It seems that from a Happier Abroad perspective, everywhere is becoming progressively worthless, in this case China. I only went there in 2011 and liked it on the whole but saw the seeds on its decline from an HA point of view. Here is a clip that looks like a reasonable explanation. Any opinions?
Has China now gone down the drain?
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Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
As someone who has spent a lot of time in China and is married to a mainland Chinese woman (but living in the USA), yes and no.
If you are looking live in China as foreigner and raise a family, f***ing forget about it. Don't even bother trying unless you make a super high salary, can live in a posh area of Shanghai, afford private international hospitals, and send your kids to a really expensive international school. At that point you're basically living in a bubble and will probably find life cheaper and a lot easier in the USA. There's a reason why SerpentZA and Laowhy86 are now in the USA.
If you single, married to a Chinese girl w/o kids, or retired, life can still be pretty good in China (see Gweilo60), although as SerpentZA has mentioned in numerous videos, the glory days of the early 2000s until 2014 (approximately) are over.
If you are looking live in China as foreigner and raise a family, f***ing forget about it. Don't even bother trying unless you make a super high salary, can live in a posh area of Shanghai, afford private international hospitals, and send your kids to a really expensive international school. At that point you're basically living in a bubble and will probably find life cheaper and a lot easier in the USA. There's a reason why SerpentZA and Laowhy86 are now in the USA.
If you single, married to a Chinese girl w/o kids, or retired, life can still be pretty good in China (see Gweilo60), although as SerpentZA has mentioned in numerous videos, the glory days of the early 2000s until 2014 (approximately) are over.
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
^ So the basic answer would appear to be that for our purposes, yes, China has gone down the drain.
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HappyGuy
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
They were talking about China's rise almost every night on tv in the early 2000s, Joe Biden saw it in 2000 or 2001 and said that it would take them a over century to catch up to America.
And now we have this
https://newspunch.com/joe-bidens-son-1- ... eck-china/
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
This is a topic very close to me, so I want to chime in. I first went to China - Dalian to be exact - in September 2009. I lived in Dalian from November '09 'til April 2012, which is when I moved to Bangkok. I have visited China frequently over the last 10 years, and have been to countless cities and provinces. Check out my "40 Days in China Mega Trip Report" thread to read up on some of my adventures there. I'm now married to the very same Chinese woman I first met in Dalian all those years ago. I now speak, read, and write Mandarin at an intermediate/semi-high level. I have been teaching Chinese students online part-time for a couple of years now. Not to toot my own horn, but I know China extremely well. Maybe more than I'm even comfortable with.
China was always a "rough around the edges" and drab place, even back in 2009. Endless construction, cities covered in yellow dust and soot, greasy famine foods, hickish locals who stare and have the world's worst manners, fake nationalism, and a country where no one has the good of their fellow man in mind. But China made up for those things by just being a unique Bizarro World type place with with endless opportunities for social connection and unforgettable adventures. China was otherwordly. The locals were inquisitive and welcoming, more than any other country I had seen up to that point or even up to now after a decade of traveling across the globe. But the keyword there is were. Things used to be great in China, but they're not so great anymore. Don't be fooled by China's "progress," as so much of what's been built since China's boom days is just a hollow house of cards. You can never believe even what you see right in front of you when you're in China.
I'll never forget those crazy memories I forged in China. Eating hot-off-the-grill lamb kebabs and drinking unrefrigerated beer on a tiny plastic stool in the street at an ethnic Uyghur man's makeshift barbecue restaurant. Taking an overnight train from Liaoning all the way up to Heilongjiang for Chinese New Year with curious locals who have a very bad littering habit. Hanging out in Dalian's amazing underground malls (which were formerly bomb shelters) the size of small towns and buying dusty old computer parts to build my own gaming rig. Going out every week with students and colleagues to different restaurants and trying so many different types of food, some great and many horrible, and then making our way to the KTV to sing and just have a jolly ol' time. And doing all this for just pennies on the dollar. The women were also humble and sweet, and made you feel like a man in their presence. They were great! China was on the rise, and you could feel the optimism in the air. The country was making so much money doing business with other countries, and they seemed genuinely thankful for that. I was there at just the right time, and those are some of the most precious memories of my life. But as the old saying goes, "everything good must come to an end."
