Are fewer westerners traveling in China now?
Jul 11, 2019, 9:19 pm
#61
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 3,097
Ticket Machines
There are now ticket machines at Shenzhen Station which claim to accept passports: you swipe the bottom edge of your passport through a reader slot and voilá your ticket will appear. You can use it to both buy tickets and pick-up tickets bought on-line.
That's the idea, at least. My ticket didn't appear despite many tries at many different machines. When I finally picked up my ticket the old-fashioned way at the counter, I asked the clerk whether the machines in fact now accept passports. She said they do, but some passports can't be read because the page is too reflective. Anyway, this is what she said.
Perhaps a sharp photocopy on ordinary paper might work instead. Worth a try to finally be able to use those machines.
Note that only some machines have the reader slots for passports, some machines with reader slots only accept HRPs, and all instructions are in Chinese.
Aug 22, 2019, 8:20 am
#62
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: KHH, FUK, SNA
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Just a question based upon my last 2 weeks of travel to big cities in the west and south of China. In many of these big cities like Chongqing and Changsha I didn't see another western face the entire time I was there, including the hotel, train stations and airport. This struck me as different from before. It is definitely becoming harder for foreigners to travel around China with the train station/ticketing policy being discriminatory to foreigners and the rise of mobile payments for everything which foreigners who don't live here have no way of using. It's also just more of a hassle to visit China with 15 minute check in times at hotels and endless security inspections everywhere from train stations to airports to even subways which is ridiculous. Has the bloom gone off the rose for travelers? I still see plenty of westerners in the 4 tier one cities but elsewhere I seem to remember more than now.
Aug 22, 2019, 2:02 pm
#63
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Dec 30, 2019, 8:35 pm
#64
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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/22/a...hnk/index.html is now on the minds of my friends.
Dec 30, 2019, 10:48 pm
#65
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Thai, Hyatt
Posts: 49
Same with me. I sometimes need to do visa runs and HK is the obvious choice but I won't go there until things settle down. I've heard of people (foreigners) being questioned about why they were in HK.
Dec 31, 2019, 1:13 am
#66
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,037
I had a soft debate on this topic last night.
Following are my thoughts:
1. The teacher route to a real job no longer exists
2. She told me that young American guys were not good for China
3. I explained to her the those young American dudes like girls, and we can't stop this
Following are my thoughts:
1. The teacher route to a real job no longer exists
2. She told me that young American guys were not good for China
3. I explained to her the those young American dudes like girls, and we can't stop this
Dec 31, 2019, 2:17 am
#67
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The only way I'll go to Shenzhen is if I fly in from another country or from a Mainland Chinese airport. There's no way I'm going to Shenzhen from Hong Kong (land, air, or sea).
Dec 31, 2019, 10:59 am
#68
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: China and Canada
Posts: 1,886
A ton of foreigners cross there every day and I haven't heard of any issue yet. Also, never heard of them checking phones of foreigners. Thinks of the massive amount of people crossing, they sure won't start checking all the phones. Seriously, the odds are probably the same as being hit by lightning or winning the lottery.
Dec 31, 2019, 11:45 am
#69
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I had a soft debate on this topic last night.
Following are my thoughts:
1. The teacher route to a real job no longer exists
2. She told me that young American guys were not good for China
3. I explained to her the those young American dudes like girls, and we can't stop this
Following are my thoughts:
1. The teacher route to a real job no longer exists
2. She told me that young American guys were not good for China
3. I explained to her the those young American dudes like girls, and we can't stop this
Dec 31, 2019, 5:19 pm
#71
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Have done a few HK to China and vv trips during the 2nd half of 2019. No one has said anything. US citizen.
Dec 31, 2019, 8:39 pm
#73
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Jan 1, 2020, 9:26 am
#74
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
Speaking of yellow fever, I sort of caught a different sort in HK. It's not the fever you're referencing, but there's a notion of friendship that in my experience is unique to HK. There isn't a western world for it, but the word is "yee hay." Not sure if it's from too many movies or life imitating art, but there is, or used to be, amongst a segment of local HKers where this elevated notion of friendship surpassed anything I've ever seen anywhere in the world.