Wuhan March 2011: Of spitting and littering

I sat in for my students' presentations on the similarities and differences between Singapore and Wuhan. Spitting and littering came up prominently.
I have to agree with them on the spitting part. The Chinese and probably in a lot of other societies spitting in public is nothing to be frowned upon but I find it disgusting. What makes it more disgusting in China is the sound effect that comes with the spitting. The sound of throat clearing is like a call. 'ON GUARD!'
We have to look out from whichever direction the spit will come from. Why oh why do they have to do that?
Second that came out too often in the presentation is littering. Personally, in Singapore, I will not allow anyone to litter either. How can anyone possibly do when there is a rubbish bin within 10m? Yet, some clean green Singaporean still miss the bin and there will be litter on the ground.
In that sense how different are we from the Chinese? They don't have a bin every 10m so they just throw their litter wherever convenient. How then do we explain the sightings of rubbish on the floors of my beautiful Singapore? With that I think, the fine for littering shouldn't just be a mere $500 but add to that a knock on that empty head of those litter bugs.
I'm thankful that spitting is not an issue but I still think littering is a bit of a problem. Well until we overcome that problem, our streets will always be lined with rubbish bins.