China General
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You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
General info:
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/China (preferred, the 'new' one)
http://wikitravel.org/en/China
Hotels:
http://hotel.elong.net/
http://english.ctrip.com/hotels/
Buses:
http://bus.ctrip.com/
http://www.chinabusguide.com/
Trains:
http://www.cnvol.com/
http://www.travelchinacheaper.com/how-to-buy-china-train-tickets-online
Expat restaurants/supermarkets/bars:
http://listings.echinacities.com/
Apps:
Pleco (dictionary)
baidu maps/google maps
VPNs:
Astril/VPNNinja
4chan: get a pass or use a vpn or both (might be blocked now)
(VPNs might get you b& on 4chan if used outside of /trv/)
previous >>1095067
Trying to setup a PayPal account without luck. No idea why everything has to be so difficult when China is involved. Don't judge me, but I am trying to buy some World of Warcraft game time. I have a UnionPay card, haven't been able to get a visa card, and I would appreciate it if someone could say that it is possible (PayPal).
Someone tell me about Guiyang.
How farmer and backwards is the city? How are the average girls? I know they don't have a metro yet, and foreigners are supposedly still rare, though the expat community is already growing fast.
I'm going to be in China for 2 years. What's some MUST SEE shit while I'm there?
Obviously the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Terracotta Warriors, but what else?
>>1117683
Been there, it's alright but I wouldn't recommend, I was there during Chinese New Year to visit my now ex-girlfriend and her parents. To answer your questions:
It's not really backwards or anything, just nothing amazing or interesting.
Well my ex is a Sichuan lady, but yea some ugly, some nice girls I would say.
Indeed no metro.
The only foreigner I saw was at a tourist site about 1 hour drive outside the city one day after Chinese New Year, so there might be a community, but you'll have to stay longer than me to find that out.
>>1117695
You have two years, I don't know about your free time, but you should plan to visit cities.
I've seen a lot of Beijing in about a week, this means most 'important' stuff.
Didn't go to Xi'An, would recommend to go to Guilin-Yangshuo, Suzhou, just many cities in general, also rural areas that might be difficult to get to.
I am planning a trip to Xinjiang, because I have a friend that lives there, don't tell the government!
>>1117742
The tourist place is Qingyan Ancient Town, was alright, they have the spiciest raddish and apparently only available there. If you are there go to the busy stand their the best, you will breath fire.
>>1117742
Thanks for the info. Were you stared at everywhere you went there, or approached by locals for a picture or anything?
Did you partake in the nightlife at all?
>>1117757
Staring went something like this:
They look at me, they looked at my girl, the would whisper some stuff and they would look at me again, for as long as they could see us. Jogging in the park was hilarious though, staring as if a giant was running towards them.
Approached for pictures not so much, but more often in other parts of China, perhaps because I was with the family or my ex all the time that they wouldn't approach.
I didn't see any of the nightlife, for that I would recommend Hangzhou or Shanghai. My nightlife was more the traditional Chinese things during New Year and doing stuff with my ex and or her family, mostly getting stuffed with food and my belly filled with wine.
I also spotted this in Guiyang, made me laugh because the Chinese are unlikely able to read let alone understand it.
>>1117626
So, I'm not even kidding you here, I'm thinking of becoming a Shaolin Monk, would anyone know anything on how to achieve that?
>>1117762
Cool. Go ahead and post more pics of the city if you want. I'd like to see what it looks like before I commit to moving there.
>>1117765
Go to the Shaolin Temple on Song Mountain, maybe?
They are more than willing to take your sheke--- ehem... I mean yuan and let you live with them.
>>1117762
>those banners
"Double your money in 5 years"
"16% return per year"
When China's empty-concrete-box bubble collapses, it's going to get ugly.
>>1117773
But I wanna learn their ways, and become a shaolin warrior, would they accept me? Also I didn't understand that last part
>>1117779
>Also I didn't understand that last part
Silly goy. Did you think they would let you join and have them teach you their ways for free?
On a more serious note, everyone in China knows that the Shaolin institution has essentially been perverted by money-grabbers exploiting its brand value. The previous (or current; it wouldn't surprise me) abbot was a corrupt motherfucker who solicited prostitues and allegedly jet-setted to South East Asia to indulge in a hedonistic lifestyle.
If you are attracted to martial arts, I suggest you read up on reputable martial arts schools in China.
If you are attracted to Buddhism, I suggest you search for monasteries in China willing to take you in (which is unlikely because they cannot legally accept foreigners as one of theirs for more than temporary (duanqi chujia) stays. I should know: I went to one.
南无阿弥陀佛!
>>1117786
Thanks for the info, I guess it really is just a dream of mine to be a monk, seeing that it's not gonna happen...
>>1117626
>General info:
>https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/China (preferred, the 'new' one)
>http://wikitravel.org/en/China
Why's Wikivoyage better? Are people moving away from wikitravel?
I've been using independenttravel a bit, but it seems marred by personal bias sometimes
What's the chances of getting an English teaching job with TEFL certificate (140 hours), then moving on to teach science?
No previous education experience
>>1117762
>that pic
I can't read Chinese, what's the rest of the sign about?
>>1117829
Quite unclear, can't read it either and don't recall what it was about.
What I forgot to say though, Guiyang has and correct me if I'm wrong, the largest park in a city in China or something like this...
A temple at the top of a mountain, where I followed all the rituals to pray to the Chinese buddah after New Year and what not, great experience and would recommend. Most temples are very similar in China, but this one was had some features not seen elsewhere.
>>1117863
Qianling Mountain Park is the name.
Fun fact, after the mountain climb I got sick and had my experiences in a Chinese hospital that was partially under construction.
>>1117682
>>1117680
>Trying to setup a PayPal account with UnionPay, so that I can buy stuff outside of China. Not going well. Anyone have any positive experience with something like this? Don't judge me, but I am trying to buy some World of Warcraft game time
I got myself a credit card in Hong Kong to solve that problem. That wasn't so easy either...
UnionPay/Palpay is possible in Hong Kong for residents but the signup process is intimidating. I'm not sure that it's possible for non-residents in Hong Kong.
I'm also not sure about paypal in China for non-citizens, I think you need an ID number.
The best bet is to get your boyfriend to open an account for you on a card that you deposit money into. I use my wife's card for stuff like alipay and it saves an unimaginable amount of hassle.
Just be very, very sure not to use it on a VPN because if you do, they might think it got hacked because it looks to them like it's getting used in foreign countries. That can get an Alipay account locked down.
>>1117683
>Someone tell me about Guiyang
I only know the slum area near the old station, that's a real Chinese slum that's kind of built on two levels with the upstairs being decent and the lower level being a shithole with hookers and beggars everywhere.
It's definitely an obscure place for foreigners. The terrain is amazing though, all these mountains and gorges with the city built around them. Some seriously high-altitude highways in the place.
>>1117695
>2 years. What's some MUST SEE shit while I'm there?
Go climb every famous mountain. There are a lot of them but you have the time.
Luoyang, Datong, or Pingyao? I'm going from Beijing to Xi'an, and wanted to go via one or two of these places.
Also, anything particularly intersting in Tianjin?
>>1117765
>I'm thinking of becoming a Shaolin Monk
You and a thousand other kung fu sinaboos.
>>1117773
>They are more than willing to take your sheke--- ehem... I mean yuan and let you live with them.
This. The temple takes some students and if you don't make the grade then there are dozens of very, very large martial arts academies in dengfeng (the town outside the temple) that will take you.
I think the temple only takes a limited number of students, they get way more applicants than they can handle but the academies teach the same kung fu. I assume you're there for the kung fu.
They have two kinds of monks, those there for the kung fu and those there for the Buddhism. They're kept separate I think, the kung fu stuff is a commercial enterprise. It's not super expensive by western standards I don't think.
>>1117786
>If you are attracted to martial arts, I suggest you read up on reputable martial arts schools in China
I'd try Daoist martial arts. Wudan mountain has a similar thing going on but they're way, way less commercial. They might get there but for now they're still not too bad.
Also, soft style > hard style. But that's just me.
>>1117778
>"Double your money in 5 years"
>"16% return per year"
>When China's empty-concrete-box bubble collapses, it's going to get ugly.
Indeed it is but the Chinese government is working hard to prevent it collapsing. Chinese I know half-believe that the new two child policy is basically about making more buyers for apartments.
Those returns aren't entirely unreasonable. My wife bought, lived in and sold apartments every few years and she got returns like that, made a lot of money upgrading apartments every few years. Of course, no guarantee that it will continue that way.
>>1117792
>Thanks for the info, I guess it really is just a dream of mine to be a monk, seeing that it's not gonna happen...
If you want to be a monk, go to Thailand. If you want Kung Fu, that's easily doable.
But you obviously don't really believe any of the religion (and you shouldn't) so why not just go study kung fu in an academy? That's really easy to do.
>>1117795
>Why's Wikivoyage better? Are people moving away from wikitravel?
wikivoyage is part of the wikimedia foundation, wikitravel is commercial, it got bought by a travel agent. In both cases, the editors are volunteers, one of them is just exploiting volunteers for shekels.
>>1117803
>What's the chances of getting an English teaching job with TEFL certificate (140 hours), then moving on to teach science?
If you have a science degree then the chances are potentially pretty good. You could teach Science in English at an international school or some universities.
>>1117829
>I can't read Chinese, what's the rest of the sign about?
Which sign?
The Nietzsche one is too low-res to read but I can make out two or three characters.
Maybe the English says "Financial Center" underneath? The Chinese characters that I can make out don't mean much by themselves. I can (maybe) see: 文 and 小
The first is wen, means language. The second is xiao, means small or sometimes children. It *could* be for an English school.
>>1117886
>Luoyang, Datong, or Pingyao? I'm going from Beijing to Xi'an, and wanted to go via one or two of these places.
I'd take Luoyang over Datong, more to do. Pingyao has one attraction but it's a big one, does it have direct trains? Not worth it if you have to go via Taiyuan. Otherwise maybe, it's old town is more interesting than the other two places I think. It would be fun to stay there overnight.
>Also, anything particularly intersting in Tianjin?
No. It's a port city. It has some history to do with foreign invasions but even that can't be very well preserved. I haven't been there in years though, maybe they've built something new.
RE: Chinese girls no longer being impressed by whiteness
Bull. I was there over the summer and in every city I went to, even the ones with tons of foreigners like Beijing and Shanghai, women threw themselves at me. The Chinese just have sterotypes about Westerners and you need to play into that. Be loud, brash, and outgoing. Make physical contact frequently.
You have to realize the Chinese are like children, or robots depending on who you ask. If you coddle them and play to their expectations they get a real thrill out of it.
