Zhuhai. Taxis. Both usually rather safe (well except the driving bit, but that’s a thought for another day)

I’m recalling snippets of a conversation I had recently with a group of Hong Kong expats about China. In retrospect I was rather patronizing. And wrong.

Me: “I’ve never felt unsafe in China.”

This is true.

Me: “I’ve never heard of anyone being harmed, a few burglaries, sure, but no one was hurt.”

Now that I think about it, this is not strictly true. One neighbor was punched in the face when he woke up and confronted a house burglar rifling through his bedside table.

Me: “You’re afraid of being chloroformed and robbed in Shenzhen? Are you crazy? You Hong Kong expats are too much. China is not dangerous.”

I was (at least slightly) wrong.

I meet a friend from China a short time later and tried to laugh with her about silly Hong Kong expats who are afraid of being drugged in China. She did not laugh.

She told me this:

[Our friend]‘s husband left a bar in Zhuhai one night by taxi a short time ago. A few hours later he woke up in a park with no money, keys or phone. He has absolutely no memory of what happened between getting in the taxi and waking up in the park.

Late night revelers: take extra care. Everyone else: be smart, but not overly paranoid. I still hold that China is largely very safe. And it is true that I have never personally felt unsafe in China. But I was wrong to laugh at the drugging-robbing rumor. And I was wrong to be a patronizing jerk.