It seems that from a very early age the Chinese are trained to sleep anywhere.  Often on the metro I’ll watch toddlers dropping off to sleep in their Mother’s (usually it is the mother) arms.  It takes them next to no time to fall asleep and there is usually very little fuss made by the child.  Boy or girl, it usually just gently falls asleep.  Whether this is because parents usually only ever have one child and so their life revolves around that child’s body clock or whether it is because these infants are carried everywhere (there are very, very few prams to be seen in this city, although over the last few months we have noticed a marked increase) I don’t know.  Children up to the age of about 2 are always in their parents arms.  None of them seem to toddle anywhere outside, unless they are playing very close to home.

Anyway something in their upbringing means that this ability to fall asleep just about anywhere, at anytime, without it appearing to feeling vulnerable, carries on into adulthood.  Richard says that at work, after lunch, many will put their heads down on their desks and go to sleep for half and hour or so.

Out and about, it appears to me, that it doesn’t have to be after lunch.  A rest can be taken anytime.  Anywhere. On the metro:

in the street, feet on the scooter:

lying on the scooter

A flat-bed tricycle seems to be just designed for the job

In your shop:

or making use of the furniture for sale in someone else’s shop:

and if all else fails, bring a strap with you, hang it between two trees and make your own mini-hammock: