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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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 Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 5:43 am Post subject: |
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| byrddogs wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| I only visited Shanghai (this summer for work) and it is massively crowded. To me it felt like most super crowded cities in Asia: a massive press of people that means you need to swerve and roll your shoulders to get anywhere. |
You are absolutely right that it is super crowded. I initially did the swerving and rolling of shoulders thing when I came here out of habit from living in Seoul. I soon found that I didn't need to do that, as people seem to prefer to not run into other people. |
Good to hear. |
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lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| optik404 wrote: |
| What my Chinese friends always tell me is that, if I find little things like bumping in to people, talking during movies, littering, spitting, etc annoying in Korea, that I will absolutely HATE China. |
These kinds of threads come up a lot, and as Brydogs said the people who are generally the most anti-China, and playing onto some outdated decades old stereotypes are the ones who've never actually lived in the PRC to make an accurate comparison.
I lived in Korea for almost a decade, and China so far going on 2 years. It's extremely hard to generalize about China as it's a million times more diverse than the ROK, but in my neck of the woods (a satellite city of Shanghai) I can safely say the spitting, bumping, noise, and littering is significantly worse in Korea.
I never go to the movies, so can't comment either way about that, however in Korea I would get bumped into *every day*, and the "Oh it's because it's so crowded" line is complete rubbish....I'd still get bumped into on deserted streets. Where I live now I've never deliberately been knocked into, and the couple of times (yeah - couple of times in 2 years) it did happen the offending party was quick to apologize and seemed quite embarrassed about the whole thing.
The Chinese are far less hostile and bitter to be around than Koreans. |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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| lemak wrote: |
| optik404 wrote: |
| What my Chinese friends always tell me is that, if I find little things like bumping in to people, talking during movies, littering, spitting, etc annoying in Korea, that I will absolutely HATE China. |
These kinds of threads come up a lot, and as Brydogs said the people who are generally the most anti-China, and playing onto some outdated decades old stereotypes are the ones who've never actually lived in the PRC to make an accurate comparison.
I lived in Korea for almost a decade, and China so far going on 2 years. It's extremely hard to generalize about China as it's a million times more diverse than the ROK, but in my neck of the woods (a satellite city of Shanghai) I can safely say the spitting, bumping, noise, and littering is significantly worse in Korea.
I never go to the movies, so can't comment either way about that, however in Korea I would get bumped into *every day*, and the "Oh it's because it's so crowded" line is complete rubbish....I'd still get bumped into on deserted streets. Where I live now I've never deliberately been knocked into, and the couple of times (yeah - couple of times in 2 years) it did happen the offending party was quick to apologize and seemed quite embarrassed about the whole thing.
The Chinese are far less hostile and bitter to be around than Koreans. |
That's great. I think the experience of Chinese people that grew up in China is probably more reliable than foreigners that have lived in China for a couple years. Also, it's well known that foreigners in China receive preferential treatment over the natives. But I'm glad that your experience in China is going well. |
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Mr. BlackCat
Joined: 30 Nov 2005
Location: Insert witty remark HERE
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| Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
| Authoritarian regimes have their perks. |
Yeah, like all those other crowded countries that don't have people smashing into each other who also have authoritarian regimes. Like Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, the USA, Italy, Spain, France, Russia.... |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr. BlackCat wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| Authoritarian regimes have their perks. |
Yeah, like all those other crowded countries that don't have people smashing into each other who also have authoritarian regimes. Like Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, the USA, Italy, Spain, France, Russia.... |
Hey, if ol Park Chung Hee came back, he might crack down on traffic and enable his police goons to start hitting people up on fines and getting things running more smoothly.
Mussolini got the trains to run on time. Singapore keeps things in line. Might need some of the ol whip. |
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lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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| optik404 wrote: |
| lemak wrote: |
| optik404 wrote: |
| What my Chinese friends always tell me is that, if I find little things like bumping in to people, talking during movies, littering, spitting, etc annoying in Korea, that I will absolutely HATE China. |
These kinds of threads come up a lot, and as Brydogs said the people who are generally the most anti-China, and playing onto some outdated decades old stereotypes are the ones who've never actually lived in the PRC to make an accurate comparison.
I lived in Korea for almost a decade, and China so far going on 2 years. It's extremely hard to generalize about China as it's a million times more diverse than the ROK, but in my neck of the woods (a satellite city of Shanghai) I can safely say the spitting, bumping, noise, and littering is significantly worse in Korea.
I never go to the movies, so can't comment either way about that, however in Korea I would get bumped into *every day*, and the "Oh it's because it's so crowded" line is complete rubbish....I'd still get bumped into on deserted streets. Where I live now I've never deliberately been knocked into, and the couple of times (yeah - couple of times in 2 years) it did happen the offending party was quick to apologize and seemed quite embarrassed about the whole thing.
The Chinese are far less hostile and bitter to be around than Koreans. |
That's great. I think the experience of Chinese people that grew up in China is probably more reliable than foreigners that have lived in China for a couple years. Also, it's well known that foreigners in China receive preferential treatment over the natives. But I'm glad that your experience in China is going well. |
Grew up, sure....so their experience is how outdated? LOL.