>>1117886
I have not been to Luoyang or Pingyao, but I loved Datong. All of my expat friends hate the city because it's not very authentic, but it has lots of authentic things to do. The Yungang Grottoes are breathtaking and easily take up a full day. Xuankong Si is also a fantastic, authentic day trip. There is also the oldest and best-preserved Nine Dragon Screen in the world, and that's worth a visit, but DESU it's just a wall and won't take longer than 15 minutes to fully appreciate. The city itself takes the tourism potential of history very seriously. Its shopping district has been entirely torn down and replaced with mock historical buildings, and is quite bustling. They are currently in the process of REBUILDING the city walls. And I mean on full scale. They're massive and they destroyed like a third of the city to put them up. They're even digging a full-size moat around the outside. They're very serious about it, and I loved that.
Also almost no foreigners go to Datong so you are guaranteed celebrity status.
>>1118222
Found a pretty good shot of the city walls and moat under construction. I mean I was on the bus but it shows the construction well
>>1118221
What would you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10
>>1118234
I'm not going to lie, being attractive helps. I am a high 7, low 8. But honestly it's not required. I know some legit ugly guys with Chinese girlfriends. They see Western culture as this fairytale of romance and high culture, and any taste of that is addictive.
>>1117890
Interesting and I also know people who have made money fast buying and selling property in China, but it is a game that has become increasingly divorced from economic fundamentals - and is therefore unsustainable.
As for the Two Child Policy, it's just too little too late. It will be decades before these extra kids (whose numbers seem to be fewer than the authorities anticipated) would be able to make any difference in the housing market.
Very generous lending and bending economic rules to produce break-neck growth was never going to last forever, despite a lot of optimistic extrapolating. They've had 35 high growth years, now they're going to have a lot of stagnant ones.
>>1118232
Have to say that looks amazing.
>>1118263
Agreed, most of my Chinese friends say that the policy won't change much. Most Chinese don't even want a second child because it is too expensive for them.
Before the policy change people who wanted two children would find some way around the government, hiding their child among family or similar tricks.
>5000 rmb/month
>decent size, older standard
>7000 rmb/month
>huge two room, newly built, jacuzzi, doorman and cleaning by a maid
Worth the extra cash?
Show me your apartment anon.
>>1118274
>Most Chinese don't even want a second child because it is too expensive for them
And children take a lot of time, much more than in the west because parents have to spend hours supervising, dictating and checking homework in ways that western parents don't. It's too hard if you have a career.
>>1118305
>Worth the extra cash?
Sounds like it, why not live in some luxury? I've lived with a concierge in the west once, it came in amazingly handy. It was just so useful knowing that there was a guy at the front who could meet people for me or collect a package or I could leave shit with for other people to collect. All sorts of stuff. Maybe you couldn't do quite all that in China due to language but a lot you could. It would make taobao easier to use if he can collect your deliveries.
>>1118376
>children
Absolutely untrue. The Chinese way of raising children is to give birth to them and then turn them over to the grandparents. Chinese parents spend very little time interacting with their children until they are teenagers.
>>1118386
>Absolutely untrue. The Chinese way of raising children is to give birth to them and then turn them over to the grandparents. Chinese parents spend very little time interacting with their children until they are teenagers.
Absolutely untrue.
Chinese use their grandparents for child minding and stuff but except for migrant workers, they're plenty involved in child raising. Just because a grandparent picks the child up from school doesn't mean that the parent never sees them. Western families used to work that way, I had cousins who would always walk over to their grandmother's house after school to wait for their parents.
I wasn't talking about left-behind-children, those are kind of a special case.
Couples that are migrant workers aren't having second children anyway, they barely see each other as it is.
>>1118305
Why would anyone pay 5000-7000 RMB to a live in a shithole like china? dear god, I hope you're not a teacher.
>>1117626
where should I teach English? preferably a sub tier 1 city with low pollution. I like hot and humid weather but i don't mind the cold terribly. somewhere decently urban but i don't need a huge expat scene. sorry if this is kinda broad but would love to hear some suggestions.
>>1118394
>5000-7000 RMB
That's probably Shanghai or Beijing. I agree it would be very expensive outside those places.
>>1118398
>I like hot and humid weather but i don't mind the cold terribly. somewhere decently urban but i don't need a huge expat scene
>low pollution
>don't need a huge expat scene
Try Wenzhou? Ticks all those boxes. Or Nanjing, Ningbo or Suzhou.
They all have an expat scene but it's not necessarily huge (except for Nanjing, it's big there but you don't have to be a part of it).
>>1118424
>Kunming is vastly superior to those 3 cities
I think Kunming is about on par with Nanjing or Ningbo.
Also, Kunming is extremely dry. So dry that your lips chap. Anon likes humid.
>>1118428
>What in your opinion makes Kunming superior to them?
I'm not that anon but Kunming is generally liked for its weather, social life and vibe. I like it for those reasons too but it is as dry as a nuns cunt.
The places I mentioned have climates closer to Guangzhou. Maybe Suzhou is a bit drier since it's inland.
Ningbo has glorious weather if you don't mind some humidity, it's coastal, gets dramatic storms in the wet season, still no real winter. Last year got a typhoon but it just meant that the city shut down for a day, no big deal. It was more fun than anything else.
Except for the people who had to pick up the tree branches I guess.
>>1118447
What is chapstick?
What is hand cream?
Anyway, I don't know what circumstances you were living in, but Kunming certainly isn't the arid place you're making it out to be. I would be much more concerned with my skin drying up if I were in any part of Northern China during the winter months. Humidity barely ever drops below 60%, whereas in Beijing for instance it is around 45% for 4 months of the year. In addition, you don't have central heating drying up the air indoors in Kunming.
But you must have some severe skin conditions if this is dictating your choice...
>>1118499
>What is chapstick?
>What is hand cream?
They're things you don't need in the coastal cities.
And yeah, I get dry skin in the north during winter but my lips only peel in Kunming.
But anon said he liked humid, you can't tell me that Kunming is in anyway humid.
>>1118525
Chinese climates suck generally. It's hard to find a place that isn't cold in winter and boiling in summer; Kunming is good for this. If you want warm winters you have to go pretty far South otherwise.
>>1118525
>Ningbo sounds very cool. Do you enjoy living there?
Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. It's coastal but with big rivers through it. Close to Shanghai if you need a shopping run but also with its own western supermarkets. It's pretty cool, quite scenic.
Are people going to China not worried about being ran over (and then ran over repeatedly until they kill you), or getting sucked into an escalator, or crushed by a lift, or copious amounts of every kind of pollution everywhere?
Just curious.
>>1118597
Lot's of people die in China because there are lots of people in China. The chance you'll die isn't much higher than in your average Western country.
>>1118597
>Are people going to China not worried about being ran over (and then ran over repeatedly until they kill you), or getting sucked into an escalator, or crushed by a lift, or copious amounts of every kind of pollution everywhere?
No, not worried about any of those things.
Well, the pollution bothers me a bit but I guess I can live with it.
>>1118597
Any of that could happen to you in any industrialized country.
>>1118221
Unless you are very good looking/very tall/speak perfect Chinese, they are now less impressed in Beijing and Shanghai anyway.
I got my visa today which is cool, and the 3 hour round trip on 2 hours of light sleep was certainly interesting
I don't plan on using my debit card when I'm in China, but I'll use it in an emergency if I have to
Should I phone my bank to tell them that I'm going to be in China and to not decline my card the first time I try to use it?
What's Hainan and specifically Haikou like as a place for a foreigner to visit, work or study?
>>1118709
What kind of shit bank are you using that would decline your card?
ATMs from any of the major banks usually work fine: China Construction, Bank of China and ICBC are usually sure bets. I guess if you want to phone your bank you might as well ask if they actually have a special deal with one of those three banks and offer lower fees for oversees cash withdrawal.
>>1118710
Fine if you want to chill out I guess. Apparently there are still some virgin beaches that haven't been ruined by holiday resorts yet. You can also find very interesting WW2 vestiges there. A friend of mine studied there for a year. Not sure he learned much Chinese but he certainly had a jolly old time.
>>1118428
>>1118447
I am this anon and that other anon is right about good weather, good social life and mellow vibe. By the standards of China, it is an incredibly laid-back place.
Never noticed any particular dryness, but both times I went there I was in my early 20s and did nothing but party so I probably wouldn't have.
There are also some amazing tourist sites near by, Xishuangbanna, tiger leaping gorge, nice lakes... plus Dali and Lijiang are cool too, even if they are often overran by the shittier varieties of backpackers.
>>1118709
you have to flag your card for travel, or they'll lock you out of it.
noob
>>1118709
>Should I phone my bank to tell them that I'm going to be in China and to not decline my card the first time I try to use it?
Not necessarily but it certainly doesn't hurt.
>>1118807
>noob
>>1118714
>What kind of shit bank are you using that would decline your card?
They might think the card got skimmed and is being used fraudulently. They usually just call you and id you over the phone to make sure but it can be avoided by letting them know your travel countries/dates.
>>1118807
>you have to flag your card for travel, or they'll lock you out of it.
It's not automatic but it doesn't hurt.
>noob
Be nice.
>>1118710
>What's Hainan and specifically Haikou like as a place for a foreigner to visit, work or study?
Haian is a tourist trap but that's mostly just Sanya, outside of there it's much nicer. Haikou is probably the nicer city in Hainan.
It's basically a beach city, it's quite warm and sunny year round, I found it a bit dusty and dirty but it's not too bad, just a tier 3 city I guess. I don't think there's much foreign goods around, they were just getting starbucks last year but fastfood is already there of course. No foreign supermarkets that I know of. There's a clinic for foreigners in one of the hospitals that's staffed by foreign, English speaking docotors. There's not much Russian presence in Haikou, they all go down to Sanya. It feels pretty sleepy to me, quite a laid back atmosphere but maybe that was just the heat.
Be pretty careful about schools in Haikou, I've heard some stories from teachers there. People being ripped off and the government official that regulates schools plays majong with some of the school owners and literally won't lift a finger against them because they're buddies.
Stay in "Haikou Banana International Youth Hostel", you get your YHA discount and they have good food. Also, their pizza makes them the place where local teachers go on Friday nights to hang out and you can get the skinny on what is going on with the schools and make some friends in the scene.
If there is *anything* wrong with your visa then do not make it obvious that you're teaching because the friendly guy at reception *will* call the police if he finds an invalid visa in your passport. He's got a thing about illegal immigration/workers for some reason, maybe Hainan attracts surfing bums that overstay or something. He's nice and helpful otherwise.
They also brew their own spiced rum which is really nice.
Hey guys, /fit/ here. Where do you buy/order whey in China, preferably Optimum Nutrition? I checked amazon, but it seems to be permanently out of stock.
>>1119252
Tried jindong and taobao?
>>1119254
I tryied tmall and yes, they have ON whey. Now I'm a bit worried that I might buy some fake stuff that will mess up my health, so that's why I'd appreciate some experience.
