Join our challenge and reach Chinese literacy in less than a month 👉🏼mandarinbp.com/18things_challenge ✅ WATCH THESE NEXT: 99 Must-know Chinese Words & Phrases▶ ▶ruclips.net/video/3AgXE0jsuGY/видео.html Mandarin Pronunciation Guide ▶ ▶ ruclips.net/video/FlaJ12tmtu4/видео.html
Great video, love the podcast! As a Brit living in China for 18 years I've seen a lot of changes here. I have gigged here, started a comedy club, become a full time artist etc. I would agree with every point you made here. One point I would add that is really important is, if you're thinking of coming to China be aware of drug clampdowns. China has a pretty strict zero-tolerence to drugs. In my native England although drugs are illegal, they are omni-present. In China don't be tempted, they have random purges on bars and night clubs. If you have any trace of drugs in your system, as a foreigner, you'll be detained for 14 days then deported. It'll go on your international record and might affect your travel status. These purges are pretty rare, the recent one this year is the first for 5 years, but they are pretty hardcore. China's an amazing place full of opportunity, friendship and incredible progress, but beware the drugs policy. If you have weed or anything in your system and are caught, your trip to the Middle Kingdom will be cut short.
Regarding "what's wrong with stepping on earth": You need to consider the scale in China -- the mere population size itself makes a lot of "normal" occurrences in the west huge problems in China. Taking this particular occasion for example, allowing everybody to step outside of the designated plank walk would mean huge damages to the local ecosystem. A pair of shoes per tourist there can easily destroy lots of ground if not properly controlled.
Actually I'll give another example that was even more shocking to me initially. Visited the forbidden palace once, and they had signs everywhere to say "don't touch", and I was thinking like what, my touch is so rough it's gonna peel a layer of metal off the handrail? And my guide showed me a rail that was badly eroded from everyone's touch. The sculptures, curvings etc were all worn flat! One person isn't doing much, but when everyone does it, and the volume adds up, not even metal can withstand it.
@@annamorning right but you'd have this same thing in the USA with 'The Liberty Bell' or in Westminster Abbey where Catherine The Greats coffin is wearing down and so are the solid stone stairs and you'd have this in Vatican City which is (10,000 population?) and so this isn't because China has 1 billion people but because many many people want to be in that one place.
Thank you, Phil. I am planning to be in southern China in March 2025! And I am hoping that I will know more than 130+ characters I have already learnt todate.
Thank you so much for this video. I'm currently studying to become a professional Mandarin translator and interpreter and would love to travel to China in the future, and work there for a while too if I can. Therefore I want to know everything that might come as a culture shock for foreigners so I can be ready, and I'm glad you went to in-depth into it in this podcast. I specially like the realness of it all, having lived there for so long and experienced these things first-hand. I look forward to this becoming a series, please keep it up!
Note though, the rental bikes often don't work with foreign passports. Only supports locals, similar to hotels and some tourist locations. In Beijing and Shanghai though I'm sure it works fine, but many other cities not so much
Chengdu'er here. Finished the whole video. Feels like sitting in a room, drinking the tea, having chit-chat with you, talking about everything I want to ask a foreigner. Quite refreshing and interesting.
I really enjoyed this video. I have a biracial grandson (Chinese/white American) living in America. I would like to know about Chinese pre-school and elementary school. Do they encourage child exploration and creativity during these young years? What is a typical Pre-school day? What is a typical kindergarten day? How much time do they spend on learning Chinese characters? Can you discuss rote/instructional vs arts/creative learning? Thank you for your time.
There were things for children to do everywhere. I went when this was aired. I had a blast walking Guilin after dinner with the family of the friend I was meeting.
Culturally it's very different over in China. For example, American pre-school and elementary education focuses quite heavily on creative thinking and social interactions; these are less important in Chinese schools, which focus much more on language acquisition and math and science. That's why there's the cliche that Asians are good at Math; somehow it's just a culturally Asian thing to be very math-heavy in school, with the average first-grader having fully memorized multiplication tables to 10 or more by heart. Rote/instructional learning is the default mode of learning, by nature of how information-heavy languages and math/science are; without strong memory foundations, you simply won't be able to absorb the amount of information needed to have a basic to intermediate grasp on these subjects. As a consequence, much less time is spent on arts and creative learning. You can find out more by googling or searching for cultural commentaries on Chinese education.
Loved this podcast. Please do more. I personally would love to meet Annie (i think you said the voice actors name was Annie from the blueprint) and the male voice actor as well. It would be fun to put a face to the voice. Would love to meet your wife and Luke’s wife. Would love to see Luke and his wife interact in mandarin and have a conversation between the two. Maybe all three of you. Would be super fun. Blueprint is the best! It’s a way of life! Thank you!
