lackluster83
138606
3448
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Sorry for the potato quality. So I was shocked when I went into this flea market and it turned into a meat market. Not pictured is a guy chopping pork with a cleaver and cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It didn’t smell bad. I honestly wish I had more options like this here to buy fresh meat and sea food.
Not shocking just tickling
This is a Pizza Hut! I had shrimp on my pizza.
All kinds of funny translation snafus.
Natural bridge park.
I mastered Kung-fu in my two weeks there.
Another park
I had to trick this guy into smiling
This place was called Gualin, it’s like the Gatlinburg, Tennessee of China. Lots of craft makers, artists, etc.
Fish pot
Dinner
Some local peeps
Some kind of restaurant market
A pic I took that that I like
Thanks for looking, and for posting @LivingInAsiaIronically
TheGhostofCarrieFisher
It's a 3rd world country with very distinct regions where you would be in culture shock if you went from SE China to NW China. No FDA.
footfucker
TheGodEmperorOfChaos
#2 Always wanted to try these until I found out the fish could carry bacteria from another person and you can catch it. Total let down.
dbrsong
No cats were harmed in the making of this post... They were harmed much earlier in preparation for that first picture.
Marscaleb
I also like that pic you took.
kanoPositivityMaker
None can defend
GraemeDynard
I’d love to live there.
crummulent
Big Blue Nation!
jaderock
Your kung fu is karate
NachoPete
goflyblind
i've mostly just been mildly confused after moving to poland from canada.
JehanzebKureshi
That pic that you took that you like, I like that too.
lackluster83
We get it
CausticLemonEnema
As someone who took Mandarin in college about 10 years ago and forgot 99% of it, how is it navigating through there?
Qualtagh
Very easy in big cities. Seemed like everyone under 30 had studied English and most wanted to practice it. English menus are common.
lackluster83
I had friends who spent a few years in the country. I could basically tell a taxi cab to go left or right. And request spicy food.
adl7
You probably remember more of it than you think, your Mandarin files are compressed.
unusedmonitor3
I've traveled around twice with virtually zero Mandarin, including into some pretty rural areas. It's not hard.
macrology
Yangshuo! Beautiful, beautiful place.
YouMadeMeLogInForThis
Why #8 tho? Taking a picture with a panhandler feels weirdly voyeuristic. Ha ha! Look at the poor people in China!
seamuspip
Agreed.
VodkaReindeer
Maybe he's getting back at all the Chinese people that probably tried to take a picture with him because he's white.
deathloop
ugh that is cringe. something logan paul would do
NotaCPA
Nigerian here. Open markets like that are common everywhere except north America. Little smell because everything is super fresh
NotaCPA
It was more a shock when my family moved to Canada.
GuW69
So, China is out of the question for anyone likeing stuff like food hygiene and cable management
fortfantastic
or religious freedom. or freedom of the press. or freedom of speech.
bripi
No, that's not true. Religious freedom they have. Freedom of speech, not quite as much, but some. No free press, true. So, 1 for 3.
fortfantastic
oh cool i'll tell the tibetan buddhists and the falun gong that they're not having genocide committed against them.
bripi
Wow that escalated quickly. Ok, perhaps it wasn't a perfect generalization. Tibetans are being marginalized not due to their religion, tho.
fortfantastic
unless you're following the party-approved version of any religion, your religion is outlawed. That's not religious freedom.
DoDisNameWork
Ey!! UK let's go!! Glad someone there cared about going abroad!!
adl7
The 10 million illiterates here move to the US, please.
drainbamage1011
Hey, I'm a UK grad and love traveling!
harjan
That lady just walk with the duck tho
lance415
DooganTheTerrible
Saw a lot of this in South America. Groceries, fam!
ogotai
Their toilet duck packaging is spot on
Werenostrangerstolove
aaa
Zigor22
It’s.....its.....smiling.
dwude
Well, she's not karl, so the duck wont listen to her
cj89898
pareidoliaperson
Some US-asian guys I follow on youtube told a story about a (rural) chinese woman who migrated to us, first couple weeks just went to the 1
pareidoliaperson
pond, picked a duck, snapped the head and brought it back home lol. Culture shock indeed. 2/2
EwGrooss
How do you just pick up a duck? I’ve been trying to catch one for decades
pareidoliaperson
Not sure if you're joking, but I didn't say "pick up", I said "picked". Therefore, not sure if your comment is valid.
