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This. Anyone who doesn’t believe it — please go spend some time in Shenzhen, Shanghai, or similar cities, like I did. I just got back from China. I’ve been (als
by lossolo 2y ago
This. Anyone who doesn’t believe it — please go spend some time in Shenzhen, Shanghai, or similar cities, like I did. I just got back from China.
I’ve been (also lived and worked) to the U.S. many times, and I can confidently say that China’s tier-1 cities are on another level when it comes to development and QoL (and not only T1 cities, I was in smaller regions in the north too).
It’s also incredibly clean, super safe, and the infrastructure is breathtaking.
- tayo42 2y agoThat's been my current dream trip for a little. I think it woukd be so cool to ride the trains around the country and see what it's really like there. Learning the language is hard though
- markus_zhang 2y agoEnglish is the second language of most young and middle-aged Chinese, so you should be fine at least in tier-s cities.
- decimalenough 2y agoI recently visited China and even the people you'd expect to speak English (front desk at Western branded hotel, airline check-in, etc) either spoke zero English or really struggled. My shitty Mandarin got a workout.
- Symbiote 2y agoRemember to carry your passport at all times, as you'll need it to buy a train ticket. Even a simple metro ticket. You can also smile at the CCTV cameras, which are in groups every 100m or so within cities.
- magnuznilzzon 2y agoTrain tickets sure, for the high speed rail, but metro? Not in Shanghai at least
- Symbiote 2y agoMetro ticket machines in Beijing won't sell a ticket until you've scanned an identity card. Tourists must wait at the ticket window. Foreigners aren't usually asked to show the passport unless they look Chinese.
- dom3k 2y agoNo need to wait at no window. After you activate Alipay, just click on "Transport" and create a metro card for Beijing. Scan code on enter, scan on exit, pay the sweet low fare automatically. One app, 30+ cities.
- blitzar 2y ago> You can also smile at the CCTV cameras, which are in groups every 100m or so within cities. 1/100th the amount of smiling at the CCTV cameras compared to the UK then.
- blacksmith_tb 2y agoI took a year of Mandarin as an undergrad, speaking is doable, reading and writing is hard, but Google Translate & Co. would make that less daunting now.
- tayo42 2y agoI thought speaking would be hardest with the tone changes. I took one online class, was overwhelming
- blacksmith_tb 2y agoI felt like it started making sense after a month or so, but even though I got up to ~1500 characters at the end of the year, reading was never easy.
- toephu2 2y agoYup, Chinese Tier 1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) are probably 20 years ahead of their Western counterparts (in terms of crime, or lack thereof, public transportation, convenience, cleanliness, etc).
- spaceman_2020 2y agoCousin was in China last month. Left Shanghai for a meeting in Beijing in the morning. Was back in Shanghai by night All via train. In cities that are 1300km apart.