How many of you have been to China?

My Chinese friend from college has been messaging me about how awesome China is for tourists. I've been thinking about going to China for a while now, but I'm sure my experience as a non-Asian person who don't speak Chinese will be significantly different from a Chinese person. Especially because of the tensions between China and us in recent years, I'm concerned about how locals will treat an American.

Be interesting to hear from you guys on your experience in China. Other than Beijing and Shanghai, I heard Shenzhen is pretty cool with all its high techs, Chengdu is known for having the highest concentration of hot girls, and Suzhou, the hometown of IM Pei that has thousands of years of history.

Would be nice to keep politics out of this, but will it materially affect your experience?

 

I've lived in China off and on and even have a 10 year visa. My experiences have been nothing but extremely positive. Most of the ppl I met with don't talk politics or really care about US/China issues. Unlike the west, in general no one talks politics, at least when I was around. 

If you want a easy place to start, i would suggest Hong Kong (post-covid though). HK is like China for beginners - super easy to get around and English is everywhere. The mainland is a bit tricky depending where you go.  Getting around certain parts of the mainland can be an issue if you don't speak the local language. Also it goes without saying, but install WeChat & make sure you can pay via it as some places don't take credit cards or cash.

Have a great trip!!!! 

P.S. You have to try hotpot, esp in Chengdu...go for the extra spicy version. ;)

 

I was thinking the same when I read that lol

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

Well, that's partly inaccurate. I grew up in China and did highschool in NJ, so I had some personal exp on this. If you want to talk politics, say talk shit abt commies, that's fine between friends or families. As long as the conversation stays private, nothing happens. One of my biggest childhood memory is when I was a kid having lunch with my dad, he would like talk shit abt communism, corruption, how retarded the king/president is. and I myself often say a lot of negative comments about the CCP on wechat(its like ig or snapchat) group. That's allowed. What's not allowed is if u go to social media, say weibo, it's Twitter in China, and say things like that. Your comments will get deleted and your acc will get muted. If the commentary was too much, u even get arrested for that, but it won't be jail, just 7days in something like jail. Anyway things are very different comparing 40yrs ago when culture revolution took place.

Most western people think Chinese don't have the freedom of speech. It's just biased. tbh I don't think anyone here has the real freedom of speech. The only diff is in China people don't get a say in politics and in US, people can't have other opinions on the whole pc/woke thing, like that professor lost her tenure just because she said her students with bad grades are mainly minorities.

And do Chinese people talk abt politics?the answer is they certainly do. it's just in most times their stands are alike rn. as in how amazing communism is, and capitalism is bad. I don't think it's their fault. People are lambs, they go where the gov leads them. The rise of nationalism and etc in china has a lot to do with the end of globalization and the shifting of world economy paradigm. this is just an inevitable process within the cycle. just like what happened with German in 1920. I'm still a student, just my 2 cents, correct me if anything wrong.

 

How did you make the move to working in China? Do you speak Mandarin?

 

Took a school trip to China in college for 2 weeks. Was treated like a king, I’m decently tall so everyone thought I was an NBA basketball player. Everywhere I went people asked to take pictures with me. Great experience, went to Beijing, Shanghai, Zhuhai, and Yangshuo. Should go if you get chance.

 

i'm 5'9, would I get the same treatment??

You’re definitely tall for China. 
 

-

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I have been to China and Hong Kong many times and always had an amazing experience. People are exceptionally nice, hospitable and intelligent. You can't expect everyone to speak English, but a surprising amount of people do speak at least a little bit (more in the cities, less so in rural areas).
The food is amazing, so is the culture. One of my side hobbies are electronics - you can imagine that my wallet had a hard time there.

Odd things I noticed:
Western credit cards are less accepted, major brands do accept them though (hotels, big restaurants, ..)
People are very keen to speak with me, I assume they don't see many White Westerners often. But there is a sizeable Expat community in larger cities.
Work is done differently, the face-time mentality is strong and people do significant hours.
Parties in China are amazing, so much fun.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  1-800-273-8255
 

Been there for work - no issues at all.  Very interesting culture and much dif than the US.  Not nearly as developed as I would’ve imagined given news articles.  Overall great experience. 

