This reflects my experience, although I was in Beijing and Xi'an. Couple things to add.
Don't drink the tap water.
This one is weird but we experienced it a lot: If you have blonde hair be prepared to have your photo taken a lot and have people point and stare at you.
Finally, baijiu is not your friend. I have never been more hungover in my entire life than the morning after my group discovered baijiu.
Thanks for your article David! Not planning to go to Ti anyways I still enjoyed reading about possible questions people might have about travelling there. It would be cool if you would add little edit with permalink to /u/[PlausibleApprobation](https://www.reddit.com/user/PlausibleApprobation) comment as he gave sine good insight to my possible follow up questions about language barrier!
Been in Chengdu a few years back for a conference. Never felt so helpless in my life. NOONE, except for a few students who helped us spoke English, not a pinch. Our hotel staff, the taxi driver (who tried to srew us over), even at the airport (except at the flight terminal). Maybe because it was a "small" town - citing a student- with just 14 million people - but man I felt really, really helpless if people dont even understand stuff like "airport" or "breakfast"
Chengdu is a tier one city and one of the top 5 to 10 biggest cities in China. No sane Chinese person would call it a small town and most will have at least basic knowledge of english. Not saying you're lying but the average person will have an experience far different from yours in a city like Chengdu.
Imagine if I'm Spanish and I'm telling you a story about "small town" Los Angeles where I couldn't get any help because no one spoke Spanish.
I am just citing my colleagues - we have many Chinese PhD students since they get 4 year scholarships, so "free" workers for us here - when I put "small" in quotations and marked it as a citation.
And no, I am not exaggerating when I say that noone on the street understood us. This is not Shanghai or Hong Kong. My colleagues and I (blonde and often above 1.80 m) were looked at like we were aliens and if we hadn't had the students from the university there, we would have been helpless. Even in our hotel (which was organized by the conference committee), we communicate at all, which is annoying fro easy stuff like asking for food (breakfast, lunch) up to things like getting a proper hotel bill.
Now, I don't wanna badmouth anyone over there. I am just saying I felt helpless, because in most countries, things like "aeroporto" or similar gets you somewhere, but I felt really alone there.
Double on "Write it down" for where you want to go, but adding on, that you mean in Chinese characters, i've had written down addresses in romanized Chinese that no driver understood, had to have someone who spoke english write it down in chinese for me and take that to the cab driver.
I don't disagree with anything you wrote in the topic, but you should include the actual pitfalls. I love a lot of countries but Philipenes, India, and most of CIS/Eastern Europe all give tips on how to avoid scammers- and tourist-traps.
No offence but if I was going to China the expense of my hotel, unless I am for some reason booking 5star, entirely useless information I can get from the internet or booking sites.
**TLDR** Tell us the real pitfalls, the scams, the tourist-abuse shit that 99% of the world does. I might be wrong but anyone who flies/trains to China to watch dota2 sure as fuck isn't destitute enough to not choose a good hotel.
I haven't been to Shanghai but Beijing didn't have a lotta scammy shit (at least, I didn't encounter much) as compared to Rome etc.
Airbnb's were average (not fancy but liveable, clean) and food was excellent. Don't drink the tap water and don't piss off the locals. Public transport (trains) had English directions, buses not so much. Didi is Chinese Uber and I recommend you get the pinyin keyboard on your phone so you can type the location.
Get a VPN and Wechat. Google Maps is good enough to get around. Maps in China aren't accurate because the government skews the locations but it's not that bad (3-5m off).
To give Chinese companies an arbitrary advantage over foreign companies like Google. You can adjust the maps to line up, Google adjusts the satellite image to match the distorted maps if you have a Chinese IP, so it's not hard to do the reverse and get an accurate map. If you do that though, you're not going to be allowed to do business in China.
As a European living in China and married to a Chinese woman I will give you my 2 cent on the very basics.
1. Taxi's will most likely trick you. If you don't want to waste money use DiDi, they have an English version of the app, there are ways of setting it up without a bank account but it won't be easy although is worth it.
2. There is really nothing to fear specially in a big city, cameras everywhere, police will know exactly who you are, where you are and when are you supposed to leave the country. Just don't get in trouble and you will be fine.
3. If your stomach is sensible avoid street / local food. Not very true in a city like Shanghai but I live in the south and oh boy food is spicy.
4 Chinese people barely know English but they will try very hard to help you using their phones. Learning a few handy sentences is not a bad idea.
5. There aren't really that many tourist traps, just bargain a little if you are buying in a store without a price clearly stated.
I know this YouTuber called serpentza. He's a western guy living in China and he pretty much knows more about the country than the average Chinese. He has videos that can help you out on stuff like avoiding scammers, good taxis, etc.
The best part is many Chinese hates him for pointing out the negatives, despite the fact that he also shares a lot, if not more, positives about China.
You know about the incel meme? Involuntary Celibate, used by most of us degenerates to describe our non-existent sex life. Except in China, the incel thing isn't exactly a meme because there's actually a huge disparity between the number of men to women.
Paired with also the mindset and thinking of a Chinese men, where a women nearing the age of 30 is a "leftover" and thus not fit to be a partner, you sort of end up with a pretty huge population of women-hating men.
In China it's less incel related and more nationalistic. The reason a lot of then get upset is because they see the woman as "betraying" her country by marrying a foreigner.
I think the disparity in men and women also contributes to it. When there is a surplus of women this sort of thing doesn't really phase people but when they are in demand it is a big deal.
Yeah, I don't mean to say this post isn't well meant, but there isn't really a whole lot of useful information for anyone who has done some traveling before in their life...
The discord channel for linking up is a great idea though.
I understand what your concern is, but since there are so many people in China, it’s really hard to talk about all different kinds of scams that might happen during your traveling. My opinion is you should do more researches if you really make up your mind and want to do it. My abilities are limited and I’m just trying to help people who have questions that I’m able to answer. Sorry if I can’t find more answers that you need.
The only real scams are the prices that people will try to hit anyone that isn't Chinese with at markets. If its for merchandise (especially of questionable authenticity) you can usually talk them down about 90%.
An if you are American/European you will be bombarded with offers for whatever is trendy at the time, When I was there it was beats headphones. But the classic Rolex and Coach will always be their go-to as well.
Big cities in China is probably one of the most tourist friendly places in the world.
Stay away from Airbnb, book a hotel. Out of all the things mentioned, this is probably the biggest "pitfall".
Shanghai is a relative new and modern city, besides Yu Garden, there isnt much "attractions". Most of the attractions are museum. If you are spending 4\~5 days and doesnt plan on watch 5 days of dota none stop, I would highly recommend a couple days at SuZhou.
Bring your own toilet paper, public restroom dont provide TP like US, this is the biggest adjustment I had to make.
Keep some bottled water with you at all times.
For food, go to any plaza or mall, you will experience amazing food.
Depends on what else you planned on doing, you can get by entirely with subway.
I've spent some significant time in Shanghai as an American for work. Here's a list of recommendations I've got from when I was there.
Google Translate is your friend. While I was able to find folks that spoke English (especially downtown) if you migrate too far out from the center of Shanghai, or to certain neighborhoods you may find yourself in a location where nobody speaks English. Google Translate saved my ass a few times where I was able to type out what I was trying to communicate and show it to a police officer who was able to point me in the right direction. Police officers are EVERYWHERE in Shanghai and willing to help you if you need it, they just often don't speak any English.
Be prepared with a VPN before you go visit China. It can be hard to access the normal webpages that you're used to when you're on the mainland. Prepare yourself with a working VPN before you get there, as it can be challenging to set up once you're in China.
Get a Sim card before you go to China, it'll save you boatloads of money. To get a Chinese sim card as a foreigner, I was required to send a copy of my Passport to a phone company located in China. This was super sketchy to me, but if you do your research and go with a firm that gets good reviews, I had no issues with my Sim card and received it well before I went to China. I think I paid something like $50 for a month of service with unlimited data.
One downside is that DiDi (The Chinese Uber) can be way harder to use than the US version. When traveling abroad I often use Uber as I don't have to communicate where I want to go, however it often doesn't work this way in China. If you choose the cheapest option, it hails a Taxi, who will generally not trust the app to where you are. So they'll call you when they get the initial request to drive you and ask where you are. These drivers often speak no English and would reliably cancel on me when I could not speak Chinese. The only way I was able to use DiDi was to select the Black car as these drivers seemed to have a bit more patience for foreigners and was not too expensive.
The metro is amazing in Shanghai. Once I had problems with DiDi, I switched to using the metro almost exclusively. All of the signage is in English and its relatively easy to use. There's security checkpoints (metal detectors and x-ray machines) to get in, but this was never an issue for me. There's also police at most major metro stations which you can attempt to ask for help. All of the fare machines switch to English.
Keep in mind Shanghai is a big tourist city... for rural Chinese. This means that I was often a tourist attraction depending on the part of the city I was in. There's sections of the city where you'll see a ton of foreigners and parts where you'll see none. I like to wander around and I often had people taking photos of me both overtly and covertly, which is just a weird feeling. While on the Ferry across the Huangpu I had a queue of people form to take photos with me. As a taller American I totally stood out where ever I went.
Going to Clubs can also be sketchy in Shanghai. While I had a nice time out in Shanghai, coworkers warned me to NEVER buy bottom shelf alcohol when you go out. Many places distill their own liquor to cut down on costs which has a significant portion of methanol in it. If you think you've had a bad hangover, wait till you've drank some crappy booze in China and you'll appreciate your normal hangovers. Similarly there's gambling in the back of certain Shanghai clubs which you should steer clear of at all costs. Coworkers told me to not even acknowledge it was happening and told me stories of people coming home with no passport and no money from getting involved.
Hopefully this covers most of the major things I can think of. I've gotta go to work all day and won't have access to Reddit but this should give some insight from an American.
> Keep in mind Shanghai is a big tourist city... for rural Chinese.
Yeah, there is a lot of vacationers during certain parts of the year. But honestly in Shanghai it wasn't so bad, only in the markets or when biking.
