Someone told me that they once asked a Chinese woman whether she would be taking a tram up to the Great Wall of China, rather than walk.

“Oh, no,” she replied, shaking her head. “China not known for safety!”

She ain’t kidding. China’s idea of safety is at odds with the rest of the world.

I first saw this on a tour of the Temple of Heaven, I believe. I walked past a two-foot-wide hole in the brick, topped by a foot-high rim. An old well, according to our guide, and one with no visible means of keeping anyone from falling into it.

I turned to Richard, my Brit tourist. “You know, if this was America,” I cracked,”that well would be well-marked with a group of lawyers, handing out business cards.”

The one that beat all was the one I saw on the taxi ride on the way home. As we stopped on a side street, I looked over to see a man on a store’s front stoop holding a drill. His right foot was balanced on a small chair. His left foot was balanced on a stack of plastic kids’ step stools. He was holding the drill above his head, apparently using it to drill out some metal inside a light fixture in front of his store.

And yes, he was not wearing safety goggles, leaving whatever he was drilling to fall right in his face. He would’ve earned bonus points had the light fixture been energized, but I had no way of knowing.

China controls population growth through birth limits. Its lack of safety standards is the other means of population control.

I’m back home this morning having flown 10,000 miles yesterday. Boy, are my arms tired! Heh.

My flight from Newark wasn’t without its snafus, either. We boarded 20 minutes late, finally pushed back and taxied about 10 feet before waiting another 20 minutes to get “sequenced” into the takeoff line. You can imagine my joy when the captain announced we were “30th for takeoff.” Man, you just gotta love Newark. Another 45 minutes and finally we left the ground, spending what I thought was an unusual amount of time rolling before pointing skyward.

A Continental pilot was catching a ride back to Raleigh. Since the plane was full, he rode in the jumpseat in the cockpit. I heard laughter from the cockpit more than once while we were waiting to take off.

When we landed at RDU we took runway 5R: the preferred one for Continental as its closest to Terminal A. The plane touched down and decelerated nicely but then the pilot did something unusual. We rolled gently right past the first available taxiway back to the very next one, for no apparent reason. The pilot then turned onto this taxiway, did a big circle and then proceeded to use the first taxiway to roll right back onto the active runway!

Yes, our ace pilot actually used an active runway as a taxiway, rolling down 5R in the wrong direction! I was freaking out when I saw the landing stripes roll by my window. I don’t think the pilot asked the tower’s permission because he never paused at all between rolling off the runway and rolling back on. I think he was just distracted by the extra pilot in the cockpit. I’ve never had a pilot pull that kind of stunt before. I was glad it was after 11 PM and the airport wasn’t busy.

Moral to this story: if its late and you see a pilot catching a ride in the cockpit, pack a parachute.

Anyway, I feel surprisingly rested and ready to go, so I’ll try working from home today. Its good to be back.

I’m on American soil once again after my flight from Beijing landed about 90 minutes ago. Going through customs was a relative breeze, though the luggage carousel stalled for about 10 minutes, boosting my blood pressure in the process. By the time I’d gotten my bags the earlier flight to Raleigh had already boarded. Its a good thing I opted in advance to take the 8:50 flight.

The flight was smooth and mostly uneventful. We were 30 minutes outside of Newark when I was absent-mindedly gazing out at the hills of upstate New York. I caught myself thinking – with no explanation – that now if anything happened to the plane at least I’d be on American soil.

The next thing out of my mouth was “oh shit!” The plane had just began banking toward Newark when a small corporate jet passed right in front of us! I’d guess there was less than two miles between us. If it weren’t for altitude separation rules we may have collided. I don’t know if our pilot saw the approaching plane since we were in the middle of a turn.

We took a more westerly route back to America, passing west until Korea before we headed north. Once we had crossed the International Date Line, I popped open the window shade and was treated to a nice surprise. The arora borealis was active on the left side of the plane, painting the dark sky with a glowing green curtain. It was my first ever glimpse of this eerily beautiful phenomenon.

I’ve got an hour before my plane boards so I’ll have some time to check up on email and the like before finally getting home around 11. Yay!