Date:         Sun, 14 Apr 2002 21:32:03 EDT
Reply-To:     Cotsford@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Cotsford <Cotsford@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Chinese restaurants ....no Vanagon content
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I used to think it was a joke when people talked about chinese eating cats,
the very creatures some of us love to have as pets.

That was before I went to China !!

Last time I was in Beijing, I went down some back roads behind the Holiday
Inn I was staying in and found small restaurants with cats in cages outside
the door.
If they were there to catch mice, they wouldnt be kept in cages.

I also wondered why they had a watchman sleeping in our big railway machine I
was commissioning.    I was stupid enough to ask why they didnt just have a
dog.
The chinese just laughed and said the people would just steal the dog....for
supper.

I ate all kinds of things that I didnt recognise but whenever possible I
would eat in a western restaurant.......very scarce outside the big cities.
   In the town I spent weeks in, the best restaurant had a
specialty.....donkey meat.

Ah yes,   time to feed the cat.
later,
Steve Cotsford