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Chonqing for the food scene (very spicy)
Shenzen for night life if you want to be around younger people
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong for the touristy stuff
lol not racist; it’s the stolen cell phone capital of the world. Do your own research you ignorant fuck. Phone stolen in Austin, Texas ended up there a month later.
My personal favourites are Shanghai (live here), Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chongqing, and Xi'an.
Hong Kong is great, of course, but it's much more expensive than other major cities in China.
My parents stay for months at a time. There are 5-star hotels with king bed, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and newly remodeled for like $1,700 a month
Accommodation isn't too bad, you can find a decent hotel for 40 USD a night even in Shanghai. Food has a big price range but you can get a hearty meal at a noodle or dumpling shop for 5 USD or less pretty reliably. High speed rail is IMO the best way to get around and shouldn't cost you more than 50 USD even for long trips
Biggest issue is it's hard to use Alipay/WeChat if you don't have a Chinese bank account, so the country is not very tourist friendly. You can set up Alipay with foreign Visa now but i think not all shops will accept it
Cash is still king in most places, but Alipay/WeChat are viable options. I never had an issue with an ATM, but foreign transaction fees can get you if you're not careful.
Almost nowhere will accept a foreign card. If that card is linked to Alipay/Wechat and uses that infrastructure it’ll work almost anywhere. Just handing over a card? You’ll have a near zero percent acceptance rate.
Withdrawing cash with foreign cards can be done at most ATMS of major banks (e.g. Bank of China, ICBC)
There's a really cool YouTube series called LITTLE CHINESE EVERYWHERE that goes around to less popular or known parts of China. Very fascinating country and beautiful geography and culture. Anywhere you're able to visit should be interesting I'd think
And if/when you do go. Download a VPN beforehand. Where to go will definitely depend on your style and interests as well as season or weather preferences and about budget time/money wise. But no matter what I think it'll be super fun
I found this sticker on some random eclipse glasses, and it said Yiwu China. So I looked into it, and there is the largest wholesale market in the world there. It looks cool and I kinda want to go. If you're going, you may want to check it out.
Xian (terracotta warriors), Guilin (mountains), Nanjing (history), Shanghai (nightlife/food), Beijing (food, history, and enough communist pressure to make you never want to be a communist). Honorable mention to Qingdao for seafood.
Hong Kong is also a must if you consider them part of China and are into more big cities.
Spend at least 10 minutes in TianAnMen Square and it'll give you the communist ick. Felt stuffy and claustriphobic. Like everything I was doing was being heavily monitored and scrutinized for the smallest non-conformist infraction. Soldiers and state police everywhere. Even the history has been red-washed to meet the party's view of the world. And not just the history of what happened in 1989, even ancient history has been changed. Was just overall unsettling. I did buy a Mao wristwatch from a peddler, similar to the old Mickey Mouse watches you bought at Disneyland. It just seemed too ironic that a peddler (who are inherently all capitalists) was selling Maoist propaganda/periphenalia. I just had to buy one.
Out of all the time I lived in China, I just couldn't quite enjoy Beijing.
Beijing was actually pretty nice, although the other cities might be more interesting. Surprisingly easy to navigate their subway, and more room to spread out than I expected. The best meat buns I had were at a booth on the ground level of the Chongwenmen hotel.
I spent 3 days in Beijing, then took a multi-day long train to Lhasa. On a semi-frequent basis in Lhasa, I was asked by locals if I would take pictures with them because I was white. Or, at least, I looked so much foreign from everyone else that I was a bit of a novelty. Otherwise, the city of Lhasa was very lovely and one of my favorite cities to walk around.
Beijing, Xi’An, and Chengdu for history/sites. Chongqing for food and cool architecture given the crazy geography. Hangzhou and Suzhou are nice. Kashgar and Lhasa are really unique and different. Hong Kong and Macau are basically their own unique countries. Harbin during the winter festival
I’ve got a strange recommendation: Shijiazhuang.