TaiPan87
This also happened at an office park in Orange County where we had offices. Chinese people kept coming in the evening & killing the ducks.
AngryHumanoid
Duck is like "Free me noble stranger!"
HenryLongfellowIII
BBQ duck is too delicious.
davebeastly
And I shall grant thee seven gold wish eggs.
mynameisbucky
By referencing Gatlinburg I know exactly what you meant. Did you pick up any airbrushed t-shirts?
davideagle89
Same here. How about some taffy?
mynameisbucky
How about a bad tattoo or a scratchy blanket with a black bear on it?
davideagle89
And if you’re hungry... pancakes. Pancakes everywhere.
CityYeti
What shocks me about China is their Walmart. They have Walmart brand vodka, crocodiles, live frogs, and meat just thrown about in a cooler.
CityYeti
Not on hooks either
ITryToOnlyRespondInGifs
Live frogs in a cooler? Aren’t they cold then?
CityYeti
Actually, they were in this tank with water and faux lillypads
Alaskanpipeliner2
Go Cats! Also I loved the random people walking around selling beer. This was Taiwan tho.
Chimichanga007
Taiwan is China
Alaskanpipeliner2
Theres some Taiwanese who would disagree.
ukjaybrat
Blue got in
MotherOfDucks
Go Cards!
HarryFrumvrk
I had so many people stop and stare at me in more rural areas - literally had never seen a big white guy with a beard.
metalfoto
what about selfie opportunity??
nero4ty2
Same in rural thailand, all the monks wanted to take pictures with me
pr0xyius
Same for me haha! My girlfriend is also tall, around 1,73meters. And they wanted pictures of us.
baturro
You dont visit China in the winter, Santa?
tavinjer
Correction: They’d never seen a big guy, OR a white guy, OR a guy with a beard, let alone all three of those in one dude.
LordAlfrey
They'd probably seen a guy with a beard
bripi
Happens in the cities as well. They just fkn openly stare at white people. At first, its cute. Then its rude. Then you don't care anymore.
Cestarian
You should try being a big white guy with long red hair sometime.
MerToo
In China one normally has to be very, very old to have a big beard.
ask2risk
Try just being black. The fun is keeping track of who stares the longest
ITellUWhat
Lol had same with fam vacay, mom white, dad black, I’m white from moms white prev husb. My bro is mixedExplaining this to people was tough.
justthebearnecessities
me: tall, blonde, fat and beardy - literally had my photo taken when i was at a panda enclosure, with the panda out of shot
snugglepops
I can’t stop laughing at this. Just picturing this in my head has me dying
Blackbird2Raven
People kept asking to be photographed with me in rural parts of India. I felt famous.
Blud4BludGod
That was me in Japan in the early 2000's. I haven't been back since, have heard you can't take ten steps without running into another...
Blud4BludGod
...tourist now. Back when I went I saw maybe one or two other travelers every full ten hour day of going out and exploring.
ImNotAnOrange
There were a lot of good travel shows in the last 15 years plus the internet has really made things more accessible in lots of ways
nunyabidnesstwats
Plus Japan isn't desperately broke anymore cause they pumped out a shit load of tourism ads. The 90's tech crash really fucked them up.
Blud4BludGod
Yeah, definitely. I'm not necessarily complaining or saying it's bad either. I'm glad I got to go myself before things changed though
ImNotAnOrange
I've been to Thailand a few times, and it doesnt feel like the adventure it was the first time, but I do feel a bit more confident and safer
magicpocket
As a 6’ female in rural city that doesn’t get foreigners, I had people leaning out of their cars as they drove by just to shout hello lol
SuperTacticalSandwich
I'm no asian, but depending on how you look, I might do the same
qweesdy
If I saw a 6' female with a beard, I'd probably lean out of my car too.
justthebearnecessities
i got a haircut in hohhot and i swear they asked people from neighbouring hair dressers if they wanted to come and wash or cut or shave 1/2
justthebearnecessities
my blonde hair and beard (male). it was an hour pampering and cost like 20 RMB. my (now) wife was quite jealous as she wanted to was her 2/
justthebearnecessities
hair and i was only along for the ride..
magicpocket
I wanted to do that. Everything is so cheap I should have. Just didn’t want them to cut my hair in some crazy hair style. Probably would
shiftdi3s3l
It's the beard. Everyone thinks "it's so dirty", so they stare and ask themselves why someone would willingly look dirty. Experience.
mjangelvortex
That's true. In fact DreamWorks removed removed Hiccup's beard for the Chinese trailer for How To Train Your Dragon 3.
