Beijing, and my China Crisis!

[PerkinsCuthbert]

I spent seven year in Shanghai, probably the most Westerner-friendly city in mainland China. It's true the uneducated Chinese can be crude, loud, boisterous, uncouth, cheating, lying and downright antisocial - and there are still, even after tens of millions have been lifted out of grinding poverty in the last thirty years, tens of millions more still living in abject conditions. But given the appalling history of the middle- and old-age generations of Chinese, when, pre-Deng Xiao Ping, crawling over the antheap of fellow citizens to survive was absolutely commonplace, it is little wonder the residue of this learned behaviour remains. However, times are changing and this behaviour will change too, just as the old ways have in much of Thailand over the past fifty years. And if the OP thinks that the taxi boys at Beijing are bad today, he should have tried Manila thirty years ago.

[Snow Leopard]

I cannot stand the place and the people in it. Dirty, Rude and Arrogant. 

[kevin612]

All I can say ‘you were unlucky’

[mserror]

I went to Taiwan recently and loved the place. Great scenery, infrastructure and vegan restaurants.

 

It is a developed country, way ahead of Thailand.

 

The only things I did not like were the excessive smoking, and occasional motorcycles on footpaths.

 

I have met and known many Chinese, and as a group, I like them. It is usually the China people who behave like you said, another reason I will never go there.

 

 

[roo860]

I was working for almost a half year in Penglai and on a later occasion in Gaoshan.
All the same, rude, snotty and stupid as ****.
 
In Penglai I went to a Hospital with a serious root infection. The dentist department had 12 chairs side by side and the dentist had a fag burning as he called me over which he threw on the ground and stepped on it to extinguish it half way.
No anesthesia, hammer and chisel and as he broke the tooth and the pressure of the infection was released I asked him to stop. It was a new world of pain. 5$ was really cheap.
 
Later I had eaten some good food where I dug out two chicken heads. Off cause the food went right through and instead of an air release, well I not tell further but the bed sheets had to be changed. 2 of my colleagues had the same awkward experience.
In the hospital they gave me a cup and a Q-tip and pointed to the toilets with no doors neither there was toilet paper where I should "give birth" to a sample while some Chings were watching and talking about the size of my cock..
2 days on the drip and the millions of coli bacteria were reduced to a survivable rate that I could leave and cure in the hotel.
 
overall and everywhere rudeness, loud shouting, snotting and spitting.
5 min walking to the supermarket was enough to turn into a fruit cake by all these honking horns and pollution. 
 
Lucky, in the 2nd week we took some whore out of the nearby bath house into our hotel and at 2 am the police came and arrested us. Next day payment and they transported us in handcuffs to the Yantai airport where we paid again, so they did let us go back to work. 
 
If the Chings are humans or lowest sort of animals is not clear anymore but you are free to make up your own mind. 
   

So all in all it wasn't too bad.
[emoji23]

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[mserror]

On 4/7/2019 at 6:10 AM, ukrules said:

I've been a couple of times about 11 or 12 years ago, it was just fine although expensive.

 

I went to Shanghai and Beijing

 

I will probbaly never go there again if I need a visa. My new policy is visa on arrival only.

 

The days of me going to an Embassy in person or using a consular services company to apply for and collect visas for mere leisure travel are long over for me.

 

No visa free or visa on arrival = no visit!

 

I agree. I was about to go to Vietnam when I learned of their visa nonsense.

 

Japan and Taiwan give me 90 days, no problems.

[PumpkinEater]

I lived and worked in Beijing as an ex pat for two years.

Besides The Headaches and lung aches from the pollution, it is very common to see the Chinese spitting and hacking up plemn.

As far as the taxi..next time take the airport train to Dongzhimen Station...which is located near city center.

Stay in the area with many hotels, bars etc.

 

Sanlitune is the area of nightlife and bars along with great shopping (some high end).

 

I had a great time the first six months, but soon tired of the culture which certainly is loud, pushy, and half crazy...due to overpopulation!

