Steve's China Blog

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Good pasta and petty crime

I have not posted in awhile... pretty busy with work. The weekend before last I spent either working or sleeping. It was too cold to go out anywhere. Last weekend I had to work, but I had to get out some and wanted to try a new Italian place that opened in Dalian recently by the Shangri-La hotel called the Olive Garden (not the same as in the US). Phyllis was nice enough to go with me, and the food was very good! Phyllis had a pesto linguini dish with shrimp and I had lasagna. When I was eating I realized I could not remember the last time I had lasagna... not in China anyways.

On Sunday evening I went to Peace Square mall to have dinner at a fast food place, and do some grocery shopping afterwards. While I was eating dinner some guy sat down behind me, and reaching around stole my phone from the pocket of my jacket that I had hanging on my chair. What was strange was that there were people all around us, and a lot of them had to have seen this, but they said or did absolutely nothing! I still can not get use to how uncaring people here are towards others. It just amazes me. When I tell my co-workers that crooks are sometimes chased down by normal citizens in other countries (such as described in this story) they are amazed. People seem happy that there is no violent crime here in Dalian, but I think it's just going to get worse since the police don't do anything and the people don't care. I can not imagine how bad it will get after the the economy eventually changes.

3 Comments:

  • I think it's just a general fear of putting themselves in a relativly high risk situation. Better to say nothing and remain detached, than get involved with a potentially troublesome situation.

    I heard that a korean kid actually drowned in the pond in labor park a few months ago while a crowd of on-lookers idly looked on. Kinda sad.

    As for the italian food, I've been meaning to check out that place but haven't had a chance so far.
    I have it listed on my site, so if you feel like sharing your experience, please feel free to do so.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:19 AM  

  • It's getting to be far too common a story here, it seems, not that I've been there that long. But almost everyone I know has a story like this, where people just sit by and watch somebody else get robbed or assaulted or worse.

    As for the Italian place, I've been meaning to check it out, too. Friends who've been have said good things, so it's on the agenda.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:48 PM  

  • It's getting to be far too common a story here, it seems, not that I've been there that long. But almost everyone I know has a story like this, where people just sit by and watch somebody else get robbed or assaulted or worse.

    As for the Italian place, I've been meaning to check it out, too. Friends who've been have said good things, so it's on the agenda.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:53 PM  

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