March 15, 2007

There they go again!

All's not sanitary in the next Olympic city:

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics just 500 days away, officials said Wednesday they are prepared to take harsh measures against people who spit in public if appeals do not work.

"Very soon you will see action to stop spitting," Jin Dapeng, director general of Beijing's municipal health department, said. He refused to give specifics, but hinted that running over civilians with tanks might be involved.

Okay, I made up the part about tanks: the original story mentinoned something far too graphic about howler monkeys dressed as geisha.

But on the bright side, at least, is the chance to enter the new Summer Olympic counterpart to the luge: the loogie slalom.

Posted by Steve-O at March 15, 2007 11:00 AM | TrackBack
Comments

It's best not to walk too close to busses in Beijing - they keep their windows open, and the riders are good at hitting a moving target.

My father-in-law was born in Tsingdao, and remembers when Mme. Chiang started her modernization campaign in the 1930s to shame the peasants into adopting Western decorum. A key part of this was the anti-spitting campaign. The FIL says that people whould cross the street just to spit on the "No Spitting" signs.

Me, I'll settle for them just spitting in the street, and not on national landmarks like the wall of the Summer Palace. I'm not even Chinese, and I was outraged. My wife, who is, was incensed.

Posted by: John at March 15, 2007 12:01 PM