The loss of my sausages
I am an expat from Europe living in Shanghai for several years now. As most people I travel almost every 2-3 months back home for a couple of days. Usually I buy lots of several kinds of sausages, cheese and smoked ham ahead. It's not that there would be a lack of decent restaurants in China, but for me a native, yummy European sausage is a nice change. Even more when you stay uninterrupted for many months abroad, you start appreciating your domestic food even more. I know the amount of offered western products is increasing since the last past three years, but it just tastes different if you bought them in your home country.
So this time I wrapped them us usual and packed my meaty treasure into my traveling bag.
Although I noticed the custom controls at the airports were stricter since the Olympic Games last year, I did not pay any attention on that. Usually the dispatch is much quicker and easier for foreigners in China as in Europe, so I was not concerned I would get into any trouble. Well… Until the last time I traveled…
After the looong and extremely exhausting flight I was waiting for my luggage at the baggage claim. While getting impatient (You know how many times it happens your suitcase gets lost…) my traveling bag finally showed up. Before I could push all the people away and get through my bag, a tiny, but very noisy, dog was rushing to it. Unfortunately it was straining a custom officer at the leash and enjoyed staining its teeth firmly into my bag and did not let it off.
For getting my luggage back I told the officer it was mine. He was asking to open it. As soon as we opened it the dog was the first one who almost completely disappeared into it. I felt my heart collapsing and saw all my sausages eaten up by the dog. Finally the officer called the drooling sniffer dog back. Calmly he informed me it is prohibited to import any groceries to China. That's why he had to confiscate everything eatable in my luggage.
I accepted this rule but got terribly angry since there was no chance to get my food back… My lovely sausages, which were bought with love in Europe and transported with so much protection to China, for enlightening my evenings here, were gone now. However I left the airport with a smile as I couldn't get rid of the picture of the dog which got so happy by smelling my traveling bag's content. I never assumed Chinese (dogs) are longing for such western meat products so much before.
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