Babies in China

Babies in China are a big deal! Ever since I started looking pregnant with Hink I haven't had to wait in a line. Ever.

While getting a taxi home from the airport when I was pregnant, Nick asked one of the airport guards how long the wait was  so we could decide whether or not to take the airport express subway. Well she looked at me and ushered us off to the front of the line.

At customs at the airport when the line was an hour long, and I was alone with Hink, I got ushered to a special lane off to the side and was through in less than a minute.

Just yesterday I went to Subway to grab lunch. It is in the basement of a large office building and it was noon so the line was pretty long. There were about 20 people in front of me. Hink started fussing in his stroller so I picked him up and was playing with him while we waited. After about 3 minutes the manager of the restaurant came out and wheeled us to the front of the line. I felt really bad, since everyone else was on their lunch break, and I really had nowhere to be, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Getting on the bus last week the attendant who collects fares yelled into his microphone til someone got up and gave me their seat because I was carrying Hink. Many times when I get on the bus really old women hop up immediately and make me sit down if I have Hink in the Bjorn. They look super unstable but will not sit back down no matter how much I gesture and protest. Luckily we usually make enough of a scene that some younger person will usually give up their chair too so the old woman and I can both sit down.

Often in China I hear people complain about taxi drivers being rude, or people pushing ahead to get on the subway or order at a restaurant (I know I've done it when I've had a bad day), and those things can get frustrating, but there are also so many nice things that go on, I thought I'd better document some of them too.