Police Experience

Our group had two run ins with the Chinese police.  That might strike terror into some, but it seems almost inevitable with as many police as there are in China.  Every corner of a tourist area has some very young looking officers marching (they march in groups around the city) or standing on a multicolored box.  In fact, there were 20,000 police officers monitoring just the Shanghai subway.  Our overall impression of the police: really nice and unfortunately not very helpful. 

Experience 1:  A member of our tour group had a small ankle tattoo that had a five pointed star and a moon on it.  While trying to get into the World Expo, she was flagged by a police officer who brought her into the police headquarters.  She was then shuttled to a number of different people who checked her passport and were looking through a book of symbols to determine whether hers was of some dangerous society that she chose to put publicly on her body for all to see.  Unable to locate a symbol, more senior people kept coming to look until nobody seemed to know what to do.  Her traveling companion then took it upon himself to raise a fuss, charge in, and take her out.  Case closed.  She wasn't a subversive...

Experience 2: One of our group lost their camera while walking with another group member.  When I learned that the camera was taken from her purse I suggested that maybe it was those two people they were chatting with.  Apparently they had no idea there were people around them.  I was thus implicated as the witness to the crime.  We were directed to go to a police office where the officers spoke English to report the crime.  Into the police station for 1 hour worth of forms.  Smoke permeated the office and no less than 8 different cops came in to shoot the breeze while we were there.  They were certainly all rushing out to find our 5' 3'' purple-shirted male subject :)  But, we did learn that the Uncle of the police officer who spoke good English was a professor who worked at IBM in Montana!  Perhaps he knew where the stolen camera was...  When we were all done, the police officer kindly brought us to a neighboring restaurant and ordered us all the local dish.  I doubt that anyone would have found the camera in a large city in the US, but I also doubt they would have taken us out for a meal to make up for losing the camera.