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天安門一九八九年 tour recommendations?

Bumping from last thread - What's going on with the flight cancellations from China to Japan?

It looks like the number of Chinese airlines and routes being cancelled keeps going up - but you will be safe just booking with a non-Chinese airline flying out of China to Japan? I just need a flight from Shanghai to Tokyo later this month. I can't imagine all international carriers for all routes will be shut down in and out of china to japan

Hey so wife and I dont speak any Chinese but she really wants to go to disney in shanghai and I wouldnt mind visiting china.

Anyone ITT have experience hiring a chinese tour guide?

>>2859925
you really don't need a tour guide even if you don't speak Chinese. You can just use your phone for translating, and in Shanghai quite a good amount of people speak English.

>>2859928
Tokyo levels of english or are we talking japanese countryside?

>>2859929
idk I've never been to Japan but restaurants etc will usually have one person who speaks some English. also literally just use your phone, it can turn English into totally understandable Chinese and can translate Chinese into ok English using the camera function. Also disney is like the last place on earth that you need a tour guide for

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AM I DOING THIS RIGHT

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Hubei recs? I only care about hiking and food. The 3 gorges stuff looks cool but also touristy. How cold is it there in March?

If I only have 10 days to tour around (transit visa), starting and ending in Shanghai, is Nanjing worth a stop or is it a waste of time?

>>2859945
more worth it than any other nearby city, I would definitely recommend. very different vibe compared with Shanghai and much more historical
the only potential contenders are Hangzhou and Zhoushan

>>2859944
>hubei food
Wuhan hot dry noodles are very good
theres also some kind of special chicken idk what it's called in English but very nice
>hubei hiking
shennongjia and enshi are good for this, 3 gorges I've not been but maybe worth to take a look before Taiwan destroys it
>cold in march
not really, above 10c and not much rain. significantly warmer than Hebei/Beijing area

to me hubei is one of the most boring provinces in China, even Wuhan is quite boring for such a big city. all of the bordering regions are more interesting, Hunan and Jiangxi have better food, and Anhui has better hiking

Where are the underground music/art scenes in China?
I know that Shanghai and Beijing are best for contemporary art, Shanghai/surrounding areas for certain indie rock/emo styles, Guangzhou for certain metal/punk styles, Wuhan for punk, Chongqing for rap and Chengdu for LGBT and general chill vibes
But I don't really know much and I feel like a lot of this info is hidden behind a language barrier and the great firewall (bands/promoters/venues less likely to post events on insta though it does happen)
Any recs?

>>2859929
Better English than Tokyo and Seoul. But only in Shanghai

I know it's absolutely not recommended to travel during Chinese New Year and apparently is a special kind of hell, but I already spent two months in Korea and had enough, visiting Japan was not practical for me, so I decided to go to China anyway because it's one of the only opportunities I will have to do so before going back inside the wage cage.

I'm already in Beijing as we speak and I don't regret it at all, I plan to go to Xi'an next for 4 or 5 days, and leave before Feb 13-14.
My question is, where would it be more comfy to stay holed up in a hotel for a week with booze and nothing to do except having a good excuse to shitpost because everything is closed. Shanghai or Chongqing?

I have heard Shanghai is somewhat pleasant during CNY because the streets are rather empty but some expats are still staying, and not everything is completely closed. I also know someone there who might be available.
I really want to visit Chongqing but I've heard it might be overcrowded due to domestic tourism, and if I go to Shanghai, I might skip it because I will then probably stay in the south in order to reach Vietnam by bus.

I'm pretty sure I will go to Shanghai anyway, but I'm posting this just in case any of you has any practical tips.

Oh, and another question for people who can benefit from visa-free stay: how easy is it to do a visa run from Vietnam or Hong Kong? Do the authorities give you shit if they see you already have recent Chinese stamps on your passport, as you long as you have a GTFO/return ticket?
To enter I booked a Shenzhen-Hong Kong ticket because it was cheap and it's impossible to book a Nanning-Hanoi bus ticket online AFAIK, but this might not work next time.

-What method of payment to use in China (Shanghai)
-Is it easy to navigate without speaking Chinese and sparse use of a translator?
-What is the uber equivalent?
-How essential is a VPN?
-Best dating app?
-Things to know?

