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The funniest thing to me is there is a traffic cop in an elevated booth in basically every intersection futility gesturing at passing motorists who are completely disregarding their presence and doing their own thing.
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Jan 14, 2015 16:22
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ddiddles posted:Why does everything in China look like they've never seen one of these: Unfortunately, the drain in my room was clogged and I couldn't turn the water on more than a third without the water backing up and overflowing out into the room. In my friend's room the layout was exactly the same but the drain was in the far corner instead of between the stall and the toilet. The sloping was the same so there was basically no drainage at all - he had to wedge a towel in so that it wouldn't overflow into the room.
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Jan 16, 2015 23:12
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Fojar38 posted:this is basically china.txt The funniest thing was that they had hedgerows on all the streets in the countryside so that you couldn't see the million ghost cities from the road. Because out of sight, out of mind. Except that you could of course see the top 10 stories of the dozen empty shells of buildings as you drove past. Probably the saddest thing was the "build it and they will come" mentality. Guilin was completely built up with a brand new highway to a brand new rail line and a huge meticulously landscaped visitor's center which was 100% deserted, but several people assured me that they were going to be the next big hotspot because they were practically in <x big city's> backyard. That sentiment was repeated in several places but Guilin was the worst. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 17, 2015 |
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Jan 17, 2015 03:56
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Speaking of trees China just LOVES planting the things. They plant them to try and halt erosion or to undo the damage industrialization caused and when I was in Tibet, they planted a million trees along the river just outside of Lhasa: It doesn't show very well in this picture but all the trees are identical and are planted in super neat orderly rows and in a grid pattern. It looks really horrible and fake. I took a few pictures trying to capture how dumb it looked but none of them turned out very well. It basically looks like this:  Just hundreds and hundreds of square KM of that.
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Jan 17, 2015 18:10
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Well, you have terraforming unintended consequences and a complete lack of biodiversity because it's just a single type of fast-growing non-native tree. Basically known reforestation concerns that were identified and mitigated decades ago by responsible forestry departments but in the normal Chinese spirit they're just going to plow ahead with the plan even though the results are uncertain. I can tell you that a quarter of the trees I saw in Lhasa were dead or dying because they're using it to try and make the river more consistent but the drat thing expands and contracts like the nile. All the trees in that pic were in a grid, the empty spaces are where the trees have been washed away. The first article talks about their reclamation efforts elsewhere which don't seem to be doing too well, either: quote:In contrast to successful attempts elsewhere to halt deforestation or replace recently felled trees, most of China’s planting is on long-barren land. Much is of non-native pines and poplars, which are easy to grow and produce wood that can quickly be sold as paper pulp or planks. The result is an “ecological mismatch”, says Jiang Hong of the University of Hawaii. tl;dr: Yep. And doesn't work. And they've been trying the same thing for 60 years. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jan 17, 2015 |
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Jan 17, 2015 18:34
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Street pooping, street peeing, people spitting everywhere, holes in the ground for public toilets, that's just how it is. People are still friendly, even if you are a walking attraction because of being american (and taller than basically everyone by default). The food roulette is fun if you go in not knowing a single character except for the one for 'beef'. My friends and I went into this one place. They didn't really have menus, so we weren't sure how to order. They brought us to the back with basically the entire restaurant staring at us and there was a line of cooks behind plastic with gigantic woks on 2 foot flames and we just pointed to what looked good. It was the best food of the entire trip. The meal was $12 american total for 4 of us including beers (70 yuan or so).
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Jan 18, 2015 16:38
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Watching that video I just got a blast of remembered Beijing smell. The smog has this grit on your tongue, this taste in the back of your throat.
