China is honestly light years ahead of the US. I live in one of the most expensive cities in the US and am here on vacation for a month traveling through China and it is insane how far ahead of us they are. From the high speed rail system that I have been using to go from city to city, the absolute cleanliness everywhere, no crime, no worry about getting pick pocketed/mugged, nice friendly people, no homelessness, no tent cities, affordable/cheap prices for food and basic necessities. Every little town I pass I the high speed line had massive construction going on from high density apartments to infrastructure. Honestly the only complaints I have is that the entire country is hot as balls right now and the food situation is a bit rough as a person who’s both vegan and a somewhat picky eater, they only seem to have mainly Chinese food everywhere and as good as it is I need some variety in my diet and it is hard finding all vegan places as well.

I honestly I have now come to realize that the reason we are so strongly propagandized against China in the US is that it would break the average Americans brain if you saw how well they are living here compared to the absolute under-devoloped shit we put up with in the US.

Ask me any questions you have and I can also post pics if interested!

  • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    Another thing I want to add is that it’s amazing being in a country where there are hammer and sickles everywhere and communism isn’t some taboo thing to be kept in the closet.

        • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Do you know how many of those people went to America?

          In my experience everybody who goes to UK/Canada/USA for a few years have their illusions shattered really hard as well, even before COVID and Trump

      • meth_dragon [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        there is a dunning kruger area of politically illiterate petit bourgeoisie and wannabes (liberals) who dislike leftism for a variety of reasons, many of them actually personal failings (shitty teacher/school admin, can’t break into the big bourgeoisie, incel because ugly/poor/misogynist, friends doing better than they are <- this is a big one) but in their minds easily attributed to leftist politics

        in all fairness the government does do a lot of dumb shit a lot of the time for really shitty reasons but in these people’s minds they’re just built different and would have been fine or would be doing even better if china had completely capitulated and ended up like CIS or idk, india

        they’re honestly not common at all (thank god) but i interact with them on a daily basis due to job/social circle and it takes everything i have to just stay hinged in conversations so i am taking this opportunity to vent, sorry

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          4 months ago

          politically illiterate (liberals) who dislike leftism for a variety of reasons, many of them actually personal failings (shitty teacher/school admin, can’t break into the big bourgeoisie, incel because ugly/poor/misogynist, friends doing better than they are <- this is a big one) but in their minds easily attributed to leftist politics

          To be fair you could say the exact same thing for a sizeable amount of “anti capitalist” people in the West. Politically illiterate liberals who mix up criticism of capitalism with personal failings.

          in these people’s minds they’re just built different and would have been fine or would be doing even better if china had completely capitulated and ended up like CIS or idk, india

          Again lol, you see this mindset in a minority of Westen leftists on the internet as well. “If my country was just communist instead of capitalist I’d be living my best life” type of mindset. I guess the idea of the grass being greener on the other side is just part of the human experience if life sucks for someone at the moment.

          This is not intended as a defence of capitalism, just to be clear before someone misreads my comment.

        • space_comrade [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          so i am taking this opportunity to vent, sorry

          No it’s fine I like reading about how people in China think and act since because the only local “knowledge” regarding that is “100% of Chinese are brainwashed and propagandized 100% of the time and they’re basically a totalitarian hivemind too scared of the government to even think for themselves”.

  • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Is it true that a lot of the public restrooms don’t have toilet paper? I swear that pops up in every “what to know if you travel to China” article I’ve ever read.

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I was there earlier this year, and It was my experience there. Every so often one would have tp, but for the most part it was not provided. It may depend on where you are. Hotels have plenty though and you can just stuff a wad in your bag, and the public restrooms are absolutely everywhere, which coming from somewhere in the US where they’ve basically gone the way of the dodo is so refreshing.

  • VILenin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Hell yeah China gang

    I’m there in 2 days. Get to go a couple times a month. Lie-flat accommodations and mediocre airline food. For free! Since I fly the airplane. But the crew only gets about 30 hours max before we turn around and come back :/

    How are the train-shinings? Ticket-wise too. I heard the popular routes sell out pretty fast. Also damn they built up the network fast. I remember going for the 2008 Olympics and the network was nothing at all like it is now.