Ty

>>2859947
Thanks for the good response, i like this board.
>Anhui hiking
You thinking of Huangshan or somewhere else?

>Hunan, Henan
>Shanxi, Shaanxi
Why are they like this

>>2859680
It's due to geopolitical tensions between China and Japan regarding Taiwan, you can read some stuff on China Daily to get the point of view of mainland China, but basically they interpreted some comments the new Japanese PM made as a possibility that they would militarily intervene in Taiwan if push comes to shove, so they cancelled all touristic flights to Japan for Chinese New Year, which is coincidentally when most Chinese people go abroad: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/26/WS69776263a310d6866eb35d18.html

I would recommend you to transit by Seoul honestly, the South Korean president met both Xi Jinping and Sanae Takaichi very recently, SK has good diplomatic relationships with both, and Seoul is worth visiting for a few days if you have time IMHO.


>>2859978
I'm also researching this at the moment because the underground music scene in China is virtually unknown in the West, but does exist and have some pretty good bands.

So far all I know is that there is an alternative music club called Dusk Dawn Club in the Chaoyang district of Beijing. You can check thebeijinger.com/events/music for other Beijing stuff, and there is also this "lifestyle magazine" which might help: thatsmags.com/china/entertainment
Otherwise, everything seems to happen on WeChat, and I am as clueless as you are. What I usually do in a country is researching where bands I like played in the past, and see if there are shows there, but in China it's a bit harder to do so. Tell me if you know more.

>>2860030
this, my flights to japan from mainland china got cancelled twice, i ended up having to book a last minute flight from hong kong. cost me something like $600 extra

>>2860030
>>2860031
Which airlines? Even Japanese airlines like Spring Japan?

>>2860032
they were both chinese airlines, idk if non-chinese airlines are having their flights cancelled

Currently in Guangzhou with my wife. Plan on taking a train to Gulin tomorrow. Has any anons been there and recommend things to do? Was thinking about renting a moped and exploring the countryside. My wife is from the mainland , so the language barrier isn’t a problem.

>>2860029
yeah mostly Huangshan and Chizhou

Hunan = south of the lake (poyang lake)
Hubei = north of the lake
Henan = south of the river (yellow river)
Hebei = north of the river

Shanxi = west of the mountains (taihang mountains)
Shandong = east of the mountains
Shaanxi = west of the Shaan pass

also there is
Guangdong = east lingnan (lingnan = south of the ling mountains)
Guangxi = west lingnan
Jiangxi = east jiangnan (jiangnan = south of the yangtzi river)
Jiangsu = Jiangning (old name of Nanjing) and Suzhou city

>>2860064
kayaking and rafting is apparently pretty good there
really you should ask her to look on 小红书 what everyone else is recommending

>>2860030
great stuff anon and yeah I will keep you updated of course, you trying to teach/work over there or just a holiday?
Like you said, most things are hidden behind the firewall as well as the language barrier. Some bands will have an instagram but they're never properly active on there, moreso just seems to be the ones that want to promote to the western internet music/Rate Your Music scene.
I can't read a word of Chinese and I'm having trouble getting Wechat on my phone right now so researching has been hard to say the least lol, Japan's scene is hidden behind the language barrier too but they all use insta to promote and there's some western articles/awareness, so it's still possible to find out about it if you're skilled at going down insta rabbitholes like me

>>2860020
thought people in Seoul were at least conversational in English? Let me know because if not I'll start learning Korean as well and Japanese and Chinese

>>2860023
>payment methods
wechat pay and alipay. cash accepted relatively often but don't rely on it. Western cards usually not accepted, but bigger shops and restaurants might.
>how easy with no Chinese AND no translator
signage usually has English but the amount of people speaking it is quite low, if you use a phone translator you shouldn't have any problems tho.
>uber equivalent
didi taxi, gaode taxi, etc... didi and gaode integrate all local taxis into their interface so you can call on like 20 taxi companies at once in addition to their own drivers. Didi is easier to use since it has an all-English interface.
>how essential is a VPN
if you want to keep using whatsapp, instagram, google, etc... it is essential
>best dating app
idk, if you can't speak Chinese just keep using the western ones. The Chinese ones don't have English interfaces afaik.
>things to know
you will be targeted for scams, China is very safe in terms of no violent crime or theft, but scams are very common.

