The other day I was walking down a street here in Xining…minding my own business.  I noticed quite a few people were intently staring at me.

It felt like "more" attention than is normal for a celebrity like me.  It just felt that way to me.

It wasn’t until later that I realized that I was wearing a small, form-fitting white hat to keep myself warm.  White hats are normal enough, right?  Especially on a cold day when you want to keep your noggin’ from freezing.

Except…

When you live in a city with thousands of Hui (Muslim) men who also wear small white hats…
and who often sport long goatees (much like mine!)  It must have been shocking to see this "hen gao de Waiguoren Hui Zu"(very tall foreigner Hui guy) cruising down the road in his Vans.  Scandalous even.