Cameron provides us with today's Guest Post from China

Security Measures

Beijing does not suffer from a shortage of manpower. Everywhere we go there are many staff, often with no discernible duties. Last night at our favourite restaurant, I noticed five staff standing behind the counter, doing, as far as I could tell, almost nothing.

Much of the excess manpower is put to use providing security. It is often difficult to tell the level of officiality of a security guard; supermarkets and department stores have dozens of security guards in military garb. Sometimes it's hard to tell what exactly is being guarded. Real police can be identified with careful inspection; I don't think their uniforms are uniform.

Security personnel often appear very young. In most banks there are 16 year old boys, maybe 5'7'' and 120 lbs, wearing body armour and over-sized plastic helmets, and carrying clubs (sometimes with moderately spikey ends). They are distinctly un-intimidating, and I'm actually somewhat concerned about their safety in the event of a physical altercation.

The city generally feels very safe. The almost complete lack of credit card acceptance necessitates carrying of large amounts of cash. The largest bill we use is 100 Yuan, about $16, so we need lots of them. It's occasionally necessary to count and organize moderate wads of cash in public, something I took greater pains to avoid in Eastern Europe. Cab drivers and store employees also carry big wads of cash, usually held together by binder clips.

We enjoyed going though security at the National Museum of China. I had three bottles of juice/water, and the guard made me drink from each one. Andrew had chapstick, and he was told to apply it. Good thing we didn't bring toothpaste or we could have really held things up. Then we were patted down by the "Anti Explosion Security Force" (written in block letters on their backs).

Every subway station has a cursory (but well staffed) security check. You put your bag through an x-ray scanner, but the attendants never seem very interested. I'm about 85% sure we once went through a misplaced security checkpoint, that was in between two unsecured areas, and could be circumvented just by walking along the other side of the hallway. A make-work project?