Have I talked about how hard the beds are in China? 

Of all the things I read about or people told me about before I came to China, no one told me about the hard mattresses.

When I got to Shanghai, I had flown for about 16 hours straight with little sleep on the plane. At that point – from traveling to the airport in Detroit and checking into the hotel in Shanghai – I had been awake for well over 24 hours and I was really ready to sleep.

But, when I sat down on the hotel bed it was like sitting on a concrete slab. I actually got up to look at the bed to make sure I hadn't sat on something (like a piece of plywood). After I went to bed, I kept waking up to roll over because whatever side of my body I was sleeping on kept going numb.

My apartment also came furnished with a rock-hard mattress. Some people splurge on their own soft mattresses from IKEA or pick up heavy feather beds, but the hard mattress doesn’t bother me enough to make the trouble of dragging a feather bed home on the metro seem worth it. (This is how lazy I am.)

I’ve heard it’s just because Chinese (and maybe other parts of Asia, I haven’t been anywhere but China in Asia, so, listen, I'm not really the authority on Asian mattress customs) think that hard mattresses are better for your health. 

Just for the record, my health has been the same. (So, for those of you who like to look at the glass as half full, the hard mattress hasn’t done any damage! For those that like the glass half empty, I haven’t found my health to be better in exchange for an uncomfortable night’s sleep.)

I feel like posting a photo of my mattress is insufficient and let's just frankly say not something I want you to see -- so I'll just post one of the alleys in the villa compound where I live. I also wish I had a scooter!