I love content like this! Informative for someone like me that's learning Chinese with the Mandarin Blueprint Method and hoping to visit China for holidays sometime in the future. Cheers Phil 😎
Great job in detailing the intricacies of Chinese culture. Maybe you should cover numerology. They claim they're not superstitious, yet cling to the well-known austerity of the number 8, the doom and gloom of the number 4, and frequently make use of homophones like 520 for "I love you". I know there's others, like 6 being another favorable number and 7 being associated with death, but I'm not that familiar with the reasonings on these.
Thank you so much for this genuine tips and guide trips ❤❤❤ I'm not planning to go to china except for Xinjiang and Kashgar maybe Harbin ...but i learned so much . Thank you for the pragmatism through and through ❤ I will definitely watch the video one more time and share it with you..
Just got back from my first trip to China and I wish this released before I went! Everything is so true! Carrying your own toilet paper is a necessity that definitely caught me off guard at first! 😂
HAHA, A little tip from local people, when finding a restaurant, skip the 5 stared extremely detailed, wonderful pictures comments, most of them are fake😂. The real ones are short or low stared. total 4 stars is good.
A Chinese here. I laughed out loud when you talk about the traffic and how we "calculate trajectories". Quite true, but we typically do that only when there are no traffic lights. Nowadays the traffic safety is taken more and more seriously.
🤣🤣yep!! It’s respect! the pay the bill thing still happening here even if I in the us🤣🤣🤣🙋♀️🤦♀️friends n family. But I remember hanging out with my American friends they don’t do that. They tell the waitress spilt the bill. So I learn that the hard way🤦♀️oh and I realize my American friends they don’t or never share there dishes like how we Asian do.
Wonderful video, but could I ask a quick pronunciation question? With the ‘i’ sound in pinyin, I know how to pronounce it in words like ‘yǐ’ and ‘zì’, but in words like ‘yīngyǔ’ for ‘English’ and ‘xīngxīng’ for ‘star’, the ‘i’ makes more of an “uh” sound, like “youngyǔ”. I just wanna make sure my pronunciation is correct. I hope I’m not sounding like someone who’s delving too deep out of ego and what not, but if I am, please tell me.
In northern accents -ing is more like a subtle -iung because of the nasal -ng. It's probably seen as more proper. In the south it's not as strong, sometimes there is no distinction between -in and -ing (they both sound like -in).
This question comes up very often and was addressed in a podcast episode from 5 years ago. The short answer is, it depends on the region, and both ways of pronouncing are correct. Here's the clip and timestamp: ruclips.net/video/-GodTx_001E/видео.html
From your perspective, what do you think about every political event that happened in China, such as, Tiananmen, Taiwan, Hong Kong 2019, Xinjiang terror attack, Tibet, etc., is there any involvement of US CIA?
I'm an American who has lived in China for the past 16 years. This is a very comprehensive and detailed description about life in China. I would like to emphasize that China is very safe. The first two years I lived here, I lived in Shanghai (a city with 25 million people). The only time I've ever seen a cop carrying a gun was the bank security guys when they go to fill ATM machines. Also, even though China has been open since 1978, you will be stared at by kids and adults. I have blue eyes and that seems to captivate people. One other thing, you will often be asked is how much money you make, even complete strangers (especially taxi drivers! ha!).
State Department Summary: Reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions. The VPN (and everything else about you) is fine until someone decides it isn't. China is being clear on these points. You'd better listen.
This is only for Hong Kong and Macau. Read it a few more times I had to myself. Of course you have to go through immigration checks and fill out a paper with details about your visit. Which was understandable. I changed airplanes in Bejing(in) and Shanghai(out). It is not anything like that scary article. Especially if you are with a local. Also the airports as long as you act like a respectable human you will nit have problems. I did get lot of stares because I was one of the only Americans(white boys) around. You only live once don’t be scared to do what ever comes to you.
@@loc1k btw here is the full copy past just incase anyone else is curious. 😁😁😁😁😁👍👍👍✌️✌️✌️ Travel Advisory April 12, 2024Mainland China, Hong Kong & Macau - See Summaries OD Updated due to new national security legislation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Summary: Reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions. Exercise increased caution when traveling to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws. Reconsider travel to the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to a limited ability to provide emergency consular services. Exercise increased caution when traveling to the Macau SAR due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws. See specific risks and conditions in each jurisdiction.
what happened after they smacked a bottle on your head? I hope you called the police and they learned their lessons. Another thing about red color : don't write a letter or a post card in red. That means you are cutting ties with the recipient. About hat color : don't wear a green hat.
