickly when you're hungry. I keep in practice just in case I ever make it back!