>>1119252
>>1119259
I would honestly just ask around in the gym you go to in China. Buying online seems a bit risky, though it might be cheaper. Be careful. If anything offers the opportunity to be faked it's whey protein powder. In any case, don't expect to find any affordable whey in China (unless it's a Chinese brand, but would you be suicidal enough to try that?)
>>1118246
>They see Western culture as this fairytale of romance and high culture, and any taste of that is addictive.
That's typical of Asians in genereal. That's why Japanese women faint in Paris and if you ask a Chinese girl where she would like to visit she will simply say "Europe!" but not bother to make a country distinction as if France, Portugal, and the Czech Republic etc. are one in the same.
>>1119267
Apparently there is a phenomenon in Japan where people commit suicide after having visited Paris. The spell is broken once their dreams of a fairytale land of kings and queens and beautiful aryan specimens are crushed.
They return home in utter despair and kill themselves soon after.
I'm not even making this up.
>>1119263
Thanks, that sounds reasonable. I'll try my luck. Unfortunately, I'm currently confined to the university's gym, which is not much frequented. But maybe I can find a "real" gym somewhere near.
>>1119284
Are you not in a major city? They have gyms everywhere.
Word of advice: gym memberships are negotiable, so be ready to bargain if you don't want to get ripped off. I've heard of people paying up to 50% less thanks to this.
recommendations for day trips out from Shanghai? Preferably with transport cheaper than 50 bucks
>>1119318
Suzhou, go to the old town and then see a garden
>>1119318
Wait, I think Putuoshan can be a day trip by boat from Shanghai.
>>1119268
It's called the Paris Syndrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome
>>1119263
I wouldn't worry too much about whey, it's a by-product of the dairy industry and China has one of those. You're better off getting something from one of the Inner Mongolian brands if there's one, they have a reputation for high quality.
>>1119252
>>1119259
>>1119284
If you know about Tmall then you should have known to check Jindong as well.
Whey powder is 乳清粉. I searched for that on Jindong and got pic related. 7 pages of it.
Jindong is way more trust worthy than taobao fyi. It also lets you pay with wechat so you don't have to fuck around with alipay accounts.
>>1119417
>Whey powder is 乳清粉
Just translate whatever you're looking for with baidu, do the same with any instructions on the page. It's pretty easy with some cut and paste.
http://fanyi.baidu.com/#en/zh/whey%20powder
Has anyone been to Yunnan or Guanxi area? What was it like? Good food? Cheap hostels or guesthouses?
>>1119433
>Yunnan or Guanxi
Yunnan is a very popular destination for backpackers, check what another anon said about Kunming in this thread (or previous), that's the capital of Yunnan. It has some towns that have become memes of their own but are still worth visiting. Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian (Shangrila).
The hostels aren't really cheap but they're hostel prices.
Guangxi has less to see there but there's an old town and a few other things. I stayed in a reasonably priced hotel opposite the railway station so I don't know much more about it.
You can get good food anywhere, Yunnan food is often quite spicy, I don't really have an opinion on Guangxi food, I wasn't there very long.
>Good food? Cheap hostels or guesthouses?
>>1119758
>You are forgetting about Guilin-Yangshuo
Oh shit, you're right. I was thinking about Nanning in the south, I guess because it's the capital. For some reason I had thought Guilin was in Guizhou province.
Yeah, Guilin and Yangshuo are worth a visit and they're much nicer than Nanning.
Guilling is meme-tier though and full of sharks preying on tourists so be on your guard. Lots of scams and even some robberies and shit. Yangshuo is better, probably because it's much smaller so more easily policed and harder for the scum to blend in. The locals would resent outsiders muscling in on their action.
There have been the odd robbery at moon hill and some tourists were murdered there but it was years ago.
>>1119433
Would recommend both.
Guilin is a dive, just head to Yangshuo. The main town is very touristy but if you rent bikes there's lots to do/see in the surrounding area. It's expensive for China but still affordable. 4/5 days is probably enough. Food is ok. Lots of rice noodles.
Yunnan is massive. Varies from Himalayan to subtropical. Figure out what you want to see and plan accordingly. I'd probably go Vietnam/Laos or Sichuan rather than Yunnan again, but it's worth visiting.
& there's cheap hostels & good food everywhere, don't worry.
Any of you have/ever had a stable job at an English training centre for kids anywhere in China?
The ones in my city have all been rejecting me. They keep saying they don't think I'm energetic enough or fit to teach young kids, but I suspect it has more to do with them hiring Russians and africans for less money. I know I've seen people with less energy and not that sociable employed in these shitholes.
What is the deal with these places? How do you get them to like you?
>>1119952
>What is the deal with these places? How do you get them to like you?
Be likable?
>>1119952
You should note that it is becoming more difficult to find an English teaching job, to get a 'proper' job they often require you to be a native speak and/or have a degree.
For me personally teaching English is China is a last resort, currently I'm living in my home country finishing my degree. Might move to China in the near future, if I find a stable job there, English teaching isn't what it used to be.
>>1119996
>You should note that it is becoming more difficult to find an English teaching job, to get a 'proper' job they often require you to be a native speak and/or have a degree.
And nothing of value was lost.
Anyone got tips on some good gay clubs in Shanghai or HK?
I prefer gayclubs but other bars/club suggestions also welcome..
I haven't been back to Shanghai since 2012 and never really went out when i was there last time, I'll be travelling solo this time and I really want to check out the nightlife.. Any tips or things I should be wary of?
>>1119996
I'm a native speaker. I'm saying these cocksuckers are still hiring Russians and africans for cheap. I've seen it with my own eyes only a few days ago.
>>1120300
>still hiring Russians and africans for cheap
Don't put them in the same category.
The Africans are usually Camaroonians who, especially if they're from the capital Yaoundé, ARE native speakers. The country has English and French as their official languages and then people speak tribal languages as unofficial third languages.
Shit's complicated yo.
Of course, in the schools, they have to tell the parents that they're from New York.
>>1120300
Personally I wouldn't want to hire any Russians. They have a habit of trespassing and climbing construction sites illegally.
>>1120385
>They have a habit of trespassing and climbing construction sites illegally.
They do take some cool selfies though
>>1119588
yunnan is very popular with backpackers, but there's still hardly any foreigners, just like the rest of china, thank god
guanxi kinda sucks. it's a hollowed out swamp.
>>1120384
I teach at a university in Europe, am a native speaker, and we have a fair bit of Cameroonian students here.
Most are actually pretty good... More on the quiet side, hard-working, friendly. They are overwhelmingly French-speakers though. Yaoundé is mostly French-speaking. YMMV, but even those claiming to be 'English first' (a parent or even two from the small English chunk) are obviously not in the habit of using it as a daily language and can have quite strong African accents. I have nothing against different dialects or accents, I can understand them fine, but it's obvious that other people can't understand their English that well.
As for Russians teaching English... lel.
>>1120603
>I teach at a university in Europe, am a native speaker, and we have a fair bit of Cameroonian students here.
I'm guessing that the English teachers are in the habit of using it as a daily language.
The ones I met didn't have strong African accents, most of the had cultivated an NYC accent anyway.
>>1120611
You'd certainly hope so!
I notice here that when the Cameroonians do speak English, they're often not understood. Perhaps less their fault than the local not understanding 'exotic' accents.
Alrighty, looks like I need to take a job in some random bumfuck tier 3 or tier 4 city in the sticks in order to not get fired and have stable work.
I'm looking for a place with
>no snow in winter
>little to no foreigners
>NO local international university of any kind that recruits foreign students
>can use Uber app
>has at least one a mcd's or KFC
>small but has at least 1-10 million people
Any suggestions, gents?
>>1120747
>can use Uber app
Are you against didi, or were you not aware that the Chinese have been using Uber clones like Didi since 2013?
>no foreign students
Welcome to no fucking city in China over 1 million people
>no snow.
You realise that most of Northern China has little to no precipitation in winter, but that doesn't stop it from being cold as fuck in some places?
Anyway, maybe some of these cities fit the bill (though probably not):
Liuzhou
Taizhou
Guiyang
Putian
Fuqing
Quanzhou
Zhanjiang
Chaozhou
Zhaoqing
Maoming
etc.
>>1120756
I don't like Didi because it has no map feature where you place the pickup cursor on the map for where you want to be picked up by your driver. They want you to manually put in the address in Chinese, and then the driver calls you. Doesn't work half the time.
I hate snow. I might go as far as cities near/outside Beijing, but I don't want to freeze my balls off in Heilongjiang. I'll look that list over.
>>1119418
>using Baidu instead of Google
No, thanks.
>>1120385
>a few Russian daredevils climb Chinese skyscrapers
>Chinese are butthurt about this for some reason
>>1120747
>>small but has at least 1-10 million people
Almost everything about this post is bait.
Anon is trolling.
But I especially love how anon is asking foreigners where there are no foreigners.
>>1120795
>Is led to water, won't drink it
>>1120796
Lel, trespassing and filming it to show the rest of the world?
In an authoritarian country that prides itself of having citizens who stay in line and obey the law?
More generally, however, I think it's known that foreign students like to fuck around a lot when they're in China. If I were a mainlander I might be a bit pissed of that the government is handing out so many scholarships to them.
>>1120830
Nope. There are one or two active guys on here that seem to travel or backpack through bumfuck towns in the middle of nowhere, so they should have intel on places and can help recommend a place that matches my criteria.
Yeah, a city with 1-5 million people is definitely small here compared to Shanghai or Beijing...
Planning a trip to China myself. I keep hearing bad things about the people and the hygiene. Also, about the water quality. Figured I'd ask for the opinion of /trv/ on the matter.
>>1120910
you'll see guys coughing up and spitting near you all the time. (probably cause they don't like foreigners)
some people with BO, some people picking their nose. girls with mustaches, middle-aged women wearing sandals with yellow or dirty toenails exposed. extremely rude old people who push you out of their way because "elder must b respect in china". but even the younger people do that as well.
most food will make you shit instant diarrhea. if you're out in public this will be a problem, because all the public toilets will mainly be very dirty squat style toilets, with no TP.
you'll get ignored by taxi drivers or passed up for Chinese people. you'll get ripped off a lot. the food you eat with be disgusting and dirty. the air in most cities is polluted, so you'll be coughing shit up too and have black-colored mucus in your nose
that about sums it up
>>1120916
Asian people don't really sweat nor do they even have sweat glands under the armpits. Things could be much worse than they are.
>>1120916
That does not sound appealing.
>>1120916
kekd me up
>>1119433
Yunnan is gorgeous.
>>1120747
Some years ago I got offered a uni job teaching English in Xinjiang, and then riots broke out and the offer was rescinded. I was all psyched up to do for the bants. If you search for bumfuck places, you might have better luck than being relegated to a English school for kids. (And your money will go farther.) Then again, I don't know how much shit has changed since that time.
