Differences and a Chinese Tradition

So I think today I might have finally understood "left behind" as I walked to dinner. It was 6pm and the streets were totally empty, almost creepy deserted, as I guess it's a government mandate that all stores close at 5:30pm to protect the family life of workers. It's just one of many subtle differences you see over here.

Some others?

• Coke is almost universally sold in recyclable glass bottles.
• The people are very friendly, but private. Small talk everywhere, but personal details at work aren't considered proper. Desks are plain, no decorations or even pics of family. People generally talk about work at lunch.
• Cars are taxed 180% at time of purchase, so a small car for $20,000 really costs you $60,000
• They pay ad valorem tax on their cars too, but it's based on fuel economy, not value or age
• No tipping at restaurants or cabs, the price is the price
• ToGo boxes are non-existent and so is asking for it "your way" on the menu
• See the previous entry for some more philosophical differences

So I continued a tradition and went out for Chinese in my 5th country (USA, Portugal, Germany, Uganda and now Denmark). Chinese actually differs quite a bit across the world and from what I hear it really doesn't have much to do with local tastes. Rather, it has to do with emigration patterns of different regions of China to different countries. It would be like the Southwest USA and their food emigrating to France and the Southeast USA emigrating to Brazil. It was very good and maybe one local touch was that it was all forks, not a chopstick in sight.

Was a slower paced day today, but did get to meet the CEO of a $2 billion company (which I can't name for confidentiality), can't say I do that everyday. Well looking forward to a low key night in my hotel room. Oh, and the first Nordic cardiac convention is having a conference here tomorrow, I'm surrounded by doctors, feel pretty safe.