In the original post was quite clear that I didn’t see the actual event in dongguanG and listed it here because it was the major event talked about in others’ comments and posts.

You are more than welcome to discount both my security warnings and the veracity of my (and others’) experiences because of typos. Again, if you’ll notice the original post, I put the even in as an “oh by the way” item since these types of events are reported regularly in the Chinese press–it’s not new, it’s not unique to dongguanG and I was just saying: be careful.

If you read Chinese papers or watch Chinese news this would not be a surprise to you–it’s not to anyone that does.

Obviously, the story about someone being hacked to death with a machete on the street got alot of attention. People are even questioning its veracity. So in your follow-up post, you wrote:

“I’ve been here, in SZ, for 7 and in Asia for almost 20 years now and I’ve seen a lot of stuff. Here are the details with dates/places so there is no misunderstanding.”

” * Hacking on the street—Monday, Feb 2, 2009.”

But you said that “two other people” actually saw the “group of people” hack a man to death with “a” machete. (I guess they stuck around long enough to see them pass it around?) So are any of these other things on the list things that other people actually did the firsthand witnessing for?

I would be curious as to which town in Dongguan it was. I hope it was not the town I live in now, because I do occasionally go out in it to eat and shop after dark, but now have been warned that what seems like a reasonably nice commercial area with shops and restaurants is actually overrun with violent criminals. Before I used to wander alone in dark alleys while carrying lots of cash, but now I need to reassess if it’s worth it to be here in this country!

I want to take your advice seriously, but I have a problem doing so: You’ve been in Shenzhen seven years and don’t know how to spell the name of the next city up?

Just one minor request: When making your “security alerts” in the future, please be careful to distinguish among things that you have seen, things people have told you about, and things that happened a decade ago and/or in another country (“Bangkok ’98″). Thanks!