7 Tips for Surviving China in the Rain:

1) Never wear open toed shoes or sandals – If you know what goes on in the streets when the weather is nice, you will absolutely avoid getting any of that on your little piggies when it’s wet out.

2) Never wear long pants that touch the ground – Clothes on the lower half of your body do not touch the ground. Women tuck trousers into boots.

3) Use an umbrella – If you don’t use one, you are strange. As a side note, Chinese people seem to avoid being rained upon as if it were a plague. This leads me to two conclusions: Chinese people are a) cats, or b) at risk of melting when moistened.

4) Wear your coat – You won’t get a taxi to save your life, so bundle up to face the elements and be prepared to walk to your destination if need be.

5) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – For some reason plastic bags are an accessory to be worn: shoes, hat, gloves. Very versatile. Totally worth the $0.06 you paid for the bag.

6) Be vigilant – If someone has forgotten said umbrella or plastic bag to act as protection, they will be running (see point a or b in #3). Experience has told me that Chinese people would rather body check you to the ground rather than run in a ziggity-zag around you. Lesson learned: You have to choose? You move.

7) Acknowledge the inevitable collapse of your day’s schedule – You were going to go shopping? You don’t. You were going to exercise? You won’t. You were going to go outside? Try again. It’s like Raleigh, NC after getting .5 inch of fresh snow. Don’t you dare go outside. What if you get a cold or something?

Hiding in the rain:

5:45am, Yangtze River, Three Gorges Dam, central China:

They have since flooded this mountainous area to allow for utilization of hydroelectric energy that can be reigned in by the dam. This project has displaced at least 2 million people and has flooded this entire mountain range to the tip top of each peak (more than 175 meters).

*Photo at top is in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, central China.