 

Cheers,

[dddave]

On 4/7/2019 at 1:53 AM, Hank Gunn said:

 

Next year we’ll be doing a more regional tour and we’re thinking of a week each for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. But looks like China, while never on the list, won’t be making it.

Just returned from 5 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  If you want to avoid Chinese, avoid Siem Reap and the temples.  Absolutely crawling with Chinese.  Several times we were enjoying relatively quiet temples somewhat off the beaten path when a couple of Chinese tour buses would pull up and discharge  babbling hoards of them.  Pandemonium: shouting, pushing, blocking pathways, dropping food wrappers.  Like an attack of army ants at a picnic. 

[wreckingcountry]

It’s a s**** hole


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Ctkong]

3 hours ago, mokwit said:

Was going to take a look but then someone told me that even in the 5 star hotels the carpets squelch underfoot as they are so saturated with spit.

Don’t stay in local ‘5 stars’ hotels which is not up to western standard. Stay at hotels like ibis best western 3 stars, holiday inn ,Novotel ( 4 stars), or Westin, Hyatt, intercontinental , Sheraton (5stars) .all no carpet squelching sound.  

[Letseng]

On 4/7/2019 at 1:22 AM, See Will said:

I was working for almost a half year in Penglai and on a later occasion in Gaoshan.

All the same, rude, snotty and stupid as ****.

 

In Penglai I went to a Hospital with a serious root infection. The dentist department had 12 chairs side by side and the dentist had a fag burning as he called me over which he threw on the ground and stepped on it to extinguish it half way.

No anesthesia, hammer and chisel and as he broke the tooth and the pressure of the infection was released I asked him to stop. It was a new world of pain. 5$ was really cheap.

 

Later I had eaten some good food where I dug out two chicken heads. Off cause the food went right through and instead of an air release, well I not tell further but the bed sheets had to be changed. 2 of my colleagues had the same awkward experience.

In the hospital they gave me a cup and a Q-tip and pointed to the toilets with no doors neither there was toilet paper where I should "give birth" to a sample while some Chings were watching and talking about the size of my cock..

2 days on the drip and the millions of coli bacteria were reduced to a survivable rate that I could leave and cure in the hotel.

 

overall and everywhere rudeness, loud shouting, snotting and spitting.

5 min walking to the supermarket was enough to turn into a fruit cake by all these honking horns and pollution. 

 

Lucky, in the 2nd week we took some whore out of the nearby bath house into our hotel and at 2 am the police came and arrested us. Next day payment and they transported us in handcuffs to the Yantai airport where we paid again, so they did let us go back to work. 

 

If the Chings are humans or lowest sort of animals is not clear anymore but you are free to make up your own mind. 

   

.. lowest sort of animals is not clear ..

Animals of such low sort don't exist.

Only humans go to this bottom level.

 

[John V]

CG1 Blue

Go to any capital in the world and you’ll get the same response. Yes, spitting is socially acceptable, but becoming less so as people are fined now for spreading diseases. Taxi ripped you off? What’s new? You didn’t go to the Great Wall in Beijing, you went to a replica tourist attraction. Queues aren’t a national habit and there no ‘pubs’ – drinking is done in restaurants. You didn’t know lighters are banned on planes, even when put in luggage?

You didn’t do your homework CG1 Blue and it takes about six months to get into the Chinese lifestyle. I spent six years in Inner Mongolia and loved every minute of it – after the initial culture shock wore off, of course. Yes, had you not done the Farang holiday thing you would have had a much better experience.

[CGW]

I was working in China for about 5 years, you had  normal airport experience, it gets really interesting when you are flying domestic & the flights are cancelled or delayed.

Beijing does have some good night-life and restaurants - too late to tell you where now, its a huge city as you know!

Spitting no where near as bad now, prior to the Olympics they had a massive campaign to stop it! wasn't entirely successful ???? 

[DaRoadrunner]

1 hour ago, mserror said:

I went to Taiwan recently and loved the place. Great scenery, infrastructure and vegan restaurants.

 

It is a developed country, way ahead of Thailand.

 

The only things I did not like were the excessive smoking, and occasional motorcycles on footpaths.

