Comments on: Chinese Tourism

By: danjo

danjo — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:25:57 +0000

During my first term in China:
Me: what will you do this May holiday?
my student: me and my friends wanted to go to Jiayuguan but two couldn’t go and there were only two of us, which is not enough, so we aren’t going anywhere.

Jiayuguan is three hours away on the same train line, and can be done as a day trip by someone speaking not a word of Chinese. Also, the May holiday is seven days long. When I did go to Jiayuguan with a friend, a 22-year old female, it was the second time in her entire life she had left her hometown.

By: Yu

Yu — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:17:27 +0000

I just want to point out that I am staying at a youth hostel, not a HOTEL. The room rate was like 50RMB per night per bed…. that they wanted to charge 40RMB for ticket booking did seem like a rip off.
But I guess if you dont speak Chinese, dont know where to get tickets, and don’t want the hassle, then it is probably a bargain.

I also think that comparatively speaking, travelling alone in China is safer than in the US. I mean I think the majority of women do not need to be too concerned about rape happening in China (but as a uni student I had to be concerned about it if I wanted to walk across campus at night). I feel the biggest hazard in China is theft. So I carry the cash I need for the day and lock my ATM card up where I am staying. I wonder if this is the safest thing to do. Has anyone heard of motel/hotel/hostel room theft or lock box theft. What is the safest way to take care of valuables (passports, extra cash, laptop) while travelling? Any stories or tips on theft prevention of these items?

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:41:26 +0000

@Alan – 1994 was a long time ago. The only part of China I have heard anyone to have problems still is Xinjiang. And no one I know who went in the past year reported any problems, so maybe that is fading too.

@Matt S – I agree that you can find something interesting and beautiful places just outside of the heavily trafficked areas. However, I don’t necessarily agree that it is easy.

Chris & I have never done any group or organized travel. We always do independent. It can be difficult and irritating at times (when no train tickets are available or the clerk just refuses to sell them to you, when the cab driver takes you to the wrong place, etc) but I would be extremely unhappy walking around in a massive group with a screaming microphoned guide. Plus organized travel in China tends to go to, in my opinion, the absolute least interesting places.

By: Matt Schiavenza

Matt Schiavenza — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:55:26 +0000

I’d say that the idea of solo independent travel, by anyone in any place, is reasonably new. I remember telling some friends of my parents that I intended to backpack alone in Europe and seeing their looks of concern. Wouldn’t that be dangerous? And this was in Europe in 2004, hardly an exotic and unknown destination.

Solo travel in China absolutely rocks, for reasons outlined above. Since very few people do it, it isn’t hard to find yourself in beautiful places untouched by tourism. Alas, the language barrier does impact things but even a little bit of Chinese goes a long way.

By: Woaizhongguo

Woaizhongguo — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:47:06 +0000

Yes, agree for the need to exercise caution and commonsense wherever you go and for sure, being white will not stop you from coming into harms way. It can even make things worse as I have certainly seen some envious Chinese men giving lao wai (with Chinese women swarming around) the evil eye in a bar.

But just yesterday an ex boxer was shot in a bar in London after apparently asking 3 men to put out their cigarettes, so I still feel relatively safer here than I do in my home city.

By: ZL

ZL — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:26:03 +0000

Just a thought, but I think sometimes problems arise when foreigners are unfamiliar with the area they are in and don’t know where the “bad” areas are.
Even after living in Nanjing for awhile I moved to a townhouse just out of the city center, and it wasn’t until I had moved that people (mostly taxi drivers) would always tell me that I should be extra careful and it was not a good area. Seems that as a non-local I couldn’t really differentiate what a bad neighborhood looked like. It seems people would usually say the areas just outside the more downtown areas and near train/bus stations were bad areas. That and highways and any area that could be considered remote (i.e. mountainous areas). Not sure how much truth there is in that, but makes sense, the more people around the safer.
Just in case any foreigners are looking to visit the US and want to beware of bad areas, I’ll let you in on the secret of identifying, we have tell-tale signs, as Dave Chappelle put it, you can tell you’re entering a “bad” area by “looking out the window, see gun store, gun store, liquor store, gun store”

By: Benjamin Ross

Benjamin Ross — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:10:21 +0000

I think the point Alan is trying to make is that you still have to be careful. Often as foreigners we feel untouchable in China because, as Alan pointed out, you would have a much better chance getting away with a crime against another Chinese than against a foreigner. However, this does not mean that things like this cannot happen. Here in Fuzhou, an friend of mine was killed when he was stabbed in a bar fight a two years ago. The details were all pretty sketchy, but what came out of it is that nobody is 100% safe, anywhere. An isolated incident is by no means indicative of a pattern, but it does serve as a reminder to be careful.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:51:41 +0000

O.K. O.K. I hear ya. It’s bad for me to over-generalize. If this were a debate, I LOST. I know I am tad paranoid about safety in China. But I also feel many Westerners have an idealistic view of China in general and of safety living in China in particular. I wonder if some of you would still be so optimistic about your safety in China if 24 Western tourists instead of Taiwanese tourists were murdered in Qiandao Lake. This has nothing to do with race from your or my ends in this discussion. But to those few thugs in China, they know they would have a better chance of getting away with crime when they murder some overseas Chinese than they would with foreigners. Any incidents involving overseas Chinese in China is still pretty much viewed as domestic incidents, whereas it would have been totally different when foreigners are involved. Maybe that’s where my deeply ingrained prejudice about safety in China comes from. Nevertheless, it looks like capital crimes against foreign tourists are not uncommon in recent years. Here are some incidents that I have found (thanks to Google) and listed chronologically.

