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How to avoid getting my organs harvested if I am a Uyghur from Xinjiang?

>>2826208
If I were to fly to China from Europe, would I fly over Ruzzia?

I don't want to mysteriously crash into a tree or a drone.

Is it possible to fly safely from Germany?
I will go to my company's guest dormitory so it should be safe.

>>2826307
it depends on the airline. If it's a Chinese airline offering direct flights then it would be over Russia. If you go via Lufthansa or some middle eastern airline transferring in Dubai or somewhere then they won't, they'll detour around via Turkey and the caucasus
you can check the route via flightradar24 before you pick a flight

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I simply won't travel to china until they make payment processing and lodging accessible to foreigners
>ni hao plz give alipay and wechat pay all of your personal data just so the APP won't work when you need it to and your local bank locks your card because ching chong payment system shenanigans also you need a few VPNs which may or may not work depending on the day
lol
Lmao even

Going to the following> Beijing, Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, Zhangye, Xining, Qinghai Lake,chongqing. What to expect?

How much Chinese do I need to learn before visiting this place?
And I don't want to be some boomer who just stays in a tour group, I'd like to actually explore the cities

>>2826358
Lanzhou is much better than Xining, Xining is like one of the most boring cities in all of China
how will you get between the cities? flying or train?
Dunhuang is a bit overtouristed but not awful.

>>2826360
I don't think it's realistic to aim to learn enough to be able to indepdently go around a city. At least you need basic conversational skills, asking where stuff is how much it is is it spicy etc, and basic reading/character recognition skills as well.
I know some people who started learning Chinese in China with zero experience (fulltime course at a university) and after a year they still relied on translator apps for almost everything

>>2826312
China recently mandated that all hotels accept foreign guests, but China isn't as totalitarian as it seems on the surface. People ignore government directives and rules all the time.

https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/foreign-tourists-still-turned-away-at-chinese-hotels-despite-government-reforms-and-visa-relaxations-you-need-to-know/

Why can't you pay with cash? What are they going to do, refuse to accept their national currency?

>>2826377
I went back in the 2010s when you could still get by in china as a tourist with cash. That's no longer an option. China can loosen their visa policies all they want, foreigners aren't going to travel their if they can't reliably access and spend money

>>2826424
*there

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>>2826208
Wish they would do something about their cat torture problem.

>>2826364
Flying, Then bus, My boomer uncle is the one taking me so its going to be a tour for seven days, with bejing the beginning and chongqing at the end of the trip which will only be two days in each. Im content being carted around.

>>2826494
notice how animal abuse is illegal in the west whereas in ching chong land there are no laws against it and abusers get away scot free. you should adopt some lessons from your betters
>Japan has implemented several national animal welfare laws since 1973
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_Japan

>>2826528
hahahahhahahahahahahaha. you guys can never resist taking the bait on japan

so do you live in chyna or are you in a western country? diu lei lo mo tsau hai

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>>2826494
>>2826527
>>2826528
动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

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>>2826210
China used to be one of my top dream list destinations, esp the south where they have the good spicy food, then i follow a twitter account for cat lovers and learn there are actual cat torture networks in the country that do unspeakable things to them and it's just not something that's illegal apparently.

I'd like to go and see those green cliff thingies in a bay but they need to get their act together first. I'm not paying money and just going there to see animal abuse everywhere

>>2826494
>>2826527
>>2826528
>>2826529

the chinese must be the most thin skinned group of people in existence

I crossed into Xinjiang alone thru the mountain border with Kyrgyzstan AMA

>>2826466
Ok you'll probably be fine then.
Expect deserts and noodles. People probably won't be too surprised to see you since Dunhuang gets a lot of western tourists.

>>2826494
It's very funny how the chinkspammer makes his posts. He writes one thing (westerners pay for cat torture), then writes another thing (westerners pay for monkey torture) and then spams a ton of articles about it as if it proves the first thing.
How would westerners, who don't speak Chinese, access the Chinese language websites that these things are broadcasted on? How would they communicate with the people there when they don't have WeChat and aren't verified? How would they send the money over when you have to use a remittance for international transfers to China and stuff like paypal doesn't work?
I don't doubt that there are westerners who watch it but you can't attribute it all to westerners when clearly people have been doing it without financial incentives from abroad for a long time i.e. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/18/chinese-activists-force-fed-cat-excrement-to-suspected-animal-torturers

to interrupt the cat torture discussion (which I barely can't even look into it since I love cat so much) i have a seemingly stupid question about adress in china

i'm planning my trip in november, and on google map i like to save places way in advance that interests me. (like bar, shops..) considering there isn't google map in china, i'm trying to do so in map.me. but i'm having a hard time in literally finding the places on the map. if i find the complete address somehow on google, on the map it never finds it. the only way i managed to make it work is if i have the name in chinese, which I don't speak. any tips ? i've been literally putting coordinate into the map which is too long

