Things not to do in China

Rating: 9,2/10 (2655 votes)

The capital of China, Beijing

The traditions of China have been developing for more than one thousand years, and in many ways they are far from the ideas of Western people. The culture and mentality of the Chinese are based on many factors that ultimately created the image of the people that is now known to many. For those who decide to visit this country for the first time, it will be useful to learn about a number of rules of conduct that are appropriate for Chinese society. Knowing the best things not to do when in the Middle Kingdom can help you avoid many unpleasant situations.

Tipping

In the administrative code of China, there is a special clause – service personnel of any profile tipping is strictly prohibited. The punishment for this will be dismissal without the right to get a job in a related field. Nevertheless, this law is regularly violated not without the fault of generous tourists from Russia, who are accustomed to tip absolutely everywhere. For example, a waiter who takes a tip may not only be fired, but also receive an impressive fine. It is also not recommended to leave a tip on the table when leaving a cafe or restaurant – Anyone, but not the waiter, will take the money.

Tips

Drinking water from the tap

One of the main problems of China is the environment, so the water that goes into the water taps of hotels and even apartments leaves much to be desired. Drinking in China should be only boiled water. Otherwise, you can earn a whole bunch of infectious diseases and spend the rest of your vacation in a city hospital with not the best living conditions. This is especially true for densely populated neighborhoods and all major Chinese cities, so the capital will not be an unpleasant exception here.

Criticize communism

This rule applies to all foreign tourists and all political leaders of China. The system of denunciations here, perhaps, is not so well developed, but if a Chinese who has heard criticism of his country, knows foreign languages, he can call the police. The police work in such a situation is always one – the offender is first taken to the police station, fined for a large amount, and then taken to the consulate to announce the verdict. Most often, the violator will be immediate deportation with a subsequent ban on entry for up to several years.

Flag of China

Looking too closely at women

The Chinese are very sensitive to the fairer sex, especially if this woman is officially married. The Chinese are tolerant of tourists, but up to a certain point. For example, here the height of indecency is looking at the legs of a dressed woman – according to Chinese law, this almost amounts to mild harassment. If a foreign guest is proven guilty, he will be waiting for two days in a prison cell, where real criminals will be waiting for him.

Inattentively crossing the road

Traffic rules in China – concept is very conditional. Of course, they are regulated in the relevant documents, and there is no such chaos as in India on Chinese roads, but accidents happen here with sad regularity. The most common type of traffic accident unfortunately, there is a collision with pedestrians. In two cases out of three, the victims are tourists, both Chinese from other cities and foreign citizens. There is only one way to avoid such troubles - and ndash; do not lose vigilance when crossing the road. The same rule applies to bike paths.

Taking pictures of prohibited objects

A large number of military installations in China are prohibited from any kind of tourist photography, this also includes the police sites and temples with monasteries, where you can see a large number of prohibition signs. A separate topic of conversation – local residents. Photographing of Chinese is allowed only with their permission. If not, the emotional Chinese raise a big scandal and call the police. In this case, guilt is always proven, and the tourist will face a punishment similar to light harassment – 2 days in prison.

Losing a hotel business card

Any hotel gives foreign tourists upon leaving a business card, where the name and address of the hotel is written -Chinese. If a guest of the city gets lost, he must show this business card to a taxi driver who will take him back. If the business card is lost, you will have to contact the police, where they will search for the lost tourist by the database of booked rooms in the city, but it is highly discouraged to bring the situation to such a state.

Get carried away with archaic traditions

Some travel guides to China will talk about strange traditions of etiquette, which, supposedly, must be observed by every tourist who comes to the Celestial Empire. This information, most often, far-fetched, and it is based on facts that were spread several decades ago in travel magazines. One of these `` ducks '' is advice that you can not finish the portion in the restaurant to the end, thereby showing your hunger. This is not relevant for half a century, and some restaurants, fighting the habit, even introduced a system of fines for food left on a plate.

Violate hotel rules

What specific hotel rules await the guest, he learns only at the time of check-in. In every hotel, the administrator has a memo for guests, which in recent years has been duplicated into several languages. More often than not, tourists are warned about excessive noise at night, and no smoking.

Deal with pimps

According to the official the law, prostitution in China is prohibited, but this does not prevent local businessmen from creating brothels that disguise themselves as karaoke clubs and massage parlors. It is highly undesirable to contact these companies, because this way corruption in the country and illegal business are encouraged. In some tourist areas, pimps openly offer their services, speaking good Russian.

Trying to buy drugs

More terrible punishment awaits those who wants to contact the drug business. capital punishment – shooting. Those who buy even soft drugs can get up to several months in prison, so it is better to immediately forget about the forbidden pleasures in China.

Forget about the language barrier

The opinion that that the Chinese do not understand any language, other than their own – not anecdote, but sad statistics. If in the northern provinces they can know Russian words in some places, then in Beijing and other megacities the situation is more complicated. It is best to have an interpreter guide with you, but knowledge of several phrases still does not hurt.

We also recommend reading Things to do in Spain

Topic: Things not to do in China.

Author: Kelly Costine

Things not to do in China (Topic)