Xinjiang EditionPost trip plans, past experiences, questions, advice etc in this threatno political arguments (calm discussion is fine) or spam pleaseold >>2796358
How to avoid getting my organs harvested if I am a Uyghur from Xinjiang?
>>2826208If 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.
>>2826307it 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 caucasusyou can check the route via flightradar24 before you pick a flight
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 daylolLmao 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
>>2826358Lanzhou is much better than Xining, Xining is like one of the most boring cities in all of Chinahow will you get between the cities? flying or train?Dunhuang is a bit overtouristed but not awful.>>2826360I 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
>>2826312China 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?
>>2826377I 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
>>2826208Wish they would do something about their cat torture problem.
>>2826364Flying, 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.
>>2826459Westerners are paying them for the cat torture videos. You are the ones paying for animal snuff films.White westerners in the US, UK and Canada also paid money to Indonesians to torture monkeys to death.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gve7xqd7qohttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0mzpl30e03thttps://www.itv.com/news/central/2024-11-13/women-who-shared-over-100-videos-of-monkeys-being-tortured-jailedhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/grand-jury-indicts-11-more-individuals-involvement-online-groups-dedicated-monkey-torturehttps://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/women-bbc-indonesia-worcestershire-paypal-b1193913.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/07/british-woman-admits-global-monkey-torture-networkhttps://www.westmercia.police.uk/news/west-mercia/news/2024/november/women-jailed-for-monkey-torture-offences/https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-man-11-indicted-videos-monkey-torture/https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/06/despite-arrests-online-monkey-torture-rings-keep-on-torturing/
>>2826494notice 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 1973https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_Japan
>>2826528hahahahhahahahahahahaha. you guys can never resist taking the bait on japanso do you live in chyna or are you in a western country? diu lei lo mo tsau hai
>>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
>>2826210China 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
>>2826526>>2826535Ikizukuri (生き作り), also known as ikezukuri (活け造り), (roughly translated as "prepared alive"[1]) is the preparing of sashimi (raw fish) from live seafood. In this Japanese culinary technique, the most popular sea animal used is fish, but octopus, shrimp, and lobster may also be used.[2] The practice is controversial owing to concerns about the animal's suffering, as it is seemingly alive when served.Preparation and servingThe restaurant may have one or several tanks of live sea animals for a customer to choose from. There are different styles in which a chef may serve the dish but the most common way is to serve it on a plate with the filleted meat assembled on top of the body.Ikizukiri may be prepared with only three knife cuts by the chef.[1] They are usually presented with the head still whole so that customers are able to see the continuing gill movements.[3]
>>2826537
>>2826494>>2826527>>2826528>>2826529the chinese must be the most thin skinned group of people in existence
I crossed into Xinjiang alone thru the mountain border with Kyrgyzstan AMA
>>2826466Ok 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.>>2826494It'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 chinai'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
>>2826559Also ethnic minorities like Korean citizens of China deliberately do disgusting things to try to damage China's image, like eating fetus pills.Those infant fetus capsules were made from Korean fetuses and consumed by ethnic Korean citizens of China who lived in China and South Korea. Not a single Han Chinese was involved.https://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/chinese-made-infant-flesh-capsules-seized-korea/story%3fid=16296176>Customs officials in South Korea are beefing up efforts to stop the alleged smuggling, apparently by ethnic Koreans living in northern Chinese cities.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-cracks-down-on-human-flesh-capsules-from-china/>Ethnic Koreans from northeastern China who now live in South Korea were intending to use the capsules themselves or share them with other Korean-Chinese, a customs official said. They were carried in luggage or sent by international mail.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/9250438/Pills-filled-with-powdered-human-baby-flesh-found-by-customs-officials.htmlEthnic Korean citizens of China, just like South Koreans have an extremely low fertility rate and practice abortion frequently enabling a steady supply for their fetus pills.Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese are all part of the Chinese Sinitic cultural sphere and follow the same traditional medicine. Koreans and Vietnamese both eat cats, dogs and baby mice wine and most Han Chinese don't even eat cats or rats except those in Guangxi and Guangdong on the Vietnamese border.South Korea and Japan used to be the biggest importers of rhino horn for traditional medicine and now Vietnam is the biggest rhino horn importer. Vietnamese and Japanese both share the belief as China in eating enemy livers for absorbing the enemy's energy and courage. Anything you try to pin on Han Chinese will backfire onto Koreans, Vietnamese and Japanese as well. Japanese eat raw live frogs.
