[John Dodds]

Went to ChangSha and ZhangJiaJie (Hunan province) for a few weeks late last year. Almost impossible to do anything without any Mandarin skills.
Hard to even find the airport and train station, nothing in English script, had to run GPS to even find when to get off the train.
If there were bars and clubs, I couldn't find them. NOBODY spoke any English.

And I travel all over the world with hardly any problems.
China is the hardest country I've ever visited.

Anything to do with Microsoft/Facebook/Google is totally blocked, can't even access the android play store.
If you do go have WhatsApp and WeChat preinstalled and working on your phone along with Maps.Me and the area you intend to visit already down loaded.

[Suits]

(02-05-2018 07:29 PM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

Doesn’t matter what I say or do certain people here are always gonna hate on me.

[Zerdame]

(02-06-2018 12:42 PM)Travel Museums Wrote:  

. And I’ll continue to write stream of conscious. Get used to it.

Famous last words. Writing ‘stream of conscious’, whatever that means haha. See you TM. It was good while it lasted.

[Heart Break Kid]

(02-06-2018 07:45 PM)John Dodds Wrote:  

Went to ChangSha and ZhangJiaJie (Hunan province) for a few weeks late last year. Almost impossible to do anything without any Mandarin skills.
Hard to even find the airport and train station, nothing in English script, had to run GPS to even find when to get off the train.
If there were bars and clubs, I couldn't find them. NOBODY spoke any English.

And I travel all over the world with hardly any problems.
China is the hardest country I've ever visited.

Anything to do with Microsoft/Facebook/Google is totally blocked, can't even access the android play store.
If you do go have WhatsApp and WeChat preinstalled and working on your phone along with Maps.Me and the area you intend to visit already down loaded.

How did you get by without Chinese?

[Suits]

(02-06-2018 09:00 PM)Heart Break Kid Wrote:  

(02-06-2018 07:45 PM)John Dodds Wrote:  

Went to ChangSha and ZhangJiaJie (Hunan province) for a few weeks late last year. Almost impossible to do anything without any Mandarin skills.
Hard to even find the airport and train station, nothing in English script, had to run GPS to even find when to get off the train.
If there were bars and clubs, I couldn't find them. NOBODY spoke any English.

And I travel all over the world with hardly any problems.
China is the hardest country I've ever visited.

Anything to do with Microsoft/Facebook/Google is totally blocked, can't even access the android play store.
If you do go have WhatsApp and WeChat preinstalled and working on your phone along with Maps.Me and the area you intend to visit already down loaded.

How did you get by without Chinese?

Apparently he didn't.

China is like another planet. Despite having already lived there for half a decade, I didn't realize how extreme it was until I visited Malaysia for a month a year ago. In Malaysia, so many of the people I met, despite having a completely different background and life experience, where so damn relatable. People smile at strangers who catch their eye and I met so many people who love and care about their country.

When I returned to China, it felt like I had travelled back to the moon. You can survive OK in a place like Shanghai or Beijing without speaking a damn word of Chinese, but get off the beaten track and good luck.

Taxi drivers (even in Beijing) won't know a single word of relevant English. If you tell them "airport" they won't understand you. If you try to say it in Chinese, they won't understand you. You'll have to show them the word written down to get anywhere if you haven't learned to speak the language.

This is a country where even in Beijing, the escalators announcement system in the subway system has pre-recorded messages in Chinglish. That's right, they couldn't even be bothered to hire someone who could get the pronunciation right. Instead, every time you ride the escalator, you get to listen to a helpful reminder to "stand firm and horrrrd the handrairrrr."

If you're far enough off the beaten track, people may regard you as unusual enough to warrant special hospitality, but even then, their ability to communicate with you is going to limited, even with phones that have translator software ready and waiting.

[TravelerKai]

(02-06-2018 07:45 PM)John Dodds Wrote:  

Went to ChangSha and ZhangJiaJie (Hunan province) for a few weeks late last year. Almost impossible to do anything without any Mandarin skills.
Hard to even find the airport and train station, nothing in English script, had to run GPS to even find when to get off the train.
If there were bars and clubs, I couldn't find them. NOBODY spoke any English.

And I travel all over the world with hardly any problems.
China is the hardest country I've ever visited.

Anything to do with Microsoft/Facebook/Google is totally blocked, can't even access the android play store.
If you do go have WhatsApp and WeChat preinstalled and working on your phone along with Maps.Me and the area you intend to visit already down loaded.

I hate that you went through that. Next time you travel through BFE parts of China like that, either take a Chinese woman that speaks some English or hire a tour guide agency from a T1 city. The Tour guide will handle everything for you and the group you go with, if you get a group one. Solo ones are available too.

Makes a tremendous difference, especially in places like that in Hunan where even many locals cannot speak Mandarin at all.

Another tip is to download Google Translate, go into the settings and download the entire Mandarin translation file for offline access. Have Wechat as well and you can use its translator as well. You can also download Google maps offline for its GPS stuff. If you are really slick you can get a Garmin and load their China maps before you go and it works there.

Download and install a vpn like expressvpn on your phone so that you can access things you need.

If you are like me you have a US based or whatever Western phone and Chinese ones. If you were just doing a random trip just stick to the stuff I mentioned before.

[John Dodds]

(02-06-2018 09:11 PM)Suits Wrote:  

China is like another planet. Despite having already lived there for half a decade, I didn't realize how extreme it was until I visited Malaysia for a month a year ago. In Malaysia, so many of the people I met, despite having a completely different background and life experience, where so damn relatable. People smile at strangers who catch their eye and I met so many people who love and care about their country.

When I returned to China, it felt like I had travelled back to the moon. You can survive OK in a place like Shanghai or Beijing without speaking a damn word of Chinese, but get off the beaten track and good luck.

Taxi drivers (even in Beijing) won't know a single word of relevant English. If you tell them "airport" they won't understand you. If you try to say it in Chinese, they won't understand you. You'll have to show them the word written down to get anywhere if you haven't learned to speak the language.

If you're far enough off the beaten track, people may regard you as unusual enough to warrant special hospitality, but even then, their ability to communicate with you is going to limited, even with phones that have translator software ready and waiting.

This is all so true, I did have an offline Mandarin/English dictionary on my phone and was reduced to wandering around with important words ready to display. It was a real two week culture shock. I couldn't even work the air-con remote as all the buttons were Chinese symbols (and it was freezing cold all the time).

BUT, it was really cheap, two weeks hiking in Avatar national forest park, inc all air/train/bus fares, park fees food and accom. for about $400. Only saw 4/5 white faces in the entire time, no white people on the aircraft/trains/bus, just a few white wanderers on the hiking trails.

As you said Suits, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Laos all way easier places to travel.