>>2826566
Kys ccp

>>2826563
Try using Amap/Gaode maps, it's a Chinese map program that supports English
The addresses in Google are usually wrong or outdated anyway

>>2826562
Irrelevant to China
Also spamming unrelated shit about Koreans doesn't help your case

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Why doesn't chyna just outlaw animal abuse if they dont want korans making them look bad

>>2826563
If you care about cats, you should go elsewhere. The chinese assembly has voted against criminalizing animal abuse multiple times now. I've talked to people that have gone to beijing and seen kitten corpses on the side of the road that were clearly tortured by humans. I cancelled my trip when I found out about it.

>>2827045
Get out of here chang

Are popular mountains like Huangshan super busy even on weekdays in fall?

>>2827414
Yes, they'll be busy pretty much all the time. But "busy" by your standards is not busy by China standards. One of my friends went up Taishan during the labour day holiday and it was so crowded the entire path up was just a queue

>>2827415
damn! I don't mind crowds when I'm a tourist going in touristy places, as long as I don't have to queue to move up the mountain I'll consider myself lucky then

>>2826558
how were the local security controls there? what was the ethnic makeup? did everyone speak putonghua, or was there a local dialect or other various languages? what was the best thing you ate? If you're not asian, how did they look at you?

>>2826208
As an American who lives in a major coastal city, I went to China for a month last winter, and it was the best trip I've ever done, way better than Japan, Korea, and Taiwan by far. I went to Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. I travelled alone for about 3 weeks, and with local friends for about a week. If anybody is thinking about going to China for the first time, I would absolutely recommend Beijing. It was the greatest center of food and culture I've seen.

If anybody has any questions about travelling in China, getting integrated with the digital infrastructure, or anything else, feel free to shoot.

>>2826312
>travel with burner phone
>no data to even access
It's that simple.

>>2827454
I'm going there mid-october, I'll be around Yunnan mostly.
I have a local contact who keeps telling me that taxi is the best way to go around. Is that local to the area?
I'm nowhere near good enough with the language to be comfortable with having to ask drivers where I want to go and all that as opposed to using trains and metros where you can look up location names in advance and just read maps.
Anything to look out or be careful about with internal flights?
How annoying is it to get through customs? Do they check devices or whatever?
How bad does your gut feel after your first few days of local eating?

>>2826210
just don't be a criminal. it might be difficult for you though.

>>2826358
when? take a jacket. expect dust and cold and long drives.

>>2827488
it depends on what you mean by 'around Yunnan' because metro is only in kunming and is the best way to get around kunming. train is for city to city and if you are going to smaller towns and out of the way locations, then a coach or minibus may be what you do. a taxi is probably suggested because it is the most convenient as it involves no one else but you and the driver. it would be unlikely the taxi driver didn't know a place which was on a foreign tourist itinerary as they are also on chinese tourist itineraries, and either you show them the name on a map or have your phone speak out the place name. probably your local contact is thinking that telling you to get a taxi is convenient in terms of time, as opposed to getting buses and coaches, and ease as your taxi driver just takes you and they assume the cost is not a factor because you are foreign.
but a car is slowish in kunming outside of 10am to 4pm, like almost everywhere in chinese cities.

>>2827454
seeing as you've been to all the big cities, where would you go next time?

>>2827488
>taxis
you can use didi (app) to get taxis, the interface is entirely in English and they charge the same prices as locals are getting. It's just like uber, you put the destination in beforehand (can use English or Chinese) and you only need to show them the last four digits of your phone number.

>internal flights
announcements will be in Chinese and English, but the flight attendant's accent might be so bad that you can't understand it
you can only bring power banks if they have a "CCC" certification. They MUST have a CCC sticker/label on them or they will be confiscated by security. This is only a thing for domestic flights.
as a foreigner there is no way for you to check-in online so you have to go to the checkin desk in the airport and get a paper boarding pass. When going through security they will check your boarding pass with your passport and take a face scan/picture, some newer airports use this face scan to board the plane to speed stuff up, but you should always hold onto your boarding pass just in case.

>customs
usually staffed by bored fat baoans who dgaf about you or your bags. Unless they have a reason to check your stuff (you are a dissident, journalist, etc) they won't.

>local eating
you will feel incredibly full, the bigger portions, more oily food, and quick-release carbs from rice will make you feel very full all the time. for my first few days in China I only ate one meal per day.
if you struggle with spicy food then you might be going to the toilet a lot. Yunnan is usually spicy with some sour flavour and lots of mushrooms.