>>2826559>>2826564The cat torturers openly said that they are anti-China, like the Koreans who ate the fetus pills.Its very easy for wealthy anti-China groups in the west like Peter Thiel (behind the anti-China Romanian Jew Costin Alamariu whose people spam about cat torture while ignoring Japanese torturing frogs, dolphins) to wire money to ethnic minorities in China to torture cats to death.Cats are taboo meat for most Han people, only Guangdong and Guangxi people deliberately eat cats and rats.(provinces near Vietnam)Meanwhile, all Koreans and all Vietnamese eat cats and rats and mice, Koreans have cat meat stew dish and mice wine, Vietnamese also eat live mice and cats.Han from Sichuan, Shaanxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, do not eat cats or live mice.If someone is cooking cats outside of Guangdong or Guangxi, its a Koreanand Japanese used to eat both cat meat and dog meat before the Meiji restorationThey still eat live skinned frog sashimi, live fish sashimi, tortured dolphin and whale meat.
>>2826566Kys ccp
>>2826563Try using Amap/Gaode maps, it's a Chinese map program that supports English The addresses in Google are usually wrong or outdated anyway>>2826562Irrelevant to ChinaAlso spamming unrelated shit about Koreans doesn't help your case
Why doesn't chyna just outlaw animal abuse if they dont want korans making them look bad
>>2826563If 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.
>>2826977Koreans are going to complain if their cat meat stew becomes illegal.
>>2827045Get out of here chang
Are popular mountains like Huangshan super busy even on weekdays in fall?
>>2827414Yes, 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
>>2827415damn! 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
>>2826558how 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?
>>2826208As 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 accessIt's that simple.
>>2827454I'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?
>>2826210just don't be a criminal. it might be difficult for you though.
>>2826358when? take a jacket. expect dust and cold and long drives.
>>2827488it 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.
>>2827454seeing as you've been to all the big cities, where would you go next time?
>>2827488>taxisyou 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 flightsannouncements 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.>customsusually 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 eatingyou 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.
>>2827488post 1/?>getting around by yourselfI 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 aroundThe 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>>2827675post 2/?>customs + flightshonestly, 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 qualityDO 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>>2827682post 3/?Essential Chinese apps:>payment for literally everythingAlipay, Weixin>VPNMullvad confirmed works, ask locals if they know of cheaper ones.>taxiDidi, Amaps/Gaode>transitAmaps/Gaode>trains + flightsTrip.com for English, Ctrip is Chinese and cheaper. 12306 for trains specifically>foodMeituan = food and grocery delivery, Dianping = yelp+coupons>ecommerceTaobao=Amazon with max. 3 day shipping, Xianyu=ebayRandom Chinese things to know:>cost of travel1USD = 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.>securityAlways 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 relatedIn 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.>restaurantsChinese 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>>2827521post 4/?>cities to go back toBeijing, 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, JiangsuLeshan and Luzhou, SichuanFujian, FuzhouHarbin, Heilongjiang during winterShaanxi?Yunnan?Guizhou?Three Gorges Dam tour + cruise?Hong Kong side trip via train from Shenzhen>cities to be cautious ofI 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.
>>2827703What did you do in Shenzhen? Going there for a week in November.
>>2827707I 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.
>>2827710okay 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.
>>2827675Yes, 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.>>2827682Xi'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 picturesBruh how, I have a big camera and took pictures everywhere I went including in Xinjiang and near military areas and nobody cared>Queuing for restaurantsYou 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 napkinsYeah 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 culturallylmaoonly 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.
>>2827787alright 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.
>>2827787unless you think overpriced hipster cafes and modern art exhbitions are the peak of Chinese culture then OP is absolutely rightcompared 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>>2827451Security 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 Uyghursdepends 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 Uyghurkids 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 variedlol 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 CAin 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 trainI 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.
