Happy birthday, anons. I plan on solo traveling in China this winter, so I'd like to read something to inspire me and turn my anxiety into excitement. A book about an adventurer going to Asia or similar. Any suggestions?
>inb4 Eat, Pray, Love
Happy birthday, anons.
I hope you speak ching chong
Just a few words and phrases, but I doubt they'll understand my accent anyway.
Seven years in tibet
Are you Chinese? If you are from a Western country and you are not Chinese:
1. They will try to scam you at every corner so be careful and trust no one
2. You will get laduzi (loose bowels) if you eat street food in almost all circumstances
Other than that enjoy yourself, it's a magnificent country
Laduzi is pretty easy to avoid if you just go to halal places or western places
>halal places
he's visiting china, not london
I'm a Westerner. I had lots of street food in Taiwan and my bowels were fine. Is food in mainland that different?
Probably not that much worse then but China is a developing country so the standards are a bit lower for hygiene
>1. They will try to scam you at every corner so be careful and trust no one
Is this true? I'm paranoid by nature, so this might turn out unpleasant. I'll go to places where foreigners are not very common, not Beijing or Shanghai.
Somewhat. I think in general major scams won't target foreigners because it could risk drawing attention and creating a larger incident, but people will try to overcharge you for stuff like taxis frequently
https://wikitravel.org/en/China#Crime
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/China#Scams
Would recommend reading these articles
If you’re paranoid and reclusive don’t pick low trust societies like China, go to Japan or possibly Korea.
Avoid Egypt and most arab countries like the plague, you’re expected to bullshit fluently about literally everything. Bribes are expected but they won’t just ask so the worst thing you can be is some high trust moron going “uhh excuse me I don’t think that’s right”. You gotta be aggressive back and know when to grease people to get what you want. On the plus side all rules are optional. They don’t allow people on the pyramids? For money they do. Etc.
Most of Africa is out, large parts of South America and select countries in Asia. It’s not a lot left.
Ask on IQfy and IQfy
You're remarkably full of shit
The slaves of the cool mountains, Alan Winnington
The 1000 Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, David Mitchell
You'll get attempted scams the entire country over because people think foreigners are all mega rich (tbf they often are)
>My wife did everything for me
Embarrassing…
honestly have no idea what the people in this thread are talking about regarding scams, I was never treated better as a foreigner than I was in China, both in the big cities and in the small rural areas. At the MOST, people are going to stare at you a lot, but that’s pretty much it (a few times I came across little kids who got excited and yelled “I met a foreigner, I met a foreigner!” and another time a woman randomly asked me and my wife to speak English with her daughter). Chinese people are obsessed with giving a good impression of their country and will want to make you feel as comfortable as possible, they aren’t out to rip you off.
It’s worth noting that I didn’t go to the south, so it might be a lot different there, I’m not really sure. I told my wife I wasn’t going to Guangzhou because that’s where all the Africans are.
If you get a chance, go to Qinhuangdao. It’s where the Great Wall goes into the ocean. Apparently it’s where Xi goes for his summer vacation
>If you get a chance, go to Qinhuangdao. It’s where the Great Wall goes into the ocean. Apparently it’s where Xi goes for his summer vacation
Looks cool, but I'm thinking of traveling in the south.
Marco Polo
I just got back from several months in China and it was the best trip I ever took in my life. However, my wife is Chinese and we lived with her parents, so she pretty much did everything for me. There are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Literally everything in China is done through Alipay and WeChat pay, so you better be prepared and have money on them (the good news is that everything is cheap as dirt though, so you can live like a king if you have USD).
2. You need a passport to go anywhere in China, like even if you want to book a table at a restaurant they’ll probably ask you for an ID. The police do not speak English most of the time and it isn’t very convenient.
3. The process for getting a Chinese visa can take a long time, so do that early if you’re planning a trip
>3. The process for getting a Chinese visa can take a long time, so do that early if you’re planning a trip
More than a month?
Prestia, don’t end up in prison.
i want to go too how much you spending
You can easily find an ESL-teacher job here and get good money here. Up to $350 per hour. But that's illegal, yeah.
Frederic Prokosch, The Asiatics
Segalen, René Leys
>Frederic Prokosch, The Asiatics
It has my attention.
Don't use your phone there. And don't ever look back
Monkey, is a pretty appropriate read given your circumstance. Journey to the West is it's original title, despite it's age it is still quite good and very central within Chinese culture.
The Three Kingdoms is also excellent. There are like 40 different characters and a ton of stuff happens every chapter but it somehow works to make a really gripping story. The Moss Robert's translation is quite direct, but very faithful to the original.
Thanks for the recommendations, anons.
Christian Kracht - 1979
>Christian Kracht - 1979
I'm straight, anon.
The vigilance of the Chinese police is incomparable. All the worries that the English and the Russians cause to the Imperial cabinet of the South-West are known. The traveler Burnes gives an example of the measures that are taken: the reporting and the portrait of every suspicious stranger is sent to the cities of Upper Turkestan with the order of killing the original, if he is grasped beyond the border. Morcrooft was so well represented on the walls of Yarkend, and his English physiognomy so perfectly grasped, that it made the most audacious of his compatriots retreat who could have seen themselves exposed in the aftermaths of a confrontation.
Do they still let dudes like us into China? I thought there was a new cold war or something? Also I have said some nasty shit about China online is that gonna be a problem