I was aquainted with three fellows from Puerto Rico living in New Jersey who came to China on a shopping trip for their store back in Jersey.  Thinking they were smarter than anyone else, and that in China no one would know the difference, they bought back home about 100K in counterfit US dollars.  They were caught at a bank in Shanghai (I do not recall exactly where) exchanging about half of it, after they passed some to a local merchant.  They were in jail for 9 months waiting for a trial, and after trial sentence was commuted and were deported from China, just to face charges in USA.

What they did was extremely dumb and stupid, and have paid for their mistake many times over.

The one that I knew of was an Australian from Melbourne.  He had been buying drugs and then "sharing" them.  This was not the school where I am now, however.  The police called the school and told the school that they were coming to arrest him.  And someone in the school informed him of this.  He fled immediately, first to Hong Kong and then home - I think Brisbane.  A really unsavory character from Oz.

I know a guy who had a major traffic violation. They told him he could pay 30,000 yuan in fines or do 30 days in the clink. He took the clink. Said it was okay, he just read all day. But, he reckons he was in a special prison meant just for foriegners. 

I knew a guy that overstayed his visa by 6 months. They locked him in a holding room for 13 hours until I bailed him out to the tune of 4000rmb. He was on a plane 5 days later.

Another guy I knew did some damage to an elevator in a Harbin hotel. He was caught on security cam and comsequently jailed for 14 days. He tried to smuggle a cell inside in his shoe after day 6 or 7 and was caught and beaten briefly. He told us of the conditions, lights on always and rice and bread everyday. He was fined 47,000rmb and allowed to leave. He was on a plane in a matter of days following his bail posting. No, I did not pay that. He was an idiot to the police and that, in my estimation why he was fined so heavily.

Nah, but I saw some Chinese folks get arrested a few times. Coolest time was in Zhenjiang. I used to work by the most expensive condo buildings in the city. I was out having a smoke when all the sudden, the cops lead this woman in fancy clothes and a lot of makeup out of the building. Then, all of the sudden, about fifty ghost cars put sirens on and it turned out I was surrounded by cops the whole time. Never would have guessed.

Another time, in the same city, I saw a whole bunch of street vendors - mostly bbq types who operated in front of a small grocery store - get dragged off. They put up a real violent fight, too. Screaming, kicking cops even as their arms were held, some jumping up at the tables throwing food at the cops. Wonder what happened to those folks?

Kchur, prozzy bust?

Never known or seen anyone.

I've seen an espisode of the show 'banged up abroad' though where a foreigner in China got arrested for murder I believe, or excessive force or something.

Basically some people attacked him (even the attackers said this in court hearings) so he defended himself and in the process one of the guys got knocked out, hit his head, and died.

The courts ruled he used excessive force and he has to stay in prison until he pays a pretty hefty fine. I forget the amount of the fine but its high enough that his family cant pay it.  This was a few years ago, i believe he's still in prison to this day with a charity in his name trying to raise the money to get him out.

What's really sad about this story is when this guy was younger some people broke into his house and beat is father to death.  So now theres two major instances in his life where people used violence on him or is his family and he ended up paying for it heavily.

Never known or seen anyone.

I've seen an espisode of the show 'banged up abroad' though where a foreigner in China got arrested for murder I believe, or excessive force or something.

Basically some people attacked him (even the attackers said this in court hearings) so he defended himself and in the process one of the guys got knocked out, hit his head, and died.

The courts ruled he used excessive force and he has to stay in prison until he pays a pretty hefty fine. I forget the amount of the fine but its high enough that his family cant pay it.  This was a few years ago, i believe he's still in prison to this day with a charity in his name trying to raise the money to get him out.

What's really sad about this story is when this guy was younger some people broke into his house and beat is father to death.  So now theres two major instances in his life where people used violence on him or is his family and he ended up paying for it heavily.

I know of someone who very recently got sent to one of those detention centres here in Shanghai. Me.

I won't go into details about what I did, but I was extremely fortunate to only get hit with 10 days. But I will share my experience of the "inside" so others can know what they may have in store for them in the future.

It starts off with being transferred from the police station to the detention centre. Was given no time to contact anybody to inform them of where I was going, the police said they would do that on my behalf. The girlfriend freaked out of course! Ironically, the police driver broke about 5 traffic violations on the way there, to which I sarcastically pointed out that he should be going to jail for being a shithouse driver, not me!

Once at the centre, lots of paperwork to be signed, then moved into a small office for a medical check and blood test. Following this, I was told to strip naked and my clothes were searched inside and out. Internal orifices were not checked, but I was told to jump up and down a few times to "shake anything out". I had to hand over my clothes and was issued a bland tracksuit to wear. Was not allowed to keep my own shoes but they had no shoes in my size, so was forced to wear sandals with socks. I was issued with the following:

1 bedding set consisting of blanket, pillow and sheet.

1 eating bowl with spoon

1 drinking cup

1 wash bucket

1 small stool

A set of writing paper and envelope, but no pen

A pack of toilet paper, tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush

I had to pay for all these items, coming to a grand total of 35 yuan!