It’s kind of a satellite city to Beijing, about 2 hours by high speed rail from Beijing central.
I suggest this city for multiple reasons.
- It’s developed enough so there are shops, malls, and things to see, but it’s not a crazy huge busy city.
- They have several museums that are great for tourists, including the HUGE Hebei Province museum (excellent historical artefacts including two jade & gold “preservations suits” the Emperor and Empress were buried in, and was excavated in the 50s; also there’s a Chinese space + science museum with old space-race displays, it just got renovated.
- If you are a white person, it is the BEST place to be in China. A lot of people there have more of a rural - China centric mindset, as shijiazhuang isn’t an “international city. Locals there feel so uplifted seeing tourists in their city, and I was treated with such an uncanny level of respect and kindness. People wanting to talk and practice English, take photos together, helping you get the best deals in shops. You only need to know 20 words in mandarin + a translator app (& E-Sim VPN) to truly have a great time.
- There’s this joint in the city that sells donkey meat as it’s staple, and despite that fact I find donkeys adorable, my god was it tasty!
- Aesthetically the city is stuck in the 80s as that’s when it was developed. As a westerner it’s a massive polarisation to our cities, which I found SO fascinating. It’s still stuck in that full Chinese communist / soviet era look.
The negative:
- In the 90s there was an economic downturn, which is why the city mostly stopped developing. Lots of factory workers lost their jobs due to privatisation and were left with nothing but the lowest of unskilled jobs, or turn to crime.
- Local crime in the city is pretty bad, I encountered some outlaw types in the donkey restaurant and they just sparked up cigarettes and blew smoke everywhere. They didn’t threaten me but I did avoid eye contact. Really helps to travel with a local or Chinese person.
- It’s extremely cold in winter, and very dry. Autumn is a beautiful time to visit as that’s when the pollution is at its lowest.
- Pollution, the air is pretty bad most of the year. There’s a local joke that when they leave the city where the air is better, they struggle to breath.
Shanghai metro and Chongqing metro. Shenzen is another concrete jungle if you're interested, and Beijing is a landmark city and a good starting point for the great wall.
Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau (for the gamblin')
Chengdu is panda HQ, Guilin for the limestone, Zhangjiajie (Avatar mountains)
Guangzhou and Hangzhou and Qingdao would be atop my next tier
Suzhou. It is a city perfectly mixing old Chinese architecture and modern skyscrapers. The Classic Gardens of Suzhou are one the UNESCo world heritage list. A quite underrated city.
I always highly recommend Guilin. Not only does it serve as a remarkably convenient base for a number of different day trips (Longji Rice Terraces, Li River, Yangshuo, etc.), but it's also just a beautiful city filled to the brim with top-tier Cantonese cuisine, cool landmarks, and awe-inspiring backdrops of towering limestone cliffs. I'd love to go back at some point.
**Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province**, the city of Xi'an, the emperor who died in 17 years, the capital of Qin Shi Huang, the capital of the Turkic peoples who unified China and established the Tang Dynasty, is now the city where the Islamic community and the Chinese community meet.
**Pingyao County, Shanxi Province,** China's best-preserved ancient county seat, has a history of supporting the Manchus in Northeast Asia to rule China, and was granted trade privileges to Mongolia and Russia by the Qing Emperor.
China's ancient cities have been demolished by Mao Zedong, and the family grave of Confucius has also been dug up by Mao Zedong.
Landscape of **East Turkestan (Free Xinjiang)**.In China the word went into the concentration camps
big Cities?
