A morning walk in my underwear.

China has a simple approach to Health and Safety - there isn't any. Unfenced, unlit holes may be found in many streets whether  broad daylight or the dead of night. I've tripped down a few myself. A colleague once fell down one as we were walking through an alley from her apartment to the main road. One minute she was there and the next she was in a hole, fortunately unharmed beyond scrapes and bruises.

This cavalier approach extends to building sites (where unsecured loads of bricks in wheelbarrows are precariously hauled up five floors on ropes), roadworks,(which are often unsignposted and unguarded), driving (where the preferred overtaking location seems to be on blind bends) and, of course, electrical fitting.

I fell foul of this on one cold winter morning. I had just stripped off for a shower. I went in, turned the water on and the main fuse blew. Now this isn't an unusual occurrence, fuses here often blow, but the fuse box location is invariably on the landing in the stairwell outside the apartment. I pulled on my boxer shorts, stepped into my flip flops and nipped out to throw the switch. As I did so the door closed behind me.

Naturally my money, keys and phone were all inside the apartment and none of my neighbours would have been able to help as none of them spoke any English at all.

Fortunately I had a spare set of keys at another teacher's apartment. Unfortunately she lived about two miles away. So at seven on a very cold morning, in my underwear and flip flops I marched through the streets, all the time praying that she would be at home.

She was. After I'd recounted my woes she gave me the keys, a bright pink womans T- shirt and the money for a cab.

Of course dressed like that, I could find no cab driver willing to stop for me so, cursing all the way I marched back and let myself in.

You may be wondering where the connection with electrical standards is. Well, when I flipped the switch it tripped again immediately so I checked the wiring. The wire from the water heater ran behind a mirror and lifting it off the wall I discovered that two loose cables had been joined together with sellotape which had, naturally burned through over time, allowing the wires to touch. Hence the short that tripped the fuse.

This "good enough is good enough" attitude is pretty common and you can't allow yourself to worry about it or you would worry yourself into an early grave (if the wiring didn't get you first.)

You just need to be extra vigilant and remember that standards that you are used to may not apply here.