Now I go to China, and everything that I hated 10 years ago is still there. The people still have horrible manners, you still can't trust what your're eating, you still have to assume everyone is trying to cheat you, pollution is still intense and pervasive, the internet still sucks, still nobody helps their fellow man, and so forth. To make matters worse, everything I once so dearly loved has now disappeared. The cultural grit, for better or for worse, is gone, and the country is uglier and as faceless as ever. Now all the street barbecue stands have been eradicated, and the ethnic Uyghurs have been banished from urban centers and put into "reeducation camps." Vibrant streetside villages and hutongs don't even exist anymore. The underground malls are ghost towns because everyone now shops online. All my favorite places from the past have been bulldozed to the ground and replaced with faceless substitutions. Nothing has a chance to build maturity or that special kind of character that only comes with age. The women now make endless demands and are extremely self-absorbed and abrasive, with little to no housekeeping skills or positive female traits that men seek in a partner. All of my favorite dishes and snacks from the past (i.e. yu xiang rou si, ma po do fu, shao kao, bao zi, etc.) are becoming hard to find, and when I actually do find them, they taste inauthentic, they're of rock bottom quality and being sold at top shelf prices.
Now strangers don't approach me to practice their English, but rather to tell me that I'm not welcome in the country. They've got a chip on their shoulder. Now the stares seem far more hateful and much less curious. Now genuine optimism has been replaced with misguided national pride that comes from deep-seated insecurity. Instead of locals talking humbly about their country, they now feel the need to justify to me how "great" and "superior" their country is to the rest of the world. But it all just seems like an act. I used to say "there's what the Chinese Communist Party says, but there's what the Chinese people actually do." In other word's, the government always said one thing, but what people actually did and believed was very different. The difference was massive. But now that line is extremely blurry, and what the government says and what the people do are almost the same thing. Sadly nowadays it's not contained to just China, but it can be seen wherever you go, as "patriotic" mainlanders travel everywhere these days. And most importantly, when I lived in China no one had a smartphone. The coveted iPhone 2 was far out of the reach of most Chinese. Nowadays, China is ground zero for the Smartphone Zombiepocalypse. Every damn person's head is buried in their phone with the volume up full blast. If you think it's bad where you live, wait 'til you see China!
Modern China has sold its soul to pointless modernization, what with the smartphones, warping gender relations, cars, ugly ass skyscrapers, hyper materialism, and "Big Brother" technology always breathing down your neck. Yet the average Chinese person seems perfectly content with that, if not proud of that. I just don't get it. Sure, many new flashy and tall buildings have been built all over China recently, but what did they take the place of? I wouldn't exactly be proud if America built the tallest building in the world, but the Statue of Liberty had to be demolished to make way for it. Do the Chinese really believe a country's progress is measured only by its material wealth? China feels so hollow now, and no other country even comes close. China has always been soulless politically, but soulless culturally? I certainly didn't think so in the past. My Chinese wife has been saying for years that she believes China is going through its second Cultural Revolution under the CCP. I totally agree with her. China decimated itself the first time around, and now they're pissing on the few ashes that remain.
I could go on and on about this topic, but the conclusion is simple: China is no longer a "Happier Abroad" destination. Not even close. I don't think China was ever suitable for long-term living, especially for raising a family, but it was well worth a visit, if not a few years of your life. If I were a first time visitor to China in 2019, I think I'd straight up despise the place. Whereas once I would have happily sold China to the casual traveler in Asia, now I usually advise them to just stay away. There's very little for a foreigner there these days except for the ability to stack some cash, which you may or may not even be able to get out of the country. The beginning of China's end was the whole Diaoyu/Senkaku Islanda fiasco back in 2012, and the country's been on a steady decline ever since.
Listen to SerpentZA - the man knows exactly what he's talking about, and I think he's a man of good character whom I can trust and respect. I hope some day China can make a comeback, as it's a country that was once so close to my heart, but with the way things are going now, I'm not holding my breath.
P.S. - I would love to hear what other HA members think of this topic, particularly Magnum, Xiongmao, Falcon, zboy1, Ghost, Rock, and of course Winston.
