No, I Won’t Be Going Back to China (page 3 of 13)

When’s the little code-of-conduct booklet coming for us French folks—or anyone else—traveling abroad? 😉

Hi, you really made me laugh with your post—it reminds me of some friends I traveled with for 15 days in China back in 2006, who were also thrown off by the behavior of the Chinese. Actually, you just have to do like them and take it with a laugh, otherwise it’s true that it can be annoying. You didn’t mention the spitting and other "emphatic" throat-clearing—was that out of modesty, or have they calmed down? Zai jian.

As for me, before leaving for China, I was advised to visit other Asian countries and avoid China. Yet my trip in April 2017 following a Beijing-Hong Kong itinerary and last April’s trip between Shanghai and Guiyang were absolutely enchanting.

But I understand your impressions, and yes, some of their behaviors can be shocking. However, you should also weigh in the positives: no one will try to scam you, you always feel safe (my girlfriend often walked alone at night), they have a fabulous railway system, they’re respectful (they don’t stare, and how many times did they offer my partner a seat?), and so much more. I suppose these qualities are even more pronounced in Japan, but compared to other countries I’ve visited, China is in a league of its own.

Two personal stories that show their kindness: the time we were stranded in a small town and the bus driver cut off another bus to let us board and take us to our destination. And another time, when I had a persistent cough (I have bronchitis/asthma issues), some students came to our rescue in a pharmacy to help us pick the right medicine and dosage.

Should I also mention the richness of their architecture and the diversity of their landscapes? That tips the scales even more toward the positive!

Yet I don’t travel in luxury. We’re always backpacking, staying in hostels, and avoiding taxis. In big cities, I love taking buses and the metro. In Beijing and Shanghai, I make sure to ride during rush hour—every time, I love the atmosphere. Biking in big cities or crossing the street on a red light (I know, it’s a bad habit) feels safer than back home in Montreal, where cars drive much faster.

At the office, when I say I’m going back to China, I hear "Again?!" Yes! Because every time I go, I discover something new.

We’ve never had communication issues, and I don’t speak Mandarin. Still, we visit many villages and always manage to make ourselves understood—our goal isn’t philosophy, just finding a bus, food, and a place to sleep 🙂

Next year, I’m heading back for 5 weeks, mainly to visit Yunnan. I can’t wait.

Of course, there are positives: safety on the streets and elsewhere, you can leave your bags without worrying too much, and you don’t feel stared at or "hassled" for a few dollars just because you’re a tourist (a memory from a trip to Morocco where kids from the village ran after us asking for money).

Happy exploring in Yunnan 😉

Good evening,

"The Chinese spend their time spitting. They clear their throats so loudly that conversation becomes inaudible—it sounds like a rototiller, or someone cleaning out a gutter, or the last few liters of water draining from a Jacuzzi. They suck in their cheeks: *Kurrrkh!* Then they grimace, position their teeth, and lean forward. You expect a jet of at least five meters, like a cowboy in the pampas, but no, they don’t put any force behind it. They rarely spit more than a few centimeters away. They don’t just spit far—they spit downward; that’s the key cultural difference I took a year to figure out in China. It’s not a clean shot right into the spittoon—it’s a dribble that trickles outside the disgusting receptacle. They double over when they spit, bending their knees and arching their backs as a prelude. There’s nothing aggressive about it. It’s almost silent. They let the glob drop and carry on their way. Of course, it’s an overcrowded country, and it’s impossible to hock a loogie without hitting someone." Paul Theroux – *Riding the Iron Rooster* (1986)

Chinese people spit less than they used to. There was an awareness campaign before the 2008 Beijing Olympics that actually worked. That’s a good thing. But I see more people spitting in Brussels than I ever did in China (where I haven’t been back since 2014)

Despite my love for China, I have to admit I don’t agree with a few points mentioned:

they don’t stare

Ohhh, yes they do 😛

When I took a bus in Guilin, there was a man who sat right in front of me, and for the entire ride, he just kept this expression: 😮 He spent a good 10 minutes staring at me with his mouth open! And I’m talking about Guilin—not some remote village in the Chinese countryside where foreigners might be rarer. It made me laugh inside because, honestly, Guilin is full of tourists, so his reaction surprised and amused me!