>>1120917
>nor do they even have sweat glands under the armpits
Not even kidding, my wife asked me if I wanted my armpit sweat glands removed. It's an operation that is done in one of the local hospitals by my sister-in-law.
>>1121002
We had a text once that talked about washing habits in different part of China. I believe Northerners would generally wash once per month during the Winter and once per week (at most) during the Summer. This wasn't medieval times either, but the habits of regular Chinese people just 20-30 years ago.
Even when I was living in a freezing dorm with no heating I couldn't go more than 2 days without a shower.
>>1121004
They usually wash armpits, groin and feet every day though. They just don't have a full shower every day.
Even now a lot of Chinese only have full showers every few days. The school sent a message to all parents requesting that their children shower regularly but the dorm kids are lazy about it because the showers are a long walk from their rooms.
>>1121014
>The school sent a message to all parents requesting that their children shower regularly but the dorm kids are lazy about it because the showers are a long walk from their rooms.
where is your school?
>>1121017
>where is your school?
In the north
>>1120883
Everyone knows that Baidu is an inferior knock-off of Google. They are also in trouble for selling moderatorships of health care forums to quack drug companies and all of their searches in general being ranked based entirely upon who paid the most, with this advertising of course being unmarked. The death of a kid has recently led to increased scrutiny of this inside the PRC.
They are a terrible, disreputable company - even by Chinese standards - and there is no reason to believe that they would be able to make a superior translation tool to Google.
>>1120796
First off, it is absurd and illogical to blame Russians in general for what 3 Russian kids did.
>stay in line and obey the law
Er, have you ever been to China?
Nobody obeys stop signs and red lights, there is spitting and pissing all over the place, there is a smoking ban that nobody cares about and corruption permeates the entire society from bribing your kid in to a school through to the Panama papers and the people involved including the family of the General Secretary of the Party. Even the ostensibly middle class Chinese now have a reputation as the worst tourists in the world who are particularly badly behaved when it comes to planes.
Nobody at all believes that the Chinese stay in line.
And that's a particularly terrible analogy of yours, by the way, because you do not EVER see orderly lines in China - people just push towards what they want with no respect for others.
Name a comfier Chinese city than Nanjing
It's a city full of parks and gardens
It's green and lush
Hardly any smog
Hardly any trash
Imperial and Republic history sites
Close enough to Shanghai to visit that city frequently
Good food
Medium-sized city (8-10 million ppl) with metro, and cheaper cost of living than the "big" cities
>pro-tip: you can't, it's simply the best
>>1120791
I made a thread yesterday and I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight on what I could do and if this is a possible plan.
For you teachers: any of you ever accept free housing from your schools?
I've heard bad things, and that it's generally not a good idea. True or false?
>>1121185
Best not to do it. 1) they're generally not good and 2) If you get fired, they'll expect you to vacate immediately. Get your own place.
>>1121115
Got me thinking, Wuhan or Xiamen maybe? Quite comfy
China noob here
Visiting in July for two weeks from Canada
1) I'm really unclear about visa conditions i.e
- I don't have a place booked to stay, I'm just crashing in my friends dorm for a while
2) what the hell is the fee and where's the best place to get my visa done
- I've read everywhere from 50 to 200$
>>1121222
>Wuhan or Xiamen maybe?
Not that anon but I wouldn't agree.
Wuhan is huge (well, it's three cities) and very international so it meets those requirements and there's lots of foreign stuff if you want it (good pizza, expat bars etc) but it's incredibly polluted, terrible smog and the river is filthy.
pic related.
Xiamen is polluted on the mainland, it's just the island that is cleaner and I didn't find the island that exciting. It did have a pocket of foreign bars near the YHA including great mexican, so that's pretty cool. It's not really lush though, except around the temple park. Not particularly close to anything except Taiwan. Maybe that's good for visa runs.
>>1121257
>Visiting in July
>really unclear about visas
Then you better get your shit sorted, you don't have long.
You need to book a hotel on ctrip (pay-at-hotel) for the visa, cancel afterwards. Book flights. Take these documents to the Chinese consulate nearest you. Check their website for details because shit changes everywhere.
>>1121257
>, I'm just crashing in my friends dorm for a while
I'd give their name and the address of the dorm
Don't know how fast consulates in Canada are with processing, you might want to pay a service to expedite for you if you're leaving in July.
How many of you have the 10 year-multiple entry visa? What kind of documents did you need to get it?
Also, as late as a couple of years ago they were giving me multiple entry visas every single time, even though I was only applying for single entry visas. Is that still common? It would make regional travel so much easier, something I never got to take advantage of in the past.
I went to an ATM after midnight the other day, and put my Chinese bank card in. The thing didn't spit it back out. Couldn't get it back.
I asked some chinese female friends, they tried calling my bank for me (my card's bank is different from the ATM bank) but they told them they couldn't find my record. One friend said to go to the bank where I lost my card, another said to go to my bank.
Has this happened to anyone before? What I should do.
>>1121494
This actually happened to a friend of mine. He just went to the actual bank branch where he lost the card, and they asked him to present ID and gave it to him. Just go to the bank where you lost the card.
>>1121552
It's already been about 4 or 5 days. Do they think they'd still have it?
>>1121554
How could we know, just ask or call.
I'm currently planning my first China trip, still in the very early stages on planning but I have this makeshift route
Xian->Chengdu->Maerkang(?)->Larung Gar->Yunnan
I know Larung Gar may be an odd choice but since I saw some dude post a picture of that place here I've become completely enthranced by it. Maerkang has a quesiton mark next to it since I hear you may have to stop there for a day en route to Larung Gar if travel conditions are bad.
How long would you guys say is a realistic time frame for this journey? I was thinking maybe 2 weeks. Also, is there any chance I might fit in a trip to Zhangjiajie after Yunnan if there's any leftover time? Or should I just go to Zhangjiajie instead of Yunnan in the first place?
>>1121592
One could easily spend 6 months backpacking through Yunnan before coming to the end of one's journey.
>>1121597
Wish I could do that but I doubt I can. How long would you say I need to be there to get a decent fill of the region?
>>1121598
unlike that other poster I don't think you need to spend 6 months in yunnan. yunnan is definitely cool, and probably the best place in china to go motorbiking because of all the small minority villages, th decent roads, the cleanliness compared to much of china. but if you dont speak mandarin I don't see what conceivable benefit you'd get out of. there are almost no foreigners, and just as few chinese that speak english. 6 months seems too long unless you want to commune with trees and squirrels.
fwiw yunnan is bigger than vietnam or thailand or any SEA country except maybe indonesia.
does that mean it's worth AS long as any of those individual countries? maybe not. yunnan doesn't have as much history as thailand, even if the populations are comparable. there are few large things to see. less ability to communicate. again, it comes down t your fluency. yunnan is just a place that the southern dynasties invaded when they fled the mongols. they set up shop there and never left. that's the end of it.
that said some of the minorities are some of the most isolated civilized groups on the planet. they were protected by the communist government, unlike in SEA, and were never forced to integrate.
>>1121592
One or two days in Xi'an, ~4 days in those Sichuan towns, 4-5 days in Yunnan, then whatever's left spent in Zhangjiajie
Do you have an idea what you want to see in Yunnan? Like these anons are saying >>1121597
>>1121642
it's a big place. I don't know about 6 months, but you could definitely spend weeks just traveling around that single province. So, what exactly interests you?
>>1121651
I honestly have no clue. My plan right now would be to dedicate one week to both Xi'an and Sichuan and then I guess relaxing for a week at Yunnan would be cool. Why? Because I like landscape and the place looks great and relaxed. But I know next to no Chinese so if what you say is true I would have problems with communication there.
Then again Yunnan was just one option in the first place, I'm very much open to other suggestions of what to do with my other week once I leave Ghengdu.
>>1121658
you'll have communication issues everywhere in china. yunnan is a worthy visit even if yo can't speak. but the other poster is off his rocker reccomendng 6 months if you can't.
staying anywhere small for 6 months without speaking or learning seems ludicrous
>>1121663
Yeah that seemed pretty crazy to me as well. But for a first time visitor what do you think my priority should be, Yunnan or Zhangjiajie? Because I think the travel times involved here would make visiting both after Sichuan rather unwieldy. Both regions look equaly beautiful to me so I'm having a hard time deciding. I really love the Zhangjiajie mountains but how much of the things you see in pictures from that region is actually accessible on foot?
>>1121666
hunan has more history. the historical canal cities are fucking cool, as is zhangjiajie. yunnan does have the stone forest, and fwiw kunming is one of THE most livable cities in china. the chinese tend to see yunnan as exotic. it's the frontier and the majority of the people are not chinese, strictly speaking. many of them are settled barbarians, thai, or mountain tribes. chinese love to vacation there. in the west you can see tibetans, which is cool, but will eat up a lot of time, it's not accessible quickly. also, a lot of the "villages" in yunnan are actually NEW. the government resettled or redevelopd a lot of the minority vilages about 7 years ago in order to get them jobs in the tourist industry. the buildings are obviously fake and new in a lot of places.
hunan=real china
yunnan=exotic and a little fake unless you REALLY go out of your way
both are worth visiting if you have more time.
>>1121670
Put like that Hunan sound more appealing. But if I actually go there how much of those crazy peaks in Zhangjiajie can I expect to actually see?
>>1121673
it'll take you half a day just to get to the actual village before the peaks from the main city, and another half a day to get back. this is standard procedure for most sights. plan accordingly.
>>1121674
Sounds pretty reasonable. About one week doing Xi'an and Sichuan and one week at Zhangjiajie seems good to me. I still have to work out transport and accomodation logistics but it's looking like the plan will work out. Thanks for the help man.
>>1121451
>I'd give their name and the address of the dorm
That won't satisfy the visa requirements. It needs to be a hotel booking.
Book with ctrip, cancel later. Don't mention the dorm or friend on the visa form at all.
>>1121494
>One friend said to go to the bank where I lost my card
This friend is correct.
>>1121552
>He just went to the actual bank branch where he lost the card, and they asked him to present ID and gave it to him. Just go to the bank where you lost the card
This is the first thing you do.
Eventually they might send it to your bank but the first place to check is where you left it. Bring your passport.
>>1121115
How is Nanjing in terms of day to day life?
I'm moving there in September and staying through June for grad school. I spent a weekend there about five years ago during a semester abroad in Shanghai and thought it was cool, did the Massacre Memorial/Fuzimiao/1912 area. What's there that I should check out?
I'll be stuck in a dorm room getting through readings 70% of the time but I'd like to know what else there is to see/where to drink etc. Wikitravel/voyage was a good start but was wondering if anyone had personal recommendations.
>>1121689
jealous of you for staying that long. JHU by any chance?
give that it was at times both an imperial and later modern (pre gommie) capital, there's a shit ton of historical sites. the 1912 area is ok, but IIRC there's are many laid back neighborhoods with bars/restaurants. there's an expat community, etc. the area has tons of parks and lakes, a few mountains that offer hiking
>>1121658
>But I know next to no Chinese so if what you say is true I would have problems with communication there.
