meh, don't listen to them. You will be fine in Beijing, there's a lot of touristy stuff to do there and a lot of expats areas. Get a subway map and mark the areas you want to go to, the historic stuff is pretty much all in one general area, which is the center part of Beijing and easy to get to by any form of transportation. food will be good as long as you know what to choose, look online for ones with good reviews. The city is huge, you probably won't run out of things to do there. I personally don't touch street food anywhere in China, unless it's really reputable. you can always order "street food" in restaurants. Honestly there's a lot to explore, and most people you will see will be tourists anyway, so you are pretty safe.
Nope, been to China a half dozen times in the last few years. Since you are such a fan of crapping in the middle of street and eating bug infested food, I suggest you visit India.
he's going to be in Beijing, I doubt he will experience your experience unless he somehow wanders to like some random remote sketchy part of the city. stick to the touristy area, and the many expats areas he will be fine.
Lulz...I thought Jontro was an unemployed degenerate who didn't have enough money to donate to tip jar. My bad... China is better than India.... I went there for a couple weeks but had the luck of visiting a local who showed me sine great places. Didn't get sick but dint drink the water.
Nice thread find. I was gonna look for it until you linked it. Read what I read in that thread also. Although I could have sworn that you were the American businessman I met in Guangzhou who said, "Lucy Liu is $50 here, man." Touristy districts disgust me for that reason. And the godawful price of liquor. It's like 1/10th that any other part of the city.
Which hotels did you stay at? Parents have a condo overlooking the bund so I don't stay at the hotels, but do go to the international chains (i.e. Hyatt) for the nicer restaurants/bars. They all seem first class to me. What type of transportation did you use? Shanghai's subway is like >> than Boston's in terms of cleanliness and ease of use. I haven't been to New York but I've heard Shanghai is better too. I haven't seen too much bug infested food, easily avoidable too (smartbeijing.com). For Jontro, visit the "houhai" area in Beijing, it's pretty awesome.
I agree with the gist of your post. I think your insult is uncalled for. There's a difference between actively seeking out women and using your foreigner status in a lascivious manner, and just minding your own business yet they still approach you. My observations of Chinese women were the latter, and talking to married/faithful ex-pat friends.
I also wanted to add I know where you're coming from. I've visited all the provinces in China including places where very few Western tourists or businessmen are found like Xinjiang, Tibet, and Heilongjiang. They present a very different view of the country vs HK, Beijing, Shanghai, etc.
I worked in China for several years and travel their regularly. If you have a broad mind and try to get acclimated, it can be a super enjoyable place to stay a while, especially if you are a bachelor expat that likes things like networking, night life, being a foodie (international food and even american food is better than what you can get in most places in the States... and cheaper). Some of my favorite places in Beijing and Shanghai are actually pizza/burger joints. Also, we know you like to fap. The girl scene is much faster paced in the expat community and yes you can get red light stuff if you are into that. But seeing how it's your first time, it might be too much to ask for all of that. It's worth going to the main tourist attractions like Great Wall (1-2hr N of Beijing), Forbidden City, and pandas in Chengdu. See if you can get a local friend to take you around.
Hope this works. HTML: <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/5442890" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5442890">China Pre-Trip Clip</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/dirtsalad">Float Deck - glennmc</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
I try again... <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/5442890" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5442890">China Pre-Trip Clip</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/dirtsalad">Float Deck - glennmc</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> and this. <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/6294135" width="500" height="288" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/6294135">Random Episode in China</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/dirtsalad">Float Deck - glennmc</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> And there are 2 more... on that site from the same guys.
Oh alright... Will save you the trouble. <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/6942629?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="500" height="279" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/6942629">China Part 2a</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/dirtsalad">Float Deck - glennmc</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> and <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/8084099" width="500" height="279" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/8084099">Random - China Episode 2 Part B</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/dirtsalad">Float Deck - glennmc</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Also, what's OP's ethnicity/skin complexion? If you're Caucasian or Far-East Asian or can pass off as one, then feel free to wander, otherwise stay in your hotel room. Mainland Chinese are for the most part very racist. If you're dark-skinned, you'll be stopped on the street by cops asking to see ID and in general make trouble. What part of Beijing are you staying in? Beijing is a huge city, especially by Asian standards, and it takes forever to get from one part to another part of the town.
Stay indoors when the fog arrives. I believe it's killer pirates or deadly tentacles. I can't remember.
I went there a little bit ago. There is a bunch of smog, but it isn't terrible. There is more to do than Houston. It isn't just strip mall after strip mall. There are "cultural" places to see and a bunch of parks and gardens etc. Me and my friends did not like the "Chinese" food there. It is a little more bland not as much sauce or salt.I guess I just prefer the American version of Chinese food.
I didn't like Shanghai, but it was mainly because I just didn't like it. The food was fine, we didn't get sick, we didn't see people defecating in the street, the people weren't rude. The hotel was clean. We didn't bring home bed bugs. It was incredibly smoggy. There was tons of traffic, although cabs did not drive on the sidewalk like they did in Seoul. The blueberry flavored Pringles were pretty bad. Get a program like Netshade so that you can spoof your IP address. When we were there a few years ago, China was blocking some internet sites (e.g. Facebook).
I've been to Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou (which is really a resort town) and enjoyed them all in different ways. Beijing was by far the most polluted, though, at least when I was there. Definitely hit up the tourist spots like the Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. If you can get away for half a day or so I'd go hit the Badaling part of the Great Wall. (that's the famous part you always see in pictures) Wangfujing Street is a big, touristy pedestrian shopping/eating place. I wouldn't sweat it, I had a lot of fun in China. You probably want to make print outs of the places you'd like to go in Chinese characters. You can just hand the paper to a taxi driver and they'll take you there. Taxi's are super cheap in China and they aren't allowed to accept tips. We had a guy get mad at us for trying to tip.
