I went to China last summer, would you like me to tell you about my experience?

I just need someone to talk to at the moment, so ask away. I really liked my trip to China. It was wonderful.

• Well after reading the India travel thread (dead bodies, public sanitation issues... but middle class white people can get servants!), let's hear it.

• Only if you went on a killing spree

  Lauren%20Van%20der%20Booben

• Yes, as long as there are no home movies or a slide show.

  The Kodak Carousel Projector!

• Yes,please. My trip to China several years ago was incredible, and I babbled about it for months.

• R1 I found it to be an eye-opening experience. Originally, I came to China with the idea that it would be an awful place because of all the things that people told me like China painting their grass green etc. but it was actually very good. Places like Shanghai and Beijing were exceedingly clean and I especially liked Shanghai because the buildings were so high they were up in the clouds.

  OP

• Clean? despite the air pollution?

• R5 Those weren't clouds, that was air pollution.

• Oh ya, one more thing before I'm off. Shanghai is multicultural. I'll be back later with more.

  OP

• I enjoyed China too. Great mix of the old and new. Friendly if cautious people who seemed to enjoying some new prosperity and options. Summer Palace in Beijing was up there with Versailles in opulence. What did you dig OP?

• OP how crowded is it? Did you go to the main cities or did you visit villages? Was it expensive, can you get cheap food and feel safe about it? are the people friendly? is it easy to get around without knowing Chinese? I know they have Mcdonalds, etc. but can you get local fast food easy?

• And that wasn't chicken you were eating.

  Lauren%20Van%20der%20Booben

• Why did you choose China, OP? Have you been to Europe, South America or Africa?

• Someone who took a trip there said that the food there bears little resemblance to the food one finds in Chinese restaurants in the United States and Canada, is this true? Is it also true they eat dogs and cats?

  Anonymous

• R13, Perhaps I can assist as I asked many questions of my recently immigrated friends. There is American food that is a bad imitation of Chinese and way, way too sweet, like candy, (Panda Express) and Chinese-American food. For example Chinese make fried rice completely differently, with huge pieces of egg added at the end, to retain their color and shape. Re the question about eating dogs and cats, R13, do you eat 'possum and squirrel and snake on a daily basis? Those in the poorer districts are more likely to eat unusual meats, just as those in remote French villages are more likely to eat horsemeat. Also the "dog" is closer to a wolf, and the "cat" is probably wild and very unlike a housecat.

• Some Chinese food in China is similar to what we have here and some is really different. Different oil and different texture.

• I've been to China OP, no need to tell me.

  Thankful%20for%20my%20life%20experiences

• I went, and hated it. I felt like I could see only what the government wanted me to see, and that everyone was putting on a happy face and a show for the american tourists. Granted, this was 20 years ago, and it might be more open now, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I doubt I'll ever go back. Also, I'm a vegetarian, and it was difficult to find something to eat.

• Is it true Shanghai food is plain and non-spicy OP? Is obesity becoming a problem in China?

• Are you quite sure that you did not have sex in China?

• Do they smoke in public? Would an American pocket gay be considered very tall? Is there bigotry like in the US? I've heard there are thousands of ethnic groups in China.

• 20 minutes after you left, were you hungry to go back?

• Did you see/hear a lot of spitting?

• Gayness?

• Why did you choose China, OP?

• I lived in Shanghai for a while a few years ago. Everyone spits, everyone smokes. Indoors and outdoors. Shanghai's food is wonderful, but no, it's not spicy. Shanghai is a beautiful cosmopolitan city with wonderful architecture from the early 20th Century. Beijing is an ugly smog-filled government city with a cool art scene. Shanghai does have smog, too, but it's not as noticeable to the eye. My snot turned grey. People, especially the elderly, walk around in their pajamas. Babies wear pants with no crotches so they can piss and shit in the street (they don't wear diapers).

• I've been to China. Beijing and took a fast train to central China. Beijinng is clean and modern. The people were very nice and open. No crime anywhere. Completely safe to walk at night. The food in the north is not spicy. The smog and haze is very bad however. The fast train was a great experience. Clean and fast. The terminals were very nice. The people were gracious and polite. The down side was the congestion and smog. McDon's and Star Bucks everywhere, even a 7-11. Every American chain restaurant is there. Chinese don't eat weird food in general. Mostly a few truck drivers and others. In general everything is chicken, pork, beef and veggies. Mostly veggies. I'd go back. yup.

• Went to Beijing in the late 80s, where a smoking cop tried to arrest ME for smoking (he was after a bribe). It was not a fun city at the time, but I liked Xian and Shanghai and the countryside, I loved the food, and the people were very friendly and fascinated by Westerners (I was having the worst diarrhea in my life in the public bathroom under Tiananmen Square--a big space with a couple dozen holes in the ground--surrounded by people feeling my clothes, skin and hair. Will never forget that experience!) I'd love to go back and see it now. The poverty and filth was sobering: babies shitting through holes in their clothes and everyone blowing snot rockets on the street, etc.

• [quote](I was having the worst diarrhea in my life in the public bathroom under Tiananmen Square--a big space with a couple dozen holes in the ground--surrounded by people feeling my clothes, skin and hair. Will never forget that experience!) Haha, what?! While you were squatted shitting in some hole on the floor, random people were touching you all over?

• Yes, R28. Horrifying at the time, just funny to me now. I count my lucky stars this trip was at a time where people didn't have cell phones. I was with a friend with very curly hair, almost an afro, and they were fascinated by it. She was freaked out and crying.

• [quote](I was having the worst diarrhea in my life in the public bathroom under Tiananmen Square--a big space with a couple dozen holes in the ground--surrounded by people feeling my clothes, skin and hair. Will never forget that experience!) That sounds like a scene from "The King and I"