>>2827488
post 1/?
>getting around by yourself
I knew basically 4 words in Chinese, hello, thank you, English, and American. China is a digital first world, and any big city will easily accommodate anyone who's willing to make the effort to integrate themselves even if you have to use translator apps. The number one thing I can recommend is getting a Chinese phone number with your data SIM. Not having one locks away so many services. Second is a VPN obviously, at the very least so you can access a translator app like Google Translate or DeepL. Third will be setting up and verifying your identity through Alipay and WeChat + Weixin Pay at least a month in advance. Some people claim to get around with cash but why bother. I'll throw essential apps in a followup.

>best way to get around
The best way to get around with peace of mind is definitely public transit if you can manage. China blows billions of dollars for their world-class metro to move millions of people, and it's fast, comfortable, clean, and cheap, might as well use it. As for taxis, make sure you're using an app like Didi, or my preference is the built-in taxi function for Gaode/Amaps. The thing that may freak you out is taxis calling you, but honestly I just stopped answering and showed up at the pickup spot. Watch out that they don't try and charge you personally or any extra fees through QR, everything should go through official platform payments.
Also in general for China, definitely don't listen to anyone aggressively trying to sell you anything, including taxis no matter how official they look. Chinese scams aren't that common, but they are super advanced in touristy areas. I got scammed a few times the first couple days trying to hail the way you would think of in America. If you want to do it without a phone, there are specific designated spots in major areas like airports that will have a giant line.

>>2827488
>>2827675
post 2/?
>customs + flights
honestly, my experience was pretty positive. They have strict international customs for both entry and exit, but as long as you're not stupid youre fine. I had one of the customs agents laugh at my visa picture because I manually photoshopped the background. Domestic flights are easy to get in and out. They do have more obvious security theatres and do temperature checks but even while sick with HMPV during the peak in winter they didn't stop me. I think most airlines are fine, definitely better service than any basic American airline like Delta/United. In general, mainland Chinese services will be a better experience than anything else. The biggest rule difference is no portable batteries over 100Whr, and no using them on the plane.

>food quality
DO NOT DRINK SINK WATER, bottled or boiled only. Food definitely depends on the area. Xi'an was disgusting in comparison to every other city, only stick around for the museums. Shenzhen restaurants had a lot of poor health grade signs, like in this link. https://countryandahalf.com/restaurants-in-china-inspection-notices-and-what-they-really-mean/. Try to avoid any uncooked vegetables, and don't eat anything sitting out in those touristy areas under those PVC pipe misters, I knew they would have mold as soon as I saw them. Generally though, if you aren't eating only hamburgers every day at home you'll be fine, just get used to eating more fiber.

>>2827488
>>2827682
post 3/?
Essential Chinese apps:
>payment for literally everything
Alipay, Weixin
>VPN
Mullvad confirmed works, ask locals if they know of cheaper ones.
>taxi
Didi, Amaps/Gaode
>transit
Amaps/Gaode
>trains + flights
Trip.com for English, Ctrip is Chinese and cheaper. 12306 for trains specifically
>food
Meituan = food and grocery delivery, Dianping = yelp+coupons
>ecommerce
Taobao=Amazon with max. 3 day shipping, Xianyu=ebay

Random Chinese things to know:
>cost of travel
1USD = 7RMB, but things in general are about 1/3 of the average cost in the US. Definitely depends on the area, Shanghai is more expensive. You can get a full meal for $2 if you tried, and amazingly huge luxury dinners for $20-50. Definitely the place to fuck around and get snacks and treats while walking around. Decent hotels start out around $50. Train tickets are like $20 for first class, domestic flights are usually around $80.

>security
Always carry your passport on you. Be careful with big cameras, my cousin got arrested and interrogated for taking photos because they thought he was a journalist. Also, youre technically required to register with the police for wherever you're staying, usually hotels will do it for you. My friends and I dodged it when staying with locals for a while, but if you get questioned don't blame me.

>toilets + toiletry related
In public theres no toilet paper, and often toilets are just a squatty trough in the ground. Buy napkins or wipes at the local convenience store and carry them everywhere. Bring toothpaste from home, I got cavities after using the free ones from hotels.

>restaurants
Chinese people love lines, dont bother waiting and walk somewhere else. Service is usually excellent but they will nickel and dime you for basics like napkins. At least in Shanghai but possibly elsewhere, there is a law that allows you to bring in outside drinks, so feel free to bring your own beer or boba. Dianping is useful but not the gospel, use the coupons.

