Che Guevara is as popular in Zhengzhou as Chairman Mao.

Pictures of the Latin American revolutionary are as omnipresent here as they were on U.S. college campuses in the late 1960s. His iconic image – the one with the beard and the beret — can be seen on posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs, billboards and baseball caps. I even saw his picture on the cover of a basketball magazine, superimposed over shots of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and other former NBA stars.

I knew that Che was a doctor, a writer and a guerilla leader, but I didn’t realize he was also a hoops legend.

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I recently took my first ride on an electric scooter, which is the most popular form of private transportation in Zhengzhou besides the bicycle. It’s a cheap, efficient and quiet way to get around a city where traffic jams are a constant nightmare.

Charging scooters can be a challenge, though. There are public charging stations where you can quickly give your battery enough juice for a short trip. But if you want to get a full charge, it can take several hours. And since most Chinese people live in apartments, that can require some ingenuity.

That’s why you see long extension cords hanging from apartment windows down to the street, where the scooters are parked. My neighbor Chuck, whose family has three scooters, charges them via a cord that drops from his third-floor apartment. He needed an even longer extension for his previous dwelling, which was on the seventh floor.

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The legal drinking age in China is 18, but the law is rarely enforced and many kids start drinking beer before they are teenagers.

My students tell me that liquor stores and bars never ask for proof of age. “They don’t care how old you are,’’ one sophomore said. “If you pay for the drink, there will be no problem.’’

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There are very few quick conversations in China.

Ask a question that requires a simple yes or no answer, and you’re likely to get a 10-minute response. Ask a complicated question and be prepared to pull up a chair.

Part of it is the language: English is more concise than Chinese. But culture also plays a role. In the U.S., where instant gratification is the norm, we want our information right away. In China, there doesn’t seem to be any rush. One question can easily turn into a lengthy dialogue.

The Chinese are a patient people, which is probably why they’ve been around for thousands of years.