SarcasticComment
Not always. Friends dad with long beard went to Japan and China for work. He had people bowing to him and his beard on the street
JamesBluntThatSmartassCunt
Long beard is different from short scruffy beard.
SarcasticComment
No one would argue that a well groomed beard is identical to a natural/unkempt beard
nero4ty2
white guy no beard here, rural thailand people stared at me wherever i went, i was the first white person they had seen in person
ImNotAnOrange
Only the younger kids had that kind of reaction where I went, even though it was rural, the area was a focus for malaria research
SarcasticComment
/2 Little kids would run up, tug it, and say "Santa" before running away. Curiosity and wonder isn't always a negative.
ImNotAnOrange
assuming he was visibly old, that makes a difference.
SarcasticComment
He was a father, but much more of a Gimli than a Gandalf. He had an impressive beard by Asian standards since they have less facial hair
PekoeBOO
I had the same when I went. They don't see tall white blonde women much.
rando04
Especially with your awesome beard!
PekoeBOO
I lol'd
TheManWithTheSevenScars
SashaTheKitty
Lol 1. That's just a market, not flea. Markets should always have fresh meat & fish, none of the frozen stuff.
SashaTheKitty
2. Chinese only got one knife: a cleaver. Always a cleaver. My parents literally brought their own cleaver when we immigrated.
sppwalker
Amen. My mom is Chinese (dad is American) and we have 3 cleavers. They’re incredibly useful knives
SashaTheKitty
So heavy too right?
SashaTheKitty
3. Pizza Hut is fancy in China!! Also so fucking good. So is KFC. My god. So juicy & perfectly fried & SPICYYY
ButteryButtsButterflyCups
Thats what surprised me. They are literally every where! Pizza hut on every corner or a KFC.
VodkaReindeer
But doesn't the meat stay fresher in a lower temperature...
SashaTheKitty
Nope. They are sold that quickly. Also: never did put eggs in the fridge in Asia, somehow we need to do that here.
fortfantastic
depends on how eggs are treated/washed for putting them in fridge.
fortfantastic
well let's think about where all the health epidemics from faulty food safety come from... oh wait.
Fargus57
I was thinking the same thing. Also, that entire market would fail a U.S. health/restaurant inspection.
SashaTheKitty
Key word here: US. That's how the freshest meat is sold. There are supermarkets but ain't the same.
somethingslightlyclever
And somehow the food tastes better and fresher.
Sasarious
With a side effect of food poisoning.
somethingslightlyclever
Spent 4 months in south east Asia living off street food. Never felt better. Maybe you just have a weak stomach
gerbabbel
The butcher market is not that shocking. Really bad are the pet shops. Living creatures treated like just any kind of product is scary.
antillesw
Skorea pet shops are horrible. They had a cat in a small cage in the back under some boxes.
sagenumen
Are you aware of any clean and humane pet shops there and how they’re viewed by the locals?
Wankathon
I've been to China many times and I kept waiting for the shock. Its just a standard dirty market. There's a reason they don't eat rare meat
EZ0422
I would try to adopt all the animals and take them back home
Pr3ach3r
Don't worry, they'd breed some more.
CaptainAhat
https://www.factoryfarmmap.org/
xn1992
Seen live frogs waiting for the chop
ImNotAnOrange
Theres this great restaurants in Bangkok where the way in is just lined with tanks of sea food. considering the attitude towards >>
ImNotAnOrange
refrigeration that you can see in lots of places, its honestly way more reassuring.
Ilieoften
Frog legs are delicious. Especially fresh
antillesw
you can see that here in chinese grocery stores. turtles and eels too
ChubbyNipple
Honestly I thought this was the dog meat section of the market
Somanyquestions
Why?
LittleRhino
Stop pushing your truth onto free intellectual Imgurians!