    There’s been a lot of change even in just the past 10 years. I first went in 1999. The development is amazing. I guess there’s some minor frustrations too. You used to be able to stroll into Tiananmen Square whenever you felt like it, at any time of day. A few years ago someone rammed a vehicle into the crowd so now you have to go through a security and ID check to enter a protected area. You also need a reservation beforehand. sadness

    How difficult is it without speaking Mandarin? I do so I feel like I’m not really in tune with that experience.

  • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    I agree, but fuck me Guiyang has been hard work today. I saw a guy literally beat the shit out of his 2 year old kid for playing too raucously, and in the park a guy was shooting monkeys with a slingshot and everyone was gathered around laughing.

    I think Guiyang might just be filled with arseholes.

    Critical support, because they still have some issues to iron out in some places, such as animal cruelty, and it being socially acceptable to literally slap a two year old in the face repeatedly over some minor infraction. Honestly I wanted to kill that man. Actually I wanted to kill the guy shooting the monkeys too.

    I literally can’t stop thinking about that kid. It really got to me, he was so small and the dad or grandad or uncle or whatever slapped him three or four times in the face and then proceeded to start slapping his belly. Afterwards the kids wasn’t even audibly crying, he just had a look of complete shock on his face, mouth open, probably too winded to actually cry out. I know it would have been the stupidest thing in the world to intervene but I feel like such a coward for just standing there and watching.

    • Aradina [She/They]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      China’s biggest and most persistant Ls are to do with socially conservative ideas and other brain worms. The treatment of animals, children, women, lgbtq people, etc are all horrid. Actual chud level shit.

      Things seem to be improving, thankfully, but I definitely feel for less socially accepted comrades there.

    • I_CAST_BEAM_OF_BATS_I_CAST_BOLT_OF_BATS [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      From students I know there who drink and smoke they are having a great time for very cheap and just ordering dishes they can translate but have no familiarity with from stalls and getting something good every time lol, it sounds very idyllic. But also they have a bunch of outdoor gyms (!) which interests me a lot more

    • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Depends where you go. But yeah, some places it does. 90p for a pack of cigarettes. It’s illegal to sell cigarettes for for than 100yuan (9 quid).

      It’s cheap

  • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    sù (素) food is a good backup plan for finding vegan food. It’s food following Buddhist purity rules which will mean it’s all at least vegetarian. Say no eggs and you’ve made it vegan because they’re not going to use dairy.

    Look for swastikas to find such a restaurant.

    • LesbianLiberty [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      我只吃素菜 Wǒ zhǐ chī sù cài “I Only Eat Vegetarian Food” and 你们有素菜吗 Nǐ men yǒu sù cài ma? “Do you have vegetarian food?” have been my go to phrases when my brain’s too busted to speak the Mandarin I do know. If all else fails you can always hit them with the 我不能吃肉 Wǒ bù néng chī ròu which is “I don’t eat meat”

  • ByroTriz@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Where are you? I’ve been to China recently and it doesn’t reflect my experience at all

    • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Started in Hong Kong, then Guilin, Changsha, Hangzhou (here now), then off to Shanghai and finishing in Beijing. What was your experience like and how long ago was it?

      • ByroTriz@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Been to Guangdong, Beijing and Wuhan for work as early as this February. Very mixed experience for me. Rent is extremely variable depending where you are, can be as low as 100 $ a month for a rather shitty place up to several tens of thousand for places in the city of various quality (including abysmal).

        Food is REALLY cheap, you could eat at a restaurant 3 meals a day and spend less than 10 buck in total, even higher end restaurants are much cheaper, for other stuff like clothes it varies, they are cheaper in general but not even remotely like the food.