Another story: during my visit to the Summer Palace, I took a break to eat, and in front of me was a Chinese family with several kids. One little boy spent the whole time I was eating trying to take my picture. Sometimes I’d turn my head away, laughing, so he couldn’t get the shot. When he finally succeeded, he was so proud and laughed with the other kids... I finished eating, walked up to him, crouched down to his level, and took a picture of him with my camera... Poor kid!!! He was so embarrassed!!! But his family and everyone around us was laughing a lot!

(The photo’s blurry because 1) I’d just bought a new camera I didn’t know how to use yet; 2) I took the picture quickly since the little guy was so embarrassed, and I didn’t want to prolong his suffering.)

So yeah, people do stare, but you shouldn’t take offense—it can actually be funny in the end 🙂

No one will try to scam you

In touristy areas, you still need to be careful. For example, in Xi’an, the cashier—who was super rude—didn’t give me my change after I bought my ticket to see the Terracotta Army... She just tossed my entrance ticket at me while yelling. I realized 5 minutes later! I went back to her, and as soon as she saw me approaching, without me even saying a word, she handed me the correct change right away—still acting just as rude!

But that was one of the very few bad experiences I had in China.

Generally, I found people in the south much friendlier than those in the north, where the big-city vibe was much stronger: people were more closed-off, less chatty, etc. But they were always ready to help, for example.

Have a great evening!

Maybe in a few decades they won’t spit in the street anymore ^^

Hehe!

Spitting’s nothing, though...

I’d just like it if they’d stop peeing right in the middle of Shanghai, on a packed street without even trying to hide 😎

😮

😛

All I want is for them to stop peeing right in the middle of Shanghai, on a packed street without even trying to hide

Peeing—that’s the *best-case* scenario 😏😏

China is like several countries in one... And you're judging it based on a few days of a low-quality trip?

And Yunnan... simply magical! But no, you don’t know it.

So, above all: Don’t go back to China!

Me, I loooove it and I’m going back for the 4th time.

Happy travels elsewhere,

Hi Eric, you had a bad experience during your trip to China; unfortunately, you got off lightly: every day, tourists of all nationalities are scammed in China’s big cities like Beijing or Shanghai. The method is always the same—scammers use well-rehearsed tricks: first, they lure you in with young people posing as students who offer you free tea (a Chinese welcome tradition, or so they say). Once they’ve hooked you, they take you to a bar slightly off the main streets and offer you tea for free. Next, they suggest a supposedly higher-quality tea, and at the end, they tell you it’s not free—the price ranges from a few hundred dollars, and they make sure to lock the doors so you can’t escape. They hold you there until you pay the $200 or $300 they demand. If you don’t have the cash, no problem! They come with a portable card reader, just like in a French shop, and force you to pay with the credit card you have on you. Every day, hundreds of tourists fall victim to these scams—whether it’s the "welcome tea" trick, karaoke girls who claim they’ve filmed you, or other schemes. I’ve visited China—maybe I’ve seen more sites than you—and I can tell you, I’ve never encountered people as racist anywhere else. And I’ve been traveling the world for thirty-five years by car, sailboat, train, and bus. For example, at the two Novotels in the Chinese capital, there isn’t a single day when tourists don’t come to complain about the scams they’ve suffered during their visits. You were very lucky not to have been scammed and held against your will. The most recent people who told me about this "welcome tea" scam were two big, strong guys from a Nordic country who couldn’t do anything against the four thugs who followed them in, locked the door, and demanded payment. As for the rest of your comments, I can confirm the mindset in the big cities—they spit everywhere, and government officials and the police are the most racist toward foreigners (I experienced this in Guilin and along the Li River). But if you venture into the countryside, people are like anywhere else in the world—wary of foreigners, and it’s up to you to earn their trust. I hope you’ll get the chance to visit other, more welcoming countries. If you like hiking, I recommend Nepal and Pokhara, or the temples of Angkor in Cambodia and its lake with the nearby fishing villages. Or Halong Bay and Saigon (a walk around the lake in the city center) in Vietnam, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia with its tea plantations in the north and its strait in the south, with the Perhentian and Tioman Islands. Or Sumatra with its orangutan rehabilitation village and Lake Toba, one of the largest craters and a tragedy in this planet’s history.