China was always a "rough around the edges" and drab place, even back in 2009. Endless construction, cities covered in yellow dust and soot, greasy famine foods, hickish locals who stare and have the world's worst manners, fake nationalism, and a country where no one has the good of their fellow man in mind. But China made up for those things by just being a unique Bizarro World type place with with endless opportunities for social connection and unforgettable adventures. China was otherwordly. The locals were inquisitive and welcoming, more than any other country I had seen up to that point or even up to now after a decade of traveling across the globe. But the keyword there is were. Things used to be great in China, but they're not so great anymore. Don't be fooled by China's "progress," as so much of what's been built since China's boom days is just a hollow house of cards. You can never believe even what you see right in front of you when you're in China.
I'll never forget those crazy memories I forged in China. Eating hot-off-the-grill lamb kebabs and drinking unrefrigerated beer on a tiny plastic stool in the street at an ethnic Uyghur man's makeshift barbecue restaurant. Taking an overnight train from Liaoning all the way up to Heilongjiang for Chinese New Year with curious locals who have a very bad littering habit. Hanging out in Dalian's amazing underground malls (which were formerly bomb shelters) the size of small towns and buying dusty old computer parts to build my own gaming rig. Going out every week with students and colleagues to different restaurants and trying so many different types of food, some great and many horrible, and then making our way to the KTV to sing and just have a jolly ol' time. And doing all this for just pennies on the dollar. The women were also humble and sweet, and made you feel like a man in their presence. They were great! China was on the rise, and you could feel the optimism in the air. The country was making so much money doing business with other countries, and they seemed genuinely thankful for that. I was there at just the right time, and those are some of the most precious memories of my life. But as the old saying goes, "everything good must come to an end."
Now I go to China, and everything that I hated 10 years ago is still there. The people still have horrible manners, you still can't trust what your're eating, you still have to assume everyone is trying to cheat you, pollution is still intense and pervasive, the internet still sucks, still nobody helps their fellow man, and so forth. To make matters worse, everything I once so dearly loved has now disappeared. The cultural grit, for better or for worse, is gone, and the country is uglier and as faceless as ever. Now all the street barbecue stands have been eradicated, and the ethnic Uyghurs have been banished from urban centers and put into "reeducation camps." Vibrant streetside villages and hutongs don't even exist anymore. The underground malls are ghost towns because everyone now shops online. All my favorite places from the past have been bulldozed to the ground and replaced with faceless substitutions. Nothing has a chance to build maturity or that special kind of character that only comes with age. The women now make endless demands and are extremely self-absorbed and abrasive, with little to no housekeeping skills or positive female traits that men seek in a partner. All of my favorite dishes and snacks from the past (i.e. yu xiang rou si, ma po do fu, shao kao, bao zi, etc.) are becoming hard to find, and when I actually do find them, they taste inauthentic, they're of rock bottom quality and being sold at top shelf prices.
Now strangers don't approach me to practice their English, but rather to tell me that I'm not welcome in the country. They've got a chip on their shoulder. Now the stares seem far more hateful and much less curious. Now genuine optimism has been replaced with misguided national pride that comes from deep-seated insecurity. Instead of locals talking humbly about their country, they now feel the need to justify to me how "great" and "superior" their country is to the rest of the world. But it all just seems like an act. I used to say "there's what the Chinese Communist Party says, but there's what the Chinese people actually do." In other word's, the government always said one thing, but what people actually did and believed was very different. The difference was massive. But now that line is extremely blurry, and what the government says and what the people do are almost the same thing. Sadly nowadays it's not contained to just China, but it can be seen wherever you go, as "patriotic" mainlanders travel everywhere these days. And most importantly, when I lived in China no one had a smartphone. The coveted iPhone 2 was far out of the reach of most Chinese. Nowadays, China is ground zero for the Smartphone Zombiepocalypse. Every damn person's head is buried in their phone with the volume up full blast. If you think it's bad where you live, wait 'til you see China!
