So for context, my parents often dragged me to China a lot when I was a kid to visit family, and I always bitched about all my favorite websites being blocked there. On one of these visits, when I was in middle school, we made plans to go to HK, and this made me excited because HK doesn't have a Great Firewall (or at least they didn't before 2020).Well, now that I've been to Hong Kong, to see a friend, I can report that it's not some joyland at all, and it's not the best place in China I've been to by any metric. The issue is probably that it's too old, like the buildings and the city in general. There are just so many skyscrapers, an absurd amount, and all of them just sort of look the same. There's simply no space to expand, unlike a Mainland city, and I think this is ultimately what's dooming HK vs. Mainland China (aside from stuff like China's laws and them exerting greater control). Singapore, which I've been to as well, has a similar problem (and the other thread is spot-on about it being boring as hell lol; have yet to visit Malaysia but IMO Malaysia's better).Even the food isn't legendary. I had some dim sum, but it wasn't even as good as some of the dim sum I've had in my local suburb, New York, or Richmond (Asian suburb of Vancouver). I also tried Cha Chaan Teng (Hong Kong western-style cafes) for breakfast and it sucked, I don't get the hype at all.I stayed two nights on the Island; apparently Kowloon has newer development, and apparently the food there is better. But I just feel like whatever luster Hong Kong might've had to it that made it unique no longer exists there as of 2025. If there was anything legitimately cool or unique there, I probably missed it. So I wouldn't recommend coming here.
>>2850364People say they like Hong Kong and Taiwan more mostly for political reasons. Hong Kong at least has some history and you can see remnants of its glory days, and walking around at night and seeing the skyline is pretty neat. But all the cool stuff and all the best nature is in mainland China now. Things were different 10 years ago when HK was still relevant and the mainland was fairly poor and rough around the edges. Now it's basically all developed and accessible, and the rough parts just add a little bit of charm. HK is for people who want to say they've been to China and pretend they're sticking it to the man by visiting, but they're mostly just people who are deathly afraid of visiting China because they have a mental image of what it was like in the 1970s and some old webms from /pol/ burned into their brain.
>ricecel is unimpressed with his homelandNo one cares. You're a genetic dead end.
>HK is for people who want to say they've been to Chinanobody but the chinese consider HK to be chinachina is dogshit though, which is why everyone travels to HK, Taiwan, and Japan instead. Better culture and a higher quality of life. China destroyed the majority of their culture/history during Mao's Cultural Revolution
>>2851276Yes. We get it. You're afraid to travel to China. Go cry in /pol/
>>2850364>visits one of the great city states of the world>unimpressed because of sensible land useHong Kong will cease to be a SAR in 21.5 years and when the border is gone the city will expand.
>>2851383>HK>one of the great city stateskek, the Chinese propaganda on 4chan is beyond unreal
>>2850364People say HK is amazing because they're butthurt about the mainland's about politics. As you note, it's been left in the dust and left kanging about the good old days.>>2851269Taiwan offers a better experience than HK, even if their accent is a little gay and annoying. I think it's pipped by the better parts of the mainland, but it's cool in its own way.
>>2851406Can you name a better city state?
>>2851406china's desperate for foreign tourists so they spam every platform imaginable. Nobody is taking the bait because it's not worth the effort and every neighboring country mogs them to oblivion. Japan has the opposite problem because it mogs china TOO hard. Chia has to pay youtubers like ishowspeed and hasan to come and shill for them, similar to how dubai tries to convince people to visit their shithole. This is the 5th or 6th sina shill thread in the catalog. The "china general" is literally a couple of 小粉红 samefag bumping back and forth and the most inorganic thread here.
>>2851411meds, now.
>>2851411I went to China as a foreign tourist back in 2018 and the locals did NOT give a shit about me. It was one of the worst experiences as a tourist. When I travel, I want to be treated like a king.
>>2851269>People say they like Hong Kong and Taiwan more mostly for political reasons.They say that because they were generally head and shoulders above the mainland throughout the 90s and 2000s, and then more and more places in China started to actually pop after like 2011. Prior to that, the only halfway decent cities were Beijing for the touristy crap and Shanghai for an actually cool city.Taiwan imo is still worth visiting because it has a genuinely different vibe. It's more like super-Okinawa, especially once you leave Taipei.
>>2851416back to r/AsianMasculinity, buddy>>2851408People say HK is dead since china cracked down on them and killed the sovl, which is completely accurate.I'll also take a cheerful Taiwanese accent over pu tong huarrrrrrrr any day of the week. >>2851420That's just chinese people in general. They don't give a shit about fellow local citizens either. I don't want special treatment, I just want a fun trip.I went across china in 2016, found the place disgusting, and went back in 2018 to give china another shot to redeem itself. It was somehow worse. Beijing is horrific. The smog and smell were terrible. The food is nightmare fuel for anyone from a civilized country. You know how they eat bugs like cicadas? I stopped at a local craft market and discovered the wonderful tradition of 毛猴, translated as 'hairy monkey' (pic related). This 'art' dates back over a century in Beijing. They use dead cicadas (the same ones they eat) to make models representing traditional chinese life. The china memes are so real it hurts lol
>>2851447I think I'm gonna throw up.
>>2851448You can buy DIY kits right now from tao bao if you want to make your own kek
>>2851411Why don't we ever see Real Travelers creating a thread about their day to day life experiences traveling around China? It's always these shill promoters saying "China is le BEST!!!!", showing one telephoto shot of a skyline or a newly built public park and pretending like that single picture somehow represents the entirety of the China travel experience.>>2851420>nobody gives me special attentionThat's the norm in any big world city, anon. (African cities an exception, because there's no fucking way a white guy can be invisible in a crowd of blacks.) Everyone on the street is self-absorbed in their own life grind and couldn't care less about that one random stranger out of ten thousand who happens to be (You). If you want to feel special, you have to go places where your face doesn't get lost in the crowd.>>2851447NGL that is really cute. Looks like they use the discarded exoskeletons of the cicadas.
>>2851487I've got one coming for China. Hainan - Chonging - Chengdu. Will get it up in a couple of days.