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Jan 26, 2015 16:33
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icantfindaname posted:Too late, they already destroyed them all The museum in Lhasa was filled with "peaceful Chinese liberation" this and "glorious revolution" that; there was a huge display of jade that was gifted to Tibet from various emperors I guess before the Chinese decided they wanted that stuff back and came to take it. The other displays were filled with "This is how the peasants live!" and my guide said she grew up in a kitchen exactly like the diorama and had ceremonial clothes just like the mannequins were wearing. It must have been really weird to have your life on display behind glass in a museum. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 19:16
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To be fair to Mao, it did work out in the end. Chinese population doubled, minus 5% due to famine, and once he was marginalized they had all those extra hands to fuel a massive production which pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and made them a first world nation.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:17
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All first world nations get their own GBS threads, that's the definition of a first world nation.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:37
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I still can't believe 1/3rd of all medicine is counterfeit. Like, that's a loving national crisis right there. And it makes it even worse since all drugstores are nation-owned!
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Feb 14, 2015 16:00
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caberham posted:But Hong Kong cops are absolutely terrified of speaking English and dealing with white people
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Feb 20, 2015 05:06
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Someone started a fire in a skyscraper in Beijing with some fireworks. Whoops!
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Feb 22, 2015 00:32
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My one regret as I ate my way through China last fall was that I didn't take pictures of all my food because I didn't want to look like a douchebag. So for even the things I found delicious, there's no way to ever order again. It was good, not anything like american Chinese food, but I suspect you can probably get it if you know exactly what to order. If you're on a coast or in a big city, at least. Most of the food was pretty damned good, but what amazed me the most was how CHEAP everything was. I ate in mostly random restaurants, but the only touristy place was this duck place in Beijing, where I guess my duck was numbered? It was pretty weird 
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Feb 25, 2015 04:41
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I got my picture taken in the same place with probably the exact same yak. On the path down to the water there are a bunch of little cute friendly baby goats a taked out along the path with no one in sight. So naturally you pet the goat, take a picture, maybe get a pic hugging the goat or something. 30 seconds later a Tibetan runs up to you and demands money for taking pictures of their goat. If you refuse they scream and harass you all the way down the path. Most people just pay to get them to leave them alone. It's a good little scam.
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Mar 4, 2015 14:50
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waitwhatnoyou'lldie
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Mar 6, 2015 04:35
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gently caress You And Diebold posted:Yeah but crocodiles/alligators are dinosaurs so awesome they didn't need to change. Birds are fuckin chumps compared to them. They are so awesome they don't have anything to prove. They're happy to just sit and chill and be happy knowing if they felt like it or if you got too close you'd be out a limb. Swans on the other hand have absolutely everything to prove to anyone who will listen and especially anyone nearby.
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Mar 6, 2015 05:48
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Monkey Fracas posted:If your hotel is near a major-ish road then I hope you find car honking soothing
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Mar 7, 2015 05:23
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hailthefish posted:But then they might have to leave the tour group and even interact with Also pay more money for food which just won't do
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Mar 12, 2015 14:06
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I flew internally twice in china and got wing seats each time, the first there was a whole bunch of tape holding wing panels closed, the second there were wing plates completely missing and I could see the wing's wiring and flap solenoids
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Mar 19, 2015 17:53
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I had normal poop in China. Were you eating stuff cooked in sewer oil or something?
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Mar 28, 2015 16:32
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Also, Chinese women are baby crazy, the entire culture is centered around having and rearing children so if you're thinking you can go and just get married and be childless and enjoy the free life I've got some bad news for you.
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Apr 10, 2015 03:41
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computer parts posted:That juxtaposition between new construction and crumbling buildings is everywhere in China. I wish I could find pics of where I was but we took an hour long bus ride and the whole way through the countryside was those same images. Did you notice the tall hedgerows planted along the road in an attempt to hide it all from casual drivers by?
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Apr 10, 2015 13:36
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people staring, getting their picture taken with you
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Apr 16, 2015 17:33
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Number 1 Sexy Dad posted:It seems like a deus ex machina anyway - the idea of anything important about space launch vehicle technology remaining secret between superpowers is sort of naive. They story needed a mechanism by which to solve an impossible problem so the author made some poo poo up. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jan 3, 2016 |
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Jan 3, 2016 16:36
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