 

I have met and known many Chinese, and as a group, I like them. It is usually the China people who behave like you said, another reason I will never go there.

 

 

Taiwan isn't mainland China. The Taiwanese are comparatively civilized and decent.

[CG1 Blue]

6 minutes ago, John V said:

CG1 Blue

Go to any capital in the world and you’ll get the same response. Yes, spitting is socially acceptable, but becoming less so as people are fined now for spreading diseases. Taxi ripped you off? What’s new? You didn’t go to the Great Wall in Beijing, you went to a replica tourist attraction. Queues aren’t a national habit and there no ‘pubs’ – drinking is done in restaurants. You didn’t know lighters are banned on planes, even when put in luggage?

You didn’t do your homework CG1 Blue and it takes about six months to get into the Chinese lifestyle. I spent six years in Inner Mongolia and loved every minute of it – after the initial culture shock wore off, of course. Yes, had you not done the Farang holiday thing you would have had a much better experience.

John V

I have been to scores of capital cities around the world, and plenty in Asia. I can assure you I didn't have the same negative experience before - hence why I posted it on here. 

 

I am aware taxi drivers can rip you off. That is not new to me.  What is new is the staff at an airport's official public taxi counter allowing a rogue taxi driver to bribe them into letting him take me. People go to official airport public taxi counters to avoid being ripped off! 

 

I have only had a lighter confiscated at two airports - Cebu and Beijing. Generally lighters are allowed in hand luggage (but not in checked luggage). Again, not a big deal but adds to the irritation. 

 

I try to immerse myself in the local culture wherever I travel to.  I don't do 'the farang holiday thing' as you put it. Just occasional escapes to a bar or a McDonalds is ok in my book. 

 

Lastly, if I was misled (by my 5 star hotel concierge, my driver, and the entire tourist set up at Mutiyanu) into visiting a replica Great Wall, a lifelong dream of mine, what does that say about this country you love so much? 

[CG1 Blue]

13 minutes ago, CGW said:

I was working in China for about 5 years, you had  normal airport experience, it gets really interesting when you are flying domestic & the flights are cancelled or delayed.

Beijing does have some good night-life and restaurants - too late to tell you where now, its a huge city as you know!

Spitting no where near as bad now, prior to the Olympics they had a massive campaign to stop it! wasn't entirely successful ???? 

Thanks CGW. In hindsight I should have posted something on here before booking my trip!

[bkkgriz]

I went to China 20 years ago. I see nothing has changed. The average person may be a little richer, but money can't buy class.

[Crossy]

On occasion I deal with Chinese suppliers one of which has a big sign outside:-

 

Shanghai

Huaming

Intelligence

Terminal

Equipment

 

Says everything you need to know (IIRC the initial letters are blue, the rest red).

 

By the way, they do superb laser cut stainless fabrications.

 

[Hank Gunn]

4 hours ago, dddave said:

Just returned from 5 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  If you want to avoid Chinese, avoid Siem Reap and the temples.  Absolutely crawling with Chinese.  Several times we were enjoying relatively quiet temples somewhat off the beaten path when a couple of Chinese tour buses would pull up and discharge  babbling hoards of them.  Pandemonium: shouting, pushing, blocking pathways, dropping food wrappers.  Like an attack of army ants at a picnic. 

Too bad. That’s exactly where I wanted to go.

 

Apparently Sihanoukville has already been ruined by them, with smaller local beach hotels replaced by large casinos catering almost exclusively to Chinese.

[emptypockets]

On 4/7/2019 at 1:22 AM, See Will said:

I was working for almost a half year in Penglai and on a later occasion in Gaoshan.

All the same, rude, snotty and stupid as ****.

 

In Penglai I went to a Hospital with a serious root infection. The dentist department had 12 chairs side by side and the dentist had a fag burning as he called me over which he threw on the ground and stepped on it to extinguish it half way.

No anesthesia, hammer and chisel and as he broke the tooth and the pressure of the infection was released I asked him to stop. It was a new world of pain. 5$ was really cheap.

 

Later I had eaten some good food where I dug out two chicken heads. Off cause the food went right through and instead of an air release, well I not tell further but the bed sheets had to be changed. 2 of my colleagues had the same awkward experience.