I am not a China basher. I have a lot of money invested in China and hope to see a better and safer China. So be safe.

————————————————
Russian tourist murdered in China
[22.06.2007 14:52]
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070622/67633694.html

A Russian tourist from Primoriye was found murdered in a park in China, a police source in the Russian Far Eastern region said Friday.

The murder of the Russian woman occurred Thursday in the resort of Wudalianchi, in Heilongjiang province in China`s northeast, an area popular with tourists from Russia`s Far East.

‘June 20, the Russian tourist did not return from a health center. A search was made and her body was later discovered in a park. According to experts, she died from a knife wound near her heart. A criminal case has been launched,’ the source said.

Authorities in Vladivostok have made no comment on the killing.

This is the second murder this year of a Russian woman. In February a woman was killed and another injured following a robbery in the city of Heihe.

And June 19, a Russian woman was freed by Chinese police after being held for a $40,000 ransom in Mudanjiang by local criminals.

—————————————————
Three Japanese tourists murdered in China
28/10/2005
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1493394.htm

Two men convicted of murdering three Japanese tourists 12 years ago have been executed in the northern Chinese city of Xian.

The Sanqin Metropolitan Daily reports, Cao Xiude and Hai Ting were put to death immediately after the execution order was issued by the Shaanxi provincial high court.

They were convicted of murdering the three elderly tourists at the ANA Grand Castle Hotel in Xian in 1993 and robbing them of some $US1,700 and other items.

Cao and Hai, from the southern province of Guangxi, were arrested last year after their fingerprints were traced.

————————————————
10/9/2002
British Backpacker Found With Throat Cut at Great Wall of China
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-9-2002-27870.asp

A British man who was backpacking around Asia as part of an eight month tour has been found murdered in China. Tom Dawson, 24, from Fulham, west London, is understood to have been found near the great wall of China on October 2 with multiple head injuries and his throat cut.

———————————————–
Monday, 15 May, 2000, 09:19 GMT 10:19 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/748879.stm

Backpacker murdered in China

Police in China are investigating the murder of a British backpacker who was stabbed to death while trekking with her boyfriend.
Relatives of Shirine Harburn, 30, of Crawley, West Sussex, have been told her body will be flown back to the UK later this week.

Ms Harburn was found stabbed to death on Paomao Mountain in western Sichuan province. The motive appeared to be robbery.

She had been travelling with her boyfriend, Colin Horsfield, who has been taken to the provincial capital Chengdu while inquiries continue.

The Foreign Office spokesman said: “Reports state she was stabbed 12 times with a small craft knife. The knife was found near her body.

By: Laura Lee

Laura Lee — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:16:10 +0000

Dear all,

One thing I like Ben’s blog so much is that the comments posted here have been very respectful to other posters, even though every now and then we disagreed. That makes a fundamental difference between this blog and the TIME blog — this is a place we can still communicate in a civilized way.

But this current topic seems to put too much heat on Alan. As Ben said earlier, “I know you [Alan]’ve already taken a bit of heat on this thread.” I even sensed a bit smell of ridiculing in some of the posters. Please, please be sensitive to our fellow poster’s feeling.

In Alan’s defense, I do not think what he said is way out of the line. I had been living in China for 26 years. There were (probably still are) many situations you need to be careful about. I think Alan just wants everyone to be a little more cautious.

To others: thanks for sharing the positive experiences in China. I have not done any extensive traveling in China for almost ten years. Your experiences ease my anxiety a lot about traveling in China.

By: Woaizhongguo

Woaizhongguo — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:10:16 +0000

@Yu: So you didn’t get kidnapped by pirates and have your boat set on fire with you on it? If you listen to Alan you’d think this was something that happens all the time to unsuspecting tourists in China rather than once over 13 years ago.

The only thing I’d disagree on is that the 40rmb was a rip off. Hotels need to make money from things like drinks and other services and if some tourists didn’t know how to book tickets or couldn’t be bothered to go buy themselves. I’ve bought tickets on GZ from the hotel right next to the station simply because it’s easier than walking over and queuing up (yes I am lazy) so for me the extra 30 rmb or so was worth spending.

Although not 100% accurate, someone once said foreigners will spend money to save time while locals will spend time to save money, simply because they have more time than we do.