When YOU take Esther to the village for the one-hour bus trip, do they give you a seat for Esther?

Could it be that they would not bother doing it for a Chinese woman with a child, but that they would do it for a tall Caucasian with the same child?

That's a jolly good point, Arthur. I don't know as I have not been with them when it was crowded. If that is true it would make them pretty shallow indeed.

Some habits they have in transit are the same the world over, like sitting in the aisle seat(baggage goes on free seat) so anybody who wants to sit will maybe not press to sit there. I always sit by the window as I do not want to be a moron. I make a point of gesturing there's a seat going begging next to me.

China "land of courtesy", WTF! Someone was smoking the wacky tobaccy when they came up with that one!

Courtesy only extends so far. If I board a town bus with Esther the reason I get offered a seat is because most people are not travelling too far anyway, so their niceness doesn't cost them much. However, if the wife takes the girl on the village bound bus which takes an hour to get there nobody will offer a seat and poor Esther will have to stand and droop for an hour.

{and yes, 'the wife/the old girl' and 'the girl/the daughter' are signs of affection in England. Not a sexist thing as the wife will often refer to 'the old man' NOT THE WHITE OLD MAN, Fiffi hahaha!}