In the hospital they gave me a cup and a Q-tip and pointed to the toilets with no doors neither there was toilet paper where I should "give birth" to a sample while some Chings were watching and talking about the size of my cock..

2 days on the drip and the millions of coli bacteria were reduced to a survivable rate that I could leave and cure in the hotel.

 

overall and everywhere rudeness, loud shouting, snotting and spitting.

5 min walking to the supermarket was enough to turn into a fruit cake by all these honking horns and pollution. 

 

Lucky, in the 2nd week we took some whore out of the nearby bath house into our hotel and at 2 am the police came and arrested us. Next day payment and they transported us in handcuffs to the Yantai airport where we paid again, so they did let us go back to work. 

 

If the Chings are humans or lowest sort of animals is not clear anymore but you are free to make up your own mind. 

   

Was the two days on the drip related to the whore WE  took out? 

[emptypockets]

6 hours ago, Crossy said:

On occasion I deal with Chinese suppliers one of which has a big sign outside:-

 

Shanghai

Huaming

Intelligence

Terminal

Equipment

 

Says everything you need to know (IIRC the initial letters are blue, the rest red).

 

By the way, they do superb laser cut stainless fabrications.

 

And can press 150tph 3500psi boiler shells in one piece.  That is impressive engineering! 

The Chinese are amongst the worlds best engineers regardless of what is said on this forum.

Who has landed a base station on the dark side of the moon?  With a relay satellite to send data back to earth?  

In my experience the Chinese are extremely competitive and profit oriented.... If you specify exactly what you want you will get it exactly to specs.  If you are lazy you will get what you get. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by emptypockets

[Johnnyngai]

Mainland Chinese are all stressed out due to their high pressure over populated society. 

Give it another 30 years and they will claim down and act like any other first world citizens..  

Most of them grew up with live stocks in their dinning rooms and living rooms, 

do not expect them to know what hygiene is.               

 

[cnx355]

On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 3:50 AM, CodyB said:

I go to China multiple times per year for work.  While there are certainly some 'cruder' elements to the PRC, I have never had anything near the kind of experience that has been recounted in this thread.  

Possibly, you look like someone that knows the place as you are a regular visitor, and they see not good chance to scam you ?

[sandyf]

On 4/8/2019 at 1:44 AM, CG1 Blue said:

Glad you mentioned this - I forgot about the agonising visa process. Apparently it changed a few months ago, for the worse. The online forms take forever, and you have to go in person to the visa office to submit the documents, and return there another day to collect the precious visa. The process is so precise if you don't get it exactly right on the first visit (e.g. the photo is not up to scratch) you have to start all over again. 

I felt compelled to use an agency, as this was the only way I could guarantee avoiding multiple trips to London. The whole process cost me around £250, with the agent taking £70 of that. This doesn't include travel costs to/from the London visa office. Painful! 

I just got Chinese visas in Bangkok, very straightforward. Walked into the visa centre, 3rd in the Q and out in about 40 minutes, It was 3400 baht for visas for myself and my wife.

Had to go back 4 days later to pick up the visas, altogether expenses came to about 500 baht. My wife wanted to use an agent as she had done that for her sister and worked out quite well. The agent wanted 350 baht for a Thai and 950 baht for a foreigner so I did it myself.

 

We are going to Guangzhou in June for her nieces graduation. We went in 2013 when the niece started at uni and didn't really have a problem with the Chinese other than the language and food not as good as I expected. Our flight got cancelled and we were transferred to a later Air Asia flight and didn't arrive until nearly midnight. We ended up sharing a taxi and we were the last to be dropped. Turned out the driver did not know where the accommodation was and I was getting a bit scared we could be dumped. In the end he phoned someone and then took us to reception to ensure it was the right place. The fare was quite reasonable so couldn't fault the service.

Generally speaking I found the prices cheaper than Thailand and the service very good, we went in a holiday week so sometimes things got a bit crowded. Fortunately we had a small apartment with a kitchen so we ended up eating out during the day and getting food from the supermarket for the evening, mainly due to language problems in the restaurant.