 

I also have zero cultural or familial ties to China (White Euro/American guy), but I've been to China many times. Mostly Tier 1 cities, but a few non-Tier 1 cities as well.

The first time I visited was as a young kid (10 or 11) on a family trip to Beijing. Did all the standard tourist stuff - great wall, forbidden palace, etc.

The next time I visited was the summer before college when I went on a unplanned, spur of the moment side-trip to Zhuhai while visiting Macau. Zhuhai is a Tier 2 city on the south that borders Macau, but it's very nice and well-developed for a Tier 2 city.

At this point, I didn't really speak Chinese. My high school didn't offer the language at the time (it does now), so I had to resort to self-studying with CDs (how quaint, right?) and I found a native Chinese speaker as a practice partner, but I didn't make much progress.

After arriving at college, I immediately enrolled in "Intensive Chinese" in the fall semester (you supposedly cover two-semesters of Chinese in one-semester), and I continued the same in spring semester (another two-semesters crammed into one-semester), so I supposedly finished 1st year and 2nd year Chinese after just one academic year.

At this point, my listening comprehension was reasonable and I could hold a basic conversation, but I decided I wanted more, so I spent a semester abroad in Beijing. Total immersion which helped listening and speaking, but reading and writing also improved dramatically. Also visited other parts of China during this time including Hangzhou which is the city that Jack Ma is originally from.

Not longer after returning home from study abroad, I made it out to China again. This time for the Olympics where I volunteered as a translator/guide for Team USA.

After that, some random trips to Shanghai here and there. Last time I visited was summer 2017. Would love to visit again when the world returns to some semblance of normal.

 

I want to learn Chinese. I think the United States will get fucked in the next 100 years.

 

...but China will get fucked in the next 30 years

but Taiwan may get fucked in the next 4 years....

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Most Helpful

Lived and studied in China for a number of years, lived in HK for a decade and went to China regularly, have a ten year visa. 
 

China is in so many ways, a magnificent country. The food, history, people, change of pace and the “foreignness” of it all. I still remember my first day arriving as a student in China. What a different world. But not. I still have a number of great friends in China across a number of places. I can’t speak highly enough of my time there or my experiences. 

That said, I feel that what they are doing in Xinjiang is nothing short of apartheid and essentially ethnic cleansing. And that’s not including how they have treated Tibetans or other groups. As such, I have absolutely zero desire to currently go to China and support this regime directly with my hard earned dollars. I feel that the similarities are not so different from pre-WW2 Germany. 
 

I will state that this is my personal view and not meant to spur a debate or to convince anyone in either direction. It’s just how I see things. 

The one thing I will say that I have really realized after leaving Asia is this: there is a lot more to the world than Asia. Asia has a ton of people and cool things and lots going on! And that’s great! But there is a whole world to check out, see and experience, whether for business or for pleasure. 
 

PS: someone mentioned that HK is “China-lite” and a great place to start. I agree, but may I humbly suggest Taipei/Taiwan as a criminally underrated idea? Mandarin spoken, great history, culture, food, super nice people, fantastic natural beauty, easy on the wallet, easy to get around and a lot of fun. And for those who care politically, it’s a democracy and no visa needed for many nationalities. 
 

PPS: for those flying through China en route to other Asian destinations, it is worth looking up to see if you are eligible for a transit visa. Essentially this is a “free way to check out Beijing/Shanghai and some other places for 48-96? Hours. All you need is proof of onward journey to a third country post layover in China. Worth a google. The transit visa is taken care of at the airport so no need to send in for a visa etc. 
 