Carrying all my new provisions, I was led down a hall getting my first glimpse of the cells. I was led into my own cell which already held 7 people, all Chinese. The cells have 5 bunk beds sleeping a total of 10 people. The room has a window at the far end, but with a screen over it to obscure the view outside. I was shown how to make my bed correctly, which must be made the same way every day. Being late, I was allowed to go straight to bed. The lights are left on 24 hours a day, making it hard for me to sleep.

Wake-up is at 6am, an ungodly hour for me. There is a morning routine that must be followed in order and any deviation gets some guy in Chinese yelling over the intercom, which I generally ignored for the most part. Get up, put on prison vest make bed, wash face, brush teeth, rinse mouth, drink water. In that order. I should point out that the sink and toilet were in the room, so every time you want to take a shit, you get to have a bunch of Chinese guys staring at you whilst you do so. Due to the routine, we were forced to line up and wait our turn to use the sink. If only Chinese would follow the same principle of queuing outside of detention, this place wouldn't make me so frustrated!

After washing up, breakfast gets brought around. Almost all meals are eaten in the cell. Breakfast is the same thing every single day. A cube of rice and some unidentifiable preserved vegetables. I skipped breakfast every single day by flushing it down the toilet. After breakfast, we had to clean the room, which is a good thing. To be fair, the cells themselves were quite clean and not the unhygienic death trap that I imagined it would be. Then, we were told to sit on our stools while they take a roll-call. After names are called, we would just sit there for what seemed like an hour. Silence, no talking, no turning around. After this, we would do morning exercises. It's the same as all the school kids do, "yi, er, san, si...". A total waste of time and you would get more exercise from wanking. I tried to do my own push-ups and squats but I got yelled at for doing so.

At about 10am each day we would be led out of the cell into a large hall and seated there. For the next hour we would be forced to watch a propaganda film, usually about why drugs, violence, drinking, prostitution and fraud is bad. All in Chinese of course, using bad 1970's video footage. After this were led back to our cells and we awaited lunch. Lunch consisted, almost every day without fail, of a cube of rice and lots of cabbage. Meat was very rarely served. There was no taste, just boiled cabbage. I ate a little and flushed the rest down the toilet again. After lunch, at about midday, we are allowed to have an afternoon nap. This is compulsory. Although I would never sleep, it was good to just lie on the bed, as at other times lying on the bed was not allowed. Fuck me Chinese people can snore.

1:30 was wake-up, make bed and do all that stuff again. After another roll-call and sit around for an hour, we were then allowed to just hang around in the cell. I spent most of my time pacing back and forth, drinking my cup of water and staring out the window. Extremely boring. At 430 dinner comes around. Again, it consists of mostly rice and cabbage, devoid of taste and meat. I had no choice but to eat at this time, was starving.

People are always going on about which food is better: Chinese food or Western food. That argument can never be won, but I offer an alternative view. Which food can possible worse. Bad Chinese food is about 20 times worse than the shittest Western food you've ever eaten, hands down! End of argument.

In the evenings we got to watch some TV. There was a TV above the door and it only over showed one channel. Shanghai TV. Every night I was forced to watch the same shitty China good/Japan bad WWII drama which was of course completely unbiased and fabricated from the truth... At about 8:30 it was another roll-call and and 9pm was get to bed.

Almost all other days followed the same format, some minor variations along the way, I got given a book to read on day 4 for behaving myself, which helped. We got to go outside for exercise once and I was finally allowed to have a shower on day 7. A week of 7 guys in a room without bathing is not very pleasant, I can assure you.

So, to wrap things up. I've never had 10 days go so damn slow in my whole life. The first 2 days were spent adjusting to the routine of the place and constantly thinking of every possible thing I could have done to avoid getting sent there in the first place. After that, the following 5 days were a little easier, I kinda settled in a bit and accepted the situation for what it was. The last 3 days were awful as it was a very long, drawn-out countdown to my release date and freedom again.

All privacy is thrown out the window, everything you do there is stared at by locals and watched on video camera by the wardens. Every time you eat, drink, shit, climb into bed, wash your face, someone is staring and saying "laowai, blah blah blah" to the others in the cell. Listening to Chinese spit ALL DAY gets very frustrating after awhile too. The staff at the centre were nice enough though, to be fair. Would at least always ask me if I was OK, any problems etc.

Final thoughts? Avoid getting sent there as best as you can. Even if it means paying a few thousand RMB. If you have no choice, 5 days I would say would be quite manageable. Anything over and it feels like an eternity with no end in sight. I never want to go back and it certainly has taught me a lesson in regards to my own behaviour here in China and probably about how I will behave in future back home too.

I guess you could say that the system works.

Cheers. Now for another freedom beer.

I know a guy that knew a guy that got deported dont' think he got arrested unless you call the deportation and never being able to come to china for several years like jail. Afterall this is where he was living most comfortably until they found out he wash't supposed to be teaching! Told that SoB to leave! I think it's a rarity not very many cases where you see foreigners in jail. If they hate the outside what do you think they will think of the inside of a jail cell!