Welcome to China!

I think it is fair to assume that most people are fascinated by (or at least somewhat curious about) other cultures, but generally distrusting of the people themselves. The Chinese are no different, and for this reason I spent yesterday morning in a hospital and the afternoon in a police station.
Now, if you just read that sentence and assumed I was being treated for alcohol poisoning and then charged for disorderly conduct, shame on you! I've only been here for two weeks, and there's been no time for things like that. Rather, we were getting the health exam that is required for all non-Shenzhen citizens who want to work there, and registering with the police station in the district we are going to be living in.
Walking into this Shenzhen hospital was sort of like walking into a hospital in a 1970's movie. It's clean and the staff is friendly, but everything feels a little...well, retro. The nurses are wearing dresses and those little triangle-looking hats (although their outfits are pink rather than white) and they speak just enough English to order us around. The hallways are long and narrow and lined with wooden benches. Each room is designated for one specific purpose and is outfitted with a sink, a table, some old-fashioned looking machines, and little else.
Before arriving at the hospital we were separated into groups and each person was given a little booklet with spaces for the doctors to fill in our information about each test. The idea was that each group would do one kind of test at a time and switch tasks as a group until all groups had done all the tests, rather than having a free-for-all with all 115 of us lining up for 10 rooms in one narrow hallway. Upon arrival to the hospital, however, it took all of 10 minutes for the group idea to fall apart and the melee to commence.
The first thing I did was get my blood drawn and was given my marked cup for the urine test I was to take at some point. Getting the blood drawn was no problem (I'll get back to the urine test), and from there I went on to the EKG line. For this test I walked in and laid down and was instructed to raise my left pant leg to my knee and my shirt "over the bra". The nurse swabbed something on my wrists, my ankles, and my ribs and put these clamp things on. After feeling like Frankenstein for a couple of minutes, she let me get up and handed me a print out of my heart rate (which was normal, but indicated I was somewhat nervous...go figure). After grabbing a quick bite to eat to avoid passing out after my pre-blood test fast I hopped into the (very long) ultrasound line.
At this point it is getting to be 9am or so and there are Chinese citizens starting to show up for whatever testing they are getting (I'm sure they took one look at our hallway and thought "why me, why today?!"), so now, not only are we contending with each other to get all of our tests done, we are also having to keep away from all the line-cutting Chinese. After being ultrasounded, x-rayed, weighed, measured, and otherwise poked and prodded it was time to take my measuring cup downstairs for the urine test.
In case you've never done one, a urine test in the US usually consists of you being sent into a single bathroom with a cup (and a lid) and told to put it on a certain shelf when you are done. Not in China. First of all, I was given this cup with no lid at the start of my testing, which means I was carrying it around with me for about an hour before I actually peed into it. Second, there is no specific bathroom for this test, you just stand in line and pee in a stall in the regular bathroom. Third, there is no "certain shelf" where these cups are placed, there is a wheeled cart that is placed in the hallway outside of the bathroom where everyones pee is just sitting right there next to everyone elses. If you are starting to think that this seems very unsanitary, it gets worse. This "regular bathroom" we are all using is a Chinese "regular bathroom", which means there is a hole-in-the-floor toilet, no toilet paper, and no soap at the sinks. Luckily some of us remembered to bring our kleenex and hand sanitizer, so the amount of urine that was exchanged was kept to a bare minimum.
When all was said and done, it only took a couple of hours for the whole process and we were all so glad that we were allowed to leave the OB/GYN portion blank that the rest of the ordeal seemed pretty painless.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and had a couple of hours to eat and relax before heading off to the police station. I will be living in the Longgang district, which is one of the more outer districts, so the bus ride there took about an hour. When we got to the police station we were taken upstairs to some sort of foreigner detaining/interrogation room and told to sit and wait. There was another foreigner sitting at the table in this room when we got there, and we overheard just enough of his interview to know that his visa expired in 2005 and he is in a lot of trouble.
After about 40 minutes the policeman showed up and handed us our passports, and a card with some laws that foreigners need to follow and sent us on our way. We made sure to read the card on the way back and were very disappointed to find out that it is against the law for foreigners to be "overly drunk" and engage in prostitution and whoring while in Shenzhen.
All in all it was a crazy day, but like we keep saying, "Welcome to China!"