In the U.S. we do our best not to bump into people, and if we do, we apologize. In the Chinese culture they don't think anything of it. Dave refers to walking down the street as a big game of chicken. People generally will not move to avoid bumping someone. I am still in the habit of moving out of the way of others. Dave has gotten tired of dodging people, so he walks a straight line. He's bumped a few. Of course he has size on his side and I do not. The only time this bothers me at all is when people are walking with umbrellas. People carry umbrellas for both rain and sun. They tend to carry them low, directly above their head, and they don't worry about hitting anyone in the face.
Bodily noises are not considered rude. I have had people sitting next to me on the MTR or bus and taxi drivers burp very loudly and think nothing of it. In fact, they make no attempt to quiet it, they open their mouth wide and let it out! I'm thankful my kids are on the older side and I am not trying to teach them that this is rude. It would be difficult to do here.
Lines are another interesting thing. People are very polite waiting for the minibus. Since there are limited seats on these buses whoever is at the stop first gets to get on first. I have never encountered a problem with this. The same holds true for taxi lines. However, I have stood in lines at grocery stores and other places and had people step in front of me without thinking twice.
It is not uncommon for people to stop in the middle of a sidewalk, stairs, grocery store aisle, etc. without any consideration for the people around them. There usually is no attempt to move to the side before they do whatever they need to do or talk to the person they're walking with. Of all of the cultural differences, this is probably the one that really bothers me. In the grocery store it is not uncommon to have someone park their cart, blocking the entire aisle, and stand there looking at something making no attempt to let anyone get by them. I have gotten to the point that I just move the cart now. Sometimes they will look at me, but more often than not I get the impression that they expect other people to move it. I have been walking up stairs with two people in front of me and they will stop all of a sudden to talk to each other blocking the stairway. They expect you to push by.
Driving in Hong Kong is on the opposite side of the road from the U.S. I am guessing that this is a result of Hong Kong formerly being a British colony, because in mainland China they drive on the same side we do. Now in London you are also expected to walk on the left side. Here there are arrows indicating that you should do that in some places, but in others the arrows indicate the opposite. There truly seems to be no right or wrong side on which to walk. This goes back to the first paragraph, you just walk down the middle and play chicken with the people coming towards you.
I am sure there are many other differences that I no longer notice. It will be interesting to see what stands out to us when we are back in the U.S.
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