Depending on where you go in Yunnan, that won't be a problem. The big traveler spots like Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, etc. are full of hostels and restaurants that cater to foreigners.
>>1121712
Yeah JHU, it's supposed to be pretty work hard/play hard from what I've heard, but at least my Mandarin will (hopefully) be killer by the end of it.
Also heard the expat scene is pretty laid back compared to Shanghai, which was cool but really dependent on spending upsetting amounts of money. More students and teachers than consultants who can speak three garbled phrases of Mandarin despite living in Shanghai for 3 years.
>>1121689
>What's there that I should check out?
The Sun Yatsen mausoleum looks like something out of Stargate, it's set up on a mountain/hill and you climb about a thousand steps up a steep tree lined approach with amazing views of the city. His tomb has vast stele engraved with the founding declarations
Apparently the guy himself wanted to be buried simply and anonymously. Oops.
Nanjing is pretty cool, it's up there with Kunming for cities that foreigners most like to live in.
Blue Sky Pub is probably a good place to start to explore the expat community. An Australian pub with a pool comp.
>>1121723
>really dependent on spending upsetting amounts of money
Nanjing isn't. The expat bars/pubs aren't the cheapest obviously but it's not like Shanghai and no one thinks you're cool for spending money.
I'd like to go to China this summer for 2-3 weeks, thought about going Hong Kong/Macau and Beijing.
Would $3k be enough? Should I try different cities perhaps? I prefer seeing the more unique cultural attractions, but I also like the modern stuff, so I am not picky.
>he unironically likes China and thinks it's a good place to live
I don't even want to know what shitholes you guys were born in.
>>1122057
Maybe we don't mind authoritarianism and care more about social harmony and vitality than muh freedoms.
>>1122064
>implying you can't be free and live in harmony
>>1122066
No shit... The point is: China is a harmonious society compared to the US and, increasingly, compared to most European countries. That doesn't mean, of course, that you couldn't have been lucky enough to grow up in a safe community within one of those countries.
The only real unrest in China is due to the shitskins in Xinjiang, but the Snow Leopard Commando Unit is busy gunning them down to protect the rest of the country.
Also some Tibetans like to commit suicide from time to time, but let's face it (even if it has an interesting culture) Tibet is an extremely backwards land, and ultimately will benefit from the modernisation the Han are bringing, instead of staying in the middle ages.
>>1122057
china isn't that bad senpai. chances of getting murdered or raped are higher in america and europe. taxes are moderate. pollution is only bad in beijin and industrial cities.
you need to chill. unless you're from taiwan, then fine, I get the hate. but you still need to chill.
>>1122080
t. Chi Xin Pung
I signed a contract today to teach for a year in Wenzhou. Starting to have doubts. I've always wanted to visit and live in China, I've practiced Chinese and studied the culture for years. But now that it's a reality it's like, will I be able to shitpost and play vidya through the firewall? I know obviously VPN but I heard the government was mega cracking down on VPNs?
>>1122024
>Would $3k be enough
Should be fine. China isn't that expensive to travel in.
>>1122131
>will I be able to shitpost and play vidya through the firewall?
You should be ok, to be sure, have a few different VPN methods available (different servers, different protocols).
I've had a PPTP connection active and doing pretty well for several days now. It used to be more dodgy but now it's stable.
The internet in China has weather, it's different in different places at different times. It sometimes goes to shit if there's a big government meeting in town.
Sometimes stuff like wechat gets weird if there's something going on. Recently posts to an expat wechat just disapeared because we were talking about Running Man and somebody posted a video of the crowds and razor wire outside their hotel.
>>1122131
on national holidays they basically shut down the internet and any vpn connections they intercept become unusable from that point forward.
playing vidya through the firewall is probably impossible, and you will need to constantly get new/renew your connections. it's not a problem on an average day, but over the course of a year there is a roughly 0% chance you won't get shut down at some point
Among the supporting documents for visa application the following was needed: "Documents showing the itinerary including air ticket booking record (round trip)."
I don't have a round trip ticket, but I do have one with which I'll leave the country to another destination. Is this good enough for them?
>>1122131
The internet is slow everywhere in China, so you won't really be able to play vidya games.
You can shitpost on 4chan, but VPNs are starting to become unreliable or a pain in the ass to use because they constantly disconnect. Plus you have to spend extra cash on them.
Wenzhou is a xenophobic shithole btw. Every guy I know who's been there said the local girls are hard to get with because it's a small city, so all eyes are on them.
>>1122133
>>1122134
thanks guys. I guess my main concerns are League and RuneScape, but if I have to go a year without them I think I'll survive.
>>1122147
I already have a very suspicious and needy Korean girlfriend, so the local girls aren't really my concern. Xenophobia does sound like it sucks though. I'm not expecting to fit in, I just don't want have any hostility towards me?
>>1122144
They shouldn't give you any troubles about it. All they want is proof of an onward journey/you intend to leave the country.
The only people who ever have problems are dumbfuck "backpackers" who think they're going to one way themselves to the world.
>>1122148
Never been there myself, so couldn't tell ya. I'd imagine you won't have any problems, but maybe some of the locals will be assholes or standoffish, like every other city.
>>1122155
if you dress like a respectable citizen, don't have long hair, etc. they don't even ask for proof of onward travel.
they mostly just try to filter out people who look like they're left wing amnesty international dickheads.
they never bothered me at all
>>1122134
>any vpn connections they intercept become unusable from that point forward
That's not true, the blocks are usually temporary.
When it happens to me, the server is usually unblocked within several hours.
I work in IT, I run my own VPNs and use one commercial one for backup. I look at the logs on both sides of the connection to see what they're doing to it. Sometimes I finetune firewall rules to prevent the attacks they use on my firewalls until they end up doing something like just choking the bandwidth or blocking the server IP. Their initial attempts are easy to block though.
>>1122134
>playing vidya through the firewall is probably impossible, and you will need to constantly get new/renew your connections. it's not a problem on an average day, but over the course of a year there is a roughly 0% chance you won't get shut down at some point
That's all completely true though.
>>1122144
>I don't have a round trip ticket, but I do have one with which I'll leave
Flights in and out are all that matters. If you have both of those, it's good enough.
>>1122147
>The internet is slow everywhere in China
It's only slow for overseas stuff, local stuff is usually fine.
>won't really be able to play vidya games
Depends on the game but yeah, pings of 200+ are standard on international servers. I played Insurgency a bit but never got less than 180 ping to US servers.
>>1122147
>Wenzhou is a xenophobic shithole btw. Every guy I know who's been there said the local girls are hard to get with
Wenzhou is parochial, they think of themselves as being a bit different to the rest of China. Smarter, better business people and investors, tougher gangsters. Not impossible to meet local women, I've met foreigners with local wives but you might not be slaying pussy every night. A GF that you eventually wife is probably possible though.
>>1122057
I like it specifically because it's a such a shithole
>>1122148
>my main concerns are League and RuneScape, but if I have to go a year without them I think I'll survive.
You can probably play them fine, you will have to look for a bit to find a server you can play on. Most games work fine in China but the distance to the English speaking servers causes latency. I can play Insurgency easily if I play on Chinese servers, if I play on US servers then I have 200+ ping. To be expected.
Steam works fine and most steam games work fine. They're not censoring gaming, that might actually cause some sort of revolution.
LoL is huge in China but people play on Chinese servers. I knew a guy who played LoL on twitch etc and thought he was going to get rich as a /fit/fa/ white guy playing LoL on a cam show in China and end up in tournaments. He might have been good enough but he freaked out about unrelated shit like AQN and fled back home. He wasn't even in a very polluted city. He was kind of an asshole in hindsight but he didn't have a problem with his LoL connections. He mostly played from Chinese net cafes after sucking up to the managers but he played from his apartment too. I'm pretty sure he wasn't using a VPN.
>I just don't want have any hostility towards me
You'll be fine, I made friends in Wenzhou and I was there for five days. People came up to chat with me and get my wechat while I was sitting in McDonalds working out how to find a laundromat (Wenzhou has a couple, it's not common).
>>1122165
>if you dress like a respectable citizen, don't have long hair, etc. they don't even ask for proof of onward travel.
Yes they do. A lot depends on where you get your visa but they like their papers to be in order. Some consulates might have different rules, especially if a lot of business is done with that city.
>>1122169
How do you work in IT abroad and travel around China while working out of hotels or hostels I presume?
>>1122174
How do you get a job as a video game tester or player ot whatever in China?
>>1122199
>How do you work in IT abroad and travel around China while working out of hotels or hostels I presume?
You start by working in IT from home.
Any kind of freelance IT work would do. I'm a web developer I guess, do whatever else needs doing as well. Started working from home five years ago, just took it one step further.
Working out of hotels is usually easy, hostels are more fun but have shit internet because everyone is skyping or watching youtube. I use Starbucks a lot. And I have four VPNs, three I run myself and one commercial one that I pay a few bucks for on a 12month subscription, it's dirt cheap for how much it saves me. I was trying to get a VPN working one day and I realised that if the commercial one worked then I it was cheaper than me spending half an hour trying to fix my own ones. So I gave the trial version a go and it worked so I subscribed a week later.
I use VPN Ninja for commercial, it's really just OpenVPN over an stunnel bridge but stunnel is a pain to configure and it would take me longer to configure it than the annual subscription costs so I just use theirs. They keep updating their servers and changing IPs which is also useful.
>>1122200
Not a video game tester, that's just what I do after work hours. See above.
If you think you're going to do what that anon I mentioned did, good luck. I don't know whether he actually succeeded and anyway, he claimed to be shit-hot at LoL anyway. Are you diamond ranked or whatever? He changed to Chinese servers and was working on getting to top rankings again on the new servers, seemed to think he'd be there in a month. His initial progress was pretty good but I bet there are a lot of low ranked players for him to plough through that would keep his win:loss ratio up. Not really my thing, try asking /vidya/
>>1122243
so where in china do you live now?
>>1117886
Only visited luoyang out of those but I remember it being breddy nice
>>1119252
Been a few years, but there was a company in Shanghai that would deliver, you placed orders by phone.
BBA Supplements, I think
>>1120747
Literally just throw a dart anywhere southwest of Beijing and you're golden senpai
>>1122446
>so where in china do you live now?
Hah
>>1122484
what's funny about it? do you not live in china?
>>1122517
>willingly living in China
>>1122535
Why the fuck is there even a China general?
I'm convinced CIDF post here.
>>1122779
>africa isn't dangerous, it's so cool!
>the middle east isn't dangerous, don't be racist!
>south africa is sooo awesome! it's not dangerous and you're racist if you think it is!
>CHINA HOW AWFUL WORST PLACE CIDF
>>1122804
I think all those places are shit.
