I know what you're saying as, on the whole I find the same. It's also things like not seeing bums getting messed up on cheap booze on street corners. Homeless people on street corners yes, but drunk bums, not so much, the Chinese seem to keep their drinking to the bars and street markets; their drinking habits haven't turned in defiance against what is socially acceptable to the same degree as one is used to seeing in the west, and the reason for that is probably conformity.

  Also the way a group of middle aged women can meet in the street to practise ballroom dancing of all things, and not have a load of hoodies taking the piss - because in London, and probably many other places, I don't believe they'd receive the same respect they do here.

  I remember arriving in London ten years ago after my first visit here and a drunk came staggering through the train I was on, making a lot of noise and making a lot of people feel uncomfortable. To me it summed up a great deal about what i'd grown tired of living there.

  China's not without it's freaks though, by any stretch of the imagination. I'd never seen anyone strolling casually down the highway completely naked until I came here and last night I saw a fella with so many odd trinkets hanging from him and bizarre head gear, and what looked like a pair of women's panties wrapped around his face, that all I could think was, had he been in New York, he would certainly have been wearing a tin-foil hat.

  There's nowt so strange as folk, Chinese, western, or otherwise.

I've walked by a completed naked lady obviously shot up on drugs on the streets before she was caught by the police.  I've had drunk men on the streets calling my girlfriend all sorts of names.  I've seen girls and guys wear some of the most bizarre clothing I've ever seen, beating out some of those Mardi Gras costumes.  There is a mentally unstable woman that stands by their window and yell expletives and curse out random strangers.

Point being I have seen plenty of freaks and weirdos in my short time in Zhaoqing/Guanzghou, you must live in a nice quiet city!  Everyday is an adventure here in GZ, the people here can be very bizarre, but it is a lot of fun.  Only thing you don't see much of is scary people who look like they might want to kill you, or rob you.  Even the petty thiefs don't appear to be hoodlums.

I have seen so many "freaks" here that I have lost count or pay much attention to them nowadays.

Some incidents that I recall were:

1.- a naked man, not even shoes on, running along riverside at 6 pm

2.- a man with only a T-shirt on, nothing else, walking around Wanda Plaza downtown at 3 pm while touching his "privates" and smiling at everyone.

3.- a naked lady dragged by her hair from a building to the sidewalk by a man, who then started slapping her while yelling at her.  Over 100 persons watching, no one moved a finger or called Police.  but many took photos with cell phones do.

4.- men and women in their PJ's walking on the street, shopping at markets, walking at parks at all times.  And some PJ's were not that decent do.

5.- have visited friends' homes where i am received by host in their underwear, both husband and wife.  seen many Ladies hanging clothes to dry at their balconies in bra and panties only........

6.- Men walking on the streets with their beer bellies showing by lifting their shirts.

7.- Many store employees sleeping during work hours, or refusing to help customers because they are busy on either computer or cell phone.

8.- Crazy drivers, even crazier pedestrians........

and many more.  But I must also say that I do have seen my share of a different type of freaks back home too.