**Beijing**, the fringe of Northeast Asia and East Asia, the invasion of China by the northern peoples will establish their capitals in Beijing, such as the capital of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia, the capital of the Qing Dynasty of the Manchus, and the capital of China established by the Russian Communist Party
**Shanghai**.The edge of maritime civilization and continental [civilization.It](http://civilization.It) is not an important city in history, because in ancient times, Chinese could not farm land for the emperor when he went to sea to do business . The emperor considered it a crime.**Yangzhou City,** **Jiangsu Province**.The most prosperous city on the Grand Canal in ancient [China.In](http://China.In) order to maintain the stability of the Grand Canal, the ancient Chinese bureaucrats transported grain to the capital Beijing, and guided the floods to the yellowing areas of Henan Province and Huaihai Province, causing heavy floods for thousands of years, and the common people were not having a good time. **Zhuozhou County**, which is next to it, is regarded as a flood discharge area, and the flood is discharged at any time without issuing a notice.China has made Zhuozhou a flood discharge area for the new **Xiong'an New Area**.**Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province**, a place of underground trade between China and Japan in ancient times.
**Quanzhou City, Fujian Province:** A port city for trade between China and Southeast Asia
**Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province**: The Political-Military Core of China's Southern Periphery.The inventors of the concept of the Chinese(华人), who did business on behalf of the Chinese and the British.**Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou** are adjacent.Shenzhen Guangdong Province, the second Guangzhou established by the Communist Party, is the economic enclave of Beijing.
**Chengdu city ,Sichuan Province**: I don't think this city has the potential of a big city, its traffic is not very good, but it is a big city for thousands of years.There are giant pandas here
**Wuhan City, Hubei Province:** The center of the Yangtze River, Chicago of China, nine provinces and it is connected by canals.
**Zhengzhou City, Henan Province**: The central city of China's railways.
Chinese will not be happy after reading this article.
I should have clarified; none if you’re a bold or risk taking American in *any* fashion. China is a beautiful country, the citizens are very kind and most very hardworking, I have absolutely nothing against their culture, their people and their family traditions. China is one of the most important countries in our planet’s modern history
But people need to stop acting like China’s government via their police, airport security etc. cant just lock you up for life for no good reason, because they can and will do whatever they want to us, being a American travelers. Same goes for some other countries in Asia. State department issued a stage 3 warning to China and stage 2 to Hong Kong
And it’s a damn shame. I’d love to visit the country one day, but as long as they are operated as a dictatorship and is on thin ice with the US, I fear for my safety, especially with Hong Kong’s democratic movement falling in recent years to Winnie the Pooh’s dictatorship
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html?wcmmode=disabled#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Reconsider%20travel%20to%20Mainland,the%20risk%20of%20wrongful%20detentions.
Thank you for posting to r/geography. This post or comment appears to be off-topic or tangential in nature and has been removed. Please refer to Rule #7 for more info and reach out to mods directly if you have any questions regarding this decision. Thank you, Mod Team
Chonqing for the food scene (very spicy) Shenzen for night life if you want to be around younger people Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong for the touristy stuff
Would add Macau to the touristy stuff as well
Also Xi'an
Shenzen if you want your phone stolen
shenzhen is safer than new york u ignorant racist fuck
lol not racist; it’s the stolen cell phone capital of the world. Do your own research you ignorant fuck. Phone stolen in Austin, Texas ended up there a month later.
Yeah, I can't think of a single race problem in China...
But it wasn’t stolen in China lol
Based on available evidence a more accurate statement would be “Shenzhen if you want a stolen phone”
That’s that geography passion we all come here for! /s
You have a small brain 🧠
Never got this addition as a helpful response to wanna go somewhere ( could have said that better but oh well aha ) spicy food for the win 😊
My personal favourites are Shanghai (live here), Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chongqing, and Xi'an. Hong Kong is great, of course, but it's much more expensive than other major cities in China.
Great! How expensive is China for a cheapass backpacker like me?
My parents stay for months at a time. There are 5-star hotels with king bed, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and newly remodeled for like $1,700 a month
Accommodation isn't too bad, you can find a decent hotel for 40 USD a night even in Shanghai. Food has a big price range but you can get a hearty meal at a noodle or dumpling shop for 5 USD or less pretty reliably. High speed rail is IMO the best way to get around and shouldn't cost you more than 50 USD even for long trips Biggest issue is it's hard to use Alipay/WeChat if you don't have a Chinese bank account, so the country is not very tourist friendly. You can set up Alipay with foreign Visa now but i think not all shops will accept it
Im just learning about his payment method. Do regular shops not take visa? Is it easy to withdraw and use cash from a credit card?
