Personal space: Beijing's final frontier

Two answers might spring to mind if you were asked to name places where you cannot expect personal space: the examination room in a doctor's office and Beijing.

Since my arrival in this crowded, wonderfully dynamic city, I've been astounded by the apparent absence of any notion of "personal space", loosely defined as a perimeter of, say, 23 centimeters around the human body that another human would - or at least should, in polite circles - respect as inviolable.

A Westerner who's familiar with this idea will be flabbergasted at the many ways in which the average Beijing motorist, pedestrian, commuter or shopper, without any qualms whatsoever, will violate this private space. Worse yet, you cannot expect the typical response that ensues in the West when someone accidentally or intentionally crosses this line: "Excuse me," or "I'm sorry."