You’ll see that Asia has a thousand facets, and China isn’t a model for tourism. It’s a country that has known every form of monarchy and communism—a nation of slaves under dictatorship, gasping for air. You’ll need to be patient and wait a few decades before it wakes up. Safe travels,

Apart from the suckers who still think young Chinese women chat with them for their good looks, I don’t see who gets scammed by the tea ceremony in China 😏. Every time, it’s the same guys who get lured into hostess bars by 20-year-old girls while they’re pushing 50 😄😄.

Anyway, let’s get serious again.

Apart from the suckers who still think young Chinese women talk to them for their good looks, I don’t see who gets scammed by the tea ceremony in China 😏 Every time, it’s the same guys who get lured into hostess bars by 20-year-old girls while they’re pushing 50

Anyway, let’s get serious again.

Plus, it’s a scam as old as it is well-known, and it’s hardly practiced anywhere except Tiananmen Square in Beijing—I read one single account of it happening in Shanghai, never anywhere else.

And apparently the same scam is still happening in Paris, but with champagne... It’s classier, though, isn’t it? 😏

Yeah, just one post from a member who joined the same day they wrote this...

Okay, let’s get serious now 😉

For my part, I’ve been to China six times and I really hope to go back! Sure, the food is very spicy in some regions, but in guidebooks, you can find a few Chinese words like "no spice," and besides, almost everyone has a phone with a translator. Sure, politeness is different from what we’re used to in France—you just have to remember that we’re on the other side of the world, and they don’t necessarily think the same way we do... More than once, I’ve had to ask for directions (I speak a little Chinese), and they bent over backwards to help us. More than once, we’ve been invited to have tea or even a meal in the countryside. Just to clarify, we travel as a couple. Admittedly, tourist spots are paid, but there are so many non-touristy yet far more authentic places to discover. Don’t stick to the cities—you’ll see the difference!

Totally agree

You forgot to mention the Chinese who try to scam you at every street corner. It’s not just because you’re foreigners—it’s simply the rule there. Scamming and swindling, a culture of money at any cost and without morals.

Between taxis with rigged meters, the tea house scam where you walk out with a bill for several hundred dollars for three cups of tea (and watch out if you refuse to pay), fake products sold as original brands, food scandals where they sell you plastic as real food, pickpocketing in public transport (one camera and one iPod gone), etc., etc...

I think they have the biggest range of scams in the world. Budding scammers could easily go to China for training...

I had the chance to spend a lot of time there for work, and I won’t be going back under any circumstances....

Hello, I just read your post about China. I couldn’t resist writing to you. We went solo four years ago for three weeks in Yunnan. Unfortunately, a health issue forced us to return after just 48 hours. But in those 48 hours, we managed to see everything you mentioned. 1. The food—wow. I’ve never seen people eat so messily. They throw all their trash on the ground. It’s unbelievable.

2. English? We’ve traveled solo all over the world and always managed with English (even in South America, we made ourselves understood). Forget about it in China—they don’t speak a word of English. If you want to take a taxi, brace yourself—none will stop because they’ve spotted you as a foreigner, and since they don’t speak English, they just keep driving. We met some Belgians who waited nearly two hours for a taxi. They finally got one with the help of other foreigners. We took a bus. The receptionist had written everything in Chinese for us to show the driver or someone on the bus. No one bothered to look at our paper, just turned away with their masks over their mouths.

3. They don’t know how to talk. It’s a competition to see who can speak the loudest. They yell nonstop. It’s exhausting. They’re disrespectful, always in a rush. Even during our layover in Frankfurt, we were stunned by the noise the Chinese travelers made. A young German woman warned us: *You haven’t seen or heard anything yet...*

4. It’s true—they cut in line constantly. It happened at the airport. And we could tell you so many more stories...

In short, after 48 hours, we formed the exact same opinion of the Chinese as you did. We had to cut our trip short, but we don’t regret it, and I’ll never go back to China.