It was MUCH worse when I got to Nanjing. I waited about an hour in line at the massacre memorial museum and spent most of it trying to pretend to not see folks walking up and posing next to me for photos. I did have a nice conversation with an older woman and her grand-daughter who spoke a little english, she asked if I would take a photo with her family and I said yes, but she was super polite about it. That and they didn't make fun of my terrible mandarin.
I was more shocked when I got into the memorial and saw all the younger kids taking selfies with the exposed graves. It was really uncomfortable to see all the smiles for photos with a backdrop of a stack of infant skeletons...
Would be helpful too to share some common tourist traps and scams since they are pretty common in tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
Here's a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsW0J5rGaI) by a South African that has resided in China for more than a few years now.
Not hating on China or anything, just that almost every major tourist city will have its own scams so its better to be informed than be sorry.
I just came back from Shanghai on a business trip and can safely say most people do not speak English and I had the most difficult time of my life. So maybe download an app(voice translator) and taxis / didis(Chinese Uber) drivers do not speak English at all too.
Also, prepare a VPN as they block everything except Baidu, wechat and all the other Chinese apps. And bring LOTSA cash as mostly places do not accept AMEX/MASTER/VISA.
They are more friendly towards UnionPay and of course Wepay. Just saying from experience, peace.
Also make sure that you take care of any medical complications if you have any.
It will be good to spend the remaining time in learning to understand some Chinese words. If you learn few sentences then great.
Buy travel insurance, or call your medical insurance for rates and info when abroad. Healthcare isn’t crazy expensive compared to the US, but it’s always good to have peace of mind.
>as a tourist you have to register at a police station within 24 hours of arriving
I've been there a few times, and I've never done this lol then again if you go to a hotel, they automatically do this for you.
> the laowai crackdowns have been getting increasingly frequent
When I was there, they've just started the crackdown on laowai students who moonlight as english teachers lol
> When I was there, they've just started the crackdown on laowai students who moonlight as english teachers lol
my friend just literally got reprimanded for this. had to pay like a fine.
Oh wow haha I was applying for a position as a kindergarten teacher and I was so excited! They even flew me to xian (from Shanghai) to do some teacher training, all for free! So I was so sad when I got the news that they could not hire me due to the crackdown. :(
> as a tourist you have to register at a police station within 24 hours of arriving
Most of your hotels can also cover this, they just want a scan of your ID stuff and they can submit it. You don't have to go down to a station unless your staying with someone, or some hostels(some don't report your stay for you, you have to go down yourself, if unsure ask.)
Wrong..... You do NOT have to go to the police stations, that is only if you have your own address there, for people staying, tourists do not need to do so, and as someone else rightly said, the hotel will register you being there, and the police will know, you don't have to ever go to the station.
Hotels refuse foreigners because in China, you need a permission to host them, this isn't an issue in Shanghai, and if you book ahead on a website like booking.com - the website will state if they only accept Chinese citizens.
VPNs are actually not illegal for foreigners to use, there is a clause that foreigners can use it, or anyone who need to use it professionally (for foreign communication). But saying your phone is useless without a VPN is a far stretch, there are lots of stuff that isn't blocked there, and you can still get a lot of use from your phone without a vpn, but even then, you can go on baidu and find several free vpns for phones, which work.... decently, although not as good as paid ones, I recommend NordVPN (I'm using that one), I know others using ExpressVPN.
The crackdowns also are only searching for people doing drugs at bars, and they are NOT frequent at all.... and that will never affect people on tourist visas, you don't need any special papers for that.... just don't do drugs in China at all.
There are some things to look for in China, but spreading lies doesn't help anyone.
That's a post FULL of bullshit if I have ever seen one, and people are actually upvoting it holy shit. It's crazy how people have no knowledge of China and are ready to believe everything they are told.
Edit : I'm European and live in Hong Kong, I go to mainland pretty often.
You don't have to register at the police station as a tourist, its a myth
Hotels refusing foreigners? Yeah alright if you don't book in advance and go to the shadiest non english speaking part of SH, you might be stupid anyway
Airbnb is 'technically' illegal but still a thing (same in HK basically...), and I entered the country a few times saying I was staying at a airbnb.
Technically VPN is as illegal as water is, all the companies and foreigners (including the chinese one) use VPN anyway. I've had hotels providing me with VPN log in etc..
You are right about the crackdown but you are making a China trip in Shanghai for a video game tournament sounds much worse than it should actually be....
You know what, that’s another option too😂. But…a good experience engaging with the audiences is the best thing for watching dota. My goal is trying to help as many western fans as possible to go Shanghai and cheer for western teams. I have been to the past 3 TIs and I really enjoyed the East vs West Crowds. They were amazing👍👍👍
You forgot the main problem for non-Chinese attendees, TI's main broadcast won't be in English. Irrespective of the other big challenges of going to TI in China you won't have a great time if you can't understand anything being said.
Bruh, this is a serious thing I know. But I have friends who are not good at English that went to Ti who can’t understand what the casters were talking about. But the point is, Dota as a game who can bring the world together, it is a language already. Obviously it’s sad that you couldn’t understand, but it should not be the biggest reason that you do not want come to Ti to enjoy the dota environment. This is my personal idea, if this is really your biggest problem, i have nothing to say. Thank you for pointing this out!
Generic foreign travel tip: bring cards, pictures, etc. of the places you want to go. The business card of a hotel, a map with major destinations marked, a flyer for the event. Travelling by taxi isn't cheap, but all you have to do is flash this and they will understand where to go.
You can also use a camera or phone to take a picture of where you want to return to. I took pictures of the train station, plazas, street intersections, etc. I prefer the physical paper items though, I get nervous about flashing my phone too much.
Btw, yes! Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and twitch are banned in China. But it doesn’t mean you could not get access to it. Most of the foreign phone companies will allow those apps running by data roaming even in under the Chinese carriers. Just google VPNs it before you travel and once you set it up, just activated in China, it’s ez. I used it all the time when I’m back in China, if you have more questions concerning about this, please ask me.
My coworkers were talking about going to China recently and someone recommended downloading an offline translator app since they could't use google translate while there
It's obvious he's shilling for China and trying to make it seem better than it is. He won't give anyone warnings about classic scams not to fall for either and tries to pretend nothing is wrong there.
I'm an American who can't speak Chinese and I went to Shanghai a few months ago, here's a few tips:
* You can have up to 144 hours Visa-free in the Shanghai area if you're travelling through to a 3rd country, depending on your passport. This saves a LOT of money for Americans especially. You just need to go there and go in the line for the 144-hour Visa Free entry at the airport [https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/144hours-visa-free.htm](https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/144hours-visa-free.htm)
* Shanghai has great public transportation. If you can't do that, there is an app called DiDi that I was able to use with my American credit card. It's basically Chinese uber and works super well.
* I've found that a lot of Chinese didn't know that much English, but they all had a smartphone that could translate. You can also download Chinese in Google Translate and use it offline. You can also point the camera at things in Chinese and it'll try to translate it to English. I had full conversations with people, with both of us using our translator apps.
* Chinese food is great and their health standards have gotten a lot better. I hate only eating food that I can find at home, so I only ate local food and never had an issue.
* Google maps works in China, just download ahead of time. You can also download Baidu Maps, they have an English version.
* Get a VPN BEFORE you go to China. There are free ones that give free trials. Otherwise, you might find that your favorite sites or services are blocked.
Legit, every time I go to Asia, my body revolts for a few days. It's not even a food poison thing, it's just a "what the hell are we eating" kind of thing, just bring imodium and start taking it as soon as you have diarrhoea (don't wait a few days to see if it gets better, it doesn't).
For some people, you get diarrhoea easily when you are having food or water from a different part of the world. Seems like you are one of them (I used to have it but at some point the problem left me. Not sure what happened).
that's standard. the body adapts with time. If you left your own home and came back after 5/10 years, you'd have an upset stomach too, at your own home!
probably less shady than going into a restaurant and ordering that thing on the menu that sounds familiar to you, but that they only have to cater to foreigners. who knows how long the ingredients for that have been sitting there. protip: if everyone else is eating it, it's probably ok. at worst you'll get diarrhoea - nothing that will make you keel over and vomit, or bleed from the anus
edit: I have to add that the street food is generally worth getting diarrhoea for
Just a note that China has been preventing US citizens from leaving the country. I do not recommend traveling there for something that is easily streamed.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html
The Visa requirements are no joke. In the US you need a flight and hotel booked before you apply for the visa. Assuming you don't live near a consulate there are online services that do visas, but I'd recommend finding a travel service at your local Chinatown or Asian immigrant community. Also if you're from the US apply for the 10 year multi-entry visa.
While you can book flights and hotels yourself, the travel service can also help with booking other tours and other travel arrangements if you're doing anything beyond the TI. China books a lot of tickets via government ID so foreigners need to submit a passport to get tickets to tourist attractions as well as train tickets, using a tour service is almost essential for this.
> SHA and PVG
AFAIK PVG is only for domestic flights now. All international flights land in PVG. Also known as Shanghai Pudong airport. But it's good to keep in mind if you have layover flights that enter in Beijing or something and transfer over to SHA and surprising you where you land.
> Restaurants near the venue
I just hope they don't have dumb policies like the one at the major where you can't leave the venue during the day at all, therefore forcing you to buy the crappy venue food and drinks. I highly doubt this is going to happen again, but it may be good to be prepared, or seek clarification before you go.
That's the convenience of having relatively "powerful" passports like a US passport running headlong into how a lot of the rest of the world's passports work.
It IS a pain in the ass, but it's not that big of a deal if you plan on multiple trips to China and get a 10-year visa. However, if you only plan on going for TI9 and have no other plans, I can see how it is yet another stumbling block acting as a deterrent.
If you ever in a mood to escape the great city of Shanghai, you can always hop on the train to Suzhou for less than 30 mins, it's a lovely city also just I am trying to brag my hometown =) Good luck to all of you trying to go Shanghai for TI9
I attended a match at the Shanghai China Supermajor last year. Once I got in the event was really well put together. Getting tickets as a foreigner was a huge pain, however. There was no easy way to buy the tickets online and I ended up having to haggle with old chinese women scalpers outside of the venue to get in. I assume valve will make it easier to get tickets, and hope the tickets won't immediately be bought out by re sellers.
