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[AzyWng]

Exactly what the thread title says. As a way to get a bit of experience actually working a day in my life, I've agreed to head to China on June 10th to work in a tech firm in Shenzhen. Now, my Chinese is rather poor and I'm not really sure what to expect when I get to Shenzhen, so I'm wondering: What should I expect and prepare for in China?

[nenjin]

Bathroom culture is something you will have to get used to.

For one, and forgive me any Chinese people who take offense at this....but I've heard it's not uncommon for some people in Chinese cities to take a squat right on the street in public and do their business. So watch where you're stepping.

Secondly, indoor bathroom plumbing is uncommon at best. Toilets are a hole in the ground, literally. And they don't usually throw their used toilet paper down the hole, they throw it in a box next to the hole.

Which as a westerner is pretty eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww but, you know, we use ungodly amounts of water so we don't have to look at it or smell it. Many parts of the world do not operate that way.

So yeah. Start practicing keeping your balance while squatting and doing your business. And FWIW, it's actually a biologically superior way to use the bathroom. Some people I know who went to China came back and bought a squattie potty because they said it's simply a better way to operate.

Other than that....

There are A LOT of Asian taboos revolving around death. Like, even giving someone the wrong kind of flowers or flowers at all might be considered taboo because flowers are for people's graves. You don't want to evoke death or the association with death, and it can be surprising the things that Asians and the Chinese in particular associate with death and/or graves.

[~Neri]

Do not offer medical assistance to anyone. China’s current legal system would flag you ‘responsible’ and require you to pay all hospital bills.

[Trekkin]

What should I expect and prepare for in China?

Internment camps, the Great Firewall, and the secret police. Learn now what you will be [redacted] for thinking, and learn not to think it.

[martinuzz]

Do not talk politics with anyone.
Also get used to having barely any, if any internet access at all.
Except Chinese internet.
I wouldn't be surprised if you would not be able to access this forum, except maybe in some illegal internet back alley.

[Baffler]

Exactly what the thread title says. As a way to get a bit of experience actually working a day in my life, I've agreed to head to China on June 10th to work in a tech firm in Shenzhen. Now, my Chinese is rather poor and I'm not really sure what to expect when I get to Shenzhen, so I'm wondering: What should I expect and prepare for in China?

Trust no one. I have a few friends at a certain company who make regular extended trips to China on business. I showed one this thread and according to him 50% of the people there that you'll interact with on a daily basis will fuck over a foreigner like you without restraint or remorse the instant it becomes advantageous to do so, even if you'd seemingly been on friendly terms before, and most of the ones that won't generally just want nothing to do with foreigners at all. Don't buy anything from street vendors, and see where your coworkers recommend to go out to get things since they probably know who's playing games and who isn't, and since they (most likely) lose out if you get food poisoning or mugged instead of gaining from fucking you over or being indifferent at best because some random westerner isn't their concern. Or better yet, ask your western coworkers if you have any. His work is industrial rather than tech, and in Tianjin, but such general advice still applies.

[Retropunch]

A lot of negativity here, and it doesn't sound like anyone here has actually been  - I have (and to a few cities), and it's certainly not all sunshine and roses but it's not terrible either.

Mostly you just need to be careful about eating - when I say food poisoning it's 'might die' food poisoning not just a bit of a dodgy stomach. Prepare your own food (carefully), don't buy anything from anywhere other than the best restaurants (on your salary you'll be ok to do so) and be more vigilant about washing hands and stuff than usual. Anywhere western (nicer hotels, new 'foreigner' apartment buildings) all have normal toilets and facilities.

Learn some basic Mandarin, and learn a few phrases well enough that they'll think you've been there a while which will stop anything stupid happening. Don't get into discussions about politics/religion/etc because you just don't know enough to debate it with them - it's not a thought police thing and you won't get dragged off as long as you don't say anything stupid (just the same as if you said 'I'm going to blow up this airport' in the West...) but it's very complex and they don't like talking to foreigners about it. Never had a problem with the internet (it's slow though) but some usual sites are blocked - just get a good VPN and you're good to go.

