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Anonymous
Hey, /trv/lers.

I'm going to China in a few weeks, and I'm very excited. However, I had a few questions for you guys:

1. Everytime I think of the flight, I get a little claustrophobic. I don't think it'll be a problem (I've been to Japan twice) but does anyone have any suggestions/warnings/knowledge about Air China? I'm leaving out of New York, btw.

2. What's the status on the internet there? What's blocked, what's not? Will I get arrested for going to the New York Times website or something?
>> Anonymous
You'll be fine. The Chinkies are on their best behavior with the Olympics there. You won't be able to get to outside news, as it's all state sponsored stuff, but there are ways around the Great Firewall of China, but that's also illegal.
>> Anonymous
Air China pilots have bad english.
>> Anonymous
In china everything that isn't supporting china is illegal pretty much. But their state sponsored "hackers" are not going to track you down by putting up a proxy or two to go download sweedish porn
>> Anonymous
1. Do what I do, take twice the reccomended doage of sleeping pills, stick in ear plugs and get a blindfold. You will sleep through crying babies, cramped seats, terrorist gunfire, or bright lights. Just the lady serving food will wake you up. You'll wake up when you land, or when you've been drooling on the dude's shoulder sitting next to you. Your going to be far too deep in a blissful coma to care about how shitty your flight is.

2. Everything remotely free-speech is blocked. Don't expect to get on any even remotely trafficked sites that allows free speech. No Myspace, 4chan, Arfcom, or anything. I think they have exceptions for certian hotels that cater to foriegners and in Hong kong. Normal Chinese China is pretty repressed in the internet reguard.
>> Anonymous
>>32497
I think for 4chan, it's the other around. Moot blocks all Chinese IPs.

The government mostly just blocks sites. They're not going to track you down for trying to access porn and western news. Western news sites are mostly accessible if they're in English. (BBC Chinese is blocked for example) Proxy if you have to.

Air China, from what I have experienced, is perfectly fine, nothing to really worry about.
>> Anonymous
How long does it usually take to complete the visa application process?
>> Anonymous
>>32500
4 days. Faster if you express it.
>> Anonymous
Random tips

1.Expect to get looks for all around from the locals, in their eyes your something that they don't see often. Also, don't take offense if they take snapshots of you or ask to take a picture with you

2.Try the cuisine, most of the time Chinese cuisine is pretty fucking delicious and it doesn't stick with you for more than two hours. Also, watermelon, its the number one dessert in china during the spring/ summer months

3.Learn to haggle, many of the shops see you as a easy target, its better to give them hell, it wont hurt their feelings a bit

4.Lastly, always be humble, don't be loud or rude, remember, they already have expectations on how westerners act, its best to prove them wrong
>> Anonymous
be sure to talk about the dahli lama and tibet to people and get arrested.
>> Anonymous
>2. Everything remotely free-speech is blocked. Don't expect to get on any even remotely trafficked sites that allows free speech. No Myspace, 4chan, Arfcom, or anything. I think they have exceptions for certian hotels that cater to foriegners and in Hong kong. Normal Chinese China is pretty repressed in the internet reguard.

lolwut? every time I've been to China I've gone on facebook, myspace, US news sites, etc. Haven't had any repercussions and I go back literally every other year or two.
>> Anonymous
Also, make sure to tell everyone you meet that Tiawan is its own country.

You'd be suprised how much people don't care or agree with you, "yeah i know but don't let the government know"
>> anonymous
only thing i remember being blocked was wikipedia rofl. but google news digg all that stuff was not blocked

its fun i am so jealous i wanted to go for the olympics,

do you speak mandarin?
>> Anonymous
>>32499
No. mootle blocks open proxies and Tor nodes, the two methods for getting around the firewall when it's up. But right now it's not.

I'm in a netbar in Beijing, faggots. No fucking problems right now because they've opened shit up for the Olympics.
>> Anonymous
OP, what city or cities are you visiting?
>> Anonymous
Some tips:

If you do not know what it is like to hold a woman in your arms, ride the subway during rush hour. FREE HUGS ALL AROUND.

