Last night I was too tired to write an example which affected pretty much how I think about Chinese, the trip home. Martti had ordered a driver, from a company they are using, to pick us up at latest 8.30 Monday morning. He had told that we need to leave at 8.30 sharp, so preferably the driver should be a little earlier. Martti, Kaisa, Iiri and Kaisa's mother Leena were coming to Hong Kong for national holidays. The problem was, that they were having a different flight than I, and mine was 40min earlier. They didn't want to get to the airport too early, and I didn't want to miss my flight...

So what happened? Of course the driver was on time - not! Actually he came almost 20 minutes late. Chinese preciseness... We were at the airport at about 9.25 and my flight was leaving 10.10. Thought that I still could easily make it, since check-in closes normally 30min before departure. When I got to the right check-in counter, there was a screen telling that it is open till 9.40 - but there was no-one there... I found someone who finally found me a Hong Kong Express (the flight company) employee who, after a while of being somewhere figuring things out, told me that there is no way I can get to my flight?! It was still 30 minutes till the departure, and I could have left my baggages for my brother. So thats about the Chinese flexibility...

At that point I was really pissed off, since it was the only HK Express flight to HK on Monday, and I could have changed my ticket only for Tuesday morning. Fortunately there was the Dragonair flight, which Martti and co. were taking, so my hope was not totally lost. Told my brother to call his secretary and tell her to call the conveyance company that they'll have to pay my ticket, since it was their fault I didn't catch my flight. Miraculously she got their agreement, so I bought the ticket for insane ~2750rmb:s, and got back home nicely. Hope that my brother will get the reimbursement from the conveyance company, since I didn't have enough limit in my credit card and he had to pay it. Now I'm planning to go to HK Express office and give my warmest compliments of their very nice service... I'm still having the unused ticket from Hangzhou to Hong Kong, hope that at least it'll be valid for some time.

So this minor incident is one thing that affected how I perceive the Chinese. There are a lot of very nice and helpful people in China, but most of the Chinese seem to be totally missing the rational thinking (maalaisjärki). Kaisa gave me an excellent example. Their shower was not working properly, the water was not hot enough or something, so they called a repairer to fix it. When he was told that the shower is not working he went into the shower and turned it on. Surprise surprise - he got all wet and started wondering that the shower is working after all?!