Eight Things I Learned In China - Part 1

My personal favorite. I like the contemplative look and how he looks like a monk with a walking stick. Location: Summer Palace, Beijing

He is quite a happy fellow. Location: pet market, Shanghai

Closeup. Location: Unknown

Most of these pictures were me pretending to take pictures of whatever temple we were at while actually snapping belly profiles. This guy caught me though and flashed the classic Asian "peace" sign.  Location: market, Shanghai

Resting. Location: Summer Palace, Beijing

This summer my family went to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It was pretty sweet; we went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, walked along the riverfront at night in Shanghai, did some shopping in a funky art district and ate great dim sum. But you could learn about all that in a tour guide book and, besides, I think what I have to say is more interesting (and hopefully funnier).

Chinese Air Conditioning

It’s a well known fact that it’s hot and humid in China during the summer. It’s in the mid 90s each day in Beijing and the humidity is right around 100%. The air pollution doesn’t do any favors either, not ever being able to see blue sky makes the heat inescapable. Everyone sweats a ton and there were some pretty impressive soaked t-shirts on the Great Wall.

To beat the heat and prevent from tanning, some women tote sun umbrellas. Others go with the more conventional sunglasses and water. I even saw a kid with a sweet hat that had a mini fan attached to it. 

But the most common way of staying cool among men is “Chinese Air Conditioning,” or what I like to call the Half Shirt Style. It’s really quite simple. To rock the half shirt style all you have to do is wear a t-shirt that’s a little tight-fitting. Add hot and muggy Beijing summer weather to get some sticky sweat going and then roll up your shirt to about the rib cage. 

What I’ve noticed is that most of the guys who roll up their shirt are middle aged and kind of fat. You’d think that younger, trimmer guys would wear the half shirt style but I think they realize it looks really stupid and unappealing. So that just leaves fashion oblivious, pudgy guys to show off their nice guts to everyone. 

And if you’re going to all the work to roll up your shirt, how hard is it to just take it off? It would look way less weird to not wear a shirt than to air out your belly button and nipples.