Shorts in China
 

I'm sort of embarrassed to post this question, but my husband is driving me crazy...so here goes.

We are taking our first trip to China later this month and my husband is stressing over whether he will feel comfortable wearing shorts during the day in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.
We live in Manhattan and it's perfectly fine to wear shorts here. He is concerned that there are cultural differences that will make his leg-displaying attire offensive or awkward.
We aren't talking about gym shorts or cut-offs (gross) here, but rather J. Crew or Banana Republic shorts.

Please humor me and let me know your thoughts.

Shorts, no problem.

Heck, do like the locals, if it gets too hot...

Pull Up Your Shirt.

Shorts is fine, just know everyone will know you are a foreigner. If you already look like one it doesn't matter.

Few Hong Kong men wear shorts in the city, but nobody cares if you do unless in high-end restaurants.

Thank you all so much!
My husband is very relieved!

^

Some restaurants in hotels in Shanghai / Beijing do require long pants, so during daytime no problem. Flip-flops also fine but I'd prefer closed shoes in China as you never know what you run into (especially in toilets)

Shorts are fine, I would suggest you pack (and use) insect repellent wipes, or the Deep Woods OFF spray pump if you're checking a bag. As sl0001 said, I would suggest closed toe shoes.

Also melanoptysis on the streets from breathing fly ash. Yuk!

You can see a lot chinese girls with shorts, too. It's not just a foreigner thing. But if you want to visit temples you should wear long trousers.

You mean step into?

Depending on his age and where in China he is going he could even get away with a slit in the back of the shorts and no underwear.

The only ones in for a culture shock are you not the Chinese.

LOL.

Too funny. You just made me splurt out my lunch.

I don't think anyone who has never been to China will understand this joke until they see it for themselves. It's practically everywhere in China, even in Beijing. It's what all the cool kids are doing nowadays.

I wonder if some temples might require long pants. They do elsewhere in Asia.

As an adult man, you cannot expect to be taken seriously while wearing shorts in China. For ladies, it should be fine during the warmer months.

How serious do you need to be taken as a tourist? :rolleyes: I never wear shorts but if a tourist wants to wear shorts around in a hot city, what's wrong with that? He can always go back to the hotel to change if they want to go do some fine dining or something.

:D

But you can expect to be taken...seriously.

American Tourists

How the hell did you find a picture of us??

I don't think he cares about impressing anyone - he just doesn't want to be offensive.
And he doesn't plan to spend his vacation in shorts. I'm pretty sure that after living in Manhattan for 40 years he understands that some clothing is appropriate for walking around and other clothing is better for dining.

My wife and I are in Xian right now and were in Beijng last week. The Chinese men do not wear shorts. They think it's childish. That said, I am wearing them, but you'll get stares.

Women do wear shorts in China but ALWAYS with pantyhose. You will not see women with bare feet or bare legs, regardless of temperature.

I'm at a loss for words, but I would at least like to strike down the "ALWAYS" qualifier for the time being.

Here is the URL for that photograph, with the interesting part highlighted by me:

:D

The same in Japan.

Maybe years ago the hose were more popular to shield the sun, but
not now.

Have noticed that most have a slight bow in the tibia. Not sure if this is
from diet or genes, but appears to be quite common.

created by American sculptor:

Duane Hanson
Tourists II1988
fibreglass and mixed media, with accessories
life size

I didn't notice at first but my wife did. We had dinner with a dutch couple in Pingyao and the guy also hadn't noticed but his wife also said she had noticed the pantyhose. Ask the women. ;) They're more prone to pickup on that kind of thing. Also, I haven't seen women with painted toenails. You'll see finger nails done, but my wife has had a few comments on the toenails.

OK, so I'm sure it's not ALWAYS, but it seems to more more the norm than not for sure. Even women wearing long pants and open shoes seem to wear hose or something on their feet. Is that a sun prevention thing?

Chinese ladies will go to quite extremes to prevent tanning as that is equalled to being of poor farming origin.

Yes. :)

Not Hose ...
 

most of the women wear panty socks even when wearing a short skirt/dress :cool:

so if you want to fit in as a man ...don't wear shorts, wear long pants with a fake belt tuck your tshirt in the pants and hold a Man-bag between your armpits!

That's true.
I remember when these "solar visors" became popular.

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archi...ar-visor-craze

Hose are items worn on the legs and feet.
Hosiery.

Panty socks?

+1 :confused:

I've googled but none the wiser...

Well, I must admit that I've yet to make it to Pingyao (although your thread intrigues me), but am pretty to speed on fashion along the trails I walk, and let's just say that a considerable portion of the youngish urban female population in first tier cities isn't shy about showing off (non synthetic) skin.

Late to this thread but had to chime in. IMO, any male over the age of 12 and not out running/jogging--or in a resort area like Sanya--looks ridiculous wearing shorts in China (or anywhere else). Of course you will get stares. And if you were sightseeing in the city with me, and heading out in shorts, I'd pretend not to know you. :p

This also goes for grown women, Chinese or otherwise. But at least women tend not to have legs that make them look like Planet of the Apes casting extras.

My experience is that if you obviously look like a foreigner by mannerism - even if you're an ethnic Chinese - the locals don't care if you're wearing shorts. They judge you and interact with you differently anyway.

It's surprisingly easy to detect whether someone isn't a local. The Chinese are very fine tuned at it.

Yep, the taxi touts at major airports and train stations can spot you from a mile away regardless of skin colour. I carry a "PRC uniform" in my luggage for when I want to attempt to blend in while in China. :D

Wanted to add, just to clear up confusion above:

"Panty socks" is Chinglish shorthand for "panty hose socks" which are more commonly known as "knee highs" in Western hosiery terms. Regardless of what you call them, they look totally twinky when worn with shorts by females of any age.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Absultely adds enterataining values to any visitors, the twinkiness -;)

There is also the ankle-high sockette version - egregious as it is under not long enough pants, but totally cringeworthy when paired with skirts or shorts because unlike knee-highs, the sockettes are ALWAYS wrinkly as there's no real way to anchor and main tension.

+1, I've seen a many odd sun protection clothing worm by women in China...

Unnecessary in the "capital"; the smog layer provides more than enough protection, even for my fair skin.