When and where is the next meeting and what is the book to be discussed?

Don't forget Taiwan. I lived there a total of about 5 years, really liked the people, the savvy that comes with free speech/press, the food, the lower level of serious poverty, many things - but I gather the intended discussion here is the PRC-mainland.

@ tiger: you may have a point here about farmer's dogs etc., but if you get the dog as a puppy and treat him well, you're problem not going to have this problem. I doubt if many farmers' dogs are of any particular breed, illegal or otherwise. Note that farm kids grow up with farmer's dogs, successfully, for the most part.

Michael's experience written above indicates to me that the control freaks in national bureaucracies are either paranoid as hell, stupid as hell, or that they really hate people.

Maybe the three syndromes run together.

Must be 3-4 years ago I took a train from Kunming to Guangzhou from the main train station. I've done this many times, but this was the only time the check-baggage guys wanted to take my Swiss army knife - and they had a big pile of knives they'd already confiscated in a tray. The knife has a personal sentimental value to me, as it is not only an excellent knife but was a gift from a former student. I said No man now look if you're going to take the knife from me I'll just turn around and not take the train. After some discussion the guy said something like "Oh - well, then stick it deep within your luggage somewhere". I did and got on the train and all was cool.
I'm still not sure what this was about, unless the check-baggage guys had seen an opportunity and collected a hell of a lot of good pocket knives for personal redistribution/sale, or unless they got some new broom running their operation who was being meticulous about his new job.
Never happened to me again and I've never seen these guys confiscating knives at the train station again, but I no longer carry a pocket knife when traveling by long-distance public transportation.