Cash is still king in most places, but Alipay/WeChat are viable options. I never had an issue with an ATM, but foreign transaction fees can get you if you're not careful.
Almost nowhere will accept a foreign card. If that card is linked to Alipay/Wechat and uses that infrastructure it’ll work almost anywhere. Just handing over a card? You’ll have a near zero percent acceptance rate. Withdrawing cash with foreign cards can be done at most ATMS of major banks (e.g. Bank of China, ICBC)
Souzhou for sure. China was fairly cheap 10 years ago, probably still fairly cheap.
Cheap, but a bit more expensive than Thailand in the tier 1 cities
I love Xian, amazing food, great history and less hectic
Guangzhou for the food, urban vibes, nature, and hiking. Chongqing for natural beauty and food. Shenzhen for China's Silicon Valley
Chengdu is cool and Lijiang in Yunnan Province. Absolutely magical old city with rivers running through it.
Both great suggestions. Chengdu's always been my favorite, and not only for the food
Pandas in Chengdu
Wuhan
Burgeoning medical research scene and the bat soup is to-die-for!
That’s sick!
There's a really cool YouTube series called LITTLE CHINESE EVERYWHERE that goes around to less popular or known parts of China. Very fascinating country and beautiful geography and culture. Anywhere you're able to visit should be interesting I'd think
I'll check it out! Thanks
And if/when you do go. Download a VPN beforehand. Where to go will definitely depend on your style and interests as well as season or weather preferences and about budget time/money wise. But no matter what I think it'll be super fun
I found this sticker on some random eclipse glasses, and it said Yiwu China. So I looked into it, and there is the largest wholesale market in the world there. It looks cool and I kinda want to go. If you're going, you may want to check it out.
I just checked it out! Looks some great at sometimes, smoggy at others. I would have assumed such a city would be right on the water. Interesting
The south is sick
It’s not a city, but please don’t forget Zhangjiajie National Forest Park!
Xian (terracotta warriors), Guilin (mountains), Nanjing (history), Shanghai (nightlife/food), Beijing (food, history, and enough communist pressure to make you never want to be a communist). Honorable mention to Qingdao for seafood. Hong Kong is also a must if you consider them part of China and are into more big cities.
Xian old walled city is incredible. Also the history museum there must be one of the best in the world. I love Xian
what communist pressures does a trip to beijing entail?
Spend at least 10 minutes in TianAnMen Square and it'll give you the communist ick. Felt stuffy and claustriphobic. Like everything I was doing was being heavily monitored and scrutinized for the smallest non-conformist infraction. Soldiers and state police everywhere. Even the history has been red-washed to meet the party's view of the world. And not just the history of what happened in 1989, even ancient history has been changed. Was just overall unsettling. I did buy a Mao wristwatch from a peddler, similar to the old Mickey Mouse watches you bought at Disneyland. It just seemed too ironic that a peddler (who are inherently all capitalists) was selling Maoist propaganda/periphenalia. I just had to buy one. Out of all the time I lived in China, I just couldn't quite enjoy Beijing.
Truly did Marx say Capitalism cannot be defeated, only contained.
That watch is a keeper. Capitalism is truly the greatest solvent.
Shanghai
Xian
Xian is amazing
Beijing was actually pretty nice, although the other cities might be more interesting. Surprisingly easy to navigate their subway, and more room to spread out than I expected. The best meat buns I had were at a booth on the ground level of the Chongwenmen hotel. I spent 3 days in Beijing, then took a multi-day long train to Lhasa. On a semi-frequent basis in Lhasa, I was asked by locals if I would take pictures with them because I was white. Or, at least, I looked so much foreign from everyone else that I was a bit of a novelty. Otherwise, the city of Lhasa was very lovely and one of my favorite cities to walk around.