>>2860021
expats usually go travelling during CNY as well, they get time off and nobody wants to stay in an empty city
there will likely be minimal tourists in Chongqing city but the surrounding natural landscapes i.e. wulingyuan karsts might be crowded

>>2860128
more groups are on weibo and xiaohongshu, wechat is primarily a messaging platform

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>>2859928
I fucking hate all this technology we have these days, there's a cheat to everything so there's no struggle in what ever people do. Years ago people would think twice. Now Michelle can run amock care free anywhere and everywhere. And she WILL exercise her liberty and make sure she is everywhere being an annoying Instagramer

Also what happened to China banning access to Google and most other things? That turned out to just be literally made up

>>2860217
why are you black

>>2860218
google is blocked, you have to use a vpn to access it

>>2859668
Hey OP, just letting you know for next time. Don't make a new OP until the thread hits page 10. /trv/ is a slow board.

>lose phone or get it stolen or lose charge
>prefer to not live with a phone off grid
>starve as unable to buy anything in china

Why?

>>2860275
Doesn't happen in China because people aren't clumsy. If you act clumsy in any way people will literally yell at you, it's just not tolerated. Imagine you accidentally give a food delivery driver the wrong password to your apartment, he will call you in the app and yell at you for it because you wasted his time. It's that serious that I can't ever imagine someone ever losing their phone. It just doesn't happen. And for battery, people have powerbanks. Also you can rent them cheaply in many places.

I have a weird question for you all.

What’s the public library situation in China like?

Do they have a large selection of English language books? Are these editions censored?

Do they allow foreigners to have library cards?

>>2860284
Cool, there's a 1000 ways to lose function of your phone or have your carrier shut it off and the government's direct and then you are locked out of society. Bug people shit

>>2860275
There is actually a legal requirement for shops etc to accept cash, so no you won't starve, but it will be very inconvenient and everyone will hate you. Lots of old people refuse to use phones so they use only cash.

>>2860286
Very poor, cities maybe have one or two big public libraries and that's it. People read books on their phones or buy them. Usually they do not have English books (why would they) and if they do they would have to be editions accessible in the country which would be censored. Foreigners can easily apply for reader cards, I have one for the national library in Beijing, but a lender card requires you to have proof of address and pay a deposit usually.

>>2860225
Nice ad hominem. You're obviously a very intelligent person. I won't dare to challenge you to any sort of battle of whits

>>2860291
Anon is acting like modern Phones aren't known to mess up. One day my phone just wouldn't turn on, that was it, off to the shops to to hand over £600 for a new one without warning. It was inconvenient, but luckily I wasn't in China kek. I'd really have learned the definition of inconvenience that that day

Sorry, got to carry on the rant. These yellow cocksuckers are so dumb. I wouldn't rely on tech for something unless it's 1000x better than what it's replacing. I get all for GPS (even though I don't use it) because it beats walking around with a heavy book. And even besides that it works so much more efficiently that it makes the chance of it not working worth it

It's funny people are talking about phones and the underlying infrastructure today because AliPay stopped working at random times for me this very day and it basically ruined my plans to go visit an historical palace.
To go withdraw some cash, the nice lady in my hotel told me I have to go to a subway station 6km away, for foreign cards.
This is fucking ridiculous. Even when I got my card swallowed by an ATM in Serbia, I could transfert money to myself with Western Union. Here it probably doesn't work, or isn't practical at all.

Please Xi, if you hear me, between this and not being able to install WeChat on poorfag phones because the dev team suddenly decided to stop supporting the armeabi-v7a instruction set, please, fucking get your shit together if you wanna be future proof (like why? it's just an option in the compiler you motherfucker, do we need one more laggy screen exclusive to the arm64-v8 instruction set you fucking clueless middle managers??).

It's a great country, but this meme tech shit is completely killing any excitement I initally had. Just let me use cash like in Korea when tech inevitably fails, because tech WILL fail when it's managed by morons. I have been one of such morons, I know what happens in the back of the kitchen, and it's not pretty at all.