Modern China has sold its soul to pointless modernization, what with the smartphones, warping gender relations, cars, ugly ass skyscrapers, hyper materialism, and "Big Brother" technology always breathing down your neck. Yet the average Chinese person seems perfectly content with that, if not proud of that. I just don't get it. Sure, many new flashy and tall buildings have been built all over China recently, but what did they take the place of? I wouldn't exactly be proud if America built the tallest building in the world, but the Statue of Liberty had to be demolished to make way for it. Do the Chinese really believe a country's progress is measured only by its material wealth? China feels so hollow now, and no other country even comes close. China has always been soulless politically, but soulless culturally? I certainly didn't think so in the past. My Chinese wife has been saying for years that she believes China is going through its second Cultural Revolution under the CCP. I totally agree with her. China decimated itself the first time around, and now they're pissing on the few ashes that remain.
I could go on and on about this topic, but the conclusion is simple: China is no longer a "Happier Abroad" destination. Not even close. I don't think China was ever suitable for long-term living, especially for raising a family, but it was well worth a visit, if not a few years of your life. If I were a first time visitor to China in 2019, I think I'd straight up despise the place. Whereas once I would have happily sold China to the casual traveler in Asia, now I usually advise them to just stay away. There's very little for a foreigner there these days except for the ability to stack some cash, which you may or may not even be able to get out of the country. The beginning of China's end was the whole Diaoyu/Senkaku Islanda fiasco back in 2012, and the country's been on a steady decline ever since.
Listen to SerpentZA - the man knows exactly what he's talking about, and I think he's a man of good character whom I can trust and respect. I hope some day China can make a comeback, as it's a country that was once so close to my heart, but with the way things are going now, I'm not holding my breath.
P.S. - I would love to hear what other HA members think of this topic, particularly Magnum, Xiongmao, Falcon, zboy1, Ghost, Rock, and of course Winston.
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
I have been living in working in China (more 'on' than 'off' since 2009...) and have noticed that the country (and the culture...) is in great flux, it is going through its greatest change ever, when I first came here in 2009 to a third tier city in the middle of the country, you could still see horses and carts in the streets - now in that same third tier city, you never see that and there has been a lot of modernisation that has took place - from what I gather, the ordinary Chinese persons lot has got better, they eat beter,they have become more wealthy, more opportunities have opened up for them - the ordinary Chinese person has more opportunity to travel - I don't hear many Chinese people complain about the abundance of opportunities that they now have than before - with that they're going to lose what came before culturally - that happened in our countries and in every other country that has gone through mass industrialisation. This might be bad for people from abroad who want a more 'traditional' Chinese experience but apart from that?
I personally like not being gawked at like an animal at a zoo and be the recipient of 'herrroooooooooo' like I am a barking dog, foreigners aren't a rarity anymore except in the most rural/out of the way parts of China - so we aren't treated any different from anyone else these days - its true there are people who don't like our presence in their country - usually angry young men who glare at you but those people are everywhere - most Chinese people are still decent and would rather do you a good turn than a bad one, whatever idiots are in China are in my country also, as for the Uighurs - they are doing well where I am - they haven't all been rounded up and confined for 're-education' they are still running their restaurants and cafes where I am - I don't know the situation in Xinjiang but then very few people outside the CCP do either.
I agree China isn't a 'Happier Abroad' destination within the narrow concepts of what this site promotes - easy women, deference (or an overstated respect/curiosity) for being a foreigner/walking ATM and there has never been a lax visa system where you could do visa runs for years on end - you always had to be working or studying here - but can you be happy in China? I still think so, I think if you are a person of worth, have a decent education, got things going for you then you can still find your place here. China still needs people from abroad to come and live and work here - I don't think that's going to change anytime soon - we are probably living in some of the most exciting times of Chinese history, we are witnessing great change - it might go bad or it might go great - we don't really know how it is going to turn out.
China takes some getting used to and it always did, things like the internet - it was crap and restricted in 2009 as well and sending money out of the country has always been the same - basically a pain, the thing is - you take the good and the bad in regards living here, like I said before, that I am not treated as a free English lesson or a weird curiosity is good! For me personally anyway - I am not disputing anything Evered is saying - his personal views has a lot of merit (of course...) and to his world view - he is correct but the one thing we can all agree on is that China is in great flux and that's exciting for me just within itself. Can you be happy in China? I think you can (still...) but it takes an adjustment to what you expect and in regards how things are - it isn't an easy place to adapt to and it never was but it is easier than it was before.
I think this is a great time to be in China, for what it's worth.