Join our challenge and reach Chinese literacy in less than a month 👉🏼mandarinbp.com/18things_challenge ✅ WATCH THESE NEXT: 99 Must-know Chinese Words & Phrases▶ ▶ruclips.net/video/3AgXE0jsuGY/видео.html Mandarin Pronunciation Guide ▶ ▶ ruclips.net/video/FlaJ12tmtu4/видео.html
What made you move out of China? You make it sound like a nice place to live yet you moved out and I want to understand your reasoning.
Great video, love the podcast!
As a Brit living in China for 18 years I've seen a lot of changes here. I have gigged here, started a comedy club, become a full time artist etc. I would agree with every point you made here. One point I would add that is really important is, if you're thinking of coming to China be aware of drug clampdowns. China has a pretty strict zero-tolerence to drugs. In my native England although drugs are illegal, they are omni-present.
In China don't be tempted, they have random purges on bars and night clubs. If you have any trace of drugs in your system, as a foreigner, you'll be detained for 14 days then deported. It'll go on your international record and might affect your travel status. These purges are pretty rare, the recent one this year is the first for 5 years, but they are pretty hardcore.
China's an amazing place full of opportunity, friendship and incredible progress, but beware the drugs policy. If you have weed or anything in your system and are caught, your trip to the Middle Kingdom will be cut short.
cut short or last for years😅
Am I going to china in the near future? NO!
Did I watch the entire thing? YES!
Thank you for watching!
😂
Your prob, thats all.
Regarding "what's wrong with stepping on earth": You need to consider the scale in China -- the mere population size itself makes a lot of "normal" occurrences in the west huge problems in China. Taking this particular occasion for example, allowing everybody to step outside of the designated plank walk would mean huge damages to the local ecosystem. A pair of shoes per tourist there can easily destroy lots of ground if not properly controlled.
Actually I'll give another example that was even more shocking to me initially. Visited the forbidden palace once, and they had signs everywhere to say "don't touch", and I was thinking like what, my touch is so rough it's gonna peel a layer of metal off the handrail? And my guide showed me a rail that was badly eroded from everyone's touch. The sculptures, curvings etc were all worn flat! One person isn't doing much, but when everyone does it, and the volume adds up, not even metal can withstand it.
@@annamorning right but you'd have this same thing in the USA with 'The Liberty Bell' or in Westminster Abbey where Catherine The Greats coffin is wearing down and so are the solid stone stairs and you'd have this in Vatican City which is (10,000 population?) and so this isn't because China has 1 billion people but because many many people want to be in that one place.
Thank you, Phil. I am planning to be in southern China in March 2025! And I am hoping that I will know more than 130+ characters I have already learnt todate.
what?! I watched your whole video as a Chinese who has lived in the US for a decade😅…Objective summary! Good job!
Same here. Excellent analysis and insight.
Yes please do more!! Awesome to hear
We will :)
Thank you so much for this video. I'm currently studying to become a professional Mandarin translator and interpreter and would love to travel to China in the future, and work there for a while too if I can. Therefore I want to know everything that might come as a culture shock for foreigners so I can be ready, and I'm glad you went to in-depth into it in this podcast. I specially like the realness of it all, having lived there for so long and experienced these things first-hand. I look forward to this becoming a series, please keep it up!
Go it was great! Especially with a local as a guide.
Note though, the rental bikes often don't work with foreign passports. Only supports locals, similar to hotels and some tourist locations.
In Beijing and Shanghai though I'm sure it works fine, but many other cities not so much
笑翻了(LOL), gained some new perspectives that as a native Chinese I never thought of about China.
great video with a good insight, I really like this kind of format with topics around Chinese culture/society and so on
Glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely love this style of video! Thank you for all of your hard work, Phil and Luke. 🤩
Our pleasure!
Chengdu'er here. Finished the whole video. Feels like sitting in a room, drinking the tea, having chit-chat with you, talking about everything I want to ask a foreigner.
Quite refreshing and interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A great “guide book” for foreign travelers. Thank you!
China is just so diverse and cultural abundance.
Moving to Beijing in about a month. This is so helpful!
Glad we could help :)
I hope it’s an amazing experience.
I really enjoyed this video. I have a biracial grandson (Chinese/white American) living in America. I would like to know about Chinese pre-school and elementary school. Do they encourage child exploration and creativity during these young years? What is a typical Pre-school day? What is a typical kindergarten day? How much time do they spend on learning Chinese characters? Can you discuss rote/instructional vs arts/creative learning? Thank you for your time.
