Comments on: 7 Lessons Learned from 3 Months in China

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 12:36:00 +0000

I’ve lived and worked in China for almost 5 years now. I’ve lived in Tianjin, Shanghai and Suzhou. I’m always amazed when I meet people who come here for vacation. “Vacation in China? You can’t be serious!” is what I tell myself. For me, the best part of living and working here is 1) the food isn’t great, but it’s so cheap that it’s easy to give up being a foodie for a while and therefore losing weight is easy; 2) you are so close to all the great parts of Asia (Japan, S. Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.) without the jet-lag! and 3) it’s good to live as an expat in a strange place, it definitely builds character, especially here.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 01:25:18 +0000

Hey, I’ve lived in China for nearly three years, went to university, worked a bit, tried to do business and to be honest I really have the feeling of having lived in a country totally different than the one you’ve described. Maybe I’m more critical and you focus on more positive thinking etc. but I don’t really see how you could have conversations about politics with Chinese people assuming it was more than small talk. I don’t think it’s possible to learn Mandarin in 3 months (or even 30 months if you aren’t surrounded only by Chinese people) and speaking Mandarin myself I had very few honest conversations about politics. I’ve also seen so much racism and scams that it made me wanna leave the country. Yes it’s nice on the surface, for a few months as a tourist but if you really live here a local life then your experience is diametrically different. Very nice article though even if I disagree with most of it.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 23:58:19 +0000

Hi, great blog! Good to see more people ready to go and see the true China!
I spent six months traveling around South East Asia and China. Would not recommend Malaysia, most locals wish only to leave that place. Unless you are only interested in tall buildings and amusement parks.
Thailand is beautiful, but beware of stray dogs, I was advised not to go into the country side alone as farms have dogs which may attack strangers.
Cambodia is beautiful, Siem Reap is must see, and Phnom Phen is pretty but I was warned not to venture out alone after dark. And need to beware of conmen on the river front! The local currency is worthless so do not be fooled into changing your money for the local. The locals only use USD. Vietnam is one beautiful place and the people who are distrusting of foreigners are still friendly and helpful if you are open and honest. Beware of pick pockets in the South and organised crime is bad from Saigon to Nha Trang. for all that Vietnam is still a must see. I will return there this year.
In China I was lucky to have a good friend who I could stay with so spent five months traveling around. For a foreigner China is a great place to visit. But to stay too long in the worst polluted places is harmful to your health. I felt so sorry for the students who had to stay in Xian for their education, the air there is deadly. No joking! Too many big petrol chemical factories! Beijing is similar, the city was closed down for two days after I visited so I was very lucky. BUT if you discover the smaller cities like Junan in the south of Shandong province you will find people who will treat you like a king. This is a great place if you like fire works especially at Chinese New Year.
But there are no tourist attractions here so only go to experience the culture and the people. While I spent three days in Guangzhou my new friend Jack fed me at his
restaurant everyday free! I did find there was some difficulty in buying train tickets locally so maybe pre booking online could be better, however I still managed to travel mostly by overnight trains which were great for meeting the people.
Chinese have priority over foreigners on internal flights and trains, but I guess that is fair it is China after all! Beware of inter-city buses the new Chinese ones seem to have handling problems and there were many bad accidents while I was there.
Overall I found China to be a very friendly, easy to navigate, cheap to travel and stay, beautiful and interesting place where you can make friends for life!
Well worth the effort! I am planning my return already!

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:45:56 +0000

I live in China right now and have traveled all over the country. It is sad that many travelers overlook China due to the poor media coverage. China has an incredible transportation infrastructure, making it actually one of the easiest places to travel. Outside of Beijing and Shanghai, most destinations are still very affordable as well. Thank you for sharing these thoughts!

By: Saul

Saul — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:30:41 +0000

I have lived in China for a long time. I am happy for anyone who is able to enjoy their time here. It is also worth noting that many do not. I believe it is only fair to point out that China is most definitely not for most people. And that’s a big most, not like barely over fifty percent kinda most.

You have to be pretty strong, mentally, to get by day to day here, long term. You have to be able to ignore ungodly amounts of laziness and indifference. You have to be able to separate, in your mind, each person from the next. Not let other people’s bad behavior sour your own.

Like I said, happy for anyone who can, but it would be more fair to paint a balanced picture.

By: nandra

nandra — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 17:09:45 +0000

I have lived in China for almost 1 year now. Some of my friends still can’t understand how I can stand living here, with all the pollution and no facebook access and everything. And I tell them, how hard it would be for me to leave, as I will miss the food, the beautiful places I can’t wait to go back to and the hospitality. China isn’t a place you can understand by reading or from the media. China needs to be experienced. Only then you’ll be able to understand it. 🙂

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 17:53:41 +0000

So agree with the post of how the “Don’t judge a country by its media coverage” part. China was incredibly fascinating, frustrating, and rewarding. We are still learning Mandarin – and probably will for the rest of our lives. And there is more to China than just the usual places, for sure. Great post.

By: Veronika

Veronika — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 11:35:00 +0000

Very well written..! I appreciate you put all the misconceptions together like that, as many people still have no idea what China is about. I lived in Chengdu, Sichuan for a year and travelled around the country. So it frustrates me when I hear from people who’ve never been there just the general misconception that China will buy us all and that we should be afraid. No need to do the power talk, I think.

I really enjoyed living there and some of the friends I made are friends for life. It’s great to be able to talk about the sensitive topics and feel free not respecting the media image that China has in the West. While there are still many problems with the whole system, it’s amazing that the society works given its size.

China is a great place on the planet and let’s hope it continues developing in the right direction..! Chinese people are mostly very honest and we can definitely learn a lot from them.

By: Kristin Addis

Kristin Addis — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:22:50 +0000

I was nodding in agreement throughout the whole article. I love the way Mandarin is structured and it has made it easier to learn once the basics are learned. I really enjoy studying and speaking it. I also think Kunming was a great choice for immersion. It’s definitely not easy to find English speakers there. I loved the midnight shao kao!

By: Sonja

Sonja — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:17:06 +0000

You’re opening me up to the possibility of traveling to China! Thanks for broadening my horizons! I love the way you went about it. I’ve noticed I always get more out of my travel experiences if I try to learn the language, even if its just a little bit. My trip through Peru was significantly enhanced by knowing some Spanish and talking with the locals. Can’t imagine how hard it must have been to pick up Mandarin!