Without counting the weeks in Gansu where a visit to the police station was a basic prerequisite of being able to sleep somewhere, there were long stretches during Covid-times where I saw the police practically every single night. I don't know why but it seemed like, no matter how long I sat in the room still wearing my grubby, nasty bikewear, they always showed up the moment I got undressed and got ready to shower.

As these generally weren't occasions when I was trying to be rude to the police by answering the door in a towel¹, it was really damn annoying too. 

In case you aren't super familiar with a Chinese geography, Shenzhen is over 1,500km away from Hangzhou. I'm also showering at an odd time. Therefore, when the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau upped the ante in the game of "Chinese Police Interrupting Marian in the Shower" with a phone call shortly after I covered my hands in soap, there was absolutely no reason to believe that they had any idea I was in the shower or that it was intentional.

They are calling about my renewed Dameisha complaint, the one where—instead of dancing around the point in English—I explicitly spelled out the problem as being the local police. They've looked over the related footage and read the reports and they would like to start by offering me their deepest apologies.

After I pick my jaw up off the floor, I check to see that I actually got that bit on record. I don't usually do any of my company's anything on the phone so, even though recording calls is a built in option with Xiaomi, I usually forget to turn it on.

However, I've got it. I've definitely got it. It may be that I'll need to re-listen to it five or six times before I actually believe that they called me to apologize or to tell me that relevant people are going to make sure that other relevant people get appropriate training in the idea that foreigners can stay in all categories of hotels (inclusive of the kind of short term rental I'd booked), but holy fuck.

As someone who started doing this from a position of "that doesn't seem correct" combined with a healthy dose of bluster², and whose general tactics for the longest time were best described as "annoying the authorities into submission," I don't even have the words to describe how incredible this phone call is.

I haven't made very many formal complaints. Most of them have been when things went beyond "this frustrated me and I didn't like it" and have instead been for "this was blatantly illegal behavior and I'm furiously angry." Sadly, those tend to be the ones where they investigate themselves and come to the conclusion that they did no wrong³.

If this is what happens when I decide to complain on the mildly frustrating incidents, there will be a lot more complaints in the future.

After that phone call, the day's ride would have had to be something beyond spectacular in order to even compete with my level of gidiness. Instead, although Hangzhou has excellent protected bike lanes and plenty of green strips, it was just a nice ride through a nice city. Particularly given that Sully and Sophie moved here around the time construction began on the first subway line, I can see why they like it here.

But, it would have been "this isn't terrible as urban riding goes" without that phone call (or, double whammy, seeing myself in the China Daily). With that phone call, I'm too excited over the fact that the Public fucking Security Bureau called me and apologized.

The city being very flat and the potential Points To Explore all being places filled with people in ways that I can't just leave my bike, I get to their apartment a good two hours earlier than I'd expected. 

Around the time I should have been arriving, the heavens open up in a deluge that will cause the kind of flooding that makes national news. This does not, however, stop us from wading to the mall down the street for Papa John's pizza.

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¹ A very effective technique that not only indicates what I think of our relative social standings, it also provides the opportunity - when I close the door, get dressed, and then reopen it - of showing that I am choosing to be cooperative.

² As far back as 2012, I was already quite successfully using "we can do things my way or you can let me record your badge number" as a threat.

³ Such as with the Henan officers who stole money from my original hotel owner in order to upgrade me to a much much nicer hotel, after I complained to the National Immigration Administration, their local PSB calls me back and says "no foreigner ever attempted to stay at that hotel, and no foreigner stayed in our county on that date, your complaint is untrue and made up."