There were things for children to do everywhere. I went when this was aired. I had a blast walking Guilin after dinner with the family of the friend I was meeting.
Culturally it's very different over in China. For example, American pre-school and elementary education focuses quite heavily on creative thinking and social interactions; these are less important in Chinese schools, which focus much more on language acquisition and math and science. That's why there's the cliche that Asians are good at Math; somehow it's just a culturally Asian thing to be very math-heavy in school, with the average first-grader having fully memorized multiplication tables to 10 or more by heart. Rote/instructional learning is the default mode of learning, by nature of how information-heavy languages and math/science are; without strong memory foundations, you simply won't be able to absorb the amount of information needed to have a basic to intermediate grasp on these subjects. As a consequence, much less time is spent on arts and creative learning. You can find out more by googling or searching for cultural commentaries on Chinese education.
Loved this podcast. Please do more. I personally would love to meet Annie (i think you said the voice actors name was Annie from the blueprint) and the male voice actor as well. It would be fun to put a face to the voice. Would love to meet your wife and Luke’s wife. Would love to see Luke and his wife interact in mandarin and have a conversation between the two. Maybe all three of you. Would be super fun. Blueprint is the best! It’s a way of life! Thank you!
I love content like this! Informative for someone like me that's learning Chinese with the Mandarin Blueprint Method and hoping to visit China for holidays sometime in the future. Cheers Phil 😎
Great to hear!
It was great I suggest going. I had little real knowledge of the language, but had a local/friend as a guide.
Your Chinese pronunciation is amazing, and very impressive, two thumbs up.
22:10 , just had that exact situation 1 hour ago, lol, grate video btw.
Love your work Phil. This is so interesting. I will keep plugging away with MBM.
Thank you :)
Great job in detailing the intricacies of Chinese culture. Maybe you should cover numerology. They claim they're not superstitious, yet cling to the well-known austerity of the number 8, the doom and gloom of the number 4, and frequently make use of homophones like 520 for "I love you". I know there's others, like 6 being another favorable number and 7 being associated with death, but I'm not that familiar with the reasonings on these.
Noted
I really enjoyed this - thank you for taking the time to make it. ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love this video! Thanks, Phil!
Glad it was helpful!
It's like this video was made for me lol. Going to China in September ❤
Glad we could help. Have an amazing time on your trip!
Have fun!
The snow and ice festivals are amazing in Harbin
Really well done! Many thanks!
This video is an absolute masterpiece
Thank you for your kind words
Thank you for this thorough and very interesting presentation! So are you living back in the USA?
Yes I am!
@@MandarinBlueprint Central time...the midwest. Hope you are not frying as we are in California.
I’m in Texas. Guilin was a lil bit cooler. Felt more like Louisiana. Soo humid. Lol I had a blast!
I needed this last year bro 😅
Thank you so much for this genuine tips and guide trips ❤❤❤
I'm not planning to go to china except for Xinjiang and Kashgar maybe Harbin ...but i learned so much .
Thank you for the pragmatism through and through ❤
I will definitely watch the video one more time and share it with you..
Happy to help :)
Just got back from my first trip to China and I wish this released before I went! Everything is so true! Carrying your own toilet paper is a necessity that definitely caught me off guard at first! 😂
Hope you had an amazing time!
@@MandarinBlueprint it was fantastic! I can't wait to go back
These are great pieces of advice. Thanks!
Most welcome
Phil: VPN's have to be gov't approved in Mainland China, to be used legally. They updated the laws on that in the mid-2010's.
HAHA, A little tip from local people, when finding a restaurant, skip the 5 stared extremely detailed, wonderful pictures comments, most of them are fake😂. The real ones are short or low stared. total 4 stars is good.
Love it!!!
Really enjoyed this. Insightful and entertaining. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Such an informative video, definitely saving. 谢谢您 ❤
Glad it was helpful!
I could have loved this place only if there's no the great fire wall. Well thank you for uploading this video!
Our pleasure!
A Chinese here. I laughed out loud when you talk about the traffic and how we "calculate trajectories". Quite true, but we typically do that only when there are no traffic lights. Nowadays the traffic safety is taken more and more seriously.
It was chaotic beauty! I have a rush hour video of the motos I was soo amazed.
It is illegal if the store refuse to accept cash though 5:21
Great video!
Thanks!
interesting
🤣🤣yep!! It’s respect! the pay the bill thing still happening here even if I in the us🤣🤣🤣🙋♀️🤦♀️friends n family.