Stay mad Chang.
>>1122779
>>1122807
Laowai, your IP and fingerprint have been reported and transferred to our specialists. Your identity will be known to us in less than a week and you will be barred from ever entering the country.
So, im really interested in chinese tea and gong-fu, anyone had any experience visiting plantations and best tea growing areas for tourism?
>>1122729
>The Philmarilion
Thank you for reminding me this exists
>>1122881
>any experience visiting plantations and best tea growing areas for tourism?
No experience visiting a plantation, not officially anyway.
I've been to two tea growing regions and driven/biked past/through the plantations. Even stole a few tea leaves that I was going to post to someone but never got around to it.
Yunnan was one, especially down south there are huge tea growing areas. If you cross from Laos and take a bus to Kunming then you will drive past a bunch of tea plantations.
A mountain region called Wuyishan is also full of tea plantations. There's probably some sort of tea related tourism available, everywhere in town there are people sorting tea leaves for sale so I'm sure you can find some to talk with you about tea.
Pic related is Wuyishan, there's a gorge that you can take a river cruise down and all these picturesque mountains, you can climb some of them. All those bushes in the foreground are tea bushes.
>>1122933
>Wuyishan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuyi_Mountains
It's a gorgeous place. Well worth visiting. Also a bit off the tourist trail and very few foreigners which some of you would probably like. Taxi drivers are not cool here, take buses or have a bike or car.
>>1122941
>>1122933
If you're really adventurous you can follow the ancient tea horse road (茶马古道) from around Dali/Shaxi all the way into Tibet/Sichuan. Although, maybe there won't be all that much tea growing along this route.
A number of years ago I saw an online diary by an Australian university professor who had organised an expedition with some of his students from some university in Kunming. They basically followed the route from Shaxi all the way into Tibet or at least the Tibetan region of Sichuan. Most of the old checkpoints along the route have lost their importance, and so today they are minor towns with little to no tourist activity.
The Australian guy actually set up a team with several mules and equipment for camping along the road, since it entailed hiking into pretty remote areas.
I think it was this expedition:
http://www.chinawatch2050.com/shaxi-an-ancient-horse-and-tea-caravan-town
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjqGwrbw
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjqBvA3a
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjqBE8ug
Personally I visited laojunshan a few years ago, but it was only a day trip and we ended up confining ourselves to what ending up being your boring old Chinese scenic park, complete with elevated wooden walk-ways and entrance fees (way to kill the vibe). Still, the natural scenery is incredible; there are snub-nosed monkeys living in those forests, and some tigers have also been spotted in recent years.
>>1122899
>Thank you for reminding me this exists
You're welcome. It's pretty special
And a reminder, this board is archived by several sites, everything we write is recorded for all time.
There are some pretty angry trolls on here, they haven't popped up in this thread recently but they're around and they drop in. They would totally dox you if they got the chance and do what they could do make your life more difficult. Which isn't that hard in China.
I know the consensus about the Philmarillion is that it was autism but I was never totally convinced that it wasn't someone trolling a tripfag because...well...because tripfag. All it would take is collecting the archived posts from a few sites and then a few hours creative writing and some MS Paint. No real trouble and the payoff was huge so it probably paid for itself in hilarity. Not a slam-dunk evidence of troll vs autism but I think it's a credible alternative theory.
>>1122080
>China is a harmonious society
It's just a facade to avoid being slammed down by CPC lackies.
Anyone who's ever tried to stand in a line for some service with Chinese will understand how 'harmonious' they really are.
>>1122941
flights are actually cheap from my country to wuyi, I can taste the roasted oolongs already
>>1123115
what a very nuanced picture of chinese culture you have
the reason lines run amok in china is because for 30 years there was a government enforced political correctness which caused the person to lose face if they pointed out someone's infraction.
have you been to a public transport station in america lately? honestly, people are more polite in china.
it's called the free rider problem. political correctness punishes the people who follow the rules, nad rewards the rulebreaker. so eventually everyone, even people who are nice, have to break rules. it's happening in the west, now. look at the german refugee crisis.
chinese are just as civilized as taiwanese and japanese. there's just an older maoist generation that still temporarily fucks things
I got my placement locations for my job recently. Due to restrictions on my degree (my degree isn't authenticated by the embassy) I can only work in Wenzhou, Quzhou, or Lishui. I expressed a preference for Wenzhou because of the airport but I could be placed in any of the three. Is there one that's like distinctly better/worse than the other two? Should I respond and just say "Anything but ______?"
>>1123178
>political correctness punishes the people who follow the rules, nad rewards the rulebreaker. so eventually everyone, even people who are nice, have to break rules
>there's just an older maoist generation that still temporarily fucks things
I half agree with you but I have different reasoning. I also have no problem with political correctness, I think people who complain about PC usually just want to be able to call people nigggers and sluts and get away with it.
The reason that I think queues (and a lot of other things) are fucked is that that older maoist generation nearly starved to death and the ones that survived did so by breaking all the rules and doing anything to get more food and less beatings than their neighbours. That's why they're how they are. My 2c.
A related reason which any Chinese businessman will tell you is that the bureaucracy is such that if a business runs according to the rules they will "earn enough to buy a bottle of soy sauce". That's a translation of a local expression about doing business in China.
>>1123188
>Wenzhou, Quzhou, or Lishui
I only know about Wenzhou but I wouldn't be worried about it, it's fine. Quite nice in some ways. You won't have any particular problems there.
>>1122941
>Taxi drivers are not cool
what do you mean, they rip you off?
>>1122779
Chinese Wumao types post in literally every English language site whenever China comes up. They usually spam you messages about how great China is and seem to genuinely believe that if they keep saying China is great, other people will agree that their toxic, police state and its fake history are indeed great. In reality, their constant bragging and shit talking has made everyone hate them, especially the anons who have actually lived in China and know first hand how retarded Chinese people are.
>>1123198
you're also correct about the queues.
but fuck you, pc is awful. in china being PC meant selling your neighbor out to secret police if he said something unpatriotic. PC is a disease that allows spiteful peole and parasites to ruin another person with mere ACCUSATIONS. nice people have no method of defense. PC is awful because it puts people on the offense in a stronger position, which incentivizes making shit up and ruining others for a profit. if someone DOES get called a nigger, he needs to fucking grow a skin because being a nigger doesn't run your life. but being called a racist, true or not, DOES ruin your life. and you should seriously reconsider your views.
most chinese businesses are currently underwater. then again, so are most us businesses. it might serve as an indication that we've finally caught up to how fuckd up china's business laws are. WE MADE IT GUYS.
>>1123449
>what do you mean, they rip you off?
More or less, yes.
"Oh, broken meter anon" etc.
>>1123579
>Chinese Wumao types post in literally every English language site whenever China comes up
They usually only post in internal sites. We're certainly not going to see them here. I suppose that technically there are enough of them to spare a few to monitor us but they're not going to both, probably don't know the site exists and would have to climb the wall to post anyway.
CDIF is really only concerned with what Chinese inside China think.
>seem to genuinely believe that if they keep saying China is great
They're only concerned with derailing any topic of criticism and drowning it out with spam about 'good' things. And yes, everyone can see it a mile away, the internet-using population of China is aware of them and can also see them a mile away, they just can't do much about them.
>>1123587
>PC is a disease that allows spiteful peole and parasites to ruin another person
That's not PC, that's spiteful and parasitic people. PC is just HOW they do it, if it weren't for PC, they'd do it with other stuff instead.
Those people that call you racist/sexist/homophobic, would be calling you a nigger-lover or queerboy instead if that was what worked, they'd be the ones leading lynch mobs or telling people that that black man looked at them/their daughter the wrong way or gay bashing etc. Nice people never had much defence against them.
Without PC, there's plenty of worse ways to lead people to hate/ostracise/ruin a person and minorities would be regularly persecuted. It wasn't that long ago that the wrong type of Christian (Irish Catholic vs Anglican vs Episcopalian) couldn't get a job in some government departments because the other lot ran it. E.G. Police. And that's for white, middle-class folk. Imagine being black or gay and trying to survive there.
PC is ok, it's humans that ruin it but they ruin everything.
>>1123606
What's the general attitude of the Chinese about gay people, specifically westerners? Is there much prejudice or are they fairly accepting these days?
I don't come across as gay to most people so I have never noticed any problems travelling there but i haven't exactly spent a lot of time outside of Shanghai either.
>>1123606
PC is a weapon that is utilized exclusively by spiteful and parasitic people. you're trying to create an arbitrary separation between evil people and the tools they weild, when ONLY those types of people use it.
>nigger lover
that's a different sort of person. white supremacists ALSO abuse pc, when PC is on THEIR SIDE and it's politically incorrect to treat a nigger like a human.
PC is bad when SJWS use it, it's bad when white supremacists use it. oh HEY, do you notice something? ONLY BAD PEOPLE USE IT. good people endure hardship and keep trucking. there's no magical shortcut through adversity. PC is just a weapon wielded by people who want to abuse authority. a nice person will no more use PC than they will randomly set off bombs. bombs are ilegal for a reason, because nice people can't use them defensively. neither can PC.
the cathlic/protestant spit healed on its own without pc. other social divisions MIGHT heal if pc goes away. but PC is an offensive propaganda tactic engineered in russia/china. it is no more appropriate to a healthy society than is the mass dissemination of bombs.
>>1123614
don't publicize it. don't say anything inflammatory
they'll tolerate their own gays, but they see it as a mental disease/foreign influence. I wouldn't want a mentally ill immigrant into my country, and neither do they.
>>1123622
Yeah I heard something similar from a friend who's living there about the older generation feelings on it being foreign influence but wasn't sure if it was still the case. thanks for the info
>>1123614
>What's the general attitude of the Chinese about gay people, specifically westerners? Is there much prejudice or are they fairly accepting these days?
In general, it's just not on the radar.
Young, urban, educated Chinese are more likely to be welcoming but it's definitely not universal. Homosexuality is officially legal, same-sex marriage is a long, long way off.
They'll be more tolerant of gay foreigners because you're not a threat to their society by your selfish refusal to make children etc.
Of course there are gay Chinese around, just find where the gay bars are in your area and connect to that scene. Not everywhere has gay bars though...however there are gay wechat/qq groups, hard to get into but they exist. I could conceivably get you a connection with something like that if you really needed it. If you end up going to China, post something in the China general with your city and wechat name and I could see if some FoaF will hook you up.
>>1123615
>PC is an offensive propaganda tactic engineered in russia/china
Please don't pollute this board with /pol/ nonsense.
>>1123637
>pc
we were talking about chinese culture. chinese INVENTED pc taboos during the cultural revolution, when they would fire/imprison people for hate speech. this is relevant to a china thread, fuck off.