>>2827454
>>2827521
post 4/?
>cities to go back to
Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Shanghai are definitely in my list for revisits. All of them have great food, and I'd especially go back for the Forbidden City in Beijing.

>future visits?
I've seen a lot of urban museums and temples, I really want to see more nature with open fields, mountain-side temples, etc. I'm still doing research but my list so far is:
Nanjing and Zhenjiang, Jiangsu
Leshan and Luzhou, Sichuan
Fujian, Fuzhou
Harbin, Heilongjiang during winter
Shaanxi?
Yunnan?
Guizhou?
Three Gorges Dam tour + cruise?
Hong Kong side trip via train from Shenzhen

>cities to be cautious of
I mentioned before, but Xi'an was the worst experience I had. Beggars trying to shmooze you and dirty, loud streets. My friend got food poisoning. I would go back to Shaanxi for the food, but not to Xi'an.
The main city of Chongqing was not as interesting as the online trends a couple years ago suggested, but the food was great. I wouldn't stay in the main city for longer than 3 days.
Shenzhen was interesting as a tech industry hub and there were other good things to do around nature-wise, but it is a generally worse experience than just going to Guangzhou if short on time. Motorbikes everywhere, including on pedestrian walkways.
Shanghai is generally more expensive relative to other cities, and because it's in the south the food tends to be more mild and sweet, in a similar respect as Japanese food. Not much to do culturally except eat, drink, and wander around malls and parks pretending to be rich. If you want to see "real China", don't stay here too long.
Also, this isn't my word, but my cousin said Wuhan was boring.

>>2827703
What did you do in Shenzhen? Going there for a week in November.

>>2827707
I was there for like 4 days, half of it was wandering around Huaqiangbei, including the stolen phone markets. Theres tons of consumer electronics malls that have neat products and are cheaper than taobao. Its great especially if you want to get a new phone case and screen protector, just wander around in one of those buildings in the main area and theyll install a screen protector for a dollar. There are other mall areas that I don't remember, but you can easily google.
We also did a day trip to Fairy Lake Botanical gardens, there was a lot of exhibits to see and the hill hiking trails are mildly challenging, I'd say about 2 hours worth at least. Definitely check out Hongfa Temple for free lunch if you get there in time, remember to eat every last grain :)
Food-wise, its primarily Cantonese food but there are little exotics gems here and there. The bar culture in China is nice, tends to be small and homey, and in Shenzhen my friend and I had good experiences. I couldn't tell you where this was, but there was a small bar with a Xinjiang food stand next door, and they had literally the best alcohol I ever tried, it was a purple cider-type drink. We drank and had grilled scallions and naan brought into the bar from next door while petting the owner's cat. Went back there twice, if you find it let me know lol.

>>2827710
okay i actually found the bar, https://www.dianping.com/shop/l4fsIkXL28PuTUOc. If you can't figure out Dianping login, its called JuneZ 六月造精酿酒馆. https://j.map.baidu.com/c5/s-Bk.

>>2827675
Yes, always just use an app to get your taxi. Someone standing on the side of the road saying taxi will be a scammer 99% of the time.

>>2827682
Xi'an I think is ok unless you are eating street stall slop. The only place I ever got food poisoning in China was Shenyang, because my friend and I made the stupid decision of going to eat at a buffet.

>>2827691
>Ask locals about vpns
You should not do that

>Interrogated for taking pictures
Bruh how, I have a big camera and took pictures everywhere I went including in Xinjiang and near military areas and nobody cared

>Queuing for restaurants
You may have missed out on the fact that most of the time the "queue" is virtual, you get given a ticket with a number and have to wait for it to be called (you can check your position in the queue on dianping). Good restaurants in malls and stuff you almost always have to queue for, sometimes up to an hour. The places with nobody in them are empty for a reason.
Also you can get better coupons on meituan and discounts by using the 套餐 set meal section.
>Nickel and dime for napkins
Yeah this is standard but you can take the entire box when you leave. In smaller cities they also charge you like 1 yuan or 2 yuan for a set of plates and chopsticks, just consider it like the cover charge. They're wrapped in plastic but you should ALWAYS clean your plate and glass and chopsticks with hot water especially in cheaper restaurants.

>>2827703
>Shanghai is... Not much to do culturally
lmao

only the advice about toilet paper is worth listening to in all your posts. it all reads like a larp post of internet collected info. rehased llm larp.

>>2827787
alright fucker, post your travels then. i clearly didn't type all that for veteran autists who already went to rank my trip. 徐汇区 and 静安区 were mostly malls, parks, and urban temples, which gets boring after a few days. I'd argue anybody new to China isn't gonna be that comfortable or aware of navigating good spots out of the central areas of Shanghai. It's much easier to just go to cities like Beijing and Xi'an or other cities for cultural exploration.

