u/kramsnewo

Ni Howdy!

While I have traveled internationally a few times, I am not one of those people who roam to all of the corners of the world. Recently I went to Chongqing and I visited for about 10 days. It was by far the furthest I had been from home. The trip and the country were completely amazing to me.

People are pretty much the same around the world - we work, we play, we love or children, etc. However, I did notice many differences between Chinese and American culture. These are just the subtle, silly differences that I thought were interesting so I noted them in my phone. I decided to write this out mainly for myself and for my family, but I thought it might also be interesting to share them here. I hope you find them informative and maybe even amusing.

• In general, things were very inexpensive from my point of view. Rides, meals, hotels were probably all less that half or maybe even a third of what I would expect in America.
• In general, people were very well behaved - rule followers... Until they were operating a motor vehicle...
• It all felt safe and I got the impression there was very little crime. In fact one time we left our luggage in the metro station. No locker - we just left it with a bunch of other peoples luggage in an area labelled luggage storage. Presumably there were cameras?
• There were no homeless. None. I am not sure how they solved that problem, but my hat is off to the Chinese for this one.
• No tax or tipping. This part was very nice.
• Most signs were in English and Chinese. This was super nice, but I did wonder about it. Why all the English signage? We literally went DAYS without seeing another 'Waiguoren'.
• The napkins were tiny. Also some restaurants gave you thin gloves to eat with to keep your hands clean. Oooh and some restaurants gave out flossers which I really did like.
• Speaking of signs - there were a number of them with random life advice on them. All had positive messages about how to be a good person or a good citizen. My favorite was a sign that said - 'Don't follow random advice.' You see the paradox, right?
• People were VERY sun conscious - using umbrellas all the time. It was cute to see couples with the man holding the umbrella.
• There were many pet dogs, but they were all pretty much small breeds. Must be a feature of apartment living.
• The advertisements for stores and drink places were so colorful! In many cases they had cute funny animals as icons - a snowman, a panda, dinosaur, etc. All had a happy fun vibe like Hello Kitty.
• Sometimes the stores had music that played outside - usually some sort of happy fun kid song. I recognized many of them as based on children songs in America - like 'turkey in the straw' or 'Mary had a little lamb.' Of course the lyrics (if any) were in Chinese. Still they are catchy!
• For any advertisement with a human model, they used these perfect actors that looked like they stepped our of a KPop (Cpop?) band. Basically they looked like the Chinese backstreet boys (and girls).
• Last thing about the shops and stalls - some of them had people shouting some phrase or two out to generate business. That was pretty normal. However, some took it further and had people with headsets that were amplified doing the sales pitch. Some even had simple recordings that were blaring constantly. In NYC this would have caused a fist fight with the neighboring proprietors but not here - I guess they just have it all tuned out.
• There was not a lot of ethnic diversity. Perhaps to a local, you could see people from the north, east, west of China and recognize them, but I could not. Basically everyone was Chinese. In America you get used to seeing people of all shapes and colors.
• Tea and drink stores are everywhere. You can order ahead or have drinks delivered easily. You could get some many delicious combinations. However, I am a regular black tea drinker and finding regular black tea was surprisingly difficult.
• In fact you could have ANYTHING delivered and it was fast and inexpensive. The hotel we stayed in had a robot. I think the robot was for the delivery people - they handed off the food to the robot and the robot rode the elevator and took the food to the specific room. We bumped into it several times - sort of like R2D2.
• It was hot while we were there and a lot of people had fans. Some were the old fashioned hand fans, but many were small battery powered ones. Some were very high tech!
• Scooters were everywhere. This makes sense in a busy crowded city. The level of customization was cool to look at too. Many were in colors or with funny anime stickers. Some had little canopies on them to protect from the rain/sun. It was clear that the sun made the handlebars hot in the summer so people would have different contraptions to protect them. Some had simple mitts for this and some went so far as to have a whole jacket reversed and attached. This was probably important in winter as well... Helmets were obviously optional though.
• We saw very few pedaled bicycles. That was strange.
• We rode a lot of escalators - each was a bank of two - one up and one down. We noticed that there was no rhyme or reason to which was one which side. I almost got on the wrong one several times. This struck me as strange because China is a very organized place.
• I used chop sticks exclusively for well over a week. This is definitely a way to go on a diet as an American. I actually got hand cramps.
• Basically all money exchange is through your phone. I never saw or touched any hard money. This worked very well and I wish we did more of that in the US. It all worked through QR codes. There were times where we go stuck but I think that was because we had non-chinese phone numbers. Even vending machines worked this way. It was great!
• I learned what a 'Beijing Bikini' was. It was super hot so a lot of Chinese men had their shirts flipped up and belly showing - hence the bikini.
• Like most people I get a lot of email and texts as the day progresses. However, over in China there is 'weird quiet' in the middle of the day due to the time difference when most of America is asleep. You can communicate with your family early or late but the middle of the day is quiet - its nice!

In general, I found China to be a weird paradox - Ancient and modern at the same time. The feeling of age comes through through in the people, customs, and language. At the same time it is also VERY modern with tall buildings, phone tech, better cars, and other ways. It's a nice place...

I am visiting from the US with my daughter and we would like to see the drone show tomorrow night. Any ideas for a good spot wit watch it from? A place with a good view that is not totally packed with people. Maybe a rooftop bar?

All help appreciated. Xiexie!

I hate that when I book travel it forces me to select this. It basically forces me to do my search multiple ways to find the best deal. Am I missing something? What should I select? Why is this any of their business?