Violent crime is very low, but everyone will try to fleece you. You've got to change your thinking on this - they're not doing it in a malicious way, it's a bit more like bartering. If they can charge you 10x the normal amount for a taxi, they just see that as common sense business rather than fucking you over. I mean, it's capitalism in action, that's all. Don't get offended by it, and learn how to barter down in Mandarin. It's not difficult, and you'll just have to learn to do it for everything - Chinese people have to do it too (although normally it'll be 2x the price instead of 10x).

There is an exception to this and it's the big one - never, ever go anywhere someone asks you to go. In big cities you'll get very attractive 'students' come and want to go for a drink in a bar they know with you (where everything will cost 1000x (as in really 1000x) the normal price) and you'll only get the bill at the end. It's not always as obvious as that, but is easily avoided by refusing to go anywhere someone asks you to go and sticking to whatever you were doing. It won't turn violent (unless you went and refused to pay) but they can be insistent. It happened to me about 3 times; first time was difficult to persuade them to leave me alone in English, but the next time when I told them firmly that I wasn't interested in Mandarin they got the picture that I wasn't just a tourist and left fast - again, you need to learn a bit of the language to do that.

Other than that, it's a crazy different culture, and so, so different to anything you'll have experienced. It has it's downsides (like everywhere), but it's not a scary place or something you should be concerned about.

[Radsoc]

A bit late to the show, but the sentiments above don't reflect my experiences of the country.

I went to Shenzhen and other places last month, including the country side. It's more modern than any European or American city. The infrastructure far surpasses that of the west, and not only there. They have a problem with air pollution, but at the time of my being there skies were blue. Politics is not a problem, they want criticism, if it's serious and well grounded (i.e. no mindless echoing of western govt/media "human rights"/"democracy" concerns that's just a selective cover for certain western political and economical interests. In villages and so on, the democratic participation is much more real than in the west. Well, in the US you get to elect a Sheriff at least).

People are nice, polite, trustworthy, hard working and curious. However, the society is far from egalitarian, they care a lot about titles and status. Culture is a bit different and in pursuit of success and results, that sometimes may be presented in an exaggerated way. They avoid saying no. "Face" is a thing. Most people don't speak english and use voice/app translators.

Bypassing the "great firewall" is just a matter of toggling VPN on, nobody will care about it. Most webpages work, except e.g. english google and facebook (good riddance. Having China there would just please the intelligence services of the forces that can't give up the thought about subjugating or breaking the country).

Withdrawing money can be problematic. They have their own unionpay systems. If you go to Walmart for example, they will have to fetch a visa terminal for you. No problem in touristy places though.

It's an economy with state controlled market mechanisms, but not capitalism per se. The capitalists don't control the state at the moment at least, but are a strong force in Hongkong.

[Parsely]

gee whiz it's almost like it's a country mostly full of normal nice people like any other place in the world

Bathroom culture is something you will have to get used to.

For one, and forgive me any Chinese people who take offense at this....but I've heard it's not uncommon for some people in Chinese cities to take a squat right on the street in public and do their business. So watch where you're stepping.

Apparently this is mostly older people who do this because China has been developing so fast that it wasn't long ago when public bathroom facilities didn't exist and that was just what you needed to do.

[AzyWng]

I'm typing this as I sit inside my Shenzhen office.

Both of my parents are Chinese people who became U.S. citizens, so that means I look Chinese and people don't seem to notice I'm a foreigner except for the fact my Chinese isn't the absolute best and they haven't seen me before. Those who do notice again, remain nice to me. No-one's approached me with scams or anything like that, and no-one's stopped me on the street like that (unless they've been handing out advertisements for some company.)

There are plenty of dogs in the streets. Not a whole lot are on leashes, but that seems to be fine since none of them are too interested in hurting people. I've also seen the occasional cat. Stories of people eating them seem to be false.

I haven't seen any squatting in the street, nor any squatting to do one's business. Plenty of squat toilets, but no public squatting.

Tip when squatting - for the bathroom or otherwise - heels to the ground. I learned that from Life of Boris's video on squatting.