Do not be afraid of the street food, especially the meat on a stick vendors you'll find everywhere. Just keep an eye out for christmas lights arranged in with a single horizontal line and two rectangles. This is the character for chuar, which is Chinese for penetration, skewer, and DELICIOUS. I eat yang rou chuar (sheep meat skewer) at least once a day.

Some asshole earlier in the thread said all Chinese food is delicious. He is a dumbfuck. Every province has its own cuisine, and some of them are fucking awful. Canton (guandong), guangxi, and sichuan are spicy but otherwise are nothing to write home about. Be careful because the Cantonese have the reputation for eating bugs, mice, dogs, cats, etc., and this might be hard to notice from the picture menus unless you can read Mandarin (in b4 Cantonese =/= Mandarin; same characters, different pronunciation). Beijing food is sorta greasy, but good.

My personal favorites are Shaaxi and Xinjiang. Shaanxi is a central province and its food is very hearty. The staple there is a shredded pork sandwich. The best dish is yang rou pao mo, a thick stew with lamb meat and shredded up bread.

Xinjiang is the province adjacent to Tibet which has its own (stronger) independence movement which you never hear about in the West because they're Muslim. Natch, the food is a cross between Chinese and the sorta stuff you find in Arab countries. They make the best chuar. Lada means spicy.

Learn the numbers first so you can haggle with vendors. Otherwise you will pay two or three times what everything is worth. Counting is easy in Chinese. You just need to know the numbers 0-10, then the words for each multiple of 10. The hand gestures help too.

Those barber shops where the girls are sitting on sofas and not actually cutting hair? They're actually brothels. You can get a quickie for 100 RMB.
>> Anonymous
I flew Air China from JFK to PEK, and I slept for all but 4 hours of the 13 hour flight thanks to some unisom. The food is awful.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
EAST TURKESTAN FOR EVER
XINJIANG NEVER
>> Anonymous
>>32532
Yes.

Sure.

Enjoy getting royally assraped by the PLA.
>> Anonymous
>>32538
Big as the PLA is, they have a lot of problems with logistics. I dunno about their presence in Xinjiang, but they have a fucking king hell of a time asserting sovereignty in Taiwan since Taiwan has its own military and the PLA doesn't have much of a navy besides some aircraft carrier near Beijing that's been converted into an amusement park.

Anyway, those wily Uygher muslims would just asplode themselves all over the place. Asymmetrical warfare for the... ah, errr... pyrrhic victory?

oh fuck me, sorry, my bad... /k/ is ------> that way
>> Anonymous
The PLA couldn't assert PRC sovereignty in Taiwan if it tried
>> Anonymous
>>32496
>sweedish porn
What if I'm downloading Chinese porn? Will they arrest me for jerking off to their Tiananwomen?
>> Anonymous
>>32540
because muslims explode

riiight.

Uighurs would probably fight with cavalry, not realizing it was made obscure few decades ago.
>> Anonymous
>>32540

After seeing how fast the PLA responded to the earthquake, I doubt it.
>> Anonymous
The internet has been opened due to the Olympics. All English websites (BBC in English, New York Times, etc) are now available.
>> Anonymous
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>>32497
>>no 4chan

OH HAPPY DAYS
>> Anonymous
>>32506

Those are easily the most standard tips you could give about going to China. Wow, you must think OP is a retard.
>> Anonymous
>>32598
Is he not?
>> Anonymous
>>32598

Most tourists end up forgetting rule #4 anyway, so it's a good reminder.
>> Anonymous
>>32615

Maybe, but rule #4 isn't even a tip on how to go to China. It's a tip on how to interact with other human beings in general. Even us Eurofags think tourists are loud and obnoxious. Goddamn.
>> Anonymous
>>32612

OP here:

:(
>> Anonymous
>>32557
>>because muslims explode
>>riiight.
>>Uighurs would probably fight with cavalry, not realizing it was made obscure few decades ago.

