the message my housemates seems to get here is this: if you are singaporean and male, the girls want you. we went out with lai peng (the HR manager) a few nights ago to have a farewell dinner with her, since she finished her consultancy work in shanghai and was going back. official knocking off time was 1730, but we were to wait until 1845 for her to clear her work. MW decided to get a 10 yuan (2 sing dollars!) haircut at the barbershop downstairs. he was rather traumatized when he came back from his haircut, although it was quite a nicely done job. something scary happened. he had purposely picked an old and not-so-sleazy barber shop for his cut, because his girlfriend (who is a chinese national) had warned him about the kind of "offers" made to foreign guys in hair salons. the moment the barber started cutting his hair, he asked MW many weird questions, like how many people he was staying with, where was he from, where he worked etc. of course, we learned that to save our throats from being cut, we should never, ever tell we are singaporeans. so he said he was from guangzhou. the barber became less enthusiastic, but all the while, he kept asking MW whether he wanted some "girls" for company. there was a lady sitting behind the barbershop counter, and she chipped in and kept promoting the girls and services they would provide. woah! MW was very afraid that some girls might just appear and hug him from behind, and then tempt him and make him pay for "services". or they might bring him into another room for shampoo, and whatever else. but he couldn't do anything, because his head was in the barber's hands. so he had to play along and smoked his way through until he finally had the haircut done...! phew! later that evening, five singaporeans, lai peng, chung eng, ES, a deeply traumatized MW and me, were walking along wei hai road. lai peng wanted to do some last minute shopping for imitation leather bags. we walked into a shop where lai peng frequented, and the shop auntie brought us to the back of the shop and showed us LV and gucci and cartier and other names all the ah lians (like ah yan) would know. chung eng and lai peng were busy picking out the stuff, while the 2 guys were sitting on the stools looking rather bored. suddenly, the shopkeepeer, a very talkative lady of about 50 years old, turned around and asked the 2 guys, "how old are you? want me to introduce you my daughter? she's very beautiful, studied finance at university, 24 years old this year." wahaha... another one trying to market her daughter! the auntie carried on saying that my housemates must be very educated since they were wearing glasses, and they must be very promising, coming from good families in singapore, etc. what her daughter wanted to marry taiwanese or japanese, but she preferred a singaporean son-in-law. wahaha, i had a really good laugh while the guys were being teased incessantly by the auntie and my colleagues. but really, i think in china, temptations are lurking everywhere. so if your boyfriend/ husband is coming, be very careful...!