Queues

Despite the crowds of people in China, they are not keen to be organised to get served in shops, get on the bus, get to the train, and so forth.

When the bus pulls in, there is a rush to get on first. Partly because there are few seats in the bus and there is a scramble to get one, but they don't mind a bit of pushing and shoving to get there. I amost get crash tackled to get on the bus, but I have learned to just push and keep my place.

Line up? The locals don't manage that well at all. Even if there is a long queue - for example at the train station where everyone must go through security - they will jump the queue - especially in front of foreigners.

Oddly sometimes it is more orderly, but there is certainly frequent queue jumping. Getting a ticket at the train station is generally more orderly, and yesterday I had no trouble, but it was after 5 pm and there were few people there.

It was an issue that fast food stores had to deal with, but they've managed to keep things more orderly there too.

There doesn't seem to be any concept of first in first served. It's every man, woman and child for himself, and for the most part shoving, pushing and rudeness goes with the territory but not in overly aggressive way.

Perhaps it would be easier on everyone if the queues were orderly - but I bet nothing will change while I am here!!!