I will say, however, that there are plenty of smokers, including those who use the bathrooms to smoke...
This combined with the fact used toilet paper isn't flushed away but, rather, put into a bin (apparently flushing it can cause clogging of the toilets) means that the bathrooms... Well, they're like public bathrooms, but they smell somewhat worse due to what I described above.

Always make sure to bring a packet of pocket tissues when you go to the bathroom - the ones at my workplace (and a few other public places) don't happen to have toilet paper dispensers.

I'm fairly good at avoiding death so far (I think), and while I don't know what kinds of flowers to give to people, I at least know not to do things like stick chopsticks right into rice (which is similar to how people place incense at funerals).

Mobile payment is, apparently, the way to go. My dad helped me set up a mobile payment account using WeiXing (Known as WeChat in the United States), and I've used to pay for very nearly everything I've purchased so far. Only thing I haven't been able to purchase using it is a subway pass, but keeping some change/paper money around is easy enough.

The way Chinese currency works means that it takes about 7 Chinese Yuan/RenMinBi to equal one dollar, so the numbers for prices tends to be a good deal larger than in the US. You get used to it.

A number of people (especially those at my workplace) knew enough English to hold conversation, but I also know enough Chinese to ask questions like (where can I buy batteries), so things on that front have been fine so far.

I have not been [redacted] yet. I promise. As other people have commented, internet is simply a matter of getting and using a VPN that works. The one at work is a bit finicky (I wouldn't exactly play an online shooter on it), but it gets the job done. I could access these forums without the VPN, even.

On a similar note, I have not yet contracted any kind of food poisoning (as far as my knowledge goes).

So, yeah. It's been fine so far.

[ChairmanPoo]

gee whiz it's almost like it's a country mostly full of normal nice people like any other place in the world

Most places in the world are not full of normal nice people. Except in Disney movies :p

[nenjin]

I learned that from Life of Boris's video on squatting.

Squat on toes breaks your bones!

[Parsely]

gee whiz it's almost like it's a country mostly full of normal nice people like any other place in the world

Most places in the world are not full of normal nice people. Except in Disney movies :p

I strongly disagree, but my point is that most any country you go it's fundamentally the same because they're all full of human beings.

[Retropunch]

Glad you're settling in AzyWng,
Having travelled around China, I will say that Shenzhen and the surrounding area is very, very different from the rest of China - it's basically their sort of 'show-boat' city where everything works super great and it's all clean and modern. It's had insane amounts of foreign investment, which means that everything is going to be a lot more open and 'western' - from the toilets to the discourse.

That's not to say that the rest of China is terrible (not at all), just that it's not representative of the country as a whole.

Politics is not a problem, they want criticism, if it's serious and well grounded (i.e. no mindless echoing of western govt/media "human rights"/"democracy" concerns that's just a selective cover for certain western political and economical interests. In villages and so on, the democratic participation is much more real than in the west. Well, in the US you get to elect a Sheriff at least).

Human rights IS a big issue there - that's not a mindless echoing, the issues are written into their laws. I mean, two sentences on you're talking about the need to have a VPN to access most western sites - that's not particularly open in my opinion, but there's a whole raft of much more serious issues. Nowhere is perfect, but China is way down at the bottom of the list and I'd be really, really careful discussing politics with anyone - I doubt you'll know where the line between 'criticising policies' and 'inciting subversion of state power' is.

[§k]

I'm a resident. How are you doing, OP?

When it comes to living and working as a foreigner, Shenzhen is actually very suitable. There aren't many things there that can be shocking or surprising. People are also very sympatical.

Several things to keep in mind, though:

Only eat and drink in place that looks clean. Do not drink from tap...

It's crowded during rush hour. When you drive, there's traffic jam. When you take bus or subway, you are packed with other passengers.

It's sub-tropical, so there's typhoon. Stay indoors when typhoon comes. It goes away in a day.

Foreigners are closely monitored, like every other place in the country, but this usually doesn't visibly affect most people... BUT THE SIKRIT POLEES KNOWS EVERYTHING...