Mucus bags!

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shanghaiceltic

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Joined: Sep 20, 2005
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Posted: May 01, 2006 - 12:58 PM
Post subject: Mucus bags!

More on the clean up Beijing campaign.

April 29, 2006, 11:03PM
Bad manners send Beijing scrambling before Olympics
Nation looking to halt spitting on sidewalks, public belching

By CRAIG SIMONS
Cox News Service

BEIJING - Smoke-filled taxis, unflappable line cutters, and spit-strewn sidewalks: When it comes to China, the list of things that perplex and infuriate visitors and locals is long.

Public belching, pushing in crowds and talking loudly in movie theaters are too common, said Liao Fei, a researcher tasked with determining how to improve manners in Beijing before the 2008 Olympics.

The city is preparing for the Summer Games by building gleaming sports venues and new roads and light-rail lines to transport an expected 600,000 foreigners.

But some experts are more concerned with societal behavior in this city of 15.4 million people. Authorities are worried that loud cell phone talkers, dog poop-strewn sidewalks and incomprehensible public signs will leave a lasting bad impression.

"If we don't change our habits before 2008 the world will look down on China," said Zhou Shiji, the Beijing author of Doing Instead of Knowing. The book "teaches people how to establish good habits," he said.

'Civilized spitting'

"Many Chinese know that their habits are bad, but they don't change because everyone else is doing the same things," he said.

Spitting in public is common on the streets of any Chinese city. Last month, Beijing officials launched a campaign to change that practice.

Volunteers wearing uniforms emblazoned with the Chinese character for "mucus" will hand out millions of "spit bags" to encourage "civilized spitting," said Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Capital Ethical and Cultural Development Office.

"We will work with newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, the Internet and mobile telephone carriers to teach people the right way to spit," Zhang told a news conference.

Many Chinese refuse to swallow their spit because they believe mucus is poisonous, said Sha Lianxiang, a psychologist at the Humanistic Olympics Studies Center.

Beijing also has employed 1,500 "civilized bus-riding" supervisors to discourage crowding and fighting at bus stops, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Blog entries tell all

Last year, a Chinese-Canadian businessman gave frustrated Chinese and foreign visitors a place to vent their frustrations about the country's bad manners.

ChinaRant.com is a community blog dedicated to "ranting about horrible service, corrupt taxi drivers and bizarre occurrences in China."

One top grievance is line cutting, a common occurrence in China. A blogger using the screen name BJ Gemer related dropping his wallet while waiting in line at a fast-food restaurant in Shanghai.

"When I bent down to pick it up, a woman pushed in line behind me, leaned on my back and ordered an ice cream cone over my head ... and nobody in line said ANYTHING to her!" the post reads. After he realized what had happened he took the delivered ice cream cone and held it until he had gotten his food.

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