Someone has strayed a little too far from the office. To my right is seated a gentleman engrossed in his perusal of internet dating websites. Chain smoker, middle age, mildly distinguished. I'm vageuly entertained when outlook express fails to give him the desired result. It appears that in his rush to get some online action, he has forgotten to sign up for a web based email account. I can see it now...

A business associate named Zhang walks into the office with a glowing face and pipes up,"Hey Wang. Have a good weekend?"

"It was okay I guess. Just stayed at home and got caught up on some work. How was yours?"

"Man, let me tell you! It was fantastic. See, I met this girl on an internet dating service..."

Or something like that. My friend seated next to me probably had a shitty weekend  watching DVD's and eating take away food, and sees this as his chance to score. He clicks on profiles of potential women and clicks their email address. Outlook express automatically opens up and once again he's confused. Obviously to embarrassed to ask for help, he jots down the email addresses for a time when he's a bit more internet adept.

Life in the big city. 10 million faces that you don't know. The faces you see on any given day are unlikely to cross your path again. The lady at the store who sells cheap instant noodles, or the fuwuyuan who works at the cigarette stand are tough shells to crack as far as small conversation goes. Impersonality, and lots of it, is a glaring characteristic of Beijing. Rather than trying to make some in depth pshycological profile on why people are meeting people on internet dating services, I'll just say that with such a frenetic pace being lived by Beijing citizens, I can see how people could get lonely. Or why they wouldn't be able to find a date. Poor bastard. Still trying to figure out outlook express.