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Would you ever travel to China for vacation?

L

loaf of bread

Member
How is inbound tourism lackluster for China? Its the 4th most visited country in the world behind only France, US, and Spain.

Anyways, if anyone is hesitant about visiting China for whatever reason, just visit Taiwan. Basically everything good about China with pretty much none of the bad aspects.
 
H

Hello? This is Hailun!

Member
IISANDERII said:
That's exactly why I'm not an asshole, because I'm not supporting the economies of oppressive regimes(and you are a racist if you think only European Nations can be free of oppression) . I'm rewarding countries which treat their citizens with dignity and acceptable standards of life.

Feeding into meagre wages and poor human rights isn't helping the citizenry in the long term.
Click to expand...

No you're not.

You're going to safe, white, nations and patting yourself on the back for it.
 
L

LiquidM

Neo Member
Most of the tourist business here are private owned and ran by ordinary chinese people, so by travelling here you are supporting the local business for the most part, not the regime. This is not the same as travelling to north korea you know.

About the inappropriate behaviors such as spitting and not staying in queue, I can only appologise. A lot of chinese detest such behavior as much as you do, but things like these need time to change. Hopefully things will improve in another ten or twenty years.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
LiquidM said:
Most of the tourist business here are private owned and ran by ordinary chinese people, so by travelling here you are supporting the local business for the most part, not the regime. This is not the same as travelling to north korea you know.

About the inappropriate behaviors such as spitting and not staying in queue, I can only appologise. A lot of chinese detest such behavior as much as you do, but things like these need time to change. Hopefully things will improve in another ten or twenty years.
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I would argue its changing though. While you still see it, from my own experience between 2009 and 2017, it doesnt happen as much as when I first went there. At least spitting.
 
M

magichans

Banned
Yes, it's on my top 3 list that I need to visit before I get much older. However, it sounds like I'll have to plan it out very well because of all the horrendous tourist traps and stuff. That doesn't matter though. Jaw-droppingly fantastic country and people.
 
Q

Qvoth

Member
been to china many times and as far as i can remember the only time i had the infamous bad pollution was when i was in beijing, and luckily it wasn't that bad either

most other cities generally don't have that problem afaik
 
U

u_neek

Junior Member
Getting my tourist visa is proving to be quite the hassle.

Because I work in tv (self-employed), I need to declare that I don't intend to do any media-related activities while visiting the country. And is it normal that they need bank statements and my latest self assessment?

Third visit to the visa office is the charm, I guess! Seriously! I am visiting for 6 damn days, China. Cut me some slack lol!
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
u_neek said:
Getting my tourist visa is proving to be quite the hassle.

Because I work in tv, I need to declare that I don't intend to do any media-related activities while visiting the country. And is it normal that they need bank statements and my latest self assessment?
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No. Never heard of that.
 
O

Otheradam

Member
China is worth visiting but you really need to go with a friend who can speak mandarin to get the most out of it. Otherwise i think its too hard to get around and stuff.
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
Chichikov said:
And for what it's worth, the majority of Chinese people don't feel terribly oppressed by their government.
Click to expand...
Honestly, if it weren't for the Chinese signs, I'd have thought I was in the US.

All sorts of American brands exist here, roads are clean, metro is efficient (blows NYC's out of the water), everywhere accepts either Alipay or WeChat, bars and Western entertainment options exist en masse.

The best example I can think of is that the average Chinese citizen lives in a sort of nature reserve. There's enough freedom, enough access, and enough alternatives for them to be happy. Shanghai feels like your average American metropolis and, aside from the one propaganda video I've seen, it feels perfectly natural.
 
H

hurricanes

Member
loaf of bread said:
Anyways, if anyone is hesitant about visiting China for whatever reason, just visit Taiwan. Basically everything good about China with pretty much none of the bad aspects.
Click to expand...

Is this tales out of your as*? Much of nice things about China are from either its historical sites or natural wonders. You won't get 1/100 of that in Taiwan.
 
C

Cub3h

Banned
It's definitely worth it. Visited about five years ago when I didn't speak any Mandarin, so I spent a couple of days in Beijing on my own, then joined a ten day organised tour group through Beijing Luoyang, Xi'An, Guilin and Shanghai, then spent a few more days on my own in Shanghai and HK. It's a completely different world to anything we know here in the West, but it's safe and with some pointing and gesturing you will get to where you are and you will be able to order (delicious!) food.

I imagine these days it would be a lot easier to do on your own, having Google Translate and Maps on the go really has made travel incredibly easy.
 