Hello forum,

Did you, like us, experience the same things in China?

We spent a good twenty days there in August. I won’t be going back. Part of the trip was solo around Chengdu, then we joined a guided tour for 12 days (Beijing, Pingyao, Xi’an, Guilin, Xingping, Yangshuo, Shanghai, Wuzhen) and extended our stay by 4 extra days to visit Zhangjiajie.

The landscapes were stunning, and we have unforgettable memories... but we were really disappointed by the following:

- The food: way too spicy. No flavors, little taste. I’m speaking generally because we did try some good steamed dumplings, smoked pork, and dumplings... But overall, we were blown away by Thailand, Cambodia, and India—Chinese cuisine didn’t impress us at all.

- The behavior of the Chinese: disrespectful, rushed, aggressive. You have to fight constantly—we were pushed, crowded... At the entrance to the Terracotta Army (or other sites), it’s a human tidal wave... and I mean that literally. We were carried by the crowd without our feet touching the ground. It was like a situation where you have one bowl of rice and 20,000 starving people diving for it...

You’re at a ticket counter, and they cut in front of you. You’re in line for boarding, your suitcase ready to go on the conveyor belt, and someone shows up out of nowhere to put *their* suitcase down... even though they have a plane ticket with *their* seat number and won’t be leaving before you!!! You’re getting on the bus, and someone else shoves past you so they don’t end up behind you.

It’s like these people only think about themselves. I didn’t see a single one let someone else go first or even ask politely—as if manners and respect were completely foreign to them.

It’s honestly draining, exhausting...

- Communication: In every country we’ve visited, in Asia or Europe, we’ve always managed with English, a few words of Italian, French, or Spanish. In China, I’ll be blunt—if you don’t speak Chinese, you’re screwed. And yet, a pair of kids around ten or twelve years old asked us in English where we were from :)

- Understanding: Here’s the rule. Even if your interlocutor speaks a few words of English and says they understand you... make sure they *really* do, because 9 times out of 10, they don’t. Out of pride or cluelessness, they’ll give you a big smile and nod, but in reality, they didn’t understand a word of what you said.

Several times with our group, in the evening at a restaurant, if we hadn’t been helped by someone at another table who spoke a little English, we’d still be there. The classic example: the waiter brings one menu (for 10 people at the table), and we’re all trying to explain that we want 4 or more menus. Five minutes later, he’s still staring at us with that same blank smile...

In 3- or 4-star hotels, you go to them for a hot water or air conditioning issue. Three or four of them stand there beaming at you. You try to explain with photos or a translator, but in the end, you leave because your problem isn’t fixed.

They don’t know how to talk—they just yell... on the bus, at the hotel...

We were also surprised to find that self-service laundromats were almost nonexistent. We got scammed once at a hotel with an astronomical bill!

As for flights, we went with Air China and returned with Austrian Airlines—no comparison. No service and *inedible* food with Air China. With Austrian, multiple services, a decent meal, and smiling flight attendants.

I don’t know if you’ve had the same experience with this country, but I’m not at all eager to go back. Whereas if someone offered me India, Thailand, or Vietnam tomorrow, I’d go in a heartbeat!!!

That’s just my take for whoever’s interested. I’ve also traveled all over different regions of China. I don’t speak Chinese. Sometimes it’s tough to make myself understood, but never, ever have I felt scammed. It’s possible that taxis charge tourists a bit more. Maybe. But at least it’s done with kindness and a smile. Maybe because my hair’s turning gray.

Try to picture a Chinese traveler on their own crossing France—it might help you see things differently.

Don’t waste your time replying to people who’ve posted just ONE message on this site. That goes for the person you replied to as well as the next one (whose style and comments are *really* similar 😄😄).

Ah, okay, so the number of posts guarantees a user's credibility on a forum.

Wow...

Some users have dozens of contributions, and yet their posts are so shallow....

Instead of looking at my number of contributions, check my registration date on the forum. Who’s to say I didn’t decide to change my username or email address in the meantime for reasons that don’t concern you.

You’re pathetic and seem really frustrated....

My apologies, oh great forum master....