You want reliable and updated..? How about as of this current hour? I just went shopping to Carrefour, the most popular supermarket in the neighborhood - on one of the busiest days of the year (the midst of a week long public holiday)...take the average Emart or Costco in Seoul on a Sunday afternoon and double the number of people to get an idea of how busy it was. In spite of the crowds it was perfect cohesion...people moved around each other smoothly, didn't get bumped, shoved, or cut in line in front of even one single time. In and out in 15 minutes. By the same standards in Korea the place would look like a cross between World War Z and a demolition derby - people being deliberately rammed by carts, old ladies shoving people to hog the free food samples, dumb comments, no consideration. Would have been lucky to get out of there with fewer than half a dozen bruises.
Anyhow love the fact you've supposedly got anonymous Chinese friends, but I'll take my real life experiences, and that of those who are currently living here over mythical, likely non-existent "Chinese people" created in an effort to prove some meaningless point.
Have a nice afternoon. |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:15 am Post subject: |
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| lemak wrote: |
| optik404 wrote: |
| lemak wrote: |
| optik404 wrote: |
| What my Chinese friends always tell me is that, if I find little things like bumping in to people, talking during movies, littering, spitting, etc annoying in Korea, that I will absolutely HATE China. |
These kinds of threads come up a lot, and as Brydogs said the people who are generally the most anti-China, and playing onto some outdated decades old stereotypes are the ones who've never actually lived in the PRC to make an accurate comparison.
I lived in Korea for almost a decade, and China so far going on 2 years. It's extremely hard to generalize about China as it's a million times more diverse than the ROK, but in my neck of the woods (a satellite city of Shanghai) I can safely say the spitting, bumping, noise, and littering is significantly worse in Korea.
I never go to the movies, so can't comment either way about that, however in Korea I would get bumped into *every day*, and the "Oh it's because it's so crowded" line is complete rubbish....I'd still get bumped into on deserted streets. Where I live now I've never deliberately been knocked into, and the couple of times (yeah - couple of times in 2 years) it did happen the offending party was quick to apologize and seemed quite embarrassed about the whole thing.
The Chinese are far less hostile and bitter to be around than Koreans. |
That's great. I think the experience of Chinese people that grew up in China is probably more reliable than foreigners that have lived in China for a couple years. Also, it's well known that foreigners in China receive preferential treatment over the natives. But I'm glad that your experience in China is going well. |
Grew up, sure....so their experience is how outdated? LOL.
You want reliable and updated..? How about as of this current hour? I just went shopping to Carrefour, the most popular supermarket in the neighborhood - on one of the busiest days of the year (the midst of a week long public holiday)...take the average Emart or Costco in Seoul on a Sunday afternoon and double the number of people to get an idea of how busy it was. In spite of the crowds it was perfect cohesion...people moved around each other smoothly, didn't get bumped, shoved, or cut in line in front of even one single time. In and out in 15 minutes. By the same standards in Korea the place would look like a cross between World War Z and a demolition derby - people being deliberately rammed by carts, old ladies shoving people to hog the free food samples, dumb comments, no consideration. Would have been lucky to get out of there with fewer than half a dozen bruises.
Anyhow love the fact you've supposedly got anonymous Chinese friends, but I'll take my real life experiences, and that of those who are currently living here over mythical, likely non-existent "Chinese people" created in an effort to prove some meaningless point.
Have a nice afternoon. |
They lived in China up until about 1-3yrs ago. Some came for Uni and some came to learn Korean. The latter is where I most of them, along with some Japanese, French, Canadian, etc.
Hell, even my Japanese friends say people in Tokyo are rude as hell. Say they've got no manners, etc. But in the short time I spent in Tokyo and Osaka, I found the people in Tokyo pleasant. My Osaka friend said Osaka people are much nicer. Seemed the same to me. Crazy how experiences can be different between a foreigner and a native, huh?
You're clearly mad about your time in Korea and now you feel you have to defend China. You'll notice I never said anything bad about China. I just repeated what my Chinese friends say to me whenever I get annoyed about someone in Korea littering or spitting or talking during a movie. |
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Janny
Joined: 02 Jul 2008
Location: all over the place
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| Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:20 am Post subject: |
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I agree.
I lived in Korea for 8 years, have been in Shanghai about a month now. It was a very busy, crowded city this past few days with the big national holiday. I, too, went Carrefour.
I felt fine, exhilarated, and satisfied when I got home. I happily unloaded and repackaged my meats for the freezer. The experience was enjoyable, as far as grocery shopping goes. I like grocery shopping.
But coming home from a shopping trip at Costco in Seoul...I usually felt like a part of myself had been torn away, physically and mentally. Dramatic? Yes, but that's the first sense memory that comes mind when I remember "...how did I feel after a trip to Costco in Seoul..?"
They used to have Carrefour in Seoul too. Same difference.
And PS Optik....we are talking about EXPAT experiences. Not the opinions and experiences of nationals who grew up there. The two are very, very different. That's why we have FORUMS.... to discuss these differences. |
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