I personally like not being gawked at like an animal at a zoo and be the recipient of 'herrroooooooooo' like I am a barking dog, foreigners aren't a rarity anymore except in the most rural/out of the way parts of China - so we aren't treated any different from anyone else these days - its true there are people who don't like our presence in their country - usually angry young men who glare at you but those people are everywhere - most Chinese people are still decent and would rather do you a good turn than a bad one, whatever idiots are in China are in my country also, as for the Uighurs - they are doing well where I am - they haven't all been rounded up and confined for 're-education' they are still running their restaurants and cafes where I am - I don't know the situation in Xinjiang but then very few people outside the CCP do either.
I agree China isn't a 'Happier Abroad' destination within the narrow concepts of what this site promotes - easy women, deference (or an overstated respect/curiosity) for being a foreigner/walking ATM and there has never been a lax visa system where you could do visa runs for years on end - you always had to be working or studying here - but can you be happy in China? I still think so, I think if you are a person of worth, have a decent education, got things going for you then you can still find your place here. China still needs people from abroad to come and live and work here - I don't think that's going to change anytime soon - we are probably living in some of the most exciting times of Chinese history, we are witnessing great change - it might go bad or it might go great - we don't really know how it is going to turn out.
China takes some getting used to and it always did, things like the internet - it was crap and restricted in 2009 as well and sending money out of the country has always been the same - basically a pain, the thing is - you take the good and the bad in regards living here, like I said before, that I am not treated as a free English lesson or a weird curiosity is good! For me personally anyway - I am not disputing anything Evered is saying - his personal views has a lot of merit (of course...) and to his world view - he is correct but the one thing we can all agree on is that China is in great flux and that's exciting for me just within itself. Can you be happy in China? I think you can (still...) but it takes an adjustment to what you expect and in regards how things are - it isn't an easy place to adapt to and it never was but it is easier than it was before.
I think this is a great time to be in China, for what it's worth.
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flowerthief00
- Junior Poster
- Posts: 866
- Joined: January 10th, 2017, 8:14 pm
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
Does that mean no more WHITE MONKEY JOBS?
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HappyGuy
Winston betrays China
It's a good thing neither the South African Winston nor Winston Wu are spies they would betray their country for the first Chinese prostitute that came along.
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
^ Everdred tells it like it is. I can't really disagree on this.
It was awesome when I lived in China in 2013 but it's just got worse really. My current teaching job's apartment is full of stuff from the old days and it's a little sad seeing all those lesson plans I wouldn't dare use now, and all those little maps and notes people have made about exciting finds.
So to echo Everdred:
* Food trust: I ate out a few weeks ago and got served up a shard of glass in my drink. The company (a big multinational never apologised).
* Fun: I used to love going to bars in Thailand. I don't do it in China because of the risk/worry of getting rounded up and drug tested. I'm not into drugys but I'm not into getting rounded up by the cops either.
* Nationalism: The uni I studied at has gone really nationalistic, with a long avenue of Xi accomplishments and red flags everywhere.
* Noise: There's constant noise and I don't think you can live anywhere in China that isn't near building work.
* Unfriendliness: Nobody talks to me. I've had zero random stranger encounters. When I went to the bank the old guy next to me was super paranoid that I was trying to see him enter his pin number.
* Sense of worth: I am supposedly educating China's elite but they're just a bunch of NPC's with no independent thought. I've not managed to get any class to guess "what's in my bag". They have zero critical thinking skills.
* Dating: Not tried it again but would you want to be married to a woman who will throw a sissy fit if you mention Great Leader's island or upvoted the HK demonstrators on Reddit?
* Home comforts: It doesn't seem any easier to find home comforts except that you can now order stuff online a lot more easily.
My diagnosis is that "pride comes before a fall" is what is happening to China. They are a developing country. When the foreign companies leave (fanboys Apple will stay of course) then they will really struggle. When the foreign money leaves HK, then they will really crash.
The good thing is that because they have been overstating their GDP, when they do crash and burn there won't be the apocalyptic result on the global economy that everyone's been expecting.
It was awesome when I lived in China in 2013 but it's just got worse really. My current teaching job's apartment is full of stuff from the old days and it's a little sad seeing all those lesson plans I wouldn't dare use now, and all those little maps and notes people have made about exciting finds.