        There are definitely homeless people even children, it’s just that many Chinese cities are organized in sort of like “areas” so if you don’t look in the right places you won’t see them. Based on my experience I can sort of make up 3 or 4 types of areas (this is China so each area can be the size of a city itself):

        1. Corpo Block. A large area sold out to corporations or other large institutions (banks, embassies etc.). Squicky clean, glass skyscrapers and trees, pretty much only offices and no one lives there, beautiful but also soulless and boring

        2. Generic Block. Most of chinese city areas look like this. Ugly buildings, very clean but kinda of uncanny, some green here and there, lots of people, smog. Still better than American suburbs for sure.

        3. The Slums. Trash, some homeless people, crappy place overall. Looks like someone fed Blame! pages to stable diffusion and had them colorized.

        4. “Trad Block”. Beautiful, clean, some traditional oriental urban aesthetics incorporated with modern buildings. Legitimately wouldn’t mind living there, unfortunately the most rare type

        Traina are fast, punctual and clean, but overall the experience is something out of Brazil (the movie). Taking the train is more complicated than flying. Firstly, as a foreigner you can’t buy the ticket like a normal humanoid, you need to go to a special office with documents and shit (this is true for lots of things, foreigners are basically second class citizens, tourists or not). Then they’ll check you when you enter the station, they’ll check you again when the train arrives, and the one more time before boarding the train, finally they’ll check you when you leave the station, also, occasionally they’ll complain for BS like carrying a shaving foam and other TSA-like BS

  • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I honestly I have now come to realize that the reason we are so strongly propagandized against China in the US is that it would break the average Americans brain if you saw how well they are living here compared to the absolute under-devoloped shit we put up with in the US

    They were doing it when China didn’t have flushable toilets in their plumbing systems what are you saying

  • Farid@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    This reads a lot like Tucker Carlson’s “they have shopping carts and fresh bread”.
    Btw, most of the listed positives apply to EU, too, for example, you just chose to compare it with the worst case scenario.

    • LesbianLiberty [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      One critical thing to note is that this wealth has been built quite rapidly, as comparing China 25 years ago and China now feels almost ludicrous due to almost all observable metrics improving markedly. China has gone from being poorer than the poorest African nation per capita to an equivalent standard of living to Western Europe in many cities, which is a continent which was able to develop off the back of colonization that China did not employ.

    • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I’ve travelled to the EU a bunch and no it doesn’t. There’s not a single city in all of Europe (or the anglo world for that matter) that compared to the top tier Chinese cities.

  • Greenleaf [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I strongly suspect that in 2024, the median Chinese worker has a higher material quality of life than the median American worker. I say that I “strongly suspect” because for some reason I have never seen someone make this frankly straightforward comparison, I wonder why…

    • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      US life expectancy: 76.33 years Chinese life expectancy: 78.21 years

      I tried to find a qol-index, but its all propaganda. Very vibes-based. It ranked the US 12th, which is crazy (if you don’t think so, then read this report )

  • cricbuzz [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Hey I’ve got a question, how many Xi-Bucks are they paying you to write this post?!

    lol jk, comrade. happy that you’re having a great time exploring there. It’s on my bucket list to go there before the US commits to full-fledged stochastic terrorism in every major city there

    • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I don’t speak a bit of Mandarin, it has been somewhat difficult as not many people speak English at all either, but when needed I use alipay’s built in translator and am able to communicate well enough. Everyone here also seems to have an app they can talk into that translates what they want to say.

      Also some places are very crowded (tourist areas like Guilin) and others not so much, but the crowds are all mainly Chinese tourists, I’ve only seen maybe five or so white people here (i’m not white myself though, middle eastern).

      • alexandra_kollontai [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        when needed I use alipay’s built in translator and am able to communicate well enough. Everyone here also seems to have an app they can talk into that translates what they want to say.

        Wow. The future is now.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      With the Mandarin I picked up, I was able to do vegan in the most rural fecking places. Not to say that my experience will be everybody’s, but it wasn’t bad for me.

      • SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, not to discount OP, but it really must be a language barrier thing. In fact many meat dishes are also good with veggies/tofu anyway. Obviously some regions you’ll have much bigger difficulty, but from the sounds of it, OP isn’t going to those provinces.