Do not disturb

BEIJING — I'm beginning to wonder about the signage in Beijing.

On the streets, road markings and walk/don't walk signs are more like suggestions. Drivers, bike-riders and walkers are all kind of on their own program, dodging as they see fit. it all works out from what I can tell. I haven't seen any near accidents.

In buildings, you'll find any number of recycling bins all over the place. But they're so undersized, they can't possibly fit the amount of recyclables that this kind of city and visiting crowd would likely produce. They're like show containers and people dump trash in them all the time.

Then there are the Do Not Disturb signs in the hotels. I'll admit Sunday was not an easy day. It was long and I didn't get to sleep until about 8 a.m. Beijing time. By the time housekeeping came by it was about 1-1:30 p.m.

The DND sign is on my door but I hear them knocking and saying, "Can we clean your room?" I try to yell back, "Come back later. Not now!" Both responses were met with silence, then another knock and another question, "Can we clean your room?" I'm reduced to saying, "No!"

That works for about 30 minutes until the phone rings. It's the housekeeping desk wanting to know if they can clean the room. All I can think is, I should have learned more Mandarin before I left.