I don't think I would advise anyone to travel on their own, probably better as a group.

[Mavideol]

you only had a short visit and realized the way they are.....imagine living with that behavior for almost 12 years, they are loud or very loud, dirty,  uneducated p... spit over yous shoes, never apologize and so much more, thus agree with you 2000%

[Mavideol]

On 4/7/2019 at 1:22 AM, See Will said:

I was working for almost a half year in Penglai and on a later occasion in Gaoshan.

All the same, rude, snotty and stupid as ****.

 

In Penglai I went to a Hospital with a serious root infection. The dentist department had 12 chairs side by side and the dentist had a fag burning as he called me over which he threw on the ground and stepped on it to extinguish it half way.

No anesthesia, hammer and chisel and as he broke the tooth and the pressure of the infection was released I asked him to stop. It was a new world of pain. 5$ was really cheap.

 

Later I had eaten some good food where I dug out two chicken heads. Off cause the food went right through and instead of an air release, well I not tell further but the bed sheets had to be changed. 2 of my colleagues had the same awkward experience.

In the hospital they gave me a cup and a Q-tip and pointed to the toilets with no doors neither there was toilet paper where I should "give birth" to a sample while some Chings were watching and talking about the size of my cock..

2 days on the drip and the millions of coli bacteria were reduced to a survivable rate that I could leave and cure in the hotel.

 

overall and everywhere rudeness, loud shouting, snotting and spitting.

5 min walking to the supermarket was enough to turn into a fruit cake by all these honking horns and pollution. 

 

Lucky, in the 2nd week we took some whore out of the nearby bath house into our hotel and at 2 am the police came and arrested us. Next day payment and they transported us in handcuffs to the Yantai airport where we paid again, so they did let us go back to work. 

 

If the Chings are humans or lowest sort of animals is not clear anymore but you are free to make up your own mind. 

   

sounds too familiar, been there done that and here they talk about envelopes there it has to be RED envelope but same ending

[Mavideol]

On 4/7/2019 at 3:50 AM, CodyB said:

I go to China multiple times per year for work.  While there are certainly some 'cruder' elements to the PRC, I have never had anything near the kind of experience that has been recounted in this thread.  

you must be part of a very small minority that never experienced the true China but again you don't live there thus going for work and if that work is with Chinese firms begging for your money, sure they will bend backwards to make life easier for you... try to do it in your own, out of the foreigners/tourists paths and your opinion may change fast.... I lived in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and it's all the same same as they say here

[Mavideol]

On 4/8/2019 at 2:25 AM, See Will said:

https://fightdogmeat.com/2017/01/18/china-live-dog-burned-alive-for-dog-meat/

 

for all who don't believe and it reflects entirely the brain dead behavior of Chinese people.

What would you do if this would be your beloved doggie? 

saw it (many times) with my own eyes... they don't respect ANY life

[Mavideol]

On 4/8/2019 at 7:41 AM, taiping said:

On a recent trip to Beijing I was delighted by the kindness shown to me by the locals, including a taxi driver, shop assistants, hotel staff, and the younger Chinese. Possibly because I'm rather ancient.

However, I did have one incident in a backstreet Hutong at a small restaurant where the woman owner started shouting at me in Chinese at the top of her voice. I had only wanted to buy a bottle of beer. Very unsettling.

I also did not like the extensive security presence including riot police lined up menacingly on the street, and the over-the-top and unfriendly security measures at the airport. The internet restrictions are also a pain. Even changing money at a bank turned out to be time-consuming with plenty of paperwork to sign.

Despite the kindness shown to me by some locals, I would most definitely not wish to live in China. A relief to return to Thailand.

Police is everywhere and it was worse back in 2003-2004 they use to come and knock at your door at any time of the day or night and if you had a local girl with you double or triple trouble

[ThaiBunny]

1 minute ago, Mavideol said:

Police is everywhere and it was worse back in 2003-2004 they use to come and knock at your door at any time of the day or night and if you had a local girl with you double or triple trouble

And if it was two girls?