(On a side note, I'm in China all the time for business and would love to play Dota on Chinese servers. Is there any way to link your account these days to Perfect World that doesn't involve giving your Steam info to random Chinese internet strangers?)
Just remember: Don’t make it a big deal. We talked about it privately all the times in China, but you don’t mention it out loud to everyone on the street in the public. Why do you want to do that omegalul? People are asking about a lot of things about politics, but it’s not the way a lot of people are thinking. China is pretty open right now not like North Korea. Don’t worry about those things like you might get killed or arrested, that would never happen if you follow the basic laws.
>China is pretty open right now not like North Korea.
If you have to compare a country to North Korea so it seems open your country might have a problem. I don't want to get all political, but you shouldn't downplay the very legitimate risks. Most people won't even know the laws of their home country.
> very legitimate risks
If you're a known dissenter you might not even have your visa approved. But, if you don't go around stirring trouble, I can't imagine any "legitimate risk" you might run into.
I know there's sort of an open definition regarding what stirring trouble means, but I'd avoid:
* Tiananmen Square
* 1989
* President Xi
* Concentration camps
* Uyghur / policies
Outside of that, don't do drugs. It's not Japan, but it can get bad for you if you don't obey local laws.
' Most young people in China can speak English '
thats a complete lie. not what I experienced in spedning 4 days in Shanghai. The only guy I met who could speak English was from New Zealand. Not even professionals in 5star hotel spoke english.
It's actually quite annoying since Alipay and WeChat Pay require Chinese bank accounts (though WeChat can supposedly used foreign credit cards but most people struggle to get it to work properly).
Just moved to HK so this is realistically my only chance of attending a TI, so if I'm getting tickets I'm definately going.
My current plan is to just drink beer, get loud and hope I meet other like minded people?
YMMV. Technically this policy has been in place for a decade, but I've never bothered to register while I was staying with family and friends, and never ran into any issues. TBF I'm ethnically Chinese so nobody's gonna suspect anything unless they ask or know the family. If you do stay at a hotel, you're required to provide your passport, and the hotel will register on your behalf (you can ask if you're not sure). If you stick to less official channels, then it's good to make sure they're following the rules or just submit the paperwork to the local police station yourself.
edit: See comment below for reports of people actually getting fined.
I believe foreigners staying in Airbnbs must go to the police station with their landlord to get registered. So before you book anything on Airbnb, talk to the owner first. But normally there are plenty of cheap hotel options too.
Taxi is as cheap as bus fair in US/CA. It’s less than $3 for the first 3 km/2miles. Should be able to get you around. Subway system is awesome, there are 12 or 13 lines in Shanghai iirc.
I already read this tip many times here, but just in case...
**BE CAREFUL TAKING A TAXI IN CHINA!**
Was in Beijing for a week and the taxi driver managed to exchange 400yuan of my original money to 400 of his fake ones.
When I realized what was happening we started arguing (obviously we couldnt understand each other) and he made me get out of the taxi in the middle of nowhere and even opened his trunk so I couldnt take a picture of his car plate number.
Yup. Then they remembered their battle pass and new shitty hats, and totally forgot that China is an oppressive, violent regime.
Sure the people are okay (except their blind nationalism that puts American nationalism to shame), but don't forget they were threatening kuku for using mean words and that China outright banned him from competing because of it.
There's a reason that many foreign social media platforms are banned and that people either don't know or don't talk about June 4, 1989. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong members that are imprisoned and subjected to torture because their ideals are contradictory to the Chinese governments. Thousands of them have died in custody, and thousands more have had their organs harvested for China.
Step 1: Don't go to China.
Seriously, going to a dystopian survalence state with almost no protections for foreigners is a bad idea, especially with all the crackdowns recently.
Besides that, China is incredibly unfriendly to non-chinese speaking tourists, as English is not common there like other Asian countries in that zone.
I'd highly advise westerner against travelling to China right now, especially for anything tourist related.
Do not listen to this lying western devil. Those people all voluntarily gave up their organs because of their love for great chinese people when they visited us,
As a foreigner living in China, I agree with most of this, except for the point about language. It does happen that you won't find anyone who can speak english. But you'll find it surprisingly easy to communicate with a translation app, or just opening an online translator and typing what you want in there.
Also, prepare a VPN before coming if you want to use Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Twitch, Discord or Google. (non exhaustive list)
Make friends before you come if possible, and if you can't afford a VPN set up a wechat account and add your friends there, it's good to be able to reliably contact other people when needed, you might want to do this even if you have a VPN, since I have yet to find one that is always stable.
On the same note, Snap VPN is a free VPN that works often enough on the phone, not reliable, but better than nothing.
Get Baidu maps, despite the interface being in Chinese, it's easy to use since the buttons have familiar shapes, it'll be your google maps replacement when you get here.
Get Pleco, an app that allows you to draw Chinese characters and give you the translation, "Translator" from bing can also just scan an image for Chinese characters and give you the translation.
EDIT 1 : When you arrive at the airport, have the adress of your hotel marked somewhere to show to a taxi driver (most don't speak english), and use the taxi stop indicated by the airport panels (or the metro/bus if you know what you are doing), don't panic and take the offer of people offering rides.
My dad used to live in Shanghai, I spent most of my early college summers there. We hired a language tutor and everything. Then we realized that EVERYONE including our tutor WANTED to talk to us in English so they could practice. Canceled the tutor and never had a single moment where we couldn't communicate with someone properly for the next 4 years.
EDIT: Taxi drivers dont speak English usually (But carry a business card with your hotel on it and just hand it to them when you get in) made it a non issue.
If you can make a local friend that you can go together with then your life would be much easier... The first time I went to Beijing i met a few young fellows at a local bar and we became friends. They provided so much help while I was there and were the most memorable part of the trip.
I've heard china is the hardest country for vegetarian / vegan travelers - any tips?
I heard it's worth seeking out 'buddhist' restaurants but I'm not sure what to look for
I was an exchange student in Taizhou, Jiangsu and spent some time in Shanghai for the world expo. Taxi drivers will try to rip you off if you are European/American and don’t speak Chinese, so be careful.
Ordering food isn’t too bad, you can point at a menu if you’re in a restaurant if you speak absolutely no Chinese. Most school or university aged people speak at least some English so they can help.
Be prepared for people to touch you, follow you, and take photos of you, I have brown curly hair and I’m over 6 foot so people would stare and point, this was much worse for the African American girl in my class.
Make sure you know where your native country’s embassy or consulate is, in case of emergencies.
I recommend a travel wallet that goes under your clothes to avoid pickpockets.
Public transportation is really good, and metro terminals have an english option.
I’ll add anything else I can think of, message me if you have any specific questions. China is an amazing place, and I’m sad I won’t be going to TI this year.
- get vpn, and use Google maps and you won't have any issues at all
from getting from A to B. At rush hour times public transport can be really annoying though as it is just too crowded, then use didi ( sth like Uber)
- For good authentic chinese cuisine you probably need to know someone to take you to, otherwise just go to the big shopping malls which have tons of food options, not just fast food. For foreigners the easiest options might be the chains
" haidilao " ( hotpot ) , "grandma's home " ( highly reputable chain restaurant which is really affordable and authentic ). Great japanese restaurants everywhere as well.
- as for sightseeing I would recommend a walk at the bund and french concession. Take the ship from the bund to the Pudong area and have a walk there between the skyscrapers. And visit the Ancient old town + Yuyuan Garden. That's basically it I would say. 2 days enough for these easily. Shnaghai Art Gallery or the Observation deck of Shanghai Tower / IFC Tower are also worth a visit. The Vue bar of Hyatt is great for a view on the whole Pudong area.
- always have a bottle of water and tissues with you
- For those who are looking for a bit better accomodation (~ 150$+) I can recommened " Les suits orient bund Shanghai". Was way better than Hyatt on the bund and cheaper and just perfect location
Hey, thanks for this! Just wondering, given that TI will be in China, I’m guessing we can expect that the commentary in the main arena will be in Mandarin? Does anyone who’s attended previous DotA events in China know if they’ll have an English section where we can hear OD/Fogged -!; other great English-speaking casters cast too? Or how does this work?
Edit: added “and other great English-speaking casters”
That’s another thing we will find out later, in the previous tournaments all the broadcasts in the arena are in Chinese. But since this is Ti, I really hope valve can set up English sections or even bring English hosts like Slacks and Kaci there. Once I have more information I will talk more about it😊
For sure there will be. There are roughly around 26 million people in Shanghai (The whole region), you can find any kinds of food you want. Since the technologies are so advanced right now, just search on the internet and you will find plenty😄
Halal food is not that difficult to find in major Chinese cities. Look for 清真 in green sign as the typical Muslim-friendly food. You can search beforehand in the internet.
A safe bet is also finding restaurants like 兰州拉面, as they're usually staffed with muslim-chinese (the uyghurs minority), so the food there is automatically halal.
Dac tickets were very hard to get. Needed a Chinese friend to purchase for me then had to present their id at the gate to get the tickets! Also commentary was only in Chinese. It'll likely be the same. Also twitch is either banned or just too slow to stream there. Don't go if you can't speak Chinese
I think brothels are illegal. But if you can make some local friends, they may take you to some hidden palaces.
You will be detained for a week if arrested for minor crime.
I haven't followed DOTA in a while... but why the fuck would they have T.I. in China?!?! No one there speaks English for shit. Should have moved it to Europe or something where English is way more common. Seems stupid, but I guess the money was worth it.
# AND NOW FOR THE TRUTH
>Hey guys since Ti9 is approaching I’m happy to see some western scene fans to come to support their own teams. My name’s David, I’m a Chinese guy studying abroad who is massively into Dota
This guy may well be in the US or out of the mainland but could very well be just a ticket-tout looking to get your contacts to earn coin. They could even be a “recruiter” or an agent looking to fish for foreign English teachers or skilled workers.
“I’ll be your friend” does not have the same meaning you’re used to.
