this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Traveling to China in 2024 (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Comrades who have been/live in China, I'm visiting sometime next year! I've commented about this before but it's coming up on the new year so.

Any advice on where to go, how to behave, what to see, do? Any information would be appreciated, I'm so excited

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

If you go to a very urban area, and find a hole in the wall restaurant among well renovated shops, then dining there is a must.

Shopping centers in China are just built different. The top floors usually contains a daycare and restaurants.

Chinese national parks are also built different.

Highly recommend that you download an offline map. I use OSMAND. When you get back, use it to plan out your trips. (This isn’t China specific) Also, Baidu and DIDI is your friend. Actual friends are also your friends.

There are some extremely high tier super elite shops, restaurants, and services, with quality above and beyond anything you can find in NA. It’s worth a visit if you can find them. It’s expensive AF, even in foreign currency, but unlike expensive luxury shit in the west, it’s very much worth it. Like, I bought a $10CAD cup of black coffee brewed from Colombian Sakura beans and it was literally the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I came back to Canada and I couldn’t drink the coffee here for 2 months because of how bad it tasted in comparison.

Coffee is very expensive in China. But try out the local soft drinks. All the local soft drinks. China is the best place to go to quit coffee.

You generally don’t need to pack your own food. You can just buy food anywhere. But it’s kinda a ripoff if you specifically buy food at tourist traps, like $10yuan for a sausage on a stick.

Older people will tell you to watch out for bandits and kidnappers. But the most danger that you’ll be in is in danger of being ripped off.

You can’t drink tap water in China. You’ve got to boil it first. Stick some tea leaves in there while you’re at it.

Depending on where you’re shopping, you can haggle.

~~If there are signs saying not to take pics of military installations, then that’s just a suggestion. I have a pic of China’s stealth battleship in dock somewhere on my phone.~~ But there areas that are military bases / military ground that you should avoid. (Hainan specific)

Update: don’t take pictures of military installations because you might take find yourself photographing something that you’re not supposed to.

Highly suggest that you go off grid and wander around not just the urbanized areas but also the poorer areas and ghettos. It’s gorgeous and it’s got a ton of history.

Learn to ride a Vespa before going to China because you can rent a Vespa in some areas that makes getting around easier.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Lots of great advice there. Thank you comrade <3

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

wait 10 yuan is tourist trap price jacking? that's like, less than 2 USD. every tourist trap in america has like a 15 usd pretzel or something.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For 20 yuan, you can get a pack of those sausages. I’ve seen them at grocery stores.

So I’d say that it’s a ripoff.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

holy hell china is so much cheaper than the states

we plunder the resources of the global south and still have ridiculous prices???

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

A lot of nuance here, but yea.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have a pic of China’s stealth battleship in dock somewhere on my phone.

You won't find that again.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I took another look, and it’s not a stealth ship. It’s something way cooler.

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing pictures of this in 2-3 years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You can’t drink tap water in China. You’ve got to boil it first. Stick some tea leaves in there while you’re at it.

Was it really that bad in your experience? It seems hard to believe as someone who has not visited China but heard many great things about the nation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

You can drink the tap water, but nobody will let you.

I secretly drank some when nobody’s looking with no side effects. It tastes kind of raw though. I don’t think they chlorinate it.

I know for a fact that China treats their tap water.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Tap water that's drinkable straight out of the tap is a rarity in the world and not really a thing in any developing country. There are certainly parts of China where you could get away with it, but you could get sick in many other places. The issue is that pipes leak here and there, so even though water comes out drinkable from the plant, there's no guarantees what it will be like at the tap. From the perspective of the Chinese, you drink less than 1% of the tap water you use, so why bother making all of it drinkable? But I'm sure things will change as the country develops.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Genuinely never been so excited to travel before. Marxism-Leninism makes everything so much better lol

I really want to interact with people there, I should start getting some translation apps set up and learn basic phrases in Mandarin. I want to show I'm not an arrogant dumb USian lol, I've heard the Chinese are very nice but I am still a little scared to give a bad impression and get marked as a dumb American.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For translation I would recommend Pleco as you can have the person you are communicating with draw the characters and then translate that. It isn't perfect but I used it heavily when I lived there

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

Get Beidou or Baidu maps for navigation.

For Wechat it looks like you need a current user to verify for you to be able to use it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

https://hexbear.net/post/1282031

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That was helpful. I was curious about the VPN situation, I am addicted to my shitty western internet so >:^(

Lol I'd also just like to be able to text friends while I'm there considering I'll be going for like 2 weeks

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Exciting, any idea where you'll go?

My generic advice is to setup WeChat and Alipay payment systems. Everything runs off of one of those apps, and it'll make your travels much easier.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm really interested in using the high speed rail, lol. I'd like to see the wall and other major attractions, but I also have a deep desire to see both the urban and rural areas because I know both are beautiful in that country. I want to talk to people as much as possible but having a hard time learning Mandarin so I might need to find a guide.

Ahh, is WeChat like snapchat here in the US? In terms of being super common

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

WeChat doesn't have an equivalent in the US. Everyone in China uses it, even old people. On the surface it's a chat app but it's also integrated with payment systems and mini apps. It's very common for a restaurant menu to just be a WeChat mini-app, I think even customs does their border forms via WeChat.

HSR between Shanghai and Beijing is a good call most of the time, only 4 hours and a well travelled route with frequent service. Helps that both cities are very much worth seeing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Wait that's way cooler lmao

But yesss and I'm sure the view on the way is lit as fuck also going 250mph in a train is just so dope to me, I have literally never used good public transportation in the US (shitty subway in NYC/Chicago, but the shit is ghetto asl and dirty)

This probably a pipe dream but are there any known spots that Chinese politicians hang out at? I know there's like 90 million in the CPC, but I had a dream where I met Xi once and obviously that means I'm going to run into him when I'm there xd

No it doesn't matter that the country has 1.5 billion, I WILL be meeting Mr. Head of Modern Socialism Xi whether you dirty tankies like it or not

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Go to the Telegram chat that is found in the sidebar of /r/GenZedong https://t.me/real_genZedong_general

There are a bunch of people who would love to chat with you about that, although not everyone checks it consistently since it pretty much died, that's a subject that invariably perks it up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Word, thanks!