Only in China

Admittedly this has to be a rare, isolated incident.  I hope to high heaven it is!

 

Walking to work a couple of days ago, down Huang He Road, a street of famous Chinese restaurants, I saw a restauranteur washing chickens.  She had a black bin bag of chickens, which she poured out onto the pavement floor*, and then sprayed with a water hose.  Once 'clean', she put them back into the black bin bag, and went into the restaurant.  Perhaps there was something happening in the kitchen that meant she couldn't do this inside on that particular day.  Or perhaps she does this every morning.  No wonder that street stinks in the morning.

 

*pavement on this street should not be interpreted as clean concrete slabs.  This was a pretty filthy pavement floor. 

 

It seems health and safety education and regulation isn't yet as effective as it could be.  And this was an up-market seafood restaurant in Shanghai, not your average small local cafe in a smaller city.

 

I heard a story of how some expats are spotted buying 'import Coke', at considerably higher price than local coke.  I can see how if your children are consuming coke regularly, then this is some peace of mind.  But when talking about food... it's really hard to avoid eating local produce.

 

Not eating local produce, costs a fortune (assuming you're not lucky enough to be on expatriated terms), or means that you miss out on a lot of normal life.