>>2827787
unless you think overpriced hipster cafes and modern art exhbitions are the peak of Chinese culture then OP is absolutely right
compared with other big cities, there is nothing going on in Shanghai

>>2826424
>That's no longer an option.
I just returned from a month in China and that's just not true. I had zero problems paying cash when the apps gave me shit.

>>2827451
>>2827451
Security is everywhere. It’s not as draconian, at least on the surface, as it must have been 5-6 years ago but as a foreigner you’ll always be asked to show your passport to the police at any major transport hub. Your experience may vary depending on the people processing you. There are also checkpoints on major thoroughfares but not nearly as many as years ago. There are many Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Uyghur is spoken by most of them but it’s clear that the Han are limiting learning of the language. Old people speak broken mandarin and good Uyghur, for young people it’s a hit or miss. Lots of them can’t read or write Uyghur but are fluent in mandarin. There are a lot of Han who hold all upper echelon administrative positions. There are locals working middle management level positions even within law enforcement. There might be plainclothes cops following you. I’ve had people wait for me at the train to check my passport and a guy showed up around town in Kashgar at different locations throughout my stay.
The food is good but isn’t very varied in my opinion. Polo (plov) and meat skewers with nan are very good. It’s very similar to central asian food but plov is better in CA.
I’m a light skinned European twink and I was often asked to take pictures with people on the street by both Uyghurs and Han. I found people to be kind and generous with random girls buying me water and snacks on the train and offering alcohol and cigarettes at bars. There will be instances where you’ll be the only white boy on the sleeper trains with conductors coming to check on you from time to time.

>>2828149
>many Uyghurs
depends on where you are, XPCC cities like Aral and Kuytun are like 90% Han. Hami struck me as being like 80% Han and full of migrants from northern provinces like Shandong who moved there 20-30 years ago.

>young ppl cant speak Uyghur
kids under 14-15 have never had any formal Uyghur-language education as they went to school after bilingual classes were phased out by the government.

>food not varied
lol I can agree with you on that one, after a week I was going back to Han restaurants for stuff like jiaozi and sichuan food. Locals just eat leghmen and kawap all the time and get super fat as a result.

>polo better in CA
in Uzbekistan Kazakhstan etc they add seasoning like parsley, raisins, etc. Uyghur polo is very strictly meat-rice-carrots, maybe onions.

>only white boy on the train
I think that is the default for China

>>2827731
>Good restaurants in malls and stuff you almost always have to queue for, sometimes up to an hour. The places with nobody in them are empty for a reason.
This annoys me so much about Chinese. The good places have a shit dining experience because they are already glutted with customers. You're just a hassle to them as a clueless foreigner.

>>2826559
you're an iraqi pedophile

Why does every Chinse person STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING SIDEWALK
AND IN FRONT OF DOORWAYS

FUCKING
MOVE

>>2828538
Lacking self awareness and civic sense
The worst is when they use an escalator and then just stand at the top exit and nobody can walk around them
My gf used to do this and I thought it was just her then I came to China and realised all Chinese people do this

I'm going to chengdu chongqing and shanghai, spending the most time in shanghai (6 nights) did i fuck up ? i spend 5 night in chongqing and 4 in chengdu. wanna add a day trip from shanghai too

>>2828563
Yeah six nights in Shanghai is gonna get boring, add a day trip to Hangzhou or Nanjing (Suzhou overrated).

Chengdu and Chongqing are very similar

>>2828565
any recommendations for a day trip to Nanjing? Anything "must see"?

>>2828573
Walk or bike the city wall, relax around Xuanwu lake. Explore the area around the Confucius temple at night. Then go back another day and explore Purple Mountain.

>>2828538
I did not find this to be the case all the time. Depends very much on the location in China. And when I did, I made them move. It's easy since the're all smoll.

>>2828590
thank you! Sadly I can allot only one day to Nanjing so no Purple Mountain this time, but I'll consider it an excuse to come back another time

>>2828538
This was the thing I just couldn't get used to. They walk so slowly and leave no room for you to overtake them (like they have no idea other people are using the sidewalk as well). And if you do overtake them, there are tens of slow Chinese in front of them ready to block your way.

>>2828942
yes they do that everywhere, in my country as well
you just have to walk around or through small gaps

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>>2826208
https://www.salon.com/2013/07/27/sexual_trafficking_in_china_kidnapped_into_prostitution/

Sex sells . . . Back at the office after lunch, Tom and I thought about sexy stories we could sell. And then it came to me: Maggie’s—the nightclub frequented by lonely expat businessmen, certain China Daily foreign experts, and Mongolian prostitutes.

