Mafia

Many of you are familiar with the game "Mafia", a very social game in which a group tries to "out" which players were secretly selected to be Mafia members. It's fairly popular in the US.

It is INCREDIBLY popular here in China. They call it "Killer", but the game is the same. Entire bars centered around this game exist here in Beijing. They have rooms in which you get to sit with a group of 15 strangers on comfy seats while waitresses serve you drinks, and you have a computer in front of yourself, which acts as arbitrator (it selects who is mafia and when it comes time to vote on someone's guilt or innocence, decides the verdict).

The Chinese use it as a way to meet people at these bars, they usually play with strangers, though they may come with some friends. At home they play it as well with friends. I've played several times here with my Chinese friends, they absolutely love it.

Dust storms

Twice now during my stay, we've been hit by bad dust storms. Going outside, your eyes are bombarded by dust, it's very hard to see. The following day, EVERYTHING is coated by dust.

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060421/NEWS/204210345/-1/State

Taxicab Confessionals

Taxi cab drivers in Beijing speak ZERO English. I have yet to meet a single one that spoke a word. Whenever you go somewhere, you have to know the location in Chinese. Often times, you need to know how to get there too.

But I just had the first cab driver who speaks English I've ever seen / heard of. And he was a conspiracy theorist.

On the 30 minute drive home, he explained to me how to identify North Korean spies (they don't ask for receipts in cabs), Chinese spies (they do ask for receipts), how China was preparing for an invasion of Japan, how the US was getting ready to jointly invade Japan with China, among other things. It was great, whenever this guy would explain invade, he used the word "fight", and would do a little shadowboxing routine, taking his hands off the wheel and scaring the crap out of me.