So to echo Everdred:
* Food trust: I ate out a few weeks ago and got served up a shard of glass in my drink. The company (a big multinational never apologised).
* Fun: I used to love going to bars in Thailand. I don't do it in China because of the risk/worry of getting rounded up and drug tested. I'm not into drugys but I'm not into getting rounded up by the cops either.
* Nationalism: The uni I studied at has gone really nationalistic, with a long avenue of Xi accomplishments and red flags everywhere.
* Noise: There's constant noise and I don't think you can live anywhere in China that isn't near building work.
* Unfriendliness: Nobody talks to me. I've had zero random stranger encounters. When I went to the bank the old guy next to me was super paranoid that I was trying to see him enter his pin number.
* Sense of worth: I am supposedly educating China's elite but they're just a bunch of NPC's with no independent thought. I've not managed to get any class to guess "what's in my bag". They have zero critical thinking skills.
* Dating: Not tried it again but would you want to be married to a woman who will throw a sissy fit if you mention Great Leader's island or upvoted the HK demonstrators on Reddit?
* Home comforts: It doesn't seem any easier to find home comforts except that you can now order stuff online a lot more easily.
My diagnosis is that "pride comes before a fall" is what is happening to China. They are a developing country. When the foreign companies leave (fanboys Apple will stay of course) then they will really struggle. When the foreign money leaves HK, then they will really crash.
The good thing is that because they have been overstating their GDP, when they do crash and burn there won't be the apocalyptic result on the global economy that everyone's been expecting.
I was Happier Abroad for a while but Covid killed that off.
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Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
The cost of living in China is also outrageous.
My wife's family lives in a tier-3 city where the average wage is something like $500 USD/month. Last time my wife and I were there, we went to look one of the billion new condo units that were recently built and for sale. It was crazy to hear that 2BR 1000 sq ft condos were starting at $150k!!
I was talking to my brother in law and he told me that 15 years ago, the housing supply was maybe 1/2 of what it is today, and yet average workers could afford a modest house. The population hasn't change that much in the last 15 years, now there are a TON more housing units available, and yet the prices are in the stratosphere, even in tier-2 and tier-3 cities! This goes against Econ 101 - supply and demand. It's a total bubble fueled by the government.
There are couples who are using 70% of their take home pay to just pay a mortgage, and that's after they put up a huge down payment!
My wife's family lives in a tier-3 city where the average wage is something like $500 USD/month. Last time my wife and I were there, we went to look one of the billion new condo units that were recently built and for sale. It was crazy to hear that 2BR 1000 sq ft condos were starting at $150k!!
I was talking to my brother in law and he told me that 15 years ago, the housing supply was maybe 1/2 of what it is today, and yet average workers could afford a modest house. The population hasn't change that much in the last 15 years, now there are a TON more housing units available, and yet the prices are in the stratosphere, even in tier-2 and tier-3 cities! This goes against Econ 101 - supply and demand. It's a total bubble fueled by the government.
There are couples who are using 70% of their take home pay to just pay a mortgage, and that's after they put up a huge down payment!
Re: Has China now gone down the drain?
I disagree with this. Has it got worse? I suppose it depends on who and what you are and what you bring. You make some reasonable points but not all of it is reasonable - some of it would be at best politely described as hyperbole.xiongmao wrote: ↑November 26th, 2019, 5:52 pm^ Everdred tells it like it is. I can't really disagree on this.
It was awesome when I lived in China in 2013 but it's just got worse really. My current teaching job's apartment is full of stuff from the old days and it's a little sad seeing all those lesson plans I wouldn't dare use now, and all those little maps and notes people have made about exciting finds.
So food safety/security is still a problem in China, lax standards are employed in a lot of places, always been the same though and in my locality - the government rate any establishment from A-E on hyegine and make establishments publicly place their certificates within the customer seating area which is a recent innovation, so things are improving - albiet slowly - or at least you can make a considered choice when eating out these days in my area.So to echo Everdred:
* Food trust: I ate out a few weeks ago and got served up a shard of glass in my drink. The company (a big multinational never apologised).