PicassoCT
Coworker had his significant other come over to china for a long stay in 2nd tier city. They visited a produce market and she noticed puppys
PicassoCT
Points at one- he should buy it and rescue it. Men points at it. Guy behind the counter grabs it, chops it up, wraps it and puts it into bag
PicassoCT
Attitude changes though -they get as crazy as the west in 1tier citys by now.
IPostAboutAmuscariaMushrooms
I thought China outlawed dog and cat eating years ago. Maybe it's just the cities.
TheGreatBlueHeron
http://time.com/2891222/yullin-festival-dog-meat-china/
PuppyDontCare
really?? niiiice
TheGreatBlueHeron
"Outlawed".
morelikeconsham
Not familiar with any law or with china as a whole, but why would they outlaw it? it's meat, same as beef and pork.
RawDogginChixSince2000Six
I wonder that same thing about horse meat in America. It's a leaner meat.. Americans are attached to horses I guess
morelikeconsham
I even get the attachment. I get that lots of people would be uncomfortable eating horse, cat, or dog meat. But outlawing it? surely people
YutteHermsgervordenbrotborda
Because most dog meat "farms" were found to be extremely abusive and inhumane
morelikeconsham
So? If that's the case then shut them down for animal rights violations. That was the morally wrong thing they did, after all. We don't
themonkeyboy04
Yea in Mexico is the same on neighborhood markets
Alsnig
YetAnotherGamerGirl
not so dirty but yeah
TheSomethingSomethingGenericReplyGuy
Pro tip: you'll get the best local food in those, if your stomach can handle it if course
TwoDogsInABathtub
Lol mexico is dirty af in general, i grew up next to Matamoras and that city is basically a shit hole.
whysocerial
Idk if border towns count as much from what I've seen compared to the more established Mexican cities.
TwoDogsInABathtub
you mean the part of Mexico the government wants you to see? "2011 San Fernando massacre" google it and see what you missed
themonkeyboy04
You're right border towns tend to be very different from greater cities, comparing Matamoros and Mexico city is a whole different story
EsquilaxArglebargle
I lived there for 6 months and nothing, NOTHING made me as sick as the one time I ate at Pizza Hut.
MerToo
Chinese workers despise their fast food jobs and spit in it just like normal people anywhere.
Minhminhthepetpotato
I lived in Vietnam, only got sick from Burger King...
Irishda
I dunno. I got pretty bad from cows stomach. Then again I never ate at pizza hut or KFC
ursaminor47
We used to go there on pay day. Near imediate booty explosion, but stuffed crust was so good. Just had to remember toilet paper and soap
Wankathon
Chinese food is boiled or fried thoroughly. Western food is often half cooked, which doesn't work with food coming from those market places.
ButteryButtsButterflyCups
I had diarrhea every single day no matter what I ate the whole 10 days I was there. But it was delicious
RepostFromLastWeek
I've been to China 6 times. The only time I got food poisoning was when I ate at a Subway. Never nothing from the local shops.
unusedmonitor3
Yep. Traveled all around China. Ate stuff that appeared to be quite sketchy. Only got sick at the one restaurant run by a Westerner.
PicassoCT
Its usually because no locals can afford to buy there- and they store their produce well past the good times. Local cooking was delicious
peterchay
i still live there, the oil they use for pizza and cake are horrible
letslaughatlast
Lived in Shanghai for 3 years. Also I only got sick from eating a Western restaurant!
letslaughatlast
Nice one folks ... missed the word 'at' .... LOL!
Zheden
Next time, start at the foundation and work your way up. Helps with the indigestion.
SomeGuyWhoSaysStuff
Try eating the food instead of the building next time.
Feralkyn
Nothing in my life made me as sick as the veggie Subway sandwich I had here in Germany. Food poisoning so bad I passed out with fever.
HenryLongfellowIII
A friend got really, really sick from a lobster Subway sandwich. Expensive too.
Feralkyn
Yeah I'm never eating there again. I'm sure plenty are great--their cookies are phenom--but the illness was just so fucking unpleasant I
Feralkyn
can't justify the risk. I was honestly just relieved I didn't wake up in my own shit, tbh.
CocoaKazoo
Owners often refuse to throw out old product-- I bet those veggie patties were expired. It's easy to tell too; they get slimy fast.
Feralkyn
Oh it wasn't a patty, just like--actual veggies. But yeah I am SURE it was bad, lol. I was siiiiiiiiiiick.