In my quaint-little-village of around 4 million people, there are few foreigners. The handful who work here usually congregate in the same bar night after night, week after week, trading stories about their latest conquest or where's the best place to buy cheap methamphetamine.

I rarely go there - not because I am unsociable, (quite the opposite in fact), but I have an extremely low boredom threshold. Listening to FT's who used to have 40,000 people working for them back in their home country, or who have a PhD in Time-Travel, becomes very tiresome very quickly.

Therefore the FT's who work in my QLV have no idea who I am unless they are either a colleague or an ex-colleague of mine.

I've just returned from my local supermarket and on the adjacent check-out I saw a westerner. As is usually the case, I nod my head or make some other gesture of acknowledgement, only to be looked at like I have 2 heads. It's not just me either, I have seen the same thing happen when I have been with western friends - you see a foreigner, nod your head and they look at you as if you are an alien from another planet.

Is this behaviour unique to my QLV or do any of you also experience it in the Chinese city you work in?