What do you think about when you hear... China!

[KINGBeerZ]

The pokemon Slakoth (10 points for anyone who gets the reference)

 

[SweetShark]

...............................
Someone made MILLIONS for just selling AIR in CANS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Fluffythepoo]

Smoggy tightly packed cities, pretty mountains, tibetans lighting themselves on fire, hong kong international airport ("guys we need a new airport" "i know, lets build an island and then put it on that" "yah thatll work"), rivers filled with pollution (also rivers not filled with pollution.. which are quite pretty), farms on the side of moutains, mount everest, white sandy beaches, tonal languages, and high speed trains.

All in all.. pretty sweet country

 

[SckizoBoy]

...............................
Someone made MILLIONS for just selling AIR in CANS!!!!!!!!!!

True... but do you know what people breathe in Beijing?! 'Cos it ain't air... -_-

Every time I've visited China, blowing my nose turned the tissue black by the second day in the country. The same thing happened when I went to Mumbai.

Eh... that's nothing new... you can get that just from riding the Picadilly Line on the London Underground for a couple hours... ¬_¬

 

[omgeveryone9]

Kung Hei Fat Choi/Sun Lien Fai Lok <-- Cantonese
Xin Nian Kuai Le/ Gong Xi Fa Chai <-- Chinese

Oh yeah, been to Beijing a few time (I'm not from Beijing) and the air just SUCKS. If you check youtube with Beijing Pollution you will see this, and that is the reason why I'll never live there again =( (plus I lived in Europe for most of my life and my Chinese is horrible in Chinese standards).

 

[Coffeejack]

Abuse,
Bargains,
Ignorance,
Corruption,
Neighbours,
Pollution...

...And the very best food I have ever tasted on this planet.

 

[Wadders]

Famine, weird toilets, pollution and tasty tasty takeaway food.

1 good thing out of 4. Not a great return really. I'm sure if I took time to educate myself about it there'd be plenty of good stuff - I just haven't heard about much of it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Too big to conveniently generalise.

There's big parts that are all desert, and other big parts that are all mountains and rivers, and other big parts that are all forests, and all sorts of other places. Makes it difficult to point at something say "China is like this!"

 

[Zhukov]

Yummy food.
Red flags.
Little people.
Face masks.
Human rights violations, especially in Tibet.
Censorship.
The Long March.
The Tiananmen Square tank picture.
Crowded cities.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Ak-47's, blue-camouflage military clothing and panda bears.

Weird line-up, but hey.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Capitalism, large wealth divide, vast rural areas, dense cities, gorgeous countryside, pretty much owns the world now, overrated food

 

[bananafishtoday]

Seems like a pretty cool place. I'd love to live in Shanghai or Shenzhou for a couple years someday. It's funny that a lot of the warnings on expat blogs and the like ("Dirty, crowded, noisy, strangers are really rude, everyone's out for themself...") actually seem like pluses to me. The politeness and sterility of a place like Tokyo would drive me insane. I think a lot of those perspectives are coming from people used to suburbs, because to me, it sounds like home. The other big warning ("Can be super cheap if you live like the locals, but the temptations of trying to live a Western consumer lifestyle can quickly ruin your finances") doesn't really faze me either, as I've become accustomed to doing without a lot of things the writers tend to take for granted. Wouldn't know for real until/unless I went there, though. (For the record, I live on about 13k/yr in New York, with well over half going toward rent. So I've learned to cut out any non-essentials.)

Other than that... hate the politics, but I can appreciate that most Chinese there wouldn't want my opinion anyway, and I can recognize the parts coming from the US media just not understanding Chinese culture. The history's fascinating, particularly the Tang and Song Dynasties. Overall it seems like a place that has a certain optimism about the future that doesn't really exist in the US anymore.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The first thing to come to mind was the South Park episode "The China Probrem". The second was the constant talk about all jobs getting outsourced there. So in a way both of my first thoughts were South Park-related, and the second one gives me an excuse to link this video here
Also, since I was a few years ago in Hong Kong, there were WAY too many people there for me to stay sane.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I'm Chinese too (BBC to be exact).

Anyway pretty much the food and Xio Lin Monks are the first things that come to mind when I think of China.

 

[cainx10a]

That poor little sod flying a crashing MiG in C&C Generals. I kinda miss him.

On a serious note: A very complex country who could be a fun global leader to have around if they took some classes in human rights and stuff.

 

[Bamba]

What I think about when I hear China

1. Over one billion chinese people
2. Delicious food
3. Interesting Culture
4. Does well in many industries
5. Probably the first country I'd visit if I could

 

[Legion]

China as a culture/country? Animal cruelty and large adoption rates.

Chinese people? Hard working and polite.

I apologise if these come across as stereotypes, but they are truly the first things that come to mind based upon personal experience.

 

[A.A.K]

#1. Training. Lots of training. Martial training. Intense fucking training. So keen on training!!!
#2. Philosophy. Monks/Temples.
#3. Culture/History.
#4. Martial Arts.
#5. Intense fucking training >.<
#6. Mountains. Jungles. So on....

Yea... I can't wait to go to China.
Training and Jungles/Mountains.