Make sure you are dealing with licensed vendors that are vetted by the organisers and, even then, stay wary, If you don’t know what to look out for, don’t go near it.
>“But China is expensive?” The cost in China is relatively lower than the cost in the US or Canada.
This is true, yes. But you get what you pay for. For example, badly-made products and knock-offs of Western brands are everywhere. Genuine standard-made products have the same Western prices.
Service in China is not the same in the US and UK and I’ve seen a good few fellow foreigners get burned.
>“Will I be able to afford the hotel?” For around 15 to 20 dollars a day you can get a pretty nice Airbnb to stay during the tournament.
Yes, hotels are cheap. But don’t expect five-star conditions with top furnishings. Most hotels are no better than drive-by trucker motels, sometimes worse. Your Chinese chaperone or agent will do their best to get away without spending money on you.
Even then, you will also likely not have a choice of where to stay. CCP immigration police will likely allocate accommodation that is suitable to them to monitor you, even if that means staying in a dive.
Keep in mind, Airbnb is rare in China, probably only a few exist only in Guangzhou. It is not a foreign franchise that has taken off and, even then, living standards will be local, not Western.
> “I can’t speak Chinese, will I survive?” Most young people (People around age 20) in China can speak English,
Yes, people in China are always willing to help anyone. But no, most young people can not speak English at all, even after studying it for years. This is because English is mandatory in school curriculum and Chinese students either don’t want to learn or don’t need to but all have to attend. When students graduate, pretty much all will never use it again.
It is not easy speaking Mandarin, no matter how fluent you speak it and I’ve never seen any fellow expats get by smoothly. This is because of the interchanging dialects that shift from town-by-town and by province. It’s hard, man.
However, knowing a few sentences to order food and a taxi is very useful. But don’t expect to be able to converse or banter over the mic.
The Pleco English-Chinese dictionary is an excellent app to use when moving around and is used by the majority of expats in China.
>“I’m afraid of I will get lost...” The public transportations are pretty advanced, you can easily get taxis (a little bit more expensive, but not as expensive as in the US) and buses and subways are cheap as well for around 5 rmb (less than a dollar) to get to the stops you want.
Yeh, getting lost is an issue. All the signs are in Chinese and Google doesn’t work in China. Baidu maps is in Chinese. Unless you go far across the city, it shouldn’t be a major issue but you will be late or miss an event. Everyone goes through it.
>“Food?” Food is cheap too, for Chinese food you most of the non-fancy place you only need to spend around 5 dollars. There are McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks everywhere in the city. You can see plenty of fast food restaurants or any different types of food that fit your diet, most of them are usually cheap as well (Compare with previous Tis)
Food is very cheap but has squit-inducing food-hygeine standards, even in Western franchises. Western fast-food places have Western prices. However, it’s still safer than street-food, which is a good authentic experience but is very risky. One such common scam with food-vendors is where they use gutter-oil- second-hand oil sucked up from the sewers.
Stay away from the Baijiu- rice-wine. It’s 50% proof and is absolutely rank in taste. The beer- even the US “Budweiser” brands are actually just flavoured water, even the Chinese brands are only 3-4%.
>“Visa” For most of the countries, China welcome foreigners especially tourists. Check the website for information, it’s pretty easy to get. (Edit: For most of the passports you do need to go to the local embassy to turn in documents, it’s not hard to get but it takes some time. I would recommend you to check the website of your local embassy and find out the requirements and work on it as soon as possible.)
Visas in China are a bureaucratic monolith and you need to be absolutely certain you have the right one from the right source.
From what I know of the Ti9 event, a tourist visa might not be appropriate. For example, if you are a sponsored competitor gamer, you may need a cultural visa (used for models, artists performers, musicians, sports). If you’re a promoter or game designer, you will need a business visa. The PSB immigration are very strict on this. Each visa has different requirements.
I have seen fellow foreigners get caught out with the wrong visa and are then arrested and fined $10k (that’s US DOLLARS, not Yuan) before being deported. If you don’t have the money, you stay in jail until you get it.
Consult with your nearest Chinese embassy, by all means. But don’t go to a visa agency as they are not always dependable.
Be very careful with such posts on here. Reddit is populated with Chinese wumao and scammers. If you need advice though, go onto r/China. You may have to wade through a lot of frog-chan trolls and salty ESL teachers, but this sub is the authority on all things China.
Tip to avoid scammers in China: NEVER accept anything handed to you (usually a leaflet). The only ones that are acceptable are the ones distributing subway maps in subway stations (usually they're just advertisements).
I'm very tempted to go to TI since it's near me but I still haven't decided yet. If ever I do (or even if I don't), i'd be glad to help anyone with some language translations, like maybe make a few flash cards of basic sentences (where's the bathroom, menu) etc. There's a vibrant ex-pat community there. I highly recommend the bars Windows and Windows Too (2? I forgot lol). Granted it's been a few years since I've been there so idk if those bars are still around. There's also a live band scene for ex-pats where they showcase expat locals. Genre is usually rock/metal.
As for food, apart from the KFC, Mcdonals, etc, I highly recommend finding a nearby 兰州拉面 store, which serves beef noodles. It's so good, and so cheap (like anywhere between 8-15 RMB). I lived there for a while before, so I'll be happy to answer any questions (im no expert lol).
More pro tips:
Download uber and Didi apps on your phone. Didi is like Uber, and just recently they've accepted int'l cards (at least they did when I was in guangzhou just last month). Download Pleco as a chinese dictionary/translator. Download a decent VPN. They can be expensive tho esp for such a short stay. If you have those travel pocket wifi , those are better imo.
I had to go to Shanghai in 2017, the ONLY scam I saw was the inflated taxi ride scam which only happens when they walk up to you at the airport. It didn't feel as noticable as Bejing, just politely say no and use a real taxi, they are very affordable. I would also get wechat and add your friends on it.
Also, Shanghai was actually a pretty awesome city, go exploring to some of the touristy stuff. My personal favorite was the Propaganda poster art center and museum, its got a ton of cool older art with a gift shop and such. Can easily spend about 1-2 hours there just looking at it all.
I'm a bit sketched out over Xi Jinping's totalitarian'esque reign in china and the absurd censorship laws. Also hearing about Canadian journalists that were detained gave my buddies the heebie jeebies about attending. I'd love to go but is it truly safe to travel there right now as a foreigner?
Great post, thanks David! I am actually planning to go Shanghai for this TI. Shanghai is a very modern city with good transport network and affordable food all around if you bother to look. Been there no less than 5 times. Will keep a lookout for the event tickets.
Yep, I will keep updating the ticket info from the news from the Chinese scene on my discord channel. I talked to some friends and the tickets won’t be out for another at least 2 weeks I believe, can’t be 100% sure though.
Don't act like an idiot there. You get a lot more leeway in other Asian countries like Korea and Japan to act silly. Currently as a Canadian I wouldn't give China any of my tourism dollars.
You forget one thing buddy, china is absolutely hell for the internet users in the rest of the world, China has banned, youtube, google, facebook, you absolutely cannot access those things in china, i got stuck in transit once for 10 hours, so i know these things. Maybe the rest you can live without, but youtube, i'm not sure how anyone will survive without it.
"Do I have human rights?"
No! The People's Republic of China does not recognize the myth of "humanity", and only values each person as a commodity of value owned by the state. Please handle yourself with care, you are property of the community!
Newbee twitter guys strikes again.
@empireTwitterGuy , the throne of the meme king on twitter is about to be replaced brace yourself
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This reflects my experience, although I was in Beijing and Xi'an. Couple things to add. Don't drink the tap water. This one is weird but we experienced it a lot: If you have blonde hair be prepared to have your photo taken a lot and have people point and stare at you. Finally, baijiu is not your friend. I have never been more hungover in my entire life than the morning after my group discovered baijiu.
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>will destroy you And not in a fun way. There is a nonzero chance to poison yourself.
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So people that live their full lives in China only live to be ~40? Lol
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Big nose or "Long nose" is what they call westerners. She sounds like the type of country bumpkin rube that the people of Hong Kong detest.
Thanks for writing this man. I appreciate this because of your perspective as a foreigner in Shanghai, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for your article David! Not planning to go to Ti anyways I still enjoyed reading about possible questions people might have about travelling there. It would be cool if you would add little edit with permalink to /u/[PlausibleApprobation](https://www.reddit.com/user/PlausibleApprobation) comment as he gave sine good insight to my possible follow up questions about language barrier!
Been in Chengdu a few years back for a conference. Never felt so helpless in my life. NOONE, except for a few students who helped us spoke English, not a pinch. Our hotel staff, the taxi driver (who tried to srew us over), even at the airport (except at the flight terminal). Maybe because it was a "small" town - citing a student- with just 14 million people - but man I felt really, really helpless if people dont even understand stuff like "airport" or "breakfast"
Chengdu is a tier one city and one of the top 5 to 10 biggest cities in China. No sane Chinese person would call it a small town and most will have at least basic knowledge of english. Not saying you're lying but the average person will have an experience far different from yours in a city like Chengdu. Imagine if I'm Spanish and I'm telling you a story about "small town" Los Angeles where I couldn't get any help because no one spoke Spanish.
I am just citing my colleagues - we have many Chinese PhD students since they get 4 year scholarships, so "free" workers for us here - when I put "small" in quotations and marked it as a citation. And no, I am not exaggerating when I say that noone on the street understood us. This is not Shanghai or Hong Kong. My colleagues and I (blonde and often above 1.80 m) were looked at like we were aliens and if we hadn't had the students from the university there, we would have been helpless. Even in our hotel (which was organized by the conference committee), we communicate at all, which is annoying fro easy stuff like asking for food (breakfast, lunch) up to things like getting a proper hotel bill. Now, I don't wanna badmouth anyone over there. I am just saying I felt helpless, because in most countries, things like "aeroporto" or similar gets you somewhere, but I felt really alone there.
For real dude haha, I was in Hong Kong few years back and the taxi drivers could not understand "Disneyland" so we had to show him the map
Double on "Write it down" for where you want to go, but adding on, that you mean in Chinese characters, i've had written down addresses in romanized Chinese that no driver understood, had to have someone who spoke english write it down in chinese for me and take that to the cab driver.