>>1123637
Thanks for the good info.. I fly under the radar for most people, not the type to be running around with pride flags or looking for attention so I should be generally ok just wasn't sure if gayclubs are safe to be around (violence towards homosexuals etc) like in some other countries.
I mostly spend my time around Shanghai so I've been told the french concession is probably the best bet for bars.. This will be my first time travelling there solo so I've never had the opportunity to see the nightlight/gay scene before
>>1123579
Haha, you funny guy.
The West was in total adulation of China for the best part of 10 years, especially in the wake of the Olympics and the financial crisis.
Now that the economy is slowing and it is having repercussions around the globe, suddenly Western media has taken to China bashing on a monumental scale.
Literally every single financial and business newspaper has daily articles telling us how terrible China's credit situation is, or what a catastrophe its capital flight problem is, or how the country is an unsustainable mess that will implode at any time.
In addition they blame the Chinese for AMERICAN belligerence in the South China Sea. Do you not see the irony of America trying to police what China does in its backyard, with an American navy that is literally 7000 miles away from home?
In conclusion: no, the Chinese don't use wumao to influence foreigners. Our consensus views on China clearly are irrational and not based on ideology, but just on economics.
>>1123713
>I've never had the opportunity to see the nightlight/gay scene before
There won't be much of one. What I'm aware of are dance halls where married men go to hook up and stuff and their friends stonewall any wives that turn up looking for them.
A lot of gay men are closeted and married, usually miserably of course.
>>1123736
LOL, looks like the CIDF has shown up.
>they blame the Chinese for AMERICAN belligerence in the South China Sea
Chigger, everybody knows what's going on. The Taiwanese, the Vietnamese, the Filipinos, the Malaysians, etc., etc. all blame China for its aggressiveness. Get real. Here's a tip -- when everybody tells you you're wrong, guess what? You're wrong.
>suddenly Western media has taken to China bashing on a monumental scale.
Or maybe it's just that everyone's realized what massive fucking cheating arrogant pricks the Chinese are? Could that be it?
Hey guys,
I have a bike trip planned in china, but some friends will be in china at the end of the biking part. I have a good touring bike which I plan on taking to China, but would like to either send it back home (Switzerland) or to Beijing to be stored before taking it on the flight home. Everything That i found online estimates the shipping to Europe higher that the both ways flight from home... Anybody has an idea as to how to deal with this? It does not help that it will be more than a month between the end of the bike touring and the flight home.
It is actually quite hard to find information on train shipping through the country,or what would reasonable fares be for consignment.
>>1123750
why is america allowed to invade iraq and afghanistan, and foster a civil war in libya and the ukraine, and europe alowed to conduct military operations in north africa, and be considered "totally peaceful bro?"
the chinese are probably the least aggressive major power on earth. building a platform in the sea with a tourist hotel and airport is a LOT less aggressive than starting wars, even if it IS just a political game.
t. a japanese who doesn't even particularly like china
>>1123772
not sure what makes you think this kind of service is available to you in english, for cheap, n a developing country. because it isn't. for freight, you are going to need to have a chinese friend to help you with this.
>>1123772
>It is actually quite hard to find information on train shipping through the country,or what would reasonable fares be for consignment
Yeah it is but trains CAN ship bikes. Actually that's technically the only way that non-folding bikes can be taken on trains since 2015.
Just to check, do you plan on riding between cities or training? There's complications with both strategies but they've both been done.
My advice is to ship it to Beijing and then take it as oversized baggage. Baggage is almost certainly going to be cheaper than a courier.
Your real problem is storing it between shipping and the flight. You'll need a courier that will be happy to store it for a few days, or you need to ship it to a prepaid hotel and call ahead to the hotel to make sure it's cool.
A quality hotel with a prepaid booking will probably be happy to receive it though they might charge you a storage fee. Airports can store things but it's expensive and they won't receive a courier for you.
A friend in Beijing is your best bet but I guess you probably don't have any.
Instead of train shipping (which is a bit unpredictable about when it arrives too), check a courier company like sf-express and see what they can do, they can probably store it until you arrive in Beijing, for a price. You'll need to ship to their warehouse and then go pick it up or something. I've found SF quite reliable and their pricing is average for Chinese couriers.
www.sf-express.com/cn/en
Their website says Chengdu to Beijing is 132RMB for 20kg. Bicycles are light which will use volumetric weight so it's probably more, the bike box/bag might be oversized as well which could add another surcharge. That doesn't include any storage fees either. Get a bike box from the nearest bike store when you finish your touring, they won't all use them to receive bikes but the good ones probably will and will just toss them out.
What you want is too weird for their website, call them and ask for a quote.
Hello everyone.
I will be going with gf to China and Japan.
I think we're going to do 1 week China (or maybe less) and 1 week Japan.
I know China well, I did almost every province, I work there, and I have a lot of time for one spot.
But I have no idea what can we do in less than a week, other than staying in Beijing at some point.
Is going to Yunnan for 3 or 4 days feasible?
>>1123778
>blah blah blah
Two wrongs make a right? Three wrongs make a right? That's some screwed up logic. You're either a SJW or a chigger.
>t. a japanese who doesn't even particularly like china
Bullshit.
>>1123804
>blah blah blah
>I don't really care about point-counterpoint discourse because fuck it!, my opinion just matters more than yours.
The fact that you can't seen how fucked up America's foreign policy in regards to the South China Sea issue is proves how deluded you are.
>>1123792
From experience, if you only have a few days, spend it in a city, as you can fly in and out easily. Rural might me a pain in the ass to get to, it'll eat up your time.
Go to Shanghai and do a whole pile of nice. Take a break from the Real Traveller fare and get a good massage or go for a nice meal in Xintiandi or Jingan or something
>>1123872
>Rural might me a pain in the ass to get to, it'll eat up your time.
That's not untrue but a week is long enough to fly into Kunming, head up to Dali and Lijiang then on to Chengdu and fly out. You wouldn't be too rushed on that trip.
>>1123804
you don't think china is maybe, preparing defensively against aggression from a country that started TWO unprovoked wars in the middle east after lying about 911, and then TWO unprovoked rebellions against ELECTED governments that might be related to oil...
no WAY. no one is allowed to take cautionary measures!
get fucked dude
>>1123606
>We're certainly not going to see them here
Wrong. It doesn't have the same focus as the mainstream press obviously, but you definitely see PRC propaganda on here, along with angry brainwashed PRC kids """""studying"""""" in the West. Remember that moot literally blocked the entire country of the PRC a few years ago because they were the worst of the worst shitposters and spammers.
It's obviously wrong to say they the Chinese government only cares about what Chinese inside China think. Yes, they care more about Chinese opinion. But they also waste huge amounts of Chinese taxpayers' money on loss-making international media (mostly in English) whose only real impact is occasionally saying something stupid and reminding everyone how nasty they are.
>>1123736
>the West was in total adulation of China
Not really. The Western corporate media was spamming the "rising China" meme because all the top corporates were making loads of money in China and China was behaving itself well for the most part. Now they're pushing this BS in the South China Sea and doing fucked up shit like taking the side of the blackmailer in a court case against GSK, the West is obviously less prepared to indulge their nonsense. Good.
As Ash Carter correctly said: the competing claims in the South China Sea are not new, the background of tension is.
That tension is there because China started island building. The US is standing up for international law and, yes, to a certain extent containing a state that has decided to stop respecting yet another UN agreement they have signed and a status quo they had tolerated. You can spam "it's closer to China, the US should get out" all you want, but nobody thinks that except the Party and the people they have brainwashed. All of China's maritime neighbours are happy that the US is getting involved and helping them stand up to the bullying of a dictatorship that, after 35 years of mostly good behaviour, is starting to show its true colours again.
>>1123178
>chinese are just as civilized as taiwanese and japanese
Nope. They literally have a reputation for shitting in the streets in Hong Kong. And these are the relatively wealthy ones who can afford luxuries like traveling.
>>1123821
>>1124007
LOL, samefagging CIDF shill.
>The US did it, so it's OK for China to do it too!!!!
If this is the tack you're going to take, chigger, you'd be wise to stop denigrating the US. Criticizing the thing you're trying to copy is neither logical nor good form.
>>1124030
>All of China's maritime neighbours are happy that the US is getting involved
Pretty much this. I can't think of a single country in N or SE Asia that supports China's position (except of course the Norks).
Is it possible to visit wuyi without speaking chinese or without someone who does?
>>1124036
Are you for real, man?
are you some sort of imperialist, that you believe no country should be allowed to defend itself? everyone should just roll over and do what the US tells it to do?
>>1124107
Not the anon you're replying to.
Your post features something called a strawman argument.
Of course China is allowed to defend itself. The fact that it has nuclear weapons and missiles is enough to defend itself and more or less guarantees that a hypothetical actual American invasion (that America has no interest in) would be too risky to be seriously considered.
But China is not defending itself by building islands in the South China Sea. The idea that the construction and militarisation of these artificial islands in international waters is somehow a defensive measure is absurd propaganda believed by nobody at all except the pro-Communist Party Chinese.
Everyone else - especially the other countries in the region - can see what it really is. It is a unilateral, intimidating and totally illegal alteration of the status quo in the region.
That's why the Vietnamese are hailing Obama and getting ready to buy American weaponry and why the Philippines are inviting US soldiers back.
>>1124087
Possible, certainly, but maybe difficult at times. It would be worth having, at the very least, some printed Chinese to show to taxi drivers at the train station - like printouts of your hotel reservation with the address in Chinese characters so that you can point at it. Keep hotel business cards on you at all times so people know where you need to get back to.
The hotel people will probably be used to foreign tourists and can probably help you get where you want. But you will probably run in to other English speakers and it would be sensible to buddy up with people if you can.
You're pretty safe - it's unlikely you'd be mugged where-ever you end up. But nevertheless, China can be an uncomfortable place as a lone laowai who doesn't speak the language, especially once you get out of the top tier cities.
>>1124030
>waste huge amounts of Chinese taxpayers' money on loss-making international media (mostly in English)
To be fair, almost every large nation does that.
BBC World, Voice of America, even Australia has a government international TV and radio service.
>>1124030
>That tension is there because China started island building. The US is standing up for international law and, yes, to a certain extent containing a state that has decided to stop respecting yet another UN agreement they have signed and a status quo they had tolerated. You can spam "it's closer to China, the US should get out" all you want, but nobody thinks that except the Party and the people they have brainwashed. All of China's maritime neighbours are happy that the US is getting involved and helping them stand up to the bullying of a dictatorship that, after 35 years of mostly good behaviour, is starting to show its true colours again.
This is basically true except that I think the island building is just a side effect of the military presence. It's their fleet blockading other islands and generally harassing everyone that started this. The real issue is that China claims the entire sea with no legal justification and shits on the UN rules about sea territory and also their legal decisions.
>>1123778
>a platform in the sea with a tourist hotel and airport
>tourist hotel
wew lad
Do you think I can go there and take some nice selfies with the SAM batteries?
