Why not both?
1 Like
It’s how stupid US immigration system is.
Anyone who’s been to China tells me that China isn’t a backwards country and people just live normal lives. But the US also won’t give out visas unless they’re connected or rich or both.
I don’t know the reason why anyone would want to immigrate to the US illegally, because they probably lived better lives in China, around family and friends and not have to deal with a country that’s getting worse by the minute.
Maybe it’s to show how broken US immigration is, or something else.
Besides given the impossibility of going to the US for many people, doing it illegally is actually high reward, low risk because once inside the US immigration laws are practically completely ignored. Nobody will ask you for immigration papers, at least I’ve never encountered anyone asking. Sure they aren’t supposed to work but Chinese restaurants will employ them, and it’s not like they’re going to get a job anywhere else anyways.
The Hills have Eyes
1 Like
Mt Arab. I had to think about that one. Nice day.
1 Like
Have you been to China? Ive been to very, very, very, very rural China. I appreciate the backcountry camping id done in the past. It made squatting over a channel to poop with a hundred other people around ever so slightly less…well, I don’t even know what word to use there… I can deal with high temperatures and no running water or electricity as long as I have my own clean sleeping bag to climb into (or lay on top of…) at the end of the day, but their poop management alone makes me appreciate the experience while also having no interest in doing that ever again.
Even Beijing and Shanghai aren’t developed in a way that makes you feel safe (will this 50 story building collapse on me if theres a strong wind?). Children pooping on newspapers and their parents picking it up and chucking it over the side at the Great Wall, even though there were public restrooms nearby. And I was there during what many YouTubers claim was a “golden age for China”.
Oh, and the 地溝油! And the high-end supermarkets putting labels over the almost expired meat to make it not going to expire for another week!
“Normal” is what you accept as what happens day in and day out. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “normal” to anyone else in the world. Like Taiwan’s traffic and lack of sidewalks…
I can’t really blame them. I know quite a few Chinese in the US who clearly scammed their way into US citizenship. And their anti-American/pro-China stance sometimes has me wondering if there even is a real human inside them. I also know people who have worked at the embassies in China trying to figure out if they should process those visas or not. Its a tough life dealing with that (the state department is currently hiring for China specifically, if anyone wants that job. Need to be fluent in Chinese. Would be a diplomat though…)
Cuz they can hide out in various Chinatowns across the US, where the authorities aren’t going to catch them and even if they do catch them, ICE will be accused of racism.
Well, you want to go to the US for whatever reason and you’ll never get a visa no matter what anyways, so what do you have to lose? Once you make it across the border no one will care. Immigration laws mean nothing once inside the US, you might as well just throw the papers away because it’s not like anyone will ask for it and it will not matter anyways.
There’s (or there used to be) some minor town I forget the name of with a large bus station in Yunnan province, where all the night buses from Jinghong to Kunming used to stop for a couple of hours because they couldn’t drive all night (I think because it’s a drug smuggling route, so there were a lot of checkpoints).
I took those buses a couple of times to go from northern Laos to Kunming, and the first time the toilet was as you describe - I walked in to see half a dozen or so dudes taking a dump in the communal trough. 
The next time I took that bus, I was a bit anxious all the way there because between the Laotian and Chinese food I rather needed to use it and would have had a hard time making it to Kunming without. Fortunately they’d renovated the bathrooms in the meantime. I’ve never been so happy to see a bathroom cubicle.
3 Likes
OK this definitely wins the gold medal for succinctly summarizing “When is the right time to leave.” 
Guy
2 Likes
Ha. One time I took a bus from Guilin to the rice terraces. When the bus stopped for a bathroom break, the toilet was a shit river with individual doors. You definitely want to be upstream and the place you wash your hands is where the water enters…
3 Likes
The irony of Taiwanese passports: Can visit the US/Canada/Europe/Australia without a visa, but needs a visa to visit Mexico, Vietnam, Argentina, and Thailand … as if Taiwanese tourists would choose to not leave. 
1 Like
I’m not sure I see your point. Maybe these locales aren’t as developed as Australia or some countries in Western Europe, but they’re all fun places to visit (yes, I’ve been to all 4). It’s an inconvenience that Taiwanese need to get a visa. I could’ve sworn I needed a visa for Vietnam on my US passport, but maybe I’m misremembering.
Does Taiwan let Mexicans come here visa free?
Does Taiwan allow people who enter illegally stay for extended periods of time, while offering free housing and health care, instead of detaining and deporting them?
1 Like
What’s that got to do with the price of bread?
1 Like
When the company is bought out by a Mexican one, so far, no increase. I wonder what a grupo Mexico has planned buying a bread company in the long haul.
fair point
No foreigner can visit Australia without a visa. The fact you apply for one online does not mean you don’t have a visa. I had to get a visa using my Taiwan passport to visit my relatives in Australia.
To get to Mexico most people pass through the USA. IF you have a US transit or visitor visa then you do not need a visa for Mexico. This is how my wife went there without applying for a visa for Mexico. After all if you can get a US visa who wants to overstay in Mexico?
Visa usually is required for certain nationalities to enter because the possibility of them overstaying is higher. But somehow much more appealing countries that have strict border control like the US, Canada, the UK and the EU don’t mind visa free entry for Taiwanese nationals, while a bunch of poor as fuck third world countries ask Taiwanese people to pay for a visa or even provide financial proof just to visit for a few days, as if we would stay there one day more than necessary. The decision is obviously political.
No.
But that is irrelevant. The US and Australia don’t allow Mexcians visa-free entry either, but Amercians and Australians can visit Mexico without visa.
And it’s the same with other countries. Vietnamese nationals can’t visit almost anywhere without a visa, but almost anyone can visit Vietnam visa-free … except Taiwanese, lol.
I’m obviously including online visa. Also, Kiwis can visit Australia visa-free.
Well the thing is Taiwanese people don’t need a visa to visit the US so that wouldn’t work. It’s the only country that doesn’t need a visa to enter the US yet needs visa to go to a bunch of third world countries. All US visa waiver countries are first world countries (or close to be).
Green = visa waiver programme (only need ESTA). Canada is a shade darker as I think Canadians only need the passport to go through the border (or mabye just a driver’s license?).
No, they can’t. They are issued a special category visa on arrival to Australia provided they meet the character requirements.
Since September 1994 Australia has had a universal visa requirement.
Well, what do they need to do to get this special visa other than presenting their ID/passport at the airport?