Has anyone ever been to China?

[Sammy00]

Has anyone ever been to China? What did you like most about it? I really want to go there, I even planned a trip there 1.5 years ago, but due to the coronavirus everything was canceled.

[shadowmouse]

Your mileage may vary. China is a big place, so in a sense talking about "China" isn't particularly useful. Consider the US and its regions and you'll have something of a clue what I mean -- your experience in New York will be different from your experience in Albuquerque or New Orleans. There are several posters who have been to China and our stories will differ depending in when we were there, what our connection was, where we were, and who we met.

I'll let someone else lead off since my experiences are maybe a bit different than yours would be.

[ghotihook]

I spent 3 weeks in China back in 2007. I know it may not be super relevant. We flew into Hong Kong and flew out of Beijing. I was amazed at the difference in the country. Massive industrial cities then you go 50 miles away and you have Ox driven carts with houses with dirt floors. The country outside the major cities is quite beautiful but also very poor. Most major cities have huge pollution issues. I remember when we were in Beijing we never actually saw the sun. It was just always hazy.

I love history and they do a pretty good job at preserving the most popular places and also having English translations of the history of the area with placards. The great wall, the forbidden palace, jade museums were all really cool. Also the food outside of the major cities is dirt dirt cheap. To this day, the food I ate in China was the best food I've ever had in my life. I remember feeding our group of 8 people for less than $20USD. But if you're going to travel to these places make sure you have someone with you that knows the language. Also, in china almost everything is negotiable but it takes a lot of time. Several times we waited in the lobby for 30 mins while we waiting for my brother and his wife to negotiate the prices for our hotel rooms.

I don't think our experience would have been nearly as good if we didn't have people with us that spoke Chinese. Out of major cities you will find few people who speak English.

[Alex Moriati]

Has anyone ever been to China? What did you like most about it? I really want to go there, I even planned a trip there 1.5 years ago, but due to the coronavirus everything was canceled.

i was in an airport in china when flying to thailand. does that count?

[Calfredd]

I'll let someone else lead off since my experiences are maybe a bit different than yours would be.

At least you are giving him the benefit of the doubt but I'm surprised he even made this thread. He rushed 10 posts and edited one of his posts with an advertisement for weed and hadn't posted again until now.

[shadowmouse]

At least you are giving him the benefit of the doubt but I'm surprised he even made this thread. He rushed 10 posts and edited one of his posts with an advertisement for weed and hadn't posted again until now.

The question on its own is a pleasant change from what one sees in the news.

[Fencers]

Has anyone ever been to China? What did you like most about it? I really want to go there, I even planned a trip there 1.5 years ago, but due to the coronavirus everything was canceled.

Yes! I really enjoyed it; very diverse. Just about everywhere we went there was a lot of rich history and culture to experience. It's really something to go from a super dense mega-city to like a jungle, the desert, mountain valleys. It was visiting 100 different countries all at once.

Great food too.

[Tuor]

I have never been in China, perhaps one day i would be able to go to Macau, the only part of China i have interest in.

[Ashnazg]

I spent 3 weeks in Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai. It was back in 2010 and was my first time in an Asian country of any sort. I would say I definitely got a culture shock when I arrived in Hong Kong and stayed in a hostel the size of my shoe box with the only window facing the inside of a laundry room.

Overall though, I really liked Hong Kong and Shanghai - very futuristic cities (Hong Kong being the dystopian future, and Shanghai being a bit more progressive). People were pretty great and overall it helped me get over a lot of the biases I had about Asian cultures based on me growing up in the States.

Macau was the only place I actively disliked - aside from some bits and pieces of Portuguese history here and there, it looked like a dump, smelled like a dump, and had little to do there except for casino gambling.

[Lochton]

Has anyone ever been to China? What did you like most about it? I really want to go there, I even planned a trip there 1.5 years ago, but due to the coronavirus everything was canceled.

Nope. It is on the list but a bit down the list.

[Gaidax]

A few times, several years on business trips for about 2 months total, alongside with Japan.


Shanghai and area around Fuzhou with a big electronics factory there. Shanghai is a huge metropolis that has just about everything you could imagine. It's also a fairly modern city, more so than, let's say - Tokyo.

Of course as every megapolis it has it's own highs and lows, there are plenty small dusty neighborhoods and "authentic" vibes, but also the newer and better areas of the city are really grand.

Coming from relatively small cities, the biggest one I lived in has just about 1 million population - Shanghai with its 27 million registered residents was insane - the bridges, huge roads with crazy ass drivers, copy paste residential buildings at the side of said road from airport and the views of city as far as you can see from tallest skyscrapers were amazing.

