any dangerous places in china?

[Guest realmayo]

If you look Chinese, I'd guess the biggest chance of violence is if you start something: for instance, a car almost hits you, you decide to kick the car, the driver gets out and beats you up.

[shinewind]

Seriously?

[gato]

I've seen a number of fights starting because of traffic arguments.

[shinewind]

That's true.

[yialanliu]

Yea Chinese traffic law is weird.

I think the rule is something like the car has right of way at all times but if you hit someone regardless of how, the car is at fault...

[knickherboots]

Since you say you "want to travel to china in a few years," try back at that point.

Maybe things will be different.

[wushijiao]

For what it's worth, one of my former professors (who is chinese) was robbed at gunpoint while driving in Shenzhen.

Shenzhen does have a bad reputation in terms of crime. However, I've never been that concerned.

[gato]

Guangdong has a reputation for people committing robbery and getting away on motor bikes.

See this video:

http://www.tudou.com...M2JkO4/?fr=rec1

实拍广州飞车党猖狂抢劫

[renzhe]

Something similar happened to me when I was in Portugal. A thief snatched my PDA from me when I was reading an ebook on a train. I don't look anything like a Portuguese so it seems that unlike Chinese thieves Portuguese thieves liked to rob foreign tourists.

Sorry to hear that. Portugal is generally safe when compared to other European countries, but tourist centres tend to attract pickpockets and thieves everywhere. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened in central Lisbon, Porto, or one of the tourist centres in the Algarve.

Somebody managed to open my backpack twice (without being noticed) in Xi'an, but I always carry valuables in safer places, so no harm done there. Also, our hotel room was broken into while we were gone in Luoyang, but they found nothing -- I suspect an inside job there. I've had friends get purses and wallets stolen in Madrid, Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, Cologne and many other large tourist centres, though. In terms of violent crime, I felt far more safe in China than anywhere in Europe.

[Brian US]

Hungarian friend of mine was hiking through the south with another friend when they were stopped on a trail by 3 armed teenagers. They had something like a bat and machete and demanded money from them. My friend calmly said no and the would-be robbers were dumbfounded. There was a drawn out pause as my friend continued along the path with the teenagers moving out of their way.

Most of the horror stories I've heard of foreigners in China have had them involved with some illegal activity to begin with (classmate hitting on the bartender's girlfriend was another funny yet unfortunate outcome). As long as you aren't at the whore house (Shady KTV's count) or buying drugs, you should be good. This isn't the US where you may get your head bashed in outside your hotel because some punk has a gang initiation.

[wedge]

I wouldn't want to bump into this guy.

http://imgur.com/a/RjInD/all

[civic94]

I have lived in 3 cities in america in my life, and every single one has its own ghettos, where if you live there, and try to get out of poverty by working hard somewhere or go to school by walking and taking public transit, something will happen to you. I know so because I have been robbed a few times, but i have heard worst. some of the ghettos that i know, that some of my friends used to live there, there are drug dealers, gangsters, prostitutes walking around /sitting at the corner protecting their turf all the time, and there are numerous drive by's. I have lived in boston, philadelpiha, and seattle, all 3 places I have lived in a ok neighberhood, but I still heard gunshots/seen people get on the stretcher in the middle of the night, looking out the window.

in china, I see that having guns is illegal, maybe people stab each other more often, but please correct me if im wrong. I'm imagining that the worst areas in china, its in an small alley, with prosititutes, some gangsters, somepeople have bats/knives, etc.

[roddy]

Merging with your pretty much identical topic from a few months ago. When are you actually going to China again?

[civic94]

Im trying to save up here first.. want to be there at least 6 months if I dont find anything there, ill look at it as a trip for my identity. maybe i'll travel in 1-2 years, 3 at the latest. I do not want to have 100% chinese blood and not be in china for the rest of my life, dont want to get to a point where im married and financially cant get over there, If I do want to experience it, I want to be at least 6 months, not spending thousands to take 2 days to fly there, spend a week there, and spend 2 more days to fly back and get back to working since most jobs only offer a 2 week vacation. so far I like this forum, I learned many things on here, honestly I would trust what people say here than what I watch on youtube or on TV.

im asking this becuase I have been in some really bad neighborhoods, I want to make sure Im safe at least. I cant rely on 30 year old advice from my parents, time has changed.

I had a friend that went to temple U in philly, its located in north philly, one of the worst ghettos. he did not have any idea about the apartment, he is from china and rented a apartment there (3 blocks to the school) and within a month he heard gunshots, and that person died. He told me that he thought america was the best in the world, the superpower, when he watched the videos about it. then he found out how dangerous and messed up a city can get.

[roddy]

Go to your local library, get a few books about China out, read them. Even a Lonely Planet will do. Then come back if you have any more questions.

[civic94]

I can do that, but like I said the information might be not as good as someone living there right now. if you never been to seattle, and watched movies and read books about it, its going to be totally different what what Im going to tell you about the real life here.

[frankwall]

I've had bad incidents throughout Europe - wallet stolen in France, attacked twice in Poland. I am curious about the situation in China as I also intend to go there at some stage. But it really sounds ok, I'm glad most you guys feel safe

[icebear]

I can do that, but like I said the information might be not as good as someone living there right now. if you never been to seattle, and watched movies and read books about it, its going to be totally different what what Im going to tell you about the real life here.

That may be true, but try not to retread the same ground to much - I feel as though we've had this exact same discussion in the past few months (perhaps at your prompting). As Roddy said there should be plenty of objective information online from newspapers and investigative shows, at your library or more generally in statistics from the UN etc.

And to reiterate - no, violent crime is not something most people worry about in China, and especially not to the degree as in the US ghettos you refer to.

[Silent]

I can do that, but like I said the information might be not as good as someone living there right now. if you never been to seattle, and watched movies and read books about it, its going to be totally different what what Im going to tell you about the real life here.

I doubt the info of a few people living there is more valuable. People may feel safe, that does not mean that it's safe. If you ask people you will get anecdotal evidence. Oh, I never encountered crime, I got robbed three times in one day..... etc. Value basicly zero as these kind of things may be encountered everywhere. You might be better off with some more objective data. How many robberies, murders etc are there? What kind of situation does crime happen most etc. Sure, statistics can and will be manipulated, not everything is reported etc but are a far better way to assess risk then by asking a couple of people for a personal opinion.

[civic94]

well sorry to be asking too much of the same questions, but I really cant find it online. I have know people and seen people get shot at in the states, all for minding their own business. I see it in the news all the time when someone gets robbed, and the attacker will still kill them so they cant give a description to the police, while i see many petty theft in china where victims wont know that their stuff is stolen minutes later.

I had 1 friend in college from the mainland, his parents are pretty rich. we went to seattle together and I showed him the tourist places, then showed him the ghetto places. his mindset is that he can walk out there, piss someone off, and if the police come, he can bribe them, or he can bribe the folks there. I told him that is not going to happen here, the places that i showed him, people were sitting together in the street selling drugs and up to no good.

I know about how to be street smart, but I dont want to get into a situation where it gets dangerous and im naive.