The Olympics have shown, yet again, that China want what is best for anyone apart the 'customer'; be it making life easy for customers, giving them useful products or anything else - what is convenient for customers is not important. Instead what is important is what is convenient for the other party, a couple of recent examples:
The government who does not think about the impact of visa policies on business, tourism or even the Olympics. Instead it created policies that are supposed to ensure security but as we have seen with at least 3 protests by foreigners so far, this has not worked. Keeping it relatively easy to get tourist visas but hard to get work visas does not stop potential trouble makers
The subway, who told me that, because my subway card stopped working, I had to get (and pay for) a new one or go to a special station to complain. So the deposit and value stored on my card can only be recovered at the cost of who knows how much time!
And what makes all this worse than other countries is the attitude that accompanies these decisions; which make it seem like the customer's fault (even if it is no-one's fault); wondering why the system is as it is, is to act/be stupid. This reflects Chinese society where no-one is allowed to question authority. This is an ancient cultural trait as well as the consequence of an authoritarian government.
There is never anything to be gained from arguing with, or questioning, a Chinese person or the Chinese system. You will never win and rarely feel better -even after slogging insults!
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