What were your first impressions of China?

[Serenawang]

As a foreigner, when you mentioned China, what will you think?

[kentsuarez]

As a child, I liked it very much when my family occasionally went to a Chinese restaurant. I liked the pork fried rice, which they pressed into a bowl and then inverted, so it came out in a perfectly round mound. I also liked the oolong tea, which I would sweeten with sugar; and the fortune cookies. That's all I knew about China, but my impression was positive.

When I hit college, I was intrigued by the mystery of China, and took a course in the history of Chinese thought, from Confucius to Mao. I still didn't know much about China, frankly.

In graduate school, I fell in love with a girl from Chongqing, and started to learn more about China. I also began independent study of Mandarin.

Later, I came to Taiwan, and the first few years, I travelled to China once a year, travelling all over. My impression of China was that its historical relics were truly wonderful, and its traditional culture fascinating. I've always liked the Chinese people, too. But it made me really angry that the ticket prices were higher for foreigners. Imagine if you went to Disneyland, and the sign said tickets $50, but $100 if you're Chinese!

This left a very ugly impression, and after several trips, I had had enough, and decided not to travel in China anymore.

It was also somewhat sad to see China so poor and backwards, and lacking in democratic freedoms. I hope that the situation improves.

By the way, I still miss that Sichuan girl...

[Guest wang li]

I had never seen so much dust in the air in all my life (Beijing). Nor had I seen so many laborers on a construction site. Those two images stick in my mind.

Now, I'd like to know if ChongQing is still considered part of Sichuan. I thought it had been made it's own city or province or whatever.

[website]

I think everyone pays the same price for train tickets in China

now.

[roddy]

Chongqing is now a directly-administrated municipality, along with Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. (are there any others? Guangzhou / Shenzhen?) They basically just drew a great big circle around the area affected by the 3 gorges dam and made it a new city to simplify administration.

My first week was spent in Beijing with about a hundred other fresh-faced laowais, so it wasn’t exactly an in at the deep end experience. Dust was one, but there was a lot of construction work going on. Lots of Chinese people. Also, we were staying near Beida, so we walked to the Summer Palace for sunset most nights. That was nice.

[Quest]

Chongqing is now a directly-administrated municipality, along with Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. (are there any others? Guangzhou / Shenzhen?)

Shenzhen is, Guangzhou is not.

[pazu]

I'm not a foreigner, I was born in Hong Kong and my first impression of China was a poor country, when my classmates in primary school told me that they were going back xiangxia (heung ha) to see their relatives, I gave my sympathy for my friends, they took it and told me they would love to come back to a Hong Kong with color TV as soon as possible.

At that time, I always knew I was Chinese, but if you asked me I would tell you I had Chinese blood, but I'm Heung Gong Yan, not Zhongguoren.

But after a few trips to China, the longest one being over a year, now when people ask me where I'm from, I tell them I'm from China. I'm Chinese.

There're lots to be ashamed being Chinese, at the same time I feel a pride of being Chinese. Sometimes I feel quite happy that I can hold both feelings together, that my love for China wasn't acquired by birth, not by propanganda.

Sometimes I sang the very patriotic and bloody national athem while riding bicycles (though it's not really good when you're climbing uphill!), I don't really like it though. Haha.

[gato]

Pazu, you're funny.

As for China, the pollution problem is hard to stand. Can it wait while you work on the economy? Is there a point of no return after which the environment will be ruined forever?

[liuzhou]

Shenzhen is, Guangzhou is not

Shenzhen is not a directly-administrated municipality. It is part of Guangdong. It is, however, a Special Economic Zone.

Provinces: | Anhui | Fujian | Gansu | Guangdong | Guizhou | Hainan | Hebei | Heilongjiang | Henan | Hubei | Hunan | Jiangsu | Jiangxi | Jilin | Liaoning | Qinghai | Shaanxi | Shandong | Shanxi | Sichuan | Yunan | Zhejiang | Taiwan |

Autonomous Regions: | Guangxi | Inner Mongolia | Ningxia | Tibet (Xizang) | Xinjiang |

Municipalities: | Beijing (Peking) | Chongqing | Shanghai | Tianjin |

Special Administrative Regions (SAR): | Hong Kong | Macao |

from here.