China II

It's a bit odd, in that I haven't really yet felt that I'm "in" China. In many ways, I feel like I'm running around a very, very, very large Chinatown, that just happens to have its own subway system running through it. There are enough ex-pats around to help confirm that feeling as well.
Wandering around the streets of Shanghai, I noticed the oddity of being completely ignored as a tourist. In some ways, the advantage of being relatively invisible allows me to watch people more easily. While wandering around yesterday, even with an English tourbook in hand, people mainly ignored me, with the occasional person talking to me about... something, which I wouldn't understand. It was also odd in that all the tourists and ex-pats also fully ignored me, assuming that I was one of 'them'.
I am struck by the cultural divide between the ex-pat community and the native community here. I stopped off for a break at a Western-style coffee shop, and noted that I was the only non-Caucasian person, besides the service staff, in the room. This was noted even more strongly when the barista started to take my order in Mandarin, and I just looked at her blankly. Sigh.
The same thing goes for church here; at the beginning of service for the internationals, there is an announcement to make clear that you are only allowed to stay if you hold a foreign passport, and all others are politely asked to leave, though they are welcome to any of the 'official' Chinese services. I think service this week was a welcome balm to the soul; it was encouraging to see the little church packed to the rafters with a completely multi-ethnic group of people, from over 60 nations of the earth, all worshipping God in the most unlikely of places. I haven't been so spiritually and emotionally moved by a service in a very, very long time.
In addition, we had gone to an 'all you can eat' dim sum restaurant, and guess what? They ran out of dim sum! We didn't get any hak gow, siu mai, egg tarts, nothing! Everything we ordered, they said they had run out, or were running out. At one point, they even told us the chef was leaving! What we found infuriating was that, knowing that they were closing down the kitchen soon, they still sat us at table, and didn't tell us the kitchen was closing till after they had brought out some dishes! I seemed to gather that customer service isn't exactly a strong point in China yet, as they didn't seem to find a problem in still charging us full price for the meal.