China isn't a bar scene kind of place, as you know they like to eat and drink at the same time and prefer eating establishments (that serve alcohol...) over a bar, outside Beijing and Shanghai and probably Shenzhen - you aren't going to find an in-depth bar scene like you can find in Bangkok - sure you can find places to drink where there are loads of drunken blokes but I wouldn't worry about the police (the police have never bothered me once and I have been here since 2009 - and I seriously doubt they have bothered you either) about going to these bars, the police would be the last of your problems.* Fun: I used to love going to bars in Thailand. I don't do it in China because of the risk/worry of getting rounded up and drug tested. I'm not into drugys but I'm not into getting rounded up by the cops either.
If a bar scene is important (and I understand it is to some people...) then you probably need to cross China off your list.
It has always been nationalistic - that is something that hasn't changed since 2009.* Nationalism: The uni I studied at has gone really nationalistic, with a long avenue of Xi accomplishments and red flags everywhere.
Yep, they are doing lots of building.* Noise: There's constant noise and I don't think you can live anywhere in China that isn't near building work.
Do you speak to random Indians and Pakistanis (or Bosnians or Lithuanians etc...) who you don't know back in London who have little to no grasp of English? Thought not! They're no different to anyone else in that regard.* Unfriendliness: Nobody talks to me. I've had zero random stranger encounters. When I went to the bank the old guy next to me was super paranoid that I was trying to see him enter his pin number.
Yup, the rote learning system that they have been exposed to doesn't do us any favours but can you engage them? Yep, I engage most of my classes - there are ways of building up some critical thinking skills in your classes but no - you aren't going to make them highly developed critical thinkers over a semester or two. You'll always have dud classes but most will have a go.* Sense of worth: I am supposedly educating China's elite but they're just a bunch of NPC's with no independent thought. I've not managed to get any class to guess "what's in my bag". They have zero critical thinking skills.
That's just ridiculous! I dated a Chinese woman for three years and nearly married her, she couldn't give a shit about politics and she certainly wouldn't throw a hissy fit because you mention Taiwan or whatever else, I am sure there are young Chinese women who would care about your views on artificial islands in the South China Sea but a lot more would throw a hissy fit if you said Jay Chou (or whoever is en vogue these days...) was a wanker - most young Chinese women are that - young women who like films, pop stars, handsome actors etc and spend most of their time reading about or listening to them.* Dating: Not tried it again but would you want to be married to a woman who will throw a sissy fit if you mention Great Leader's island or upvoted the HK demonstrators on Reddit?
Now, the young male population are a lot more likely to take offence on any views expressed about China's rise but you're not dating them are you?
Fair enough comment.* Home comforts: It doesn't seem any easier to find home comforts except that you can now order stuff online a lot more easily.
China isn't going to crash - but if they do, lots of people are going to feel the effect - China 'crashing' is not something that we should ask for or want because just like the fall of the Soviet Union - something a lot worse can come out of it.My diagnosis is that "pride comes before a fall" is what is happening to China. They are a developing country. When the foreign companies leave (fanboys Apple will stay of course) then they will really struggle. When the foreign money leaves HK, then they will really crash.
The good thing is that because they have been overstating their GDP, when they do crash and burn there won't be the apocalyptic result on the global economy that everyone's been expecting.
China has its faults for sure, it isn't perfect and I wouldn't say it is a 'happier abroad' destination in the sense of what this site promotes. The days of unqualified mugs turning up and being fawned over and getting jobs on the back of their pigmentation is well and truly over and I would argue has never really existed to any great degree - I completely support the governments efforts to make sure what foreigners end up in China have to take drug testing and submit criminal/academic background checks - it is a good thing they're doing this in my opinion.
Saying that, China is improving and in a lot of ways - surpasses 'The West' (its transport infrastructure for a start...) dating has never been easy if you can't speak Chinese - and if you are the same height as the average Chinese man it's a lot harder still - dating and being seen out with a foreigner has never been a source of pride for a Chinese woman and that has always been the case, the more out of the way a place is - the more magnified the embarrassment. If you end up dating a Chinese woman it is because she likes you - a lot!
China is not and never will be the Philippines regards dating - but that place will have its pluses and minuses just like everywhere else.
China is what it is, if I was you Xiongmao - I would look to moving back to Thailand and doing something online - teaching, computer work - probably would make more money than you are doing now - and be obviously happier!-
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