A pointed question

[Escaped Lunatic]

A couple of aquaintences of mine related a story to me that brings up an question. It seems they were on a business trip to Texas and decided to cross the border for an evening of fun in Mexico. Evidently, the local Mexican police had a habit of searching gringo tourists for any contraband so they could be busted and hit with a hefty fine. In this case, the police were successful and nailed them both for having "concealed weapons" - pocket knives.

Thus, before I decide whether or not to pack my Swiss Army Knife, I thought I'd enquire if anyone happens to know where China draws the line between a "handy tool to have" and a "concealed weapon"?






There are 2 rules to success in life;
1. Don't tell people everything you know.

[Raoul Duke]

I dunno...I brought in a very small Swiss Army Knife with me no problems. Pocket knives are sold widely here...

[Lotus Eater]

Put your Swiss Army knife in your check in luggage - no problem. Last domestic flight I had to take it out of my handbag after I had checked my other luggage through, get them to bring back my backpack and put it in there! Hen duo mafan!

[Mr Nobody]

Yep, Mrs N has her trusty swiss army knife and we carry it everywhere. But not carry on. I had the same experience as Lotus, except it was my wife's knife. So I played dumb foreigner, wife played disgusted tour guide, and did the same.

They sell folding knives, throwing knives, swords, balisongs, circular thowing blades, punch daggers, weird dangerous looking knives, all kinds of weapons here. Some are illegal in just about any country including china (eg nunchaku - metal, wood, glowing, rubber, fancy plastic, collapsing, and pointed) but they are in shopfront windows and market stalls. About once in a blue moon the cops come and there is some hurried redecorating as the cops stroll down the street.

One more thing is that us foreigners are left alone and not targetted. You have to do something wrong like piss off someone important or get involved with violence or a car accident or something before they will even bother with you. Routine stuff you just get waved through without even looking, mostly.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Ah good. Now I just have to hope the baggage handlers don't grab it (evil scum swiped several of my books when I went to the UK a few months back ).



"Information *wants* to be free."
- Bruce Sterling

[Mr Nobody]

Hey, I sent an email that shot down a bunch of Sterling's points in a newspaper column once, with references, about some silly speculation he had re space colonisation and he didn't even acknowledge it. I can't even remember now - I probably have the article somewhere but probably not in china.

He said he would respond to any blah blah. But didn't.


Anyhow - lock your suitcase. There is a type of crime here where they put a big bag with a kid inside into the bus's cargo thingy, then he gets out, steals all the stuff, they get their bag and go. Someone tried this on an aircraft with the results - you guessed it folks!

Evolution in action. Them folks won't be sending their genes into the next generation.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Sorry, locked suitcases on US airliners are a thing of the past. The TSA people even leave me a nice card when they decide to toss my bags (4 out of 5 times that I fly - must be all the suspicious junk I pack). At least they do a reasonable job repacking - think I'll put in a thank you note the next time I fly - will cut it out of aluminum foil so they can see it on the x-ray. Books were probably swiped by baggage handlers (lost 1 outbound and 2 more on return flight). Even back when suitcases could be locked, I saw some interesting news items on just how adept certain baggage handlers were at opening them.



"The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame it on."
- Robert Bloch