But I remember hanging out with my American friends they don’t do that. They tell the waitress spilt the bill. So I learn that the hard way🤦♀️oh and I realize my American friends they don’t or never share there dishes like how we Asian do.
Our traditions vary so much from country to country! It's amazing to see!
omg I'm going to China
Have fun on your trip!
You should!
Wonderful video, but could I ask a quick pronunciation question? With the ‘i’ sound in pinyin, I know how to pronounce it in words like ‘yǐ’ and ‘zì’, but in words like ‘yīngyǔ’ for ‘English’ and ‘xīngxīng’ for ‘star’, the ‘i’ makes more of an “uh” sound, like “youngyǔ”. I just wanna make sure my pronunciation is correct. I hope I’m not sounding like someone who’s delving too deep out of ego and what not, but if I am, please tell me.
In northern accents -ing is more like a subtle -iung because of the nasal -ng. It's probably seen as more proper. In the south it's not as strong, sometimes there is no distinction between -in and -ing (they both sound like -in).
This question comes up very often and was addressed in a podcast episode from 5 years ago. The short answer is, it depends on the region, and both ways of pronouncing are correct. Here's the clip and timestamp:
ruclips.net/video/-GodTx_001E/видео.html
@@MandarinBlueprint Very helpful. Thank you.
我感觉我英语好了很多，绝大多数能听懂。小部分猜也差不多
Omg this is hilarious!
You uploaded this video the day I went to China for the first time (for 30 days) 😂
Hope you enjoyed it!
Where's the mentioned link to Wise?
Sorry about that, forgot to add it! Added it to the description, but here it is again: wise.com/us/blog/wechat-pay-for-foreigners
So, curious what did you do to your arm? 😧
My skin 碰到’d with a burning hot baking sheet - still a scar there and I recorded this six weeks ago, so be careful while baking kids!
The worst thing especially at night are mopeds most of them are electric and to save their battery they seldom have their lights on
From your perspective, what do you think about every political event that happened in China, such as, Tiananmen, Taiwan, Hong Kong 2019, Xinjiang terror attack, Tibet, etc., is there any involvement of US CIA?
I don’t know - if it was covert then I’m certainly not in on it lol
All of this is cia
Xièxiè for the video
Welcome :)
Liao Bu Qi
I'm an American who has lived in China for the past 16 years. This is a very comprehensive and detailed description about life in China. I would like to emphasize that China is very safe. The first two years I lived here, I lived in Shanghai (a city with 25 million people). The only time I've ever seen a cop carrying a gun was the bank security guys when they go to fill ATM machines. Also, even though China has been open since 1978, you will be stared at by kids and adults. I have blue eyes and that seems to captivate people. One other thing, you will often be asked is how much money you make, even complete strangers (especially taxi drivers! ha!).
The traffic in China is atrociously awful
😂 it was chaotic beauty imo
State Department Summary: Reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions.
The VPN (and everything else about you) is fine until someone decides it isn't. China is being clear on these points. You'd better listen.
This is only for Hong Kong and Macau. Read it a few more times I had to myself. Of course you have to go through immigration checks and fill out a paper with details about your visit. Which was understandable. I changed airplanes in Bejing(in) and Shanghai(out). It is not anything like that scary article. Especially if you are with a local. Also the airports as long as you act like a respectable human you will nit have problems. I did get lot of stares because I was one of the only Americans(white boys) around. You only live once don’t be scared to do what ever comes to you.
@@kilecothren7494I quoted the advisory. It means what it means. People from free countries should not be going to China for tourism.
@@loc1k 🤷♂️ it’s ok to be nervous. I went I am here to tell about it, and I wouldn’t be scared to go back.
@@loc1k btw here is the full copy past just incase anyone else is curious. 😁😁😁😁😁👍👍👍✌️✌️✌️
Travel Advisory
April 12, 2024Mainland China, Hong Kong & Macau - See Summaries
OD
Updated due to new national security legislation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Summary: Reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions.
Exercise increased caution when traveling to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.
Reconsider travel to the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to a limited ability to provide emergency consular services. Exercise increased caution when traveling to the Macau SAR due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.
See specific risks and conditions in each jurisdiction.
China is an inappropriate destination. Stay away.
what happened after they smacked a bottle on your head? I hope you called the police and they learned their lessons. Another thing about red color : don't write a letter or a post card in red. That means you are cutting ties with the recipient. About hat color : don't wear a green hat.
Drinking in public is illegal in China?I don't think so,that sounds so western
Yes, you can drink as you walk anywhere except for not avoiding some religious purpose