>>1124032
>reputation for shitting in the streets in Hong Kong
No, it's their children. Mainland chinese do basically let their children shit anywhere if they can't find a toilet. That's true.
>>1124087
>Is it possible to visit wuyi without speaking chinese or without someone who does?
Except for taxis, I think you'd be ok. Generally just give people money and they'll give you what they sell, whether it's lunch or entry tickets. The YHA hostel or a hotel will be able to handle you.
But you'll need Chinese names of places to go, things like that. Otherwise bus drivers won't know where you want to get off. At least maps would be good.
>>1124122
>>1124131
thank you for answering, wasnt really fearing for my security, my real fear is getting there and to be unable to go places because I cant explain where to go, really want to see the mountains and the tea fields. Still havent done a lot of research as the trip isnt really set in stone, when it is i'll plan it better so I'll have maps and a approximate route by then.
Can I rent a car being foreign?
>>1124130
>To be fair, almost every large nation does that.
Fair enough - but I was responding to the guy who wrongly said China doesn't care what foreigners think.
BBC is a bad example too - they actually make lots of money and have recently shut down a bunch of loss-making foreign language services.
>This is basically true except that...
I don't think we have disagreement. PR China has always had dickish territorial claims (Nixon stayed at the Diaoyutai Guesthouse, for example) so the claim itself isn't new. And yes, the uptick in China's aggression is part of the problem but this has co-incided with the island building. Two sides of the same coin.
>No, it's their children.
Again, I don't see a disagreement. The children seem to be shitting and pissing in public more than the adults (and it's not just Hong Kong) but that doesn't really contradict the point that the Mainland Chinese now have a reputation for being responsible for public excretion - not being "as civilised as Taiwanese and Japanese"!
>>1123736
>The West was in total adulation of China for the best part of 10 years, especially in the wake of the Olympics
LEL
The 'South China Sea', despite it's misleading name, is not China's backyard. The majority of it is by international law rightful Philippine, Vietnamese or Malaysian sphere. I'm not going to defend American imperialism (although they are doing so on behalf of their regional allies), but China has absolutely no right to island-grabbing.
>>1124140
You should be able to rent a car but it'll be a headache and to be honest you can fix up a driver pretty cheaply. I would recommend not driving.
I'd check back for advice about the finer details of visiting Wuyi.
And like I say, even if you get it all figured out it may be better (and more economical in terms of hiring drivers) to buddy up with people at your hostel/hotel.
>>1124148
Fair enough, also how much time should I spend there, was thinking of two weeks but after some research on tourist attraction, it doesn't seem do be two weeks worth of stuff to do, are there other option like visiting nearby places, have no clue how good/bad their transports system is.
Taiwan is also an option I'm considering instead of wuyi, but I'm a bit scared of the air pollution and general heat/humidity combo
>>1124118
america is currently stirring up trouble on the very border of russia in the ukraine by trying to reject elections, and is funding separatists in turkey, western china, and egypt.
CLEARLY in every case, america caused chaos in these countries without directly invading. to idiots like you, it's the same as the "I'm not touching you!" game you play with your siblings.
each of these conflicts is easily dealy with by establishing frontiers under martial law, where proxy armies cannot cause chaos by exploiting civil law.
you're deliberately simplifying the situation to make it look like china is the bad guy. you can fool an idiot like yourself with that kind of logic, don't think you can fool everyone
anyone with two brain cells to rub together has seen the leaked email and knows that america is deliberately trying to cause civil unrest in russia, turkey, and china. but because it's "less obvious" you just ignore that and try to claim that building an island is somehow more violent than feeding weapons to violent separatists that kill women and children.
wew lad. go fuck yourself
how about I feed weapons to people that try to break into your house and kill you, and I declare, when you get angry at me, and build a wall around your house, that "yo bro you need to chill out, that's a really aggressive wall you're building."
>>1124147
do you people read cnn and then just suddenly stop?
china's deep water ports only have one path of exit, and it flows directly through the areas they're claiming.
this isn't about "right" and "wrong" the way you fags want to simplify everything like it's a disney movie. this is about china establishing a border around its strategic territories where the US doesn't have the power to harass them the way the US has been harassing russia's border territories.
china didn't force this issue UNTIL america started funding proxy wars in russia, turkey, and western china. oh, but we're supposed to be satisfied with your retard version of events thta "two wrongs don't make a right."
kay, go ahead and explain geopolitics to me with a nursery rhyme you learned from dora the explorer. I'm waiting.
>>1124144
>BBC is a bad example too - they actually make lots of money and have recently shut down a bunch of loss-making foreign language services.
Their production house makes money by selling shows to foreign networks but things like BBC World don't make money, it's a loss making soft-power exercise. It's not like they take advertising.
>>1124157
>muh big bad American meanie waaah
How does it feel to be 14?
>>1124178
>muh big bad china meanie waaah
>>1124157
I was talking about the SCS. You've responded by ignoring all of my arguments and bringing up lots of different issues in an attempt to muddy the debate. That's called whataboutism and therefore your argument is "I say America did a bad thing in other places, so you are not allowed to criticise China". It's a childish argument and that's why it doesn't work on grown-ups anywhere except in mainland China, where you aren't allowed to argue back effectively.
It may be hard for you to appreciate this, but the 9-dash line claim looks extremely unreasonable to everyone except for PRC nationalists. And it looks particularly unreasonable to the Vietnamese and Filipinos. Nobody cared as long as the Chinese tolerated the post-WW2 status quo. But now the PRC (not the US) has acted to try to change it and undermine the territorial integrity of these smaller nations, these countries' governments are moving closer to the US and closer together. These governments are not naive or stupid people. They do not consider the US government to be a totally selfless entity, but they also have a more nuanced view of the US than your ultra-negative view (which contrasts noticeably with your ultra-forgiving view of the PRC's motivations). So they are prepared to work with the US to push back against Chinese aggression.
You can rant all you want, but you aren't going to convince anyone that the PRC's actions in the SCS are not just an attempted territory grab.
Also, the "wew lad" meme doesn't work when you're being salty yourself.
And your house analogy is bad. A better analogy would be: I'm using the fact that I feel threatened by you as a pretext to build a wall around my house, my garden AND my neighbours' gardens, which I now claim as my own, even though I've previously signed legal documents indicating that I understand my property is just my house and my garden. And, as I do it, my neighbours are saying "hey, stop that, you dick. Okay... we're calling the police".
>>1124161
If you want a nursery rhyme, here's something I just made up:
The world does not really trust the US
But then they trust China even less
>>1124164
I suppose you're pretty much correct there. The commercial income generated by the World Service alone would not be close to being enough to sustain it.
At least they are well respected and good at what they do.
>>1124151
For the cost of a car hire, you could buy a cheap bike. That would be perfectly adequate for the region, it's not hilly and there isn't that much distance to cover.
>>1124151
>it doesn't seem do be two weeks worth of stuff to do, are there other option like visiting nearby places
Wuyi doesn't have two weeks of activities, maybe three days tops.
It's in Fuzhou though which has lots of other things you could do. Round houses, Xiamen, Lishan, Wenzhou.
>have no clue how good/bad their transports system is.
Wuyi has an airport and a train station, both are reasonably far from the Wuyishan area but within bike distance. I rode that area rather than take taxis and it wasn't a problem.
It's a gorgeous area, well worth some biking.
Xiamen also has a ferry to Taiwan if you want.
>>1124157
>funding separatists in turkey, western china, and egypt
US supports the entrenched government in Turkey and labels the separatists a terrorist organisation. They stay the fuck out of Xinjiang because it's a step away from Jihad and they don't want to help people who might just go and join Al Qaeda. They support the dictators in Egypt. You're half right about Ukraine but wew lad, calm the fuck down with everything else. All of this is irrelevant to the SCS though, which has China claiming territory that belongs to other countries and is many thousands of miles from their own shores.
When it comes to the South China Sea, a lot of small countries are allying with the US because it's the only way to preserve their territory. The US isn't pushing their way in, they're invited. China is bullying them so they invited another bully to help them out. Now China is complaining about the US showing up. You can't expect us to take it very seriously.
>>1124184
>The world does not really trust the US
>But then they trust China even less
That's rather good.
>>1124206
So, get to wuyi, hike, sightsee, drink tea, then catch a train/bus to xiamen(or plane directly to taipei), catch the ferry, chill in taiwan and find some nice puehr, is this feasible in 13-15 days(1-? september)? I live in Portugal which is an incredibly small country so it's hard for me to fully grasp the size of china
>>1124182
>whataboutism etc
I dated a party member for a while, she used to talk just like the anon you're arguing with. If I ever pointed out the lines on the map of the SCS she would kind of babble about historical influence or whatever or talk about how the US didn't do anything to save the girls from Boko Haram, stuff like that. It was really weird to listen to.
I don't think that that anon is wumao army, they post positive stuff and are under orders to avoid arguing or making denials. This is just a koolaid drinker, probably a foreign student in the west who hasn't broken their high-school programming yet.
edit: Rotated pic
>>1124225
>then catch a train/bus to xiamen
It's a 3 hour high speed train or a 1 hour flight. The train is sort of more fun, G and D trains are pretty comfy.
Then get a ferry to Taiwan if you like.
I'm not busy so here you go:
<http://english.ctrip.com/chinaflights/wuyishan-to-xiamen/tickets-wus-xmn/?flighttype=s&dcity=wus&acity=xmn&relddate=42&startdate=2016-07-18&startday=mon&relweek=6&searchboxArg=t>
<http://english.ctrip.com/trains/List/Index?DepartureCity=Wuyi+Shan%28%E6%AD%A6%E5%A4%B7%E5%B1%B1%29&ArrivalCity=Xiamen%28%E5%8E%A6%E9%97%A8%29&TrainNo=&DepartureCityPinyin=&ArrivalCityPinyin=&DepartureStation=%E6%AD%A6%E5%A4%B7%E5%B1%B1&ArrivalStation=%E5%8E%A6%E9%97%A8&DepartDate=07-20-2016&searchboxArg=>
>>1124161
Do you people watch RT and then just suddenly stop?
For the record, I'm neither American nor the anon you were conversing with before.
lol @ the idea that China can't maneuver ships in the hundreds of kilometres of open sea before even reaching waters that are quite obviously, plain as day, closer to other countries and needs to invade Flip, Malay and Vietnamese waters to do so. As much of a joke as the Chinese navy is, surely even they can turn a ship in under 200 kilometres.
>>1124231
>Do you people watch RT and then just suddenly stop?
Oh please anon, you're being ridiculous.
It's China Today.
t. not American either
>>1124232
Probably both, really. Rambling about mighty China and Ukrainian nazi rebels in the same breath...
>>1124233
>Probably both, really. Rambling about mighty China and Ukrainian nazi rebels in the same breath...
kek
You might be right.
