Author Topic: travel thread (Read 1669950 times)

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17150 on:** April 01, 2025, 10:34:55 PM »

Quote from: mocat on April 01, 2025, 02:38:51 PM

Lib are you in China?

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17151 on:** April 02, 2025, 03:13:55 AM »

Ni Hao glorious goEMAW members, I have been in Beijing for a few days and leave for Xi'an tomorrow.

20,000 steps during my tour of the Forbidden city and the last stop was a park on a hill above it. I seriously didn't know if I was going to be able to reach the top.

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17152 on:** April 02, 2025, 03:21:04 AM »

I went to the Forbidden city on a Sunday, which is apparently the day lots of women (mostly young 20's, but all ages really) rent a traditional dress, get the full hair and makeup treatment, then go take social media pictures outside the imperial palace. They are ev-er-y-where. I didn't take any close pictures of them because I'm not not a creep, but here is one of them lining along the moat taking pictures. Apparently the most popular Chinese TV dramas are period pieces and many are cosplaying their favorite characters.

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17153 on:** April 02, 2025, 03:29:07 AM »

Great wall was yesterday. My knees are absolutely rough ridin' garbage now so I didn't go very far outside the areas directly near the cable cars. One of you active tdaver/mocat types would love it though. The last tower of one section is an 81 degree incline.

Plenty of signs saying not to feed the cats. Spoiler alert, everyone feeds the cats.

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17154 on:** April 02, 2025, 03:32:21 AM »

I of course can't forget to mention the authentic whopper I had for lunch at the great wall burger king!

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17155 on:** April 02, 2025, 03:40:24 AM »

All hail glorious leader! I visited tiananmen square today. I'm not sure the reason but security on the subway was vastly increased today. Usually you have to go through a metal detector and bag scanner at any entrance, but today added id checks and facial recognition scans at all entrances and exits. The security at the square is pretty extra too. You have to have a timed appointment and go through a full patdown, they make you lift your clothes, I assume in an attempt to stop people from revealing a second t-shirt with a political message or something.

The square itself is pretty boring. I didn't have any interest in any of the museums there, but my cousin told me you can shuffle by mao's tomb and he's actually visible laying there behind glass which is very wtf imo.

pissclams · « **Reply #17156 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:52:27 AM »

i’m going to eat at panda express tonight in your honor

mocat · « **Reply #17157 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:07:22 AM »

That wall is ridiculous. I love that their squirrels are cats. What a flex

michigancat · « **Reply #17158 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:13:15 AM »

I cheated on the airport and lol'd

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17159 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:38:31 AM »

Quote from: michigancat on April 02, 2025, 11:13:15 AM

I cheated on the airport and lol'd

Unfortunately you can only see the cool middle part from the departures area after security. This was the best I could get as an international arrival.

mocat · « **Reply #17160 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:43:40 AM »

Quote from: michigancat on April 02, 2025, 11:13:15 AM

I cheated on the airport and lol'd

I did the opposite and googled the airport code that I thought he was referring to to see if it was even an airport, haha

steve dave · « **Reply #17161 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:54:19 AM »

what an elite trip

cfbandyman · « **Reply #17162 on:** April 02, 2025, 12:43:15 PM »

Chicom Star Seed's epic far east trip

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17163 on:** April 02, 2025, 07:59:49 PM »

The population in China is hard to wrap your head around. I'm taking a high speed train the distance of basically Dallas to kc. But imagine Dallas had 20 million, kc had 6 million, and between them is like 3 more 5-8 million pop cities and like 15 1+million pop cities. The small ones are crazy looking because they are literally pop ups with like 30 of the exact same high rise. Of course the larger ones are a collection of 10 different areas of 30 of the exact same high rise, so at least there's some variety.

michigancat · « **Reply #17164 on:** April 02, 2025, 08:06:46 PM »

Quote from: star seed 7 on April 02, 2025, 07:59:49 PM

The population in China is hard to wrap your head around. I'm taking a high speed train the distance of basically Dallas to kc. But imagine Dallas had 20 million, kc had 6 million, and between them is like 3 more 5-8 million pop cities and like 15 1+million pop cities. The small ones are crazy looking because they are literally pop ups with like 30 of the exact same high rise. Of course the larger ones are a collection of 10 different areas of 30 of the exact same high rise, so at least there's some variety.

The scale is wild

Are people talkin' tariffs?

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17165 on:** April 02, 2025, 08:17:17 PM »

If they are it's not in English. Honestly they don't have news channels on everywhere like the US. Public spaces don't usually have tv's and when they do it's repeating pre-recorded videos about national pride looking stuff. My hotel lobby had the TV off during the day and basketball at night. Don't remember seeing a TV in any restaurant or mall.

South Korea and Japan had news on in the subway cars if I remember right.

mocat · « **Reply #17166 on:** April 02, 2025, 09:27:20 PM »

That is really amazing

bucket · « **Reply #17167 on:** April 02, 2025, 09:47:36 PM »

Quote from: star seed 7 on April 02, 2025, 08:17:17 PM

If they are it's not in English. Honestly they don't have news channels on everywhere like the US. Public spaces don't usually have tv's and when they do it's repeating pre-recorded videos about national pride looking stuff. My hotel lobby had the TV off during the day and basketball at night. Don't remember seeing a TV in any restaurant or mall.

South Korea and Japan had news on in the subway cars if I remember right.

You're in China to watch The Flush play?!

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17168 on:** April 02, 2025, 09:52:31 PM »

This is one of the nicer designs. Napkin math of 20 seconds at 180mph means there was a mile straight of this exact layout!

This is more representative

Spracne · « **Reply #17169 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:11:30 PM »

Any difficulty getting a visa?

pissclams · « **Reply #17170 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:18:04 PM »

some of these places may be empty. i read that china was building a lot of cities to bolster gdp even though they were uninhabited. not trying to get too Q up in here.

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17171 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:19:20 PM »

Quote from: Spracne on April 02, 2025, 10:11:30 PM

Any difficulty getting a visa?

Not really. I messed up and didn't realize I had to actually physically go to a consulate office (or pay a service to do it for me) until like a week before I left for Japan so I actually had it processed at the Chinese Visa center in Tokyo. Took about 3 days, 10 year multi entry visa. There are some newish 240hr visa on arrival situations but they don't let you travel outside of your entry city zone.

Spracne · « **Reply #17172 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:22:13 PM »

Do people smoke weed over there or get drunk in public?

star seed 7 · « **Reply #17173 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:28:30 PM »

No, drugs are absolutely taboo. This is the first trip in a while that I didn't bring anything green with me because I was too scared of ending up in a Chinese prison and I didn't know how thoroughly they search people. I could have absolutely brought a pen though, it's all just the standard customs stuff. I haven't seen any drunkards but I haven't explored nightlife at all.

Spracne · « **Reply #17174 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:32:37 PM »

Other than Chinese and American, which tourist cohort would you say is the biggest?