China wasn't as bad as I thought it would be

[Anonymous]

China wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Did everyone else visited China and was very shocked how much freedom you had when you where there?

[Anonymous]

If you say China, then we know you have no clue. It depends on where you went, and it's also not a question of freedom for foreigners (at all!), it's a question of how you're treated by the locals.

[Anonymous]

It might help if you described what you were expecting.

[Anonymous]

As a tourist china is amazing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might help if you described what you were expecting.

Beijing, When I went to Communist Cuba, I went to small restaurant that were not very legal, because the state owns more of the restaurants, In China didn't look very Communist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It might help if you described what you were expecting.

Beijing, When I went to Communist Cuba, I went to small restaurant that were not very legal, because the state owns more of the restaurants, In China didn't look very Communist.

Dude, your expectations are like 50 years out of date...
Sure, if you went to China like back when Nixon went, it would be more like that.

China had a big opening up in the 80s under Deng.
And while the government is still called the "communist party" -- they have a market economy... not sure if you've noticed, but China has had explosive growth throught the 90's up until pretty much covid.
In the 2000s property was privatized... which gave the population a huge injection of wealth.

More recently Xi has been implementing more restrictive policies (trying to take things back to the good old day?) ... but even still, the genie has been out of the bottle for decades.

[Anonymous]

China is not North Korea.
I’ve been to several places in China as a tourist and loved the experience.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what you were expecting but it sounded like you thought you were going to North Korea. China has been pretty open since the early 1990s.

I've had several trips to China going back 20 years and generally enjoyed my time. The travel infrastructure is excellent and it's easy for independent tourists to move around on their own. There are things we could learn from China. But the Chinese government is indisputably despotic and a threat to global stability. I have less interest in going to China these days.

[Anonymous]

What?

Like as in you could go to restaurants or tourist locations? Um, okay. What were you expecting?

[Anonymous]

This sounds like it was written by a Chinese embassy worker.

[Anonymous]

LOL! China is full of people with $$$. If you have money to spend, then China is super welcoming and lots to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL! China is full of people with $$$. If you have money to spend, then China is super welcoming and lots to do.

Just don’t try to access western social media or do anything out of step of the current regime and you’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL! China is full of people with $$$. If you have money to spend, then China is super welcoming[b] and lots to do.

Pretty much the case anywhere in the world.

[Anonymous]

Most tone-deaf thread, ever, OP. Don't actually say this out loud to real people, please. Especially to actual mainland Chinese people.

[Anonymous]

China is full of cockroaches. I went to a fancy bar in Shanghai, we drank outside, and there were huge bugs everywhere. They were all used to it. Barf.