Sleeping Chinese

When I am describing the US to people, the word "convenience" always comes to mind. You want to do your grocery shopping at 1am, go for it! Most grocery stores are open until 2am. You want to do some banking on Saturday, no problem! Banks are now also open on Saturdays as an extra service.

When I describe Germany, the word "complicated" always comes to mind. I had to get used to the fact that offices (for instance, the customer service for the metro) are open only during specific hours and days, like Tuesday 11am-12:30 and Friday 4:00-6pm. I had to learn to always have a frozen pizza handy should I forget to go grocery shopping before Sunday.

Now, I've had to get use to a different style in Shanghai. If I could think up of a word to describe the life of Shanghainese it might be "work-a-holic". I mean take the Chinese MBA students for example who, after a long 40+ hour work week, have classes Friday night and Saturday from 8am-9:40pm.  And remember, most of them describe the MBA program as a "hobby". The "stick-guy" (as I call him) or in proper English, the street food vendor, is there on the corner to 2am. You often see business suits walking around on Saturdays. And if for some reason you happened to be out at 4am, you would see the occasional jogger. Who is going running at 4am?? After observing all of this, I have been wondering the whole time, "How do they do it?" Is there some drug in the milk tea that keeps all these Chinese going??? Well, I have finally discovered their secret.

The Chinese sleep when they can, where they can. Whether it be on the metro after work, on the bus to work, in McDonald's on their lunch break, on a couch outside of a club during the wee hours, the Chinese have been harden to sleep in any position on any surface. And of course, I have collected pictures to demonstrated their amazing sleeping skills.

I have titled this collection: "Sleeping Chinese"

On the Bus

At the Metro station

On a hotel sofa

In the Subway

At McDonald's

In Class

*Disclaimer* Okay so the last two pictures are technically not of Chinese people, but I wanted to cut the Chinese some slack and make the point that foreigners do it too! The exhilarating topic of Chinese Business Law seems to get the best of us.