Tissues are expensive

Remember how I said that in China you can tell a luxurious restaurant by the fact that it has paper towels in the bathroom?

Well not only paper towels, but napkins and kleenex are usually "extras" in China too. You sort of have to have your own with you at most times or purchase them from the place that you're eating at. They're sold everywhere and only cost like 50 cents for 5 packs of 5 tissues, but you will still rarely see them at restaurants for free. I think it's their method of paper conservation as well as making a teeny bit of money on the side.

Because of this hassle and money requirement, I saw a lot of guys (especially taxi drivers) on the street forgoing the whole tissue part of blowing their nose. They would just lean over, pinch one of their nostrils with a finger and blow out the other. I'd see boogers shoot onto the street like a ball of wet flies, and then they would repeat with the other nostril.

I mean, why waste a good tissue and 3 cents and create more trash if you can just clear your pipes in 5 seconds with nothing to clean up right?

I'm not judging them by the way. I spit a LOT of phlegm on the ground while I was in China. I blame the air pollution. :) I didn't do any open air nose blowing though. It felt too abnormal.