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

I studied abroad twice in college - once was in Beijing for 3.5mo - I spoke basic Mandarin. It was quite a culture shock to western life. Many things very different in China. Had a good time overall. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

China is alright, I spent 3 weeks traveling there and 1 week in Taiwan at end of '19. I hit up Xian, Pingyao, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hongcun, Huangshan Mountains, Zhangjiajie and have also been to HK on a separate trip. IMO there are way more fun places to hit up in Asia, unless you are into Chinese culture or want a better perspective of life in China, I wouldn't recommend visiting very highly (comments not applying to HK + Taiwan). Some random thoughts

City-wise, the cities are super clean and I enjoyed my time in Xian, Suzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu. Overall, Chinese cities to me weren't as exciting nightlife-wise as other places in Asia (see: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) and some cities like Beijing are not very aesthetic. Also, women were not attractive at all especially when compared with cities in countries I just mentioned. That being said cities are super clean, people are surprisingly kind and willing to work with you if you don't speak the language or don't have WePay. Food in Xian and Chengdu were both amazing but holy fuck, avoid stinky tofu. Just thinking of that makes me gag, so fowl.

The nature scene in China is pure lulz, the national parks are basically giant theme parks with fucking mcdonalds on top of mountains and elevators/escalators everywhere. Zhangjiajie and Huangshan are beautiful but I didn't enjoy my time much as it felt like a god damn zoo there.

In terms of travel, it is one of the tougher places to travel as a foreigner. Not only do you have language issues but payments is a pain in the ass - all vendors accept WePay and AliPay which you can't fund without a chinese bank account. You can get Chinese friends to transfer you money in app but it's annoying. Obviously larger merchants will accept Visa but that isn't great. Also VPN is a pain in the ass to use and even services like ExpressVPN take a bit to connect at times. I wouldn't let that stop you from visiting but worth knowing.

All in all, if you haven't traveled much put China way lower on your list and go visit Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. China is aiteeee

 

AndyLouis

i lived in Suzhou in 2005-06, had a really good experience.

Did Suzhou live up to its hype as having the prettiest girls in China?  I passed through Suzhou on way to Shanghai in 2006. 

Have compassion as well as ambition and you’ll go far in life. Check out my blog at MemoryVideo.com
 

On the whole, China is pretty mid. I'd even say mainland is a bad tourist destination depending on what sort of experience you want. I lived in the mainland and in HK for a total of a year (60/40), so not talking out of my ass. But, if you're just going with your college buddy (who is probably relatively wealthy), China will be super fun. Bonus points if you're white, tall, and/or good looking. Also, no one is going to give you a hard time. The US and China may be rivals but the citizens are not.

I'm personally a big fan of the mega club scene. It's really weird. Music is an amalgamation of dubstep and pop that are both a little too old to be new and too new to be a throwback. The bouncers are from Africa and speak English and Chinese fluently and the exotic dancers are Russian. Sort of an otherworldly experience, but great for blowing off steam with few/no repercussions. 

The history/cultural stuff is overrated. The highlights like forbidden city, Tiananmen, and less touristy parts of the great wall deliver, but, for a lot of reasons, the in between and smaller details feel synthetic. But, if you're hanging with your friend you won't notice and should have an awesome time. 

 

Clocks

I'm personally a big fan of the mega club scene.

Mix + Vics Beijing

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Been there, done that, might go back to Hong Kong. But with all the other places in the world, China ranks pretty low as a travel/leisure destination for me. I'm also not a fan of China's social credit score, mass surveillance, etc (and yeah, I know Big Tech spies on us, but I've deactivated my Facebook, Twitter, reddit, etc accounts) not sure how dangerous it is, but I don't want to voluntarily put myself into that kind of system.

 

Recently graduated and will be starting PE analyst position in China soon (context: I'm white, US Citizen, born in Eastern Europe) I have a 10-year tourist visa and have been to Shanghai and Hangzhou - both very impressive and interesting cities. My wife is Chinese and so I have a bit of an inside-track into how things work. Having been born in a post-soviet country, I have slightly higher-than-average tolerance for sub-developed country dynamics so I can pretty easily overlook the more "provincial" aspects of Chinese society.

You have to remember that while China is industrializing and advancing incredibly fast, culture and society's overall mentality takes longer to catch up. Hong Kong having been a direct British proxy for 100 years was able to adopt more western culture and customs while also maintaining the Chinese/Guangdong culture.