Yes. Muslims explode. Don't you read the news? And you mean obsolete. You fail so hard you... you... DOUBLE NIGGER.
>> Anonymous
One piece of really important advice I can give: if you're a white male, and not staying in a major city, you'll be surprised how easy it is to bring girls back to your hotel. Apparently Chinese guys don't know what foreplay is, so they're not used to it, and will jump on your cock while you're not looking if you let them. Just be alert and ready with that rubber.

Note that in a city with a lot of other foreigners, you'll get swarmed by hookers instead of party girls. I'm told white guys can get freebies, but... ewww.

>Canton (guandong), guangxi, and sichuan are spicy but otherwise are nothing to write home about. Be careful because the Cantonese have the reputation for eating bugs, mice, dogs, cats, etc., and this might be hard to notice from the picture menus unless you can read Mandarin (in b4 Cantonese =/= Mandarin; same characters, different pronunciation).

Posting from Guangzhou. Guangdong food, in all the cities I've lived in so far, tends to be fucking awesome as long as you stay away from the more expensive restaurants which are often bland and boring for some reason. It can be spicy but usually is not unless you order a specifically spicy dish.
The bugs/mice/dogs/cats thing is bullshit. Everyone I've asked about it has no idea what I'm talking about. Sometimes you see lizards and snakes at late night barbeques but it's not something you'll eat by accident. I guess you could probably find more exotic meat if you were really looking for it but there's nil chance of them slipping you something which is actually *more expensive* than regular meat.
>> Anonymous
Hang out in Tiananmen Square and count how many plainclothes police you can make out talking into their rolled up newspapers and polo shirt collars.

Shaanxi food is fucking awesome
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>> Anonymous
>>33533
sherry stones
>> Anonymous
>>32754
I facepalmed so hard I broke my fucking nose. Thanks a lot, faggot.
>> Anonymous
>>32796

Chinese women jumping on American cock at the drop of the hat? And with little to no pursuit required?

FUCK! Where do I sign up??
>> Anonymous
I'm also going to China in a few weeks (Shanghai to be precise)

Is getting around, not knowing any word of Shanghainese or Mandarin difficult?
I somehow got around Japan without much knowledge of Japanese as the Japanese seem to understand a couple of English words and gestures, but I heard China is much worse.
>> Anonymous
The air plane seats are fucking small.
>> Anonymous
>>33595
you can hire an interpreter for a few dollars a day
>> Anonymous
>>33595
American chinafag here. I'm fluent in shanghainese, but when i went to China last summer, I found out that fewer amounts of people actually were native Shanghainese. Many of them were foreigners from other provinces of China. So you don't need shanghainese. You many want to learn a few basic terms in mandarin though, just to get by. Many people in Shanghai suck at basic english. But morning street vender food == om nom nom. But bad for digestion (oily).
>> Anonymous
>>33533
Many of the towns suffering the brunt of the earthquake were ethnically Tibetan, you lama-dick sniffing faggot.
>> Anonymous
If I speak Japanese will I be able to get by in China?
>> Anonymous
>>33782

Apparently there's some bizarre way for Japanese and Chinese to roughly communicate with each other through writing, since Japanese Kanji are Chinese characters.
>> Anonymous
>>33782
Lolno, but don't be surprised when more than a few characters overlap (IE when I was a wee chinese 1 student, I could read the "riben-wen" banner on the 4chon.)
>> Anonymous
>>33784
sugoii!! ?(???)?

arigatouuu gozaimas!!
>> fortune
rthertherh
>> Anonymous
>>33669
Any tips on learning to pronounce the words?
I mean looking at the words in a traveler's wordbook doesn't give me any insight into how the shit should be pronounced so that I don't end up insulting the barman's mother instead of ordering a beer.

Also, does anyone know how strict the airport staff are on importing counterfeit items? I was planning on bringing an empty suitcase to fill up with loads of fake crap.
>> Anonymous
>>33784
Actually they speak English to each other.
>> Anonymous
F China. Stink monsters.
>> Anonymous
>>33563
You mean I came so hard you broke your nose.
>> Anonymous
>>33782
>>33788

another example of why /trv/ is shit.

fuck, all of you should leave 4chan.
>> Anonymous
>>33782
only in nanjing