Maggie’s, which had recently reopened after being shut down throughout the Olympics, had never brought me anywhere near sexual temptation. The few times I’d gone there left me feeling depressed and guilty, but ever since the night of Potter’s birthday party, I had been curious about the club and the Mongolian women who frequented it. I had never spoken with any of the Maggie’s girls about anything substantial, but I wanted to know their stories. Why, with so many available Chinese women, so many poor Chinese women, were the working girls who populated Maggie’s, the Den, and other hookup bars in Beijing frequented by expats Mongolian? How did they end up in China? What brought them? Maggie’s had been closed during the Olympics, and rumors had surfaced about several murdered Maggie’s regulars, all Mongolian prostitutes. It was a story waiting to be written.

Tom and I did some research online. We found the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report and read that trafficking was a growing problem, with between 3,000 and 5,000 Mongolian women and girls lured or forced into prostitution in foreign countries each year. Many were recruited by deceit, often by friends and relatives, and the vast majority ended up in China. Many came to the bars and karaoke rooms of Beijing, Shanghai, and other major Chinese cities; others ended up farther south, in the saunas and casinos of Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia.

>>2829498
https://www.china-briefing.com/news/maggies-bar-reopens-in-beijing/

Before being shuttered during Beijing’s drive to beautify itself ahead of the Olympic Games, Maggie’s was a stalwart of the the city’s club scene. Opened for nearly 15 years, the bar has long been a combination of both popular and notorious. A recent article in China Expat described the secret to the bar’s success – loud ’70s rock music and voluptuous girls from Mongolia.

I think on a per capita basis /ChG/ might be the top general on /trv/ for schizos. This place really punches above its weight in that respect

Im going to shanghai then shenzen then hong kong
has anyone taken the shanghai to shenzen bullet train?
if so how early do you have to be at the station, my train is at 07:30

>>2829677
You don't have to be early to the station in China, ticket checking for the trains usually open 20 minutes before departure and close 5 minutes before.
If you've never taken a train in China before I would arrive an hour in advance so you can take it slowly and if you make any mistakes it doesn't fuck you over
Once you get the hang of it you can start coming later, I usually arrive half an hour before my train. Security checks are incredibly quick and I can be done in under ten minutes (excepting holidays and when they make you go through two security checks for retarded reasons).

Tldr you should arrive at the station at 6:30

how do i get to Wulong Karst from Chongqing? All the sites are outdated. Where will i arriwe? some sources says Wulong county town, some says Xiannv town. Do i need to go to Xiannv Town to buy ticket? Or can i go directly to Three Natural Bridges?

>>2829696
You can take a train to Wulong town
Then take a taxi to the scenic site (Xiannü Shan)
You can buy tickets online

If you can't figure this stuff out on your own (use Chinese sites and apps with translators) you are not going to have a great time figuring other stuff out

Download: Xiaohongshu, Amap (Gaode maps), and meituan
Use translators with those and you can figure anything out

why is it so hard to find normal youtubers for china, its either ccp shills or cia shills

>>2829689
nice one anon
thanks for the information
do you think I can get by with english at the station?

>>2829720
do you mean /trv/ specific or people on the ground?
there are a few random travel ones I have been watching for ideas on itinerary and how to get around

>>2828951
It's so much easier to walk in Asia when you're not hefty or big-boned or plus size or whatever fat people like to call themselves nowadays. I can slip through a foot wide gap no problem.

>>2829720
Xiaohongshu is what Chinese use for travel recommendations.

>>2829725
/trv/ specific, especially small(er) towns and rural china

>>2829730
oh yeah thats really tough

>>2829723
yes, all signs are in Chinese and English bilingual. You don't need to talk to anyone, only show them your passport when going through the security check and when going onto the train (that's how they check your tickets)
At Shanghai the staff will probably all speak basic English

>>2829730
no normal tourist just staying for a few weeks has the time to go to small towns or rural areas, they only go to big cities and tourist scenic spots
so of course the people making videos on those are CCP shills who live there

>>2826208
If anyone is currently in China, you should share some photos, and do some blog posting!

>>2829958
You can't post here from China without a VPN (all of China is rangebanned)
And VPNs are blocked from posting
So you either have to have a pass or a personal/private VPN that hasn't been blocked

When I was in China I posted using my university VPN because it wasn't blocked here but I doubt most people have something like that

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never been to China, I'm thinking of spending like 3 weeks in Chongqing next spring (I fixate on the city more than any other in China)
has anybody spent time there, how does it compare to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, etc?
how easy is it to meet local English speakers? I don't know much Chinese

I must say, Chinese cities look nice, airports and train stations are all nice and clean and modern, but...They seem so cheaply constructed. It's just plain walls and lots of LED lighting.

