A wake-up call for the Western world
"Sleep is for the weekend." That phrase, delivered with monotonous regularity by my former boss in the UK - a driven man, reputed to work 15 hours a day, seven days a week - often crosses my mind as I walk around Beijing.
The Chinese, you see, have the enviable knack of nodding off at the drop of a hat during the summer months. It's one of the first things new arrivals notice. People can be seen sleeping all over the place: in offices, restaurants, shops, on street benches, and even in cars - taxi drivers can often be noticed catching 40 winks in the backs of their cabs, pulled up to the curb. A former colleague here at China Daily has even published a small book of photos depicting what appears to be a sizable chunk of the capital's population getting some shut-eye in the most unlikely places.
In a recent development, local newspapers featured photos of some enterprising eyelid examiners who had decamped to the enormous IKEA store in Wang Jing to spend a little quality time snoozing in the bedding department.