As far as amusement goes - you have everything you want starting with DisneyLand, Safari, Museums and ending with all the night life you can get including fancy bars (filled with escorts if that's your thing - no shortage of that in Shanghai) and actually pretty good restaurants, especially in French Concession.

Then it has its amazing waterway promenade with great views at night. City is very European style in many parts, there is no politics, giant red billboards or pictures of some assholes in high places - it's a capitalism paradise through and through - you can do anything you want with money there and you don't even need a lot of said money to do most of stuff. Just keep your face shut when it comes to politics, it's a bad topic to start there. It's not like police will come down on you with helicopters and shit, it's just you will make everyone uncomfortable discussing that crap nobody wishes to touch.

Great food overall, as well - you can have anything starting with a great beef restaurants that I really enjoyed, to the authentic street-ish food for pennies (wonton soup in a small market diner cost like 3 bucks and it filled me really well during a marketplace stroll), to some treats like sea food restaurant with actual live sea food straight from aquariums on the first floor. There is also plenty of "high-fi" food experience, if you are into that.


Now Fuzhou, a small town of 7 million, has quite a bit more "authentic" feel.

Sure it has its share of big buildings and good restaurants, but you also start seeing these typical communist propaganda crap plastered here and there. Not overbearing, but unlike Shanghai - it was definitely there. Guess Communism is something poor people get to have there. Excellent "tea street" - literally whole street with nothing but tea shops. I bought several kilograms of excellent black tea there to take back home, took me a while to finish it. Much better prices than in Shanghai for that - in Shanghai tea houses are much fancier clearly aimed at tourists, but in such a "bumpkinville" as Fuzhou - you get real prices, or at least as real as it gets for whiteboy in a suit.


Then of course you visit electronics factory near Fuzhou and get reminded how it all got made. Then you go back to Shanghai and wash it off with drinks in a "spa" with Japanese business partners, because that's how they do it and how they expect you to do it if you want to do business.

/shrug

[Stelio Kontos]

Been to Taiwan, but that's a separate country. Would've been fun to visit Hong Kong before it, well, you know.

Dated a Mongol girl back in college, wanted to visit Mongolia, and then maybe Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and the like after, since I'm fascinated by Central Asia/Steppe cultures. But the relationship didn't last long enough, and now Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are, well, you know.

[RobertoCarlos]

You couldnt pay me enough money to even visit china.

[Ashleyxoxo]

No, I haven't even tried Chinese food lol.

[bladeXcrasher]

Yes, a few times. Pollution is terrible, even seemed like that in the mountains when I was there for a week for work.

I'll say I never got used to the bokchoi planted literally everywhere it possibly could. If there was dirt, it seemed like it was cultivated, especially in the exceptionally rocky parts of the mountains.

[Felya]

I’ve lead a team in China, but never been there... good hard working people from my experience... I liked all of the people on my team... a lot...

[hplaner]

China is massive and have lots of beautiful and interesting spots. If you like the futuristic city style, would recommend Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou. If you like the natural beauty, places like Guizhou, Xinjiang, Hangzhou. There are many many numerous others, and also depends on what sort of food you're most interested in (many areas are best known for spiciness)
Before actually visiting China, you'll need to have a bit understanding of the lifestyle differences. For one...China is almost pretty much cashless. People buy items all through their phone via wechat/alipay (tickets, bus, stores, etc...) It is quite difficult to actually buy stuff with cash nowadays. People exchange contacts via scanning wechats rather than phone #s. Essentially, it is kind of crucial for you to download and use Wechat. There are many benefits once you get to know the ins and outs of many day to day chinese apps (i.e. for ordering car service, ticket booking, etc...)
China has massive high-speed railroads, and they cost very cheap compared to say airline tickets. These HSR allows you to pretty much be able to travel so many places in short time around the country with ease. It'll probably be your main transportation if you're in for traveling around.
China is extremely safe, hanging out after midnight is very common. In fact, night market is tremendously popular. And don't forget about the food...That is the #1 attraction of China (though I'll suggest avoid touristy places as usually those food are westernized)

[smityx]

Sure every time I walked into a Walmart

[Orby]

I been to Hong Kong, because that's where my girlfriends parents live. Its beautiful there people are super nice. Shame about their shitty governments and the rest of china doing their shit.

[ParanoiD84]

Nope and i dont plan on it either, would be nice to see the wall sometime perhaps other then that nope.