>>2829981
>It's just plain walls and lots of LED lighting.
It depends on where you go. Their new business districts are very posh.

>>2830001
theyre the same tbqh, at first glance they look great but the led lights do a lot of the heavy lifting

>>2829978
The veneer that makes you infatuated with the city is literally the only good thing about it. It sucks compared to other major cities in pretty much every way besides. The weather is dogshit: hot and wet. Places like Hongyadong are just lame tourist traps with literally nothing interesting. The food is absolutely vile. I was there in 2014, so yes things will be better now, but it's not worth more than a brief visit. Spend a weekend there if you must. But 3 weeks is insane.

https://chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/p/63-chinese-cuisines-the-complete
Can anyone vouch for this? Especially the northern stuff the author says he's unfamiliar with?

>>2830033
he is clearly very knowledgeable about Chinese food and has done tons of research, especially in the south which I don't know much about so I skipped that part. But I can say a few things:

>Henan and Hebei cuisine separated at the province border
Anyang is definitely more Hebei than Henan. Only once you get to Xinxiang do they start eating hulatang and all that.

>Hebei
yeah he doesn't know anything about Hebei food, which he admits.
I would say first, nobody eats the 狮子鱼 he mentioned, young people think it's way too sweet
some more common specialities are 炒凉皮 and 糯米肉. There are also 焖子 and this weird mustard thing that people in southern Hebei eat.

>Xinjiang
Xinjiang rice is low quality when compared to the rest of China
also he didnt mention leghmen or kawap?? which are the best Uyghur foods

but anyway it was basically 99% right based on my experiences. Especially what he said about Hunan food, it is the best with rice

>>2829981
well yes anon, it's commieblocks, what did you expect?
on a serious note, it depends on where you go. city centres usually have more modern glass skyscrapers like you would see in the west, old cities have traditional architecture, and some places like Harbin are entirely foreign
sure Chinese cities can't hold a candle to Paris or London, but their ancient parts (Beijing forbidden city, Xi'an old city, Pingyao) are pretty good too
you also have to remember the custom in China is to tear down a building after 15-20 years and make a new one in its place. In Beijing something like only 5% of the buldings are older than 1980.

>>2830065
Cantonese is where it's at

>>2830070
Even in the West we say "they don't build them like they used to." They used to use huge blocks of stone for foundations and now it's just shitty vener.

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>>2830015
for me, the fixation isn't with the skyscrapers coated in LEDs (I mean that's neat but I'd get that in any other tier 1/2 city), the striking topography and geographic setting are what appeals to me
also 9 or 10 years ago, I passed on an opportunity to study abroad there for a semester and I regret it
3 weeks gives me enough time to see Chengdu, Leshan, down the Yangtze, etc

How do you find the time to spend more than a week here without being a millionaire? Even if you quit your job there is pressure to get another job quickly or else it becomes even more difficult to get hired again. And if you are a remote worker you'll be working and won't really have time to explore

>>2830104
Being lucky enough to have a remote job I presume

Or being a content creator and/or having a rich family

Often being young

Formerly being an English teacher in China but now those are drying up and you have to go to a shittier country in like SE Asia to still do that

>>2830104
everything in china is cheap, fuck you mean?

>>2830219
He's referring to the inability to take time off work to travel around China for a long time. A millionaire would presumably have little issue with that

>>2830104
Well, how do you find the time to travel for more than a week anywhere? The other anon covered some common ways, but you can also get a job there or nearby, be engaged in seasonal work, take a long time off work (maybe more difficult for Americans), be sent there on a business trip, etc...

The reality of the world is that adults with jobs don't have the free time to go travelling. You're either a wagie who can go away on week-long breaks three times a year or you have a special job that lets you go travelling to faraway places.

For comparison, adults in China with jobs get 4 weeks of state holidays (national day, Chinese new year, and labour day) and since they have to go back to their hometown for Chinese new year it's more like two weeks. Most Chinese people have never left the country unless they're very rich, and quite a lot don't leave the general area of the few provinces near them. For many of them going to Beijing or Shanghai is a dream that they can only do once every five years, and they STILL have to go in the crowded holiday season.

In China almost everyone I met had never left the country apart from rich businessmen and former international students. Most middle income people (managers, engineers, office workers) were able to go travelling twice a year to a big city or nearby province and that's it. High income people (lawyers, financiers, traders, not doctors tho they get zero holiday lmao) with their own businesses and such could afford to take months off work to go travelling in places like Xinjiang or inner Mongolia, but they were like 0.1% of everyone I met.