Mainland China did not experience this, so while the country does have a large number of extremely educated and skilled people, it's not uncommon to still see things like people blatantly spitting on the road or seeing parents let their small children pee or poop on the sidewalk. You won't see the pee/poop thing in Shanghai or Beijing, but go more inland and some of these more backward behaviors become more common. It should be noted though that the youth is much more aligned with developed-country values and customs, so most of the weird stuff will come from older generations.

Also the fact that every "hip" and modern place will have regular toilets but squat toilets are also not uncommon in large parts of the country.

 

thebrofessor 

I don't know what you are into so the below is very general...

In Asia: Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam.

More off the beaten path/roughing it Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia (I have not been to Laos or Philippines so can't comment).

Malaysia and Taiwan (and to a much lesser extent Korea) are underrated by tourists in general. Amazing food, culture, nature and easy on the wallet. Can travel really well and not break the budget, at least in Malaysia and Taiwan. Japan is Japan. Nuff said. Thailand is super diverse and I tell everyone that Bangkok is the ultimate Asian city and that if someone is going to Asia just once, Bangkok is the place to go. Colors, nightlife, history, culture, a true mix of SE Asia, South Asia, China and all of the influences all kind of chaotically co-existing.

Middle East/North Africa: Turkey, Morocco.

Turkey must have been one of my favorite countries to visit. It's this crazy mix of Europe and the Middle East. Friendly people, amazing food and crazy history. Easy on the wallet and Istanbul is one of the world's great cities. Morocco, I've only been to Casablanca (twice on long layovers) so I got to wander about. Similar to Turkey in that there is this real French and North African influence mixing. Hospitality of strangers is incredible and good food. I have heard raves about Fez, Marrakesh and other places and would love to check out.

I can't put in Egypt or UAE, since well, I've never been to the former and the latter I've stayed with friends and didn't get much of a cultural experience out of it aside from a day trip to Abu Dhabi. There is cool nature outside of the main cities in the UAE but you can probably do some of that on a layover. I have heard great things about Jordan and Oman, though from many different kinds of people.

One of the things I recommend to many people is to make the most of layovers. If you can find a cheaper fare that has a long layover, try to get out of the airport for a few hours to hang out, get a meal, walk around or even overnight. If you don't like the place, nothing lost. If you like it a lot, it could be your next vacation.

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

As a PRC citizen,

Chinese ppl are usually not good at verbal English, either because they are shy (mostly younger generation) or lack of English skills ( older generations)

But they are VERY FRIENDLY to foreigners, especially ppl from US or Europe. So pls smile when you talk to them. :-)

As the most voted post mentioned, Chinese ppl don’t talk about politics. But that is not because they are not interested but because they dare not to do this in public. (Think about North Korea and you will understand)

I haven’t come back China for almost 2 years due to COVID. I really miss my hometown!

Safe trip OP

 

Just went back to see family last year right before covid broke out. Visited 6 cities all pleasant but air quality differs drastically from southeast being pretty bad and the western side of China being better. One thing to warn you is that there's cameras literally everywhere. You'd get your fingerprints and eye scan done right after you land. If you don't mind the ccp having that info great! Just wasn't aware they needed that much info.

 

US and western media on China is a joke. I have travelled through out China pre-covid. Its pretty amazing and eye opening. Bring pepto bismo as stomach needs to adjust, otherwise you will eat well and unusual!

1st to 5th tier cities. Just keep an open mind as bus stations and some remote hotels are still developing (IE squat toilets)... Everyone is really friendly. For language just get a translator hand machine. U can use iPhone but some places wifi may be off or slow,but this has advanced faster than the US.

Very few people care about US/China politics. They have better things to do than to listen to US political idiots.

 

Wanted to move abroad there after studying some Mandarin in college. Moved to Beijing to work in consulting and stayed there for five years. I really enjoyed my time in China, although there were aspects about daily living that did grind on you even after a while (such as air and water quality). But overall I enjoyed the people, my work there, and the atmosphere of living abroad. I highly suggest anyone who gets the opportunity to live/work in another country and broaden their horizons. 

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

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