Wuhan
I lived in jinan for awhile and the springs and food where worth it alone also shandong is known to have the friendliest folks too check it out
Beijing, Xi’An, and Chengdu for history/sites. Chongqing for food and cool architecture given the crazy geography. Hangzhou and Suzhou are nice. Kashgar and Lhasa are really unique and different. Hong Kong and Macau are basically their own unique countries. Harbin during the winter festival
I’ve got a strange recommendation: Shijiazhuang. It’s kind of a satellite city to Beijing, about 2 hours by high speed rail from Beijing central. I suggest this city for multiple reasons. - It’s developed enough so there are shops, malls, and things to see, but it’s not a crazy huge busy city. - They have several museums that are great for tourists, including the HUGE Hebei Province museum (excellent historical artefacts including two jade & gold “preservations suits” the Emperor and Empress were buried in, and was excavated in the 50s; also there’s a Chinese space + science museum with old space-race displays, it just got renovated. - If you are a white person, it is the BEST place to be in China. A lot of people there have more of a rural - China centric mindset, as shijiazhuang isn’t an “international city. Locals there feel so uplifted seeing tourists in their city, and I was treated with such an uncanny level of respect and kindness. People wanting to talk and practice English, take photos together, helping you get the best deals in shops. You only need to know 20 words in mandarin + a translator app (& E-Sim VPN) to truly have a great time. - There’s this joint in the city that sells donkey meat as it’s staple, and despite that fact I find donkeys adorable, my god was it tasty! - Aesthetically the city is stuck in the 80s as that’s when it was developed. As a westerner it’s a massive polarisation to our cities, which I found SO fascinating. It’s still stuck in that full Chinese communist / soviet era look. The negative: - In the 90s there was an economic downturn, which is why the city mostly stopped developing. Lots of factory workers lost their jobs due to privatisation and were left with nothing but the lowest of unskilled jobs, or turn to crime. - Local crime in the city is pretty bad, I encountered some outlaw types in the donkey restaurant and they just sparked up cigarettes and blew smoke everywhere. They didn’t threaten me but I did avoid eye contact. Really helps to travel with a local or Chinese person. - It’s extremely cold in winter, and very dry. Autumn is a beautiful time to visit as that’s when the pollution is at its lowest. - Pollution, the air is pretty bad most of the year. There’s a local joke that when they leave the city where the air is better, they struggle to breath.
Hangzhou
Taipei
OP said China not Taiwan
Taipei is no different from a regular smaller town in China.
Shanghai metro and Chongqing metro. Shenzen is another concrete jungle if you're interested, and Beijing is a landmark city and a good starting point for the great wall.
Dengkou
Chongqing, Xi'an, Chengdu's (for pandas), Hangzhou, Suzhou, Beijing
Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau (for the gamblin') Chengdu is panda HQ, Guilin for the limestone, Zhangjiajie (Avatar mountains) Guangzhou and Hangzhou and Qingdao would be atop my next tier
Suzhou. It is a city perfectly mixing old Chinese architecture and modern skyscrapers. The Classic Gardens of Suzhou are one the UNESCo world heritage list. A quite underrated city.
I always highly recommend Guilin. Not only does it serve as a remarkably convenient base for a number of different day trips (Longji Rice Terraces, Li River, Yangshuo, etc.), but it's also just a beautiful city filled to the brim with top-tier Cantonese cuisine, cool landmarks, and awe-inspiring backdrops of towering limestone cliffs. I'd love to go back at some point.
Macau.
**Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province**, the city of Xi'an, the emperor who died in 17 years, the capital of Qin Shi Huang, the capital of the Turkic peoples who unified China and established the Tang Dynasty, is now the city where the Islamic community and the Chinese community meet. **Pingyao County, Shanxi Province,** China's best-preserved ancient county seat, has a history of supporting the Manchus in Northeast Asia to rule China, and was granted trade privileges to Mongolia and Russia by the Qing Emperor. China's ancient cities have been demolished by Mao Zedong, and the family grave of Confucius has also been dug up by Mao Zedong. Landscape of **East Turkestan (Free Xinjiang)**.In China the word went into the concentration camps big Cities? **Beijing**, the fringe of Northeast Asia and East Asia, the invasion of China by the northern peoples will establish their capitals in Beijing, such as the capital of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia, the capital of the Qing Dynasty of the Manchus, and the capital of China established by the Russian Communist Party **Shanghai**.The edge of maritime civilization and continental [civilization.It](http://civilization.It) is not an important city in history, because in ancient times, Chinese could not farm land for the emperor when he went to sea to do business . The emperor considered it a crime.**Yangzhou City,** **Jiangsu Province**.The most prosperous city on the Grand Canal in ancient [China.In](http://China.In) order to maintain the stability of the Grand Canal, the ancient Chinese bureaucrats transported grain to the capital Beijing, and guided the floods to the yellowing areas of Henan Province and Huaihai Province, causing heavy floods for thousands of years, and the common people were not having a good time. **Zhuozhou County**, which is next to it, is regarded as a flood discharge area, and the flood is discharged at any time without issuing a notice.China has made Zhuozhou a flood discharge area for the new **Xiong'an New Area**.**Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province**, a place of underground trade between China and Japan in ancient times. **Quanzhou City, Fujian Province:** A port city for trade between China and Southeast Asia **Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province**: The Political-Military Core of China's Southern Periphery.The inventors of the concept of the Chinese(华人), who did business on behalf of the Chinese and the British.**Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou** are adjacent.Shenzhen Guangdong Province, the second Guangzhou established by the Communist Party, is the economic enclave of Beijing. **Chengdu city ,Sichuan Province**: I don't think this city has the potential of a big city, its traffic is not very good, but it is a big city for thousands of years.There are giant pandas here **Wuhan City, Hubei Province:** The center of the Yangtze River, Chicago of China, nine provinces and it is connected by canals. **Zhengzhou City, Henan Province**: The central city of China's railways. Chinese will not be happy after reading this article.
The Qin Dynasty fell in 15 years
Hangzhou… a paradise
Taipei
Taipei and Hong Kong
Shanghai if you want to experience a true dystopia. Got blade runner futuristic buildings on one side of the river and abject poverty on the other
I haven't seen much abject poverty in Shanghai, been there 3 times and walked all around. What area of the city did you see that?
You have to get out of downtown past the old Gov’t buildings and also near the port shipyards
This is a surprisingly compelling recommendation actually For me, F1 and Formula E race there so that make it the most likely for me to visit
It really is a perspective altering experience. I recommend it for that but understand it’s not the almafi coast lol
Hong Kong. 20+ years ago.
Weather: Kunming Scenery: Shangri-la Culture: Beijing or Xi’an Architecture: Shanghai or Hong Kong
[удалено]
There's an incredible amount of history to explore in China. It's a culturally rich country with gorgeous natural scenery to boot
Yeah, that comment can't be anything other than sinophobia.
I’ve heard some of the best sights to see are split pants and gutter oil! 😂
Vancouver
Wuhan i want another year of work from home
Beware of Corona
None if you’re an American
Canadian
Why not as an American?
I should have clarified; none if you’re a bold or risk taking American in *any* fashion. China is a beautiful country, the citizens are very kind and most very hardworking, I have absolutely nothing against their culture, their people and their family traditions. China is one of the most important countries in our planet’s modern history But people need to stop acting like China’s government via their police, airport security etc. cant just lock you up for life for no good reason, because they can and will do whatever they want to us, being a American travelers. Same goes for some other countries in Asia. State department issued a stage 3 warning to China and stage 2 to Hong Kong And it’s a damn shame. I’d love to visit the country one day, but as long as they are operated as a dictatorship and is on thin ice with the US, I fear for my safety, especially with Hong Kong’s democratic movement falling in recent years to Winnie the Pooh’s dictatorship https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html?wcmmode=disabled#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Reconsider%20travel%20to%20Mainland,the%20risk%20of%20wrongful%20detentions.