Is DiDi app integrated in Alipay enough, or should i download their separate app?

>>2830225
the mini programs integrated into alipay and WeChat are fully functional. You don't really need to download anything apart from alipay and WeChat, but the interface is laggier when you use a mini program, so I would suggest downloading it anyway

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>>2830104
>>2830207
>>2830223
Asylum seeking is an easy way for third worlders to travel to the west.

>>2826360
HSK 2 will get you most of what you want/need.

>>2829720
I have come across
https://www.youtube.com/@DaHaiqulvxing - fairly standard travel stuff
https://www.youtube.com/@litttleWang - quite offbeat

>>2830377
she could have aborted, innit?

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Question. What is a nice place to visit to see traditional Chinese architecture? Not just palaces and temples, but also homes where standard people live or used to live.

>>2832384
Mao's Cultural revolution destroyed most of it. Maybe check out Taiwan instead

>>2832384
>Best:
Pingyao
Dali
Yarkent and other small towns in Xinjiang

>Mid:
Kaiping
Lijiang
Hangzhou
Beijing hutongs
Suzhou

>You'll get told "has traditional architecture" but it's actually all reconstructions and fake shit
Kaifeng
Luoyang
Xi'an (some exceptions)

>>2827731
Where in xinjiang was this and when? I had a terrible time in xinjiang in 2018 when I went. I was going to visit my wife's family and they had a fucking "hidden" police escort following us the entire time. I then took pictures of my wife's school and they legit checked my phone at the next police checkpoint and was annoyed when they found just dumb local photos lol
Also I had to shit a lot and shit in the police checkpoint bathrooms all the time, was always escorted by two guards lol
I'm of a mixed ethnicity so they thought I was a uyghur and nobody believed my American passport was real. Some dumbass local police officer legit fucking used Baidu to verify whether or not my passport was a real US one... By checking Baidu images. Biggest joke of security I've ever seen

>>2828561
I used to get so annoyed at my wife for doing this, but when I went to china I realized how this very much is the culture and nobody gives a shit. I had to cut her some slack afterwards lol

>>2832456
2025 this summer. Restrictions have definitely relaxed a lot more since the pre-covid era.
It definitely felt a lot stricter than the rest of China and much more visible police/military presence but I was there for two weeks and the only checkpoints were bag scanners (that nobody even looked at) in Kashgar and Urumqi

>>2832408
Liar, there are many Vietnamese prostitutes in Japan now in addition to some Korean prostitutes.

>>2826208
Is Shanghai worth going for just one day? I'm planning a trip to either Korea or Japan but I need to fill a day in somewhere. Worth the money or not for just a detour? It would be my first time in China but I lived in Taiwan before if it matters.

>>2832533
Detouring from Korea or Japan for a single day is pretty expensive, anon. I think it would be better value for money to just spend another day at your actual destination. Shanghai is cool but you won't be able to do anything in a single day, especially because a first-time visitor to China will likely spend the entire day setting up their sim cards and alipay and all the other retarded bullshit you have to do

>>2832533
>Is Shanghai worth going for just one day?
Yes, but China is kind of a pain to prepare for and get everything in place to do just a day of travel there because of the payment apps. Shanghai is definitely the easiest place in mainland China to go for a westerner used to Japan/Korea though.

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>>2826208
Why is China such a shithole?

>>2826210
They're literally persecuting Christians like its the ancient world lmao what is wrong with this retarded country

>>2833038
How mentally unstable are you that you're whining about trade war responses to a bunch of westerners here as if we're the Chinese diplomatic corps?

>>2826312
Thats scary AF. They're literally the antichrist spirit

>>2826459
This is so horrible and sad. Cats are such sweet pets too.

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>>2827675
During your trip, did you chat much or hang out with the locals?

>>2826459
The CCP regularly posts fake news like this to keep its citizens angry about things other than fiscal and monetary policy.

>>2833038
in case you didn't know, Epoch Times is a Falun Gong new site

I want to go to China but I'm scared of getting scammed, getting arrested, getting killed, getting butchered, getting poisoned, getting run over, getting crushed by a collapsing building, getting tortured in prison, getting lost, getting cursed at by locals, getting stabbed, getting kidnapped by Triads, getting kidnapped by the government, getting my documents confiscated, getting my identity stolen, and getting diarrhea. Will I be OK as a 6'2" white blonde Christian that exclusively dresses in American flag pattern clothes?

>>2833261
I could say the same about America but it would be true.

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>>2833264
>N...no u

>>2833261
how many news stories do you hear about tourists who actually have those things happen to them?

>>2833307
It's just the usual mentally ill falun gong guy who spams this thread occasionally