M

MGrant

Member
I live in Taiwan so I'd have to fight the urge to discuss politics with anyone and my accent when speaking Mandarin is clearly Taiwanese but there are a few places on the mainland I'd like to see. Guangdong, Hunan, Sichuan, Guilin especially.
 
V

Valkerionseven

Member
Get enough Chinese tourists here already in my city and aside from all the hot take "rude mainlanders cutting lines, talking loudly, and generally having 0 common decency"
which... sadly seem true even when I dont like to admit it

There are few places I want to go in China. It has not done a good job advertising many of the places you can go or things you can see. Theres the great wall.... and....? So few things come to mind off the top of the average person's head. Been to China already and would like to explore it more some day (its only a two hour or less depending, plane ride away. But I honestly don't know where I'd go, or why.

Now that I think about it, I never got a upset stomach in China... compared to all the other places I visit where it happens at least once haha.
 
E

Eridani

Member
Valkerionseven said:
Get enough Chinese tourists here already in my city and aside from all the hot take "rude mainlanders cutting lines, talking loudly, and generally having 0 common decency"
which... sadly seem true even when I dont like to admit it

There are few places I want to go in China. It has not done a good job advertising many of the places you can go or things you can see. Theres the great wall.... and....? So few things come to mind off the top of the average person's head. Been to China already and would like to explore it more some day (its only a two hour or less depending, plane ride away. But I honestly don't know where I'd go, or why.

Now that I think about it, I never got a upset stomach in China... compared to all the other places I visit where it happens at least once haha.
Click to expand...

While I agree that there's a ton of cool looking places that aren't advertised nearly enough, places like Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Guilin (to a lesser extent) are all really well known. That's about as many places as most countries advertise really - they all focus only on the most well known places, which makes sense considering most people will only spend a couple of weeks at most in them. I don't feel like this problem is unique to China at all.

Luckily, the internet has made it incredibly easy to discover interesting places to visit.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Yes, definitely. The most appealing aspects are the historical stuff, the food, and the natural scenery. I hear the shopping is good in Hong Kong, but I don't really travel to shop.
 
E

Eridani

Member
vern said:
Not when the vpns all don't work.
Click to expand...

For Google Translate you should be able to download the language pack, which lets you use it offline, although I think some features don't work. For maps, I'm sure there's apps that work offline too - I've used them for other countries and they were pretty helpful.
 
S

sohois

Member
Whilst they aren't the easiest to use, Baidu Translate and Baidu Maps are both good alternates to use in China and in fact are actually superior for local Chinese info and English Chinese translation
 
A

always crazy bacon

Banned
Chairmanchuck said:
Do VPNs not work anymore? Used Astrill last month and it was okay.

I thought though of setting up a SSH-server so I dont need to use "traditional" VPNs anymore.
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My VPN is still working but a Chinese friend of mine called me yesterday to tell me his one no longer worked.

I don't know what a SSH server is but I'm sure you could fund it or at least subsidize it from China Gaffers paying you instead of their VPN services.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
always crazy bacon said:
My VPN is still working but a Chinese friend of mine called me yesterday to tell me his one no longer worked.

I don't know what a SSH server is but I'm sure you could fund it or at least subsidize it from China Gaffers paying you instead of their VPN services.
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I would use my Computer as a SSH-server and would circumvent the "Great Firewall" like that.
I wouldnt want any other gaf user to use it though ;)
 
A

always crazy bacon

Banned
Chairmanchuck said:
I would use my Computer as a SSH-server and would circumvent the "Great Firewall" like that.
I wouldnt want any other gaf user to use it though ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's fair. You don't know what they would be doing with it. I don't even share my WIFI with my neighbors even though they offered to pay 1/2 the service fee.
 
N

numble

Member
vern said:
Not when the vpns all don't work.
Click to expand...

Eridani said:
For Google Translate you should be able to download the language pack, which lets you use it offline, although I think some features don't work. For maps, I'm sure there's apps that work offline too - I've used them for other countries and they were pretty helpful.
Click to expand...

sohois said:
Whilst they aren't the easiest to use, Baidu Translate and Baidu Maps are both good alternates to use in China and in fact are actually superior for local Chinese info and English Chinese translation
Click to expand...

Google Translate is the only service offered by Google in China. It is available if you go to translate.google.cn. No VPN required.
 
M

Moose Biscuits

It would be extreamly painful...
Eh, probably not. Nothing against China perse, but if I had the money for a trip to China I'd probably just prefer to use it on a trip to Japan.
 
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