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Observing some beautiful architecture in China and staying at a luxury hotel doesn't feel like experiencing what it means to live in China. It's a theme park in

Observing some beautiful architecture in China and staying at a luxury hotel doesn't feel like experiencing what it means to live in China. It's a theme park in the sense that you are on a pre-determined course going from location to location.

harimau777 7y ago
What's the alternative? Experiencing the culture in a more organic way requires time (and sometimes resources, e.g. language training) that your average person doesn't have. It seems to me that observing the cultural highlights is the best compromise that most people have access to.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  My harshest rebuttal is to say that if you cannot afford to experience a culture organically, you're just consuming the junk food version of that culture and are better served reading a wikipedia page or watching a video. More mollified, I'd suggest that one can go to 'secondary cities'. Go to Alsace instead of Paris. Go to Sichuan instead of Beijing. Eat what the laborers eat for breakfast. Sleep in someone's home (isn't this what the supposed wonder of AirBnB is for?). Go to places that force you to experience culture just by facts of not having any easy tourist places to go or do.
  - magduf 7y ago
    >Sleep in someone's home (isn't this what the supposed wonder of AirBnB is for?). If you use AirBnB, then all the people whining about tourism (which seems to include you) will get mad that you're avoiding the local governments' hotel regulations. Personally, I did use AirBnB when I was in Germany last year because the tourists had driven all the hotel prices through the roof in one city. It was a great experience, meeting and talking to a local and staying in a private home. But apparently the anti-travel (for other people besides themselves) liberals think I suck because I didn't use a high-priced hotel.
    - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
      I think you're assuming a position I'm not making. I'm merely saying "it's too difficult" is a terrible excuse in this context. Also, I have nothing against AirBnB to meet and talk to locals genuinely hosting you in their homes. I have everything against converting residential housing such as apartments to commercial housing (eg. landlords buying multiple condos exclusively to make them AirBnBs)
  - csallen 7y ago
    > you're just consuming the junk food version of that culture and are better served reading a wikipedia page or watching a video. That's extreme. There's plenty of value in traveling to even touristy places in other cultures.

harimau777 7y ago

What's the alternative? Experiencing the culture in a more organic way requires time (and sometimes resources, e.g. language training) that your average person doesn't have. It seems to me that observing the cultural highlights is the best compromise that most people have access to.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago
My harshest rebuttal is to say that if you cannot afford to experience a culture organically, you're just consuming the junk food version of that culture and are better served reading a wikipedia page or watching a video. More mollified, I'd suggest that one can go to 'secondary cities'. Go to Alsace instead of Paris. Go to Sichuan instead of Beijing. Eat what the laborers eat for breakfast. Sleep in someone's home (isn't this what the supposed wonder of AirBnB is for?). Go to places that force you to experience culture just by facts of not having any easy tourist places to go or do.
- magduf 7y ago
  >Sleep in someone's home (isn't this what the supposed wonder of AirBnB is for?). If you use AirBnB, then all the people whining about tourism (which seems to include you) will get mad that you're avoiding the local governments' hotel regulations. Personally, I did use AirBnB when I was in Germany last year because the tourists had driven all the hotel prices through the roof in one city. It was a great experience, meeting and talking to a local and staying in a private home. But apparently the anti-travel (for other people besides themselves) liberals think I suck because I didn't use a high-priced hotel.
  - SolaceQuantum 7y ago
    I think you're assuming a position I'm not making. I'm merely saying "it's too difficult" is a terrible excuse in this context. Also, I have nothing against AirBnB to meet and talk to locals genuinely hosting you in their homes. I have everything against converting residential housing such as apartments to commercial housing (eg. landlords buying multiple condos exclusively to make them AirBnBs)
- csallen 7y ago
  > you're just consuming the junk food version of that culture and are better served reading a wikipedia page or watching a video. That's extreme. There's plenty of value in traveling to even touristy places in other cultures.