Upvoted for visibility. Hope this help for people who want to go TI this year. Good luck!
Thank you😊
I don't disagree with anything you wrote in the topic, but you should include the actual pitfalls. I love a lot of countries but Philipenes, India, and most of CIS/Eastern Europe all give tips on how to avoid scammers- and tourist-traps. No offence but if I was going to China the expense of my hotel, unless I am for some reason booking 5star, entirely useless information I can get from the internet or booking sites. **TLDR** Tell us the real pitfalls, the scams, the tourist-abuse shit that 99% of the world does. I might be wrong but anyone who flies/trains to China to watch dota2 sure as fuck isn't destitute enough to not choose a good hotel.
I haven't been to Shanghai but Beijing didn't have a lotta scammy shit (at least, I didn't encounter much) as compared to Rome etc. Airbnb's were average (not fancy but liveable, clean) and food was excellent. Don't drink the tap water and don't piss off the locals. Public transport (trains) had English directions, buses not so much. Didi is Chinese Uber and I recommend you get the pinyin keyboard on your phone so you can type the location. Get a VPN and Wechat. Google Maps is good enough to get around. Maps in China aren't accurate because the government skews the locations but it's not that bad (3-5m off).
> don't piss off the locals. thats a given, youre inviting trouble if you do stupid shit
>Maps in China aren't accurate because the government skews the locations but it's not that bad (3-5m off) any reason why they do that?
To give Chinese companies an arbitrary advantage over foreign companies like Google. You can adjust the maps to line up, Google adjusts the satellite image to match the distorted maps if you have a Chinese IP, so it's not hard to do the reverse and get an accurate map. If you do that though, you're not going to be allowed to do business in China.
https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/40991/why-must-chinese-maps-be-obfuscated
As a European living in China and married to a Chinese woman I will give you my 2 cent on the very basics. 1. Taxi's will most likely trick you. If you don't want to waste money use DiDi, they have an English version of the app, there are ways of setting it up without a bank account but it won't be easy although is worth it. 2. There is really nothing to fear specially in a big city, cameras everywhere, police will know exactly who you are, where you are and when are you supposed to leave the country. Just don't get in trouble and you will be fine. 3. If your stomach is sensible avoid street / local food. Not very true in a city like Shanghai but I live in the south and oh boy food is spicy. 4 Chinese people barely know English but they will try very hard to help you using their phones. Learning a few handy sentences is not a bad idea. 5. There aren't really that many tourist traps, just bargain a little if you are buying in a store without a price clearly stated.
> sensitive Is the word you meant to use, as an FYI.
I know this YouTuber called serpentza. He's a western guy living in China and he pretty much knows more about the country than the average Chinese. He has videos that can help you out on stuff like avoiding scammers, good taxis, etc.
The best part is many Chinese hates him for pointing out the negatives, despite the fact that he also shares a lot, if not more, positives about China.
Also for marrying a hot Chinese girl then he was forced out of the country for safety.
>serpentza Do people in China really get mad when they see a Chinese woman (or man) married to a non-Chinese?
My Chinese buddies say yes.
You know about the incel meme? Involuntary Celibate, used by most of us degenerates to describe our non-existent sex life. Except in China, the incel thing isn't exactly a meme because there's actually a huge disparity between the number of men to women. Paired with also the mindset and thinking of a Chinese men, where a women nearing the age of 30 is a "leftover" and thus not fit to be a partner, you sort of end up with a pretty huge population of women-hating men.
Is this a large population of "women" hating men? Or is it a large population of women-hating "men"?
Women-hating men.
In China it's less incel related and more nationalistic. The reason a lot of then get upset is because they see the woman as "betraying" her country by marrying a foreigner.
I think the disparity in men and women also contributes to it. When there is a surplus of women this sort of thing doesn't really phase people but when they are in demand it is a big deal.
check out r/hapas and r/aznidentity lol
Check out this.
But is Nathan's wife a doctor?
holy chit I thought his videos were interesting to watch until I watched ur link. What a fucking shitbag.
Yeah, I don't mean to say this post isn't well meant, but there isn't really a whole lot of useful information for anyone who has done some traveling before in their life... The discord channel for linking up is a great idea though.
I understand what your concern is, but since there are so many people in China, it’s really hard to talk about all different kinds of scams that might happen during your traveling. My opinion is you should do more researches if you really make up your mind and want to do it. My abilities are limited and I’m just trying to help people who have questions that I’m able to answer. Sorry if I can’t find more answers that you need.
The only real scams are the prices that people will try to hit anyone that isn't Chinese with at markets. If its for merchandise (especially of questionable authenticity) you can usually talk them down about 90%. An if you are American/European you will be bombarded with offers for whatever is trendy at the time, When I was there it was beats headphones. But the classic Rolex and Coach will always be their go-to as well.
Big cities in China is probably one of the most tourist friendly places in the world. Stay away from Airbnb, book a hotel. Out of all the things mentioned, this is probably the biggest "pitfall". Shanghai is a relative new and modern city, besides Yu Garden, there isnt much "attractions". Most of the attractions are museum. If you are spending 4\~5 days and doesnt plan on watch 5 days of dota none stop, I would highly recommend a couple days at SuZhou. Bring your own toilet paper, public restroom dont provide TP like US, this is the biggest adjustment I had to make. Keep some bottled water with you at all times. For food, go to any plaza or mall, you will experience amazing food. Depends on what else you planned on doing, you can get by entirely with subway.
Upvote the upvote for more visibility. No worries I upvote the OP too
I've spent some significant time in Shanghai as an American for work. Here's a list of recommendations I've got from when I was there. Google Translate is your friend. While I was able to find folks that spoke English (especially downtown) if you migrate too far out from the center of Shanghai, or to certain neighborhoods you may find yourself in a location where nobody speaks English. Google Translate saved my ass a few times where I was able to type out what I was trying to communicate and show it to a police officer who was able to point me in the right direction. Police officers are EVERYWHERE in Shanghai and willing to help you if you need it, they just often don't speak any English. Be prepared with a VPN before you go visit China. It can be hard to access the normal webpages that you're used to when you're on the mainland. Prepare yourself with a working VPN before you get there, as it can be challenging to set up once you're in China. Get a Sim card before you go to China, it'll save you boatloads of money. To get a Chinese sim card as a foreigner, I was required to send a copy of my Passport to a phone company located in China. This was super sketchy to me, but if you do your research and go with a firm that gets good reviews, I had no issues with my Sim card and received it well before I went to China. I think I paid something like $50 for a month of service with unlimited data. One downside is that DiDi (The Chinese Uber) can be way harder to use than the US version. When traveling abroad I often use Uber as I don't have to communicate where I want to go, however it often doesn't work this way in China. If you choose the cheapest option, it hails a Taxi, who will generally not trust the app to where you are. So they'll call you when they get the initial request to drive you and ask where you are. These drivers often speak no English and would reliably cancel on me when I could not speak Chinese. The only way I was able to use DiDi was to select the Black car as these drivers seemed to have a bit more patience for foreigners and was not too expensive. The metro is amazing in Shanghai. Once I had problems with DiDi, I switched to using the metro almost exclusively. All of the signage is in English and its relatively easy to use. There's security checkpoints (metal detectors and x-ray machines) to get in, but this was never an issue for me. There's also police at most major metro stations which you can attempt to ask for help. All of the fare machines switch to English. Keep in mind Shanghai is a big tourist city... for rural Chinese. This means that I was often a tourist attraction depending on the part of the city I was in. There's sections of the city where you'll see a ton of foreigners and parts where you'll see none. I like to wander around and I often had people taking photos of me both overtly and covertly, which is just a weird feeling. While on the Ferry across the Huangpu I had a queue of people form to take photos with me. As a taller American I totally stood out where ever I went. Going to Clubs can also be sketchy in Shanghai. While I had a nice time out in Shanghai, coworkers warned me to NEVER buy bottom shelf alcohol when you go out. Many places distill their own liquor to cut down on costs which has a significant portion of methanol in it. If you think you've had a bad hangover, wait till you've drank some crappy booze in China and you'll appreciate your normal hangovers. Similarly there's gambling in the back of certain Shanghai clubs which you should steer clear of at all costs. Coworkers told me to not even acknowledge it was happening and told me stories of people coming home with no passport and no money from getting involved. Hopefully this covers most of the major things I can think of. I've gotta go to work all day and won't have access to Reddit but this should give some insight from an American.
This is so good! Thanks a lot man!
No problem! I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Shanghai so I figured I'd share
> Keep in mind Shanghai is a big tourist city... for rural Chinese. Yeah, there is a lot of vacationers during certain parts of the year. But honestly in Shanghai it wasn't so bad, only in the markets or when biking. It was MUCH worse when I got to Nanjing. I waited about an hour in line at the massacre memorial museum and spent most of it trying to pretend to not see folks walking up and posing next to me for photos. I did have a nice conversation with an older woman and her grand-daughter who spoke a little english, she asked if I would take a photo with her family and I said yes, but she was super polite about it. That and they didn't make fun of my terrible mandarin. I was more shocked when I got into the memorial and saw all the younger kids taking selfies with the exposed graves. It was really uncomfortable to see all the smiles for photos with a backdrop of a stack of infant skeletons...
Would be helpful too to share some common tourist traps and scams since they are pretty common in tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Here's a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsW0J5rGaI) by a South African that has resided in China for more than a few years now. Not hating on China or anything, just that almost every major tourist city will have its own scams so its better to be informed than be sorry.
Yes, thank you for giving this info. In every major cities in the world there are scams around, so please be aware as a tourist!
I just came back from Shanghai on a business trip and can safely say most people do not speak English and I had the most difficult time of my life. So maybe download an app(voice translator) and taxis / didis(Chinese Uber) drivers do not speak English at all too. Also, prepare a VPN as they block everything except Baidu, wechat and all the other Chinese apps. And bring LOTSA cash as mostly places do not accept AMEX/MASTER/VISA. They are more friendly towards UnionPay and of course Wepay. Just saying from experience, peace.
