Don’t forget to dress for the fire.

Beijing is the first city I’ve lived in where firemen go to fight fires wearing ties.

On my way back from Chinese class this afternoon, a fire engine was stuck in traffic behind us. The street in front of my apartment, which connects to an arterial surface street as well as an expressway, is typically completely blocked from late afternoon through to 8 PM or so.

A fireman jumped out of the rig in boots and a set of green firefighting togs; the jacket was open at the neck, revealing a nicely knotted double windsor. He pulled out a phone as two other firefighters, also in their waterproofs, and also with jackets open and ties exposed (everyone wore a perfect double windsor; clip-on tie technology is something else the Chinese are beating us in) hopped out of the cab.

I looked behind me. Wangjing hospital wasn’t on fire, which was reassuring.

The last firefighter to get out of fire engine looked ashamed. He had a clipboard and apparently was the man with the map. No one would look at him.

As the other firefighters called to ask for directions, some women on bicycles started to give the military guys in the police car a hard time.

“This is the bike lane, don’t you know you can’t park here?”

“Of course he didn’t know! They’re lost!”

Everyone (apart from the firemen) had a good laugh.