It is lashing with rain in Beijing. This is braw, because it reminds me of my hometown in Glasgow, Scotland, and the rain will also cool the temperature in Beijing. It has been sweltering in Beijing, so the cooler air is very welcome, for me anyway. 

When it rains in Beijing, it can be heavy, thunderous, and soggy on the feet if you are not careful because there are many small puddles.

The ingenuity of people when it rains always surprises me—cycling with an umbrella as an example. Even better, pulling up with a cart full of umbrellas and flogging them for a quick buck outside the Shopping Malls or the Metro Station. Smart thinking. 

Another great example is the street vendor swapping out the prepared fruit for the customers for the emergency umbrella offer. I love it.

Yet another example of ingenuity was when I was walking behind a well-dressed man carrying his shoes while wearing sandals. I was confused at that first and was trying to figure out the why behind this snazzy look?

Maybe his shoe leaks or his shoes are too tight, or they were someone else’s shoes? Who knows?

I walked behind him for a bit, and I continued to be curious about this look. Surely his shoes are built for this weather. Maybe he was trying to protect them from getting wet, I thought, possible avoid getting damp stained. But they looked like decent enough shoes, so why this look?

I didn’t get it.

I threw some other possibilities about his choice of footwear for the rain. He was walking through the shallow puddles while other people were dancing around them. He was quick-paced and not too worried about getting his feet wet. Was that his game to move faster than others or to wash his feet? Nah, surely not. Lol.

I was curious until I saw him fish something out of his pocket. I heard the blip blip of a fancy car unlocking. This guy opened his swanky car door, sat in the big leather seat. He pulled off his sandals, put them in a plastic bag and put on his shoes, started his car and off he went.

Ah, I thought. Obvious.

He wanted to keep his car carpet dry and clean.

Maybe.

‘Occam’s razor is a principle of theory construction or evaluation according to which, other things equal, explanations that posit fewer entities, or fewer kinds of entities, are to be preferred to explanations that posit more. It is sometimes misleadingly characterised as a general recommendation of simpler explanations over more complex ones.’

Encyclopedia Britannica

---