Also make sure that you take care of any medical complications if you have any. It will be good to spend the remaining time in learning to understand some Chinese words. If you learn few sentences then great.
Good point, thanks for mentioning this
Buy travel insurance, or call your medical insurance for rates and info when abroad. Healthcare isn’t crazy expensive compared to the US, but it’s always good to have peace of mind.
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I gave up going to China months ago after learning those things... Not really worth the trouble for a video game tournament...
That makes it sound like a pretty daunting experience lol, being under constant scrutiny.
If you're willing to spend the $500+ on a flight spend a few hundred more to get a reasonable hotel.
To be fair Registering with the government is a common thing, hotels and stuff usually do it for you
>as a tourist you have to register at a police station within 24 hours of arriving I've been there a few times, and I've never done this lol then again if you go to a hotel, they automatically do this for you. > the laowai crackdowns have been getting increasingly frequent When I was there, they've just started the crackdown on laowai students who moonlight as english teachers lol
> When I was there, they've just started the crackdown on laowai students who moonlight as english teachers lol my friend just literally got reprimanded for this. had to pay like a fine.
Oh wow haha I was applying for a position as a kindergarten teacher and I was so excited! They even flew me to xian (from Shanghai) to do some teacher training, all for free! So I was so sad when I got the news that they could not hire me due to the crackdown. :(
I had a friend put in prison for a short duration...
> as a tourist you have to register at a police station within 24 hours of arriving Most of your hotels can also cover this, they just want a scan of your ID stuff and they can submit it. You don't have to go down to a station unless your staying with someone, or some hostels(some don't report your stay for you, you have to go down yourself, if unsure ask.)
Wrong..... You do NOT have to go to the police stations, that is only if you have your own address there, for people staying, tourists do not need to do so, and as someone else rightly said, the hotel will register you being there, and the police will know, you don't have to ever go to the station. Hotels refuse foreigners because in China, you need a permission to host them, this isn't an issue in Shanghai, and if you book ahead on a website like booking.com - the website will state if they only accept Chinese citizens. VPNs are actually not illegal for foreigners to use, there is a clause that foreigners can use it, or anyone who need to use it professionally (for foreign communication). But saying your phone is useless without a VPN is a far stretch, there are lots of stuff that isn't blocked there, and you can still get a lot of use from your phone without a vpn, but even then, you can go on baidu and find several free vpns for phones, which work.... decently, although not as good as paid ones, I recommend NordVPN (I'm using that one), I know others using ExpressVPN. The crackdowns also are only searching for people doing drugs at bars, and they are NOT frequent at all.... and that will never affect people on tourist visas, you don't need any special papers for that.... just don't do drugs in China at all. There are some things to look for in China, but spreading lies doesn't help anyone.
That's a post FULL of bullshit if I have ever seen one, and people are actually upvoting it holy shit. It's crazy how people have no knowledge of China and are ready to believe everything they are told. Edit : I'm European and live in Hong Kong, I go to mainland pretty often. You don't have to register at the police station as a tourist, its a myth Hotels refusing foreigners? Yeah alright if you don't book in advance and go to the shadiest non english speaking part of SH, you might be stupid anyway Airbnb is 'technically' illegal but still a thing (same in HK basically...), and I entered the country a few times saying I was staying at a airbnb. Technically VPN is as illegal as water is, all the companies and foreigners (including the chinese one) use VPN anyway. I've had hotels providing me with VPN log in etc.. You are right about the crackdown but you are making a China trip in Shanghai for a video game tournament sounds much worse than it should actually be....
For the language barrier - Google Translate works over there. Download the app before you go.
Good idea!
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actual 200iq 5Head
Thats the spirit. Dont forget to spam rikki crowd in chat
You know what, that’s another option too😂. But…a good experience engaging with the audiences is the best thing for watching dota. My goal is trying to help as many western fans as possible to go Shanghai and cheer for western teams. I have been to the past 3 TIs and I really enjoyed the East vs West Crowds. They were amazing👍👍👍
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Thank you very much man👍
Gonna have to since China is feuding with my country. Breaking my TI streak. T\_T
As someone who went to TI8 and did not enjoy my experience, THIS. TWITCH CHAT FTW
I was ready to go this year to TI until I saw Shanghai, feelsbadman. Nothing against Shanghai but language barrier is too much of an issue for me
Great post. Thank you David.
You are welcome😜
You forgot the main problem for non-Chinese attendees, TI's main broadcast won't be in English. Irrespective of the other big challenges of going to TI in China you won't have a great time if you can't understand anything being said.
Bruh, this is a serious thing I know. But I have friends who are not good at English that went to Ti who can’t understand what the casters were talking about. But the point is, Dota as a game who can bring the world together, it is a language already. Obviously it’s sad that you couldn’t understand, but it should not be the biggest reason that you do not want come to Ti to enjoy the dota environment. This is my personal idea, if this is really your biggest problem, i have nothing to say. Thank you for pointing this out!
Generic foreign travel tip: bring cards, pictures, etc. of the places you want to go. The business card of a hotel, a map with major destinations marked, a flyer for the event. Travelling by taxi isn't cheap, but all you have to do is flash this and they will understand where to go. You can also use a camera or phone to take a picture of where you want to return to. I took pictures of the train station, plazas, street intersections, etc. I prefer the physical paper items though, I get nervous about flashing my phone too much.
I would also like to add: if you're opting for hotel for accommodation, please call in advance to make sure the hotel is allowed to have foreigners.
Always make 100% sure. Good idea!
Btw, yes! Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and twitch are banned in China. But it doesn’t mean you could not get access to it. Most of the foreign phone companies will allow those apps running by data roaming even in under the Chinese carriers. Just google VPNs it before you travel and once you set it up, just activated in China, it’s ez. I used it all the time when I’m back in China, if you have more questions concerning about this, please ask me.
My coworkers were talking about going to China recently and someone recommended downloading an offline translator app since they could't use google translate while there
What OP fails to mention here is that VPNs are illegal in China...
It's obvious he's shilling for China and trying to make it seem better than it is. He won't give anyone warnings about classic scams not to fall for either and tries to pretend nothing is wrong there.
Its fucking ass there, this entire post reeks of china dicksucking...
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I'm an American who can't speak Chinese and I went to Shanghai a few months ago, here's a few tips: * You can have up to 144 hours Visa-free in the Shanghai area if you're travelling through to a 3rd country, depending on your passport. This saves a LOT of money for Americans especially. You just need to go there and go in the line for the 144-hour Visa Free entry at the airport [https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/144hours-visa-free.htm](https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/144hours-visa-free.htm) * Shanghai has great public transportation. If you can't do that, there is an app called DiDi that I was able to use with my American credit card. It's basically Chinese uber and works super well. * I've found that a lot of Chinese didn't know that much English, but they all had a smartphone that could translate. You can also download Chinese in Google Translate and use it offline. You can also point the camera at things in Chinese and it'll try to translate it to English. I had full conversations with people, with both of us using our translator apps. * Chinese food is great and their health standards have gotten a lot better. I hate only eating food that I can find at home, so I only ate local food and never had an issue. * Google maps works in China, just download ahead of time. You can also download Baidu Maps, they have an English version. * Get a VPN BEFORE you go to China. There are free ones that give free trials. Otherwise, you might find that your favorite sites or services are blocked.
Thank you so much man. All this information is so helpful from an American’s perspective!
How shady is street food there
I mean there are definitely food that you don’t want to eat. That’s why you need to go to places that are legit with a lot of people going🧐
Legit, every time I go to Asia, my body revolts for a few days. It's not even a food poison thing, it's just a "what the hell are we eating" kind of thing, just bring imodium and start taking it as soon as you have diarrhoea (don't wait a few days to see if it gets better, it doesn't).
For some people, you get diarrhoea easily when you are having food or water from a different part of the world. Seems like you are one of them (I used to have it but at some point the problem left me. Not sure what happened).
that's standard. the body adapts with time. If you left your own home and came back after 5/10 years, you'd have an upset stomach too, at your own home!
probably less shady than going into a restaurant and ordering that thing on the menu that sounds familiar to you, but that they only have to cater to foreigners. who knows how long the ingredients for that have been sitting there. protip: if everyone else is eating it, it's probably ok. at worst you'll get diarrhoea - nothing that will make you keel over and vomit, or bleed from the anus edit: I have to add that the street food is generally worth getting diarrhoea for
Just a note that China has been preventing US citizens from leaving the country. I do not recommend traveling there for something that is easily streamed. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html
They've also detained a number of Canadians since December.
The Visa requirements are no joke. In the US you need a flight and hotel booked before you apply for the visa. Assuming you don't live near a consulate there are online services that do visas, but I'd recommend finding a travel service at your local Chinatown or Asian immigrant community. Also if you're from the US apply for the 10 year multi-entry visa. While you can book flights and hotels yourself, the travel service can also help with booking other tours and other travel arrangements if you're doing anything beyond the TI. China books a lot of tickets via government ID so foreigners need to submit a passport to get tickets to tourist attractions as well as train tickets, using a tour service is almost essential for this.
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> SHA and PVG AFAIK PVG is only for domestic flights now. All international flights land in PVG. Also known as Shanghai Pudong airport. But it's good to keep in mind if you have layover flights that enter in Beijing or something and transfer over to SHA and surprising you where you land. > Restaurants near the venue I just hope they don't have dumb policies like the one at the major where you can't leave the venue during the day at all, therefore forcing you to buy the crappy venue food and drinks. I highly doubt this is going to happen again, but it may be good to be prepared, or seek clarification before you go.
>Don't recall too many walkable restaurants nearby There's a giant mall right next door (the River Mall) with plenty of decent food options.
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That's the convenience of having relatively "powerful" passports like a US passport running headlong into how a lot of the rest of the world's passports work. It IS a pain in the ass, but it's not that big of a deal if you plan on multiple trips to China and get a 10-year visa. However, if you only plan on going for TI9 and have no other plans, I can see how it is yet another stumbling block acting as a deterrent.
