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There are sometimes things happening in this country that are too good to be missed. Stories that someone outside China wouldn’t believe anyway. One of these happened just yesterday in our gallery:
Wednesday, business as usual. Suddenly a Chinese police officer walks into the gallery. After having some suspicious looks around he approaches our employees and starts asking questions along the lines of “Hmmm, I see you have this gallery here. Is this a legal business? Are you registered with the local police station?”. To his dismay everything turned out to be correct and at the mentioning of the district government he even got a little uneasy (they almost always do).
Still he kept lingering around until he finally couldn’t hold it anymore “Okay, everything seems to be fine for now. I suggest you buy a subscription of one of our magazines about law and security”. WHAT? That police officer was apparently making his round around the neighborhood intimidating business owners in buying a friggin’ magazine subscription. We couldn’t believe it. And of course didn’t buy one of his little papers.
He, being the entrepreneur that he was, still was not leaving and eventually made his next move “Ah, I see you have an alarm system here. Hmmm, but it’s not directly connected to the police station. We can do this for you. It’s just 220 RMB per month”. “Or, we can also install a silent alarm button. You know, like in a bank. It’s more expensive but really worth it”.
By this time we were just stunned by this guy. Here he was, Mr. Law, trying to sell things no one wanted with a persistence that makes most guys on the fake market look pale in comparison. And always on the edge of what is deemed illegal, even in China.
Well, no luck with us. In the end he left with the words “I’ll have one of our security specialist call you directly about the silent alarm”.
Sometimes this country leaves me speechless. Just speechless.