Gone are the days of needing to fly to Hong Kong to shell out copious amounts of money for a visa. Now China is offering visa free access!!!
Who is keen for a little China trip this coming holiday?
China's visa-free policy widens opportunities for personnel exchanges with New Zealand, Australia.
already tried the arrangement as for us Italians (and several other European countries plus Malaysia and Singapore) the unilateral visa exemption was in force since last year.
Super smooth, just need to fill in the arrival card, arrive at the immigration, they stamp, easy peasy.
Canadians and Americans excluded
I was actually looking at going to Shanghai Disneyland. I think it might be a good weekend trip.
I hate the CCP even more than you, they killed (and still raping the dead corpse) of what used to be my home, HK.
However, I do not hate the ppl nor the country itself, it is a beautiful place, and actually visiting it makes u even more staunchly against the party since u really see the BS they r doing there.
However, as a foreigner, as long as you mind ur own business, u don’t play fool, u r no less safe than like in Italy (actually, probably safer than Italy and many other countries in the West, where a wave of violence and nonsense is spreading like a cancer).
If u can’t resist the urge of shouting “f u CCP dogs”, then yeah, best not to go, otherwise you can have good trips.
Until someone dressed in all black comes and asks for your ID and looks at your phone saying Taiwan is not part of China. Then you get a close door trial and China has a 99.9 conviction rate
I don’t really care about the personal safety of anyone who decides to venture there, but you’re financing the enemy by doing so.
that’s why I go there with a china only burner phone on a HK sim card. Still basic precaution, but if u don’t act funny, they won’t really bother u.
they have enough shit on their hands.
my few bucks will unlikely move the tip, but anyways, personal choices. Went there only once so far, might go another time next year. Very infrequent affair.
For me it’s not worth the risk. They might not give Italians a hard time but I’m not risking being in China these days as a ROC national. It’s unfortunate because Cosmoprof Asia is in HK and I’d really like to go for my business (you might have heard of it as they’re an Italian company in Bologna).
I no longer do business with Chinese companies anyways. But it does make me sad that I no longer feel comfortable visiting HK again.
fair enough, every one’s situation is different. I didn’t feel at danger there. Did I feel comfortable? Not really, but for short trips I can bear it.
Would I live there? Hell no.
This… I basically cry every time I land and see how they r massacring that gem of a city it was. Going there next week for work… going to be emotional again…
Hurrah!
Not to turn this into a political discussion, but everything is so interconnected these days that you can’t really avoid financing your enemy. Interaction with people on the other side can also be important to reduce misunderstanding, etc. If the opportunity arises I will say something nice about Taiwan while being there. Very likely next summer. Probably Chengdu.
nice city, I enjoyed it. Probably one of the better cities in Chinar. Love the food.
The airport is depressing, TFU so far from the city and very… chinese, i.e. humungous and empty.
I’m working out a travel plan. Songshan to Chengdu to Shangrila aka Diqing aka Zhongdian. This might be a goer. I can walk out my door at 11am and arrive in the Tibetan highlands in time for a supper of tsampa and butter tea.
Daocheng is also a possibility but more expensive.
How high up will that be? Shouldn’t you ascend slowly to acclimatize?
Zhongdian is about 3200 I think. Not too bad. I’ve flown into Kangding before with a plane load of Taiwanese clutching oxygen bottles. That’s 4200 I think but you go straight down on the bus to Tagong.
Ooh Daocheng is the highest civilian airport in the world at 4400.
I talked to a guy from HK recently, and I was telling him I’m afraid to visit China as an American living in TW. He said visiting HK is still fine but he didn’t think China was a good idea.
I see so many nice places in China on Instagram. Even if you exclude all the bs fake and edited stuff.
I was thinking of flying to Kinmen or Matsu attaining relaxation: then getting a ferry. If Fujian goes ok I could do a visa free top up and continue inland, or just fly back and/or to Thailand. I’ve been looking at this youtube channel and it made me want to go to Yunnan. She travels across Yunnan and Tibet on a scooter. Looks pretty awesome.