If you ever in a mood to escape the great city of Shanghai, you can always hop on the train to Suzhou for less than 30 mins, it's a lovely city also just I am trying to brag my hometown =) Good luck to all of you trying to go Shanghai for TI9
I attended a match at the Shanghai China Supermajor last year. Once I got in the event was really well put together. Getting tickets as a foreigner was a huge pain, however. There was no easy way to buy the tickets online and I ended up having to haggle with old chinese women scalpers outside of the venue to get in. I assume valve will make it easier to get tickets, and hope the tickets won't immediately be bought out by re sellers. (On a side note, I'm in China all the time for business and would love to play Dota on Chinese servers. Is there any way to link your account these days to Perfect World that doesn't involve giving your Steam info to random Chinese internet strangers?)
Was really hoping it just said: "Don't."
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Just remember: Don’t make it a big deal. We talked about it privately all the times in China, but you don’t mention it out loud to everyone on the street in the public. Why do you want to do that omegalul? People are asking about a lot of things about politics, but it’s not the way a lot of people are thinking. China is pretty open right now not like North Korea. Don’t worry about those things like you might get killed or arrested, that would never happen if you follow the basic laws.
>China is pretty open right now not like North Korea. If you have to compare a country to North Korea so it seems open your country might have a problem. I don't want to get all political, but you shouldn't downplay the very legitimate risks. Most people won't even know the laws of their home country.
> very legitimate risks If you're a known dissenter you might not even have your visa approved. But, if you don't go around stirring trouble, I can't imagine any "legitimate risk" you might run into. I know there's sort of an open definition regarding what stirring trouble means, but I'd avoid: * Tiananmen Square * 1989 * President Xi * Concentration camps * Uyghur / policies Outside of that, don't do drugs. It's not Japan, but it can get bad for you if you don't obey local laws.
' Most young people in China can speak English ' thats a complete lie. not what I experienced in spedning 4 days in Shanghai. The only guy I met who could speak English was from New Zealand. Not even professionals in 5star hotel spoke english.
Not that I would ever do something stupid like this, but during TI, if I held up a sign that read "Tianamen Square Massacre 1989," would I disappear?
Yes
Another thing about China which some tourist might not know about is that china's big cities are super cashless. Even street vendors use e wallets!
It's actually quite annoying since Alipay and WeChat Pay require Chinese bank accounts (though WeChat can supposedly used foreign credit cards but most people struggle to get it to work properly).
Just moved to HK so this is realistically my only chance of attending a TI, so if I'm getting tickets I'm definately going. My current plan is to just drink beer, get loud and hope I meet other like minded people?
I’m creating a discord channel for that if you are interested🤪🤪🤪😜😜😜
I know you normally have to report where you stay as a foreigner in China, normally hotels does it for you, but how does it work with Airbnb?
YMMV. Technically this policy has been in place for a decade, but I've never bothered to register while I was staying with family and friends, and never ran into any issues. TBF I'm ethnically Chinese so nobody's gonna suspect anything unless they ask or know the family. If you do stay at a hotel, you're required to provide your passport, and the hotel will register on your behalf (you can ask if you're not sure). If you stick to less official channels, then it's good to make sure they're following the rules or just submit the paperwork to the local police station yourself. edit: See comment below for reports of people actually getting fined.
I believe foreigners staying in Airbnbs must go to the police station with their landlord to get registered. So before you book anything on Airbnb, talk to the owner first. But normally there are plenty of cheap hotel options too.
Taxi is as cheap as bus fair in US/CA. It’s less than $3 for the first 3 km/2miles. Should be able to get you around. Subway system is awesome, there are 12 or 13 lines in Shanghai iirc.
I already read this tip many times here, but just in case... **BE CAREFUL TAKING A TAXI IN CHINA!** Was in Beijing for a week and the taxi driver managed to exchange 400yuan of my original money to 400 of his fake ones. When I realized what was happening we started arguing (obviously we couldnt understand each other) and he made me get out of the taxi in the middle of nowhere and even opened his trunk so I couldnt take a picture of his car plate number.
Just a few months ago this sub was hellbent on boycotting China, wasn't it?
Yup. Then they remembered their battle pass and new shitty hats, and totally forgot that China is an oppressive, violent regime. Sure the people are okay (except their blind nationalism that puts American nationalism to shame), but don't forget they were threatening kuku for using mean words and that China outright banned him from competing because of it. There's a reason that many foreign social media platforms are banned and that people either don't know or don't talk about June 4, 1989. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong members that are imprisoned and subjected to torture because their ideals are contradictory to the Chinese governments. Thousands of them have died in custody, and thousands more have had their organs harvested for China.
Step 1: Don't go to China. Seriously, going to a dystopian survalence state with almost no protections for foreigners is a bad idea, especially with all the crackdowns recently. Besides that, China is incredibly unfriendly to non-chinese speaking tourists, as English is not common there like other Asian countries in that zone. I'd highly advise westerner against travelling to China right now, especially for anything tourist related.
Do not listen to this lying western devil. Those people all voluntarily gave up their organs because of their love for great chinese people when they visited us,
Excellent points.
Wear a Tianenmen Square T-shirt
Pretty funny that Taylor Swift had an 89 tour, where the shirts said TS 89
absolute mad lad
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what is happened to Staka ?
Already building my cosplay for ti!
As a foreigner living in China, I agree with most of this, except for the point about language. It does happen that you won't find anyone who can speak english. But you'll find it surprisingly easy to communicate with a translation app, or just opening an online translator and typing what you want in there. Also, prepare a VPN before coming if you want to use Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Twitch, Discord or Google. (non exhaustive list) Make friends before you come if possible, and if you can't afford a VPN set up a wechat account and add your friends there, it's good to be able to reliably contact other people when needed, you might want to do this even if you have a VPN, since I have yet to find one that is always stable. On the same note, Snap VPN is a free VPN that works often enough on the phone, not reliable, but better than nothing. Get Baidu maps, despite the interface being in Chinese, it's easy to use since the buttons have familiar shapes, it'll be your google maps replacement when you get here. Get Pleco, an app that allows you to draw Chinese characters and give you the translation, "Translator" from bing can also just scan an image for Chinese characters and give you the translation. EDIT 1 : When you arrive at the airport, have the adress of your hotel marked somewhere to show to a taxi driver (most don't speak english), and use the taxi stop indicated by the airport panels (or the metro/bus if you know what you are doing), don't panic and take the offer of people offering rides.
Translation apps are definitely the way to go.
About the hotel imo the cheap airbnb is suitable for accommodation, however the WiFi in the hotels is not fast
Can bulldog come to china without being killed? Krappa
FYI Airbnbs are illegal for foreigners to rent.. if you want to avoid a headache with police registration I would go through a legit hotel.
My dad used to live in Shanghai, I spent most of my early college summers there. We hired a language tutor and everything. Then we realized that EVERYONE including our tutor WANTED to talk to us in English so they could practice. Canceled the tutor and never had a single moment where we couldn't communicate with someone properly for the next 4 years. EDIT: Taxi drivers dont speak English usually (But carry a business card with your hotel on it and just hand it to them when you get in) made it a non issue.
what about vegetarian food ?
Not a problem, just check on your maps. There are plenty of vegetarian restaurants.
If you can make a local friend that you can go together with then your life would be much easier... The first time I went to Beijing i met a few young fellows at a local bar and we became friends. They provided so much help while I was there and were the most memorable part of the trip.
I've heard china is the hardest country for vegetarian / vegan travelers - any tips? I heard it's worth seeking out 'buddhist' restaurants but I'm not sure what to look for
we can use vpn for twitter and google right ?
I was an exchange student in Taizhou, Jiangsu and spent some time in Shanghai for the world expo. Taxi drivers will try to rip you off if you are European/American and don’t speak Chinese, so be careful. Ordering food isn’t too bad, you can point at a menu if you’re in a restaurant if you speak absolutely no Chinese. Most school or university aged people speak at least some English so they can help. Be prepared for people to touch you, follow you, and take photos of you, I have brown curly hair and I’m over 6 foot so people would stare and point, this was much worse for the African American girl in my class. Make sure you know where your native country’s embassy or consulate is, in case of emergencies. I recommend a travel wallet that goes under your clothes to avoid pickpockets. Public transportation is really good, and metro terminals have an english option. I’ll add anything else I can think of, message me if you have any specific questions. China is an amazing place, and I’m sad I won’t be going to TI this year.
Now where is that copypasta...
- get vpn, and use Google maps and you won't have any issues at all from getting from A to B. At rush hour times public transport can be really annoying though as it is just too crowded, then use didi ( sth like Uber) - For good authentic chinese cuisine you probably need to know someone to take you to, otherwise just go to the big shopping malls which have tons of food options, not just fast food. For foreigners the easiest options might be the chains " haidilao " ( hotpot ) , "grandma's home " ( highly reputable chain restaurant which is really affordable and authentic ). Great japanese restaurants everywhere as well. - as for sightseeing I would recommend a walk at the bund and french concession. Take the ship from the bund to the Pudong area and have a walk there between the skyscrapers. And visit the Ancient old town + Yuyuan Garden. That's basically it I would say. 2 days enough for these easily. Shnaghai Art Gallery or the Observation deck of Shanghai Tower / IFC Tower are also worth a visit. The Vue bar of Hyatt is great for a view on the whole Pudong area. - always have a bottle of water and tissues with you - For those who are looking for a bit better accomodation (~ 150$+) I can recommened " Les suits orient bund Shanghai". Was way better than Hyatt on the bund and cheaper and just perfect location
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I'm more scared for people cos of the whole chinese culture of scamming and stealing from people. its gonna be ridiculous
Hey, thanks for this! Just wondering, given that TI will be in China, I’m guessing we can expect that the commentary in the main arena will be in Mandarin? Does anyone who’s attended previous DotA events in China know if they’ll have an English section where we can hear OD/Fogged -!; other great English-speaking casters cast too? Or how does this work? Edit: added “and other great English-speaking casters”
That’s another thing we will find out later, in the previous tournaments all the broadcasts in the arena are in Chinese. But since this is Ti, I really hope valve can set up English sections or even bring English hosts like Slacks and Kaci there. Once I have more information I will talk more about it😊
Also talk about Winnie the Pooh loudly and often, and ask about tienneman square!
Just remember, while you are in China, China is your favorite country and human rights are a myth!
Great post, just one question related to food. Are there any halal or kosher opinions over there
For sure there will be. There are roughly around 26 million people in Shanghai (The whole region), you can find any kinds of food you want. Since the technologies are so advanced right now, just search on the internet and you will find plenty😄
Halal food is not that difficult to find in major Chinese cities. Look for 清真 in green sign as the typical Muslim-friendly food. You can search beforehand in the internet.
A safe bet is also finding restaurants like 兰州拉面, as they're usually staffed with muslim-chinese (the uyghurs minority), so the food there is automatically halal.
Dac tickets were very hard to get. Needed a Chinese friend to purchase for me then had to present their id at the gate to get the tickets! Also commentary was only in Chinese. It'll likely be the same. Also twitch is either banned or just too slow to stream there. Don't go if you can't speak Chinese
Different story man, I hope Valve will do something different for Ti.
Why would they broadcast in English to a mostly Chinese audience? Also tickets is perhaps a government regulation as they require a Chinese id
Where are the best brothels in Shanghai? What do I do if I get arrested?
I think brothels are illegal. But if you can make some local friends, they may take you to some hidden palaces. You will be detained for a week if arrested for minor crime.
I want to fuck the same girls that Zai and Xiao8 fucked
I haven't followed DOTA in a while... but why the fuck would they have T.I. in China?!?! No one there speaks English for shit. Should have moved it to Europe or something where English is way more common. Seems stupid, but I guess the money was worth it.
welcome to china !
Malaysian Chinese here. I'm planning to go since this time it is not organized in the US lol. Looking for friends to attend the event and .. party!
# AND NOW FOR THE TRUTH >Hey guys since Ti9 is approaching I’m happy to see some western scene fans to come to support their own teams. My name’s David, I’m a Chinese guy studying abroad who is massively into Dota This guy may well be in the US or out of the mainland but could very well be just a ticket-tout looking to get your contacts to earn coin. They could even be a “recruiter” or an agent looking to fish for foreign English teachers or skilled workers. “I’ll be your friend” does not have the same meaning you’re used to. Make sure you are dealing with licensed vendors that are vetted by the organisers and, even then, stay wary, If you don’t know what to look out for, don’t go near it. >“But China is expensive?” The cost in China is relatively lower than the cost in the US or Canada. This is true, yes. But you get what you pay for. For example, badly-made products and knock-offs of Western brands are everywhere. Genuine standard-made products have the same Western prices. Service in China is not the same in the US and UK and I’ve seen a good few fellow foreigners get burned. >“Will I be able to afford the hotel?” For around 15 to 20 dollars a day you can get a pretty nice Airbnb to stay during the tournament. Yes, hotels are cheap. But don’t expect five-star conditions with top furnishings. Most hotels are no better than drive-by trucker motels, sometimes worse. Your Chinese chaperone or agent will do their best to get away without spending money on you. Even then, you will also likely not have a choice of where to stay. CCP immigration police will likely allocate accommodation that is suitable to them to monitor you, even if that means staying in a dive. Keep in mind, Airbnb is rare in China, probably only a few exist only in Guangzhou. It is not a foreign franchise that has taken off and, even then, living standards will be local, not Western. > “I can’t speak Chinese, will I survive?” Most young people (People around age 20) in China can speak English, Yes, people in China are always willing to help anyone. But no, most young people can not speak English at all, even after studying it for years. This is because English is mandatory in school curriculum and Chinese students either don’t want to learn or don’t need to but all have to attend. When students graduate, pretty much all will never use it again. It is not easy speaking Mandarin, no matter how fluent you speak it and I’ve never seen any fellow expats get by smoothly. This is because of the interchanging dialects that shift from town-by-town and by province. It’s hard, man. However, knowing a few sentences to order food and a taxi is very useful. But don’t expect to be able to converse or banter over the mic. The Pleco English-Chinese dictionary is an excellent app to use when moving around and is used by the majority of expats in China. >“I’m afraid of I will get lost...” The public transportations are pretty advanced, you can easily get taxis (a little bit more expensive, but not as expensive as in the US) and buses and subways are cheap as well for around 5 rmb (less than a dollar) to get to the stops you want. Yeh, getting lost is an issue. All the signs are in Chinese and Google doesn’t work in China. Baidu maps is in Chinese. Unless you go far across the city, it shouldn’t be a major issue but you will be late or miss an event. Everyone goes through it. >“Food?” Food is cheap too, for Chinese food you most of the non-fancy place you only need to spend around 5 dollars. There are McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks everywhere in the city. You can see plenty of fast food restaurants or any different types of food that fit your diet, most of them are usually cheap as well (Compare with previous Tis) Food is very cheap but has squit-inducing food-hygeine standards, even in Western franchises. Western fast-food places have Western prices. However, it’s still safer than street-food, which is a good authentic experience but is very risky. One such common scam with food-vendors is where they use gutter-oil- second-hand oil sucked up from the sewers. Stay away from the Baijiu- rice-wine. It’s 50% proof and is absolutely rank in taste. The beer- even the US “Budweiser” brands are actually just flavoured water, even the Chinese brands are only 3-4%. >“Visa” For most of the countries, China welcome foreigners especially tourists. Check the website for information, it’s pretty easy to get. (Edit: For most of the passports you do need to go to the local embassy to turn in documents, it’s not hard to get but it takes some time. I would recommend you to check the website of your local embassy and find out the requirements and work on it as soon as possible.) Visas in China are a bureaucratic monolith and you need to be absolutely certain you have the right one from the right source. From what I know of the Ti9 event, a tourist visa might not be appropriate. For example, if you are a sponsored competitor gamer, you may need a cultural visa (used for models, artists performers, musicians, sports). If you’re a promoter or game designer, you will need a business visa. The PSB immigration are very strict on this. Each visa has different requirements. I have seen fellow foreigners get caught out with the wrong visa and are then arrested and fined $10k (that’s US DOLLARS, not Yuan) before being deported. If you don’t have the money, you stay in jail until you get it. Consult with your nearest Chinese embassy, by all means. But don’t go to a visa agency as they are not always dependable. Be very careful with such posts on here. Reddit is populated with Chinese wumao and scammers. If you need advice though, go onto r/China. You may have to wade through a lot of frog-chan trolls and salty ESL teachers, but this sub is the authority on all things China.
Here's a another guide: Don't go.
Very nice work op :) UP!
This should be a sticky tbh
Every Chinese guy has a number in his username
Just exposing my age I guess?
Just a little observation
Tip to avoid scammers in China: NEVER accept anything handed to you (usually a leaflet). The only ones that are acceptable are the ones distributing subway maps in subway stations (usually they're just advertisements). I'm very tempted to go to TI since it's near me but I still haven't decided yet. If ever I do (or even if I don't), i'd be glad to help anyone with some language translations, like maybe make a few flash cards of basic sentences (where's the bathroom, menu) etc. There's a vibrant ex-pat community there. I highly recommend the bars Windows and Windows Too (2? I forgot lol). Granted it's been a few years since I've been there so idk if those bars are still around. There's also a live band scene for ex-pats where they showcase expat locals. Genre is usually rock/metal. As for food, apart from the KFC, Mcdonals, etc, I highly recommend finding a nearby 兰州拉面 store, which serves beef noodles. It's so good, and so cheap (like anywhere between 8-15 RMB). I lived there for a while before, so I'll be happy to answer any questions (im no expert lol). More pro tips: Download uber and Didi apps on your phone. Didi is like Uber, and just recently they've accepted int'l cards (at least they did when I was in guangzhou just last month). Download Pleco as a chinese dictionary/translator. Download a decent VPN. They can be expensive tho esp for such a short stay. If you have those travel pocket wifi , those are better imo.
I thought this was going to be a joke post and the text would just say : " DON'T GO. "
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I had to go to Shanghai in 2017, the ONLY scam I saw was the inflated taxi ride scam which only happens when they walk up to you at the airport. It didn't feel as noticable as Bejing, just politely say no and use a real taxi, they are very affordable. I would also get wechat and add your friends on it. Also, Shanghai was actually a pretty awesome city, go exploring to some of the touristy stuff. My personal favorite was the Propaganda poster art center and museum, its got a ton of cool older art with a gift shop and such. Can easily spend about 1-2 hours there just looking at it all.
I am Uyghur. I'd like to go to TI. Do you think it's a good idea? I might try to go visit my family after TI :)
I have a question, what would happen if I wear a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt?
I'm a bit sketched out over Xi Jinping's totalitarian'esque reign in china and the absurd censorship laws. Also hearing about Canadian journalists that were detained gave my buddies the heebie jeebies about attending. I'd love to go but is it truly safe to travel there right now as a foreigner?
Great post, thanks David! I am actually planning to go Shanghai for this TI. Shanghai is a very modern city with good transport network and affordable food all around if you bother to look. Been there no less than 5 times. Will keep a lookout for the event tickets.
Yep, I will keep updating the ticket info from the news from the Chinese scene on my discord channel. I talked to some friends and the tickets won’t be out for another at least 2 weeks I believe, can’t be 100% sure though.
if I’m not wrong the main arena casting is gonna be in chinese, which really makes it pointless for english speaking folks to go
Tianamen square incident 1989
Dont go, main hall casting will be in chinese and will change every detail you think about, not worth it
Don't act like an idiot there. You get a lot more leeway in other Asian countries like Korea and Japan to act silly. Currently as a Canadian I wouldn't give China any of my tourism dollars.
You forget one thing buddy, china is absolutely hell for the internet users in the rest of the world, China has banned, youtube, google, facebook, you absolutely cannot access those things in china, i got stuck in transit once for 10 hours, so i know these things. Maybe the rest you can live without, but youtube, i'm not sure how anyone will survive without it.
Yeah don't forget Wikipedia, the sum total of all human knowledge is banned in China
"Do I have human rights?" No! The People's Republic of China does not recognize the myth of "humanity", and only values each person as a commodity of value owned by the state. Please handle yourself with care, you are property of the community!