Chinese customs, manners and etiquette. What not to do in China What are the laws in China

1. You shouldn’t pretend to be a tropical tourist by wearing a bright Hawaiian jacket - after all, you’re not on a tropical island, but in China. The thing is that bright clothing is not very welcomed by local residents, and most people will be reluctant to communicate with an obvious stranger who has not even bothered to familiarize themselves with etiquette.

2. It is not customary to walk counterclockwise around the temple. It is customary for the Chinese to walk around their temples strictly clockwise, and individual groups of tourists walking counterclockwise attract unnecessary attention.

3. You should not jump out of a taxi without paying, or in any other way violate public order and the law. The police in China are very strict with violators, and embassies cannot always help their citizens who have violated some rules.

4. Don't try your hand at climbing Everest. Yes, if you are an experienced climber, then there are no problems. However, in China there are many other, less dangerous activities for ordinary tourists, other than climbing rocks. Last year, 40 thousand tourists climbed this mountain (Chinese section), injuries and even death among such tourists are a very common occurrence.

6. Do not cross lines in the subway and at bus stops. Our drivers know who they are dealing with and will not run you over, even if you stand behind such a line. Citizens there are law-abiding, and a bus can easily hit a tourist who decides to stand out from the crowd and gets out of line. Well, let’s keep silent about the subway altogether - there are so many people in the Chinese subways that they can simply push you over the line, and then you won’t be able to prove anything to anyone.

7. You should also not stay in China more than your visa allows. Well, of course, if you want to get acquainted with the original etiquette of Chinese prisons, then please live as long as you want. But it is best not to deal with an expired visa, since the police of this country, as mentioned above, have a very negative attitude towards violators.

8. If you have lost your hotel receipt, or any other financial document that indicates that you paid for something in China, you can take out your wallet again. Even if the same manager who checked you in the first time is standing at the reception, he will demand a piece of paper indicating that you paid for your stay. If there is no piece of paper, you will either have to pay again, or you will have to deal with the police, who will consider you a defaulter without any investigation.

9. Smile. You should smile while traveling in China. Exude fun and good nature, and traveling will become much easier! Good luck!

China... A country of mysteries and unknown culture. How to behave in China? What do you need to remember constantly, and what is it better not to do? Let's tell you a little about how to behave in China and give some useful advice.

The Chinese consider souvenirs and gifts to be an important part of communication. A box of lollipops, wine, and cigarettes would come in handy. These little things are appropriate as a present for a family holiday. Flowers, fruits, and buns will also be an excellent present. If we develop the topic of gifts further, the rest should be well thought out, taking into account cultural characteristics. In China, odd numbers are believed to bring bad luck. For weddings, family celebrations, and birthdays, it is customary to give gifts in pairs. With this, luck and wealth come to the house.

It is not customary to give a watch as a gift; it is a symbol of a funeral. Black and white color combinations also symbolize death and misfortune. The value of a gift for the Chinese is not as important as the sincerity and kindness with which the gift is given. Otherwise, the gift may even be regarded as a bribe. It is customary to give gifts in private; only small souvenirs are allowed to be presented publicly.

You need to exchange money and travel checks at branches of Banks of China and in hotels; in addition, exchange offices are located in some department stores. It is recommended to keep exchange receipts until departure. If you want to exchange unspent yen for dollars or euros, you cannot do without receipts. It is beneficial to use travel checks. The exchange rate in this case is more favorable. All major supermarkets, restaurants and bars accept American Express, Thomas Cook, and Visa cards for payment. Cards can be used to pay for goods and services in stores, but they cannot be used for public transport. You can order cash at the main branch of the Bank of China at any time. The commission fee will be 4%.

Tipping is not accepted in China, but bargaining is very appropriate. You can try to reduce the price in street stalls, shops, hotels and large supermarkets.

We do not recommend that you rent a car in China. The traffic rules are very complex and confusing. Cyclists are constantly scurrying along the edge of the roadway, there is a risk of hitting them! Public transport is packed. Therefore, the best option is to use taxi services in China. If you have any problems with inspectors or police on public transport, say “budun” (I don’t understand), and most likely they will leave you alone, even if you broke the rules.

Get used to eating with chopsticks while on vacation in China. In Chinese restaurants, tourists will, of course, be asked to bring a fork in case of difficulty. But the further from the center, the weaker this probability. When ordering at a restaurant, you need to understand that Chinese portions are rarely designed for one person. Most often, two people can eat them. Therefore, even if the waiter assures you otherwise, do not trust it.

The use of photo and video cameras in churches is prohibited. If you start filming the inside of the temple, no one will take it away. You will simply be asked to leave. You should not step on the high thresholds of temples, you need to step over them.

When it comes to daily expenses in China, the eastern part of the country is traditionally more expensive. In the east of the country you need to count on a daily budget of $50, but this is not always enough. Food in the country is quite cheap; you can eat for $7 a day. One of the problems that tourists face is the government allowing higher rates for tourists in some places.

Be sure to take a first aid kit with you to China. First of all, medications for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract may be useful.

What is it better not to do in China? Don’t start conversations on political topics, and especially don’t argue with locals. The Chinese will frown upon an indifferent attitude towards their history, culture and traditions. You cannot pester or show attention to Chinese girls. The Chinese themselves very often behave rather uncivilized. On the streets, in the presence of strangers, this does not look the best. At these moments one should not look disapprovingly at the local residents.

China is a sharp contrast to everything European. Everything that is condemned and prohibited in our society is allowed in them.

They are storming Russian cities and exploring local attractions, it’s time for us to explore the Celestial Empire.

However, everything needs to be done as carefully as possible, and so that you are fully prepared when planning your trip, WMJ.ru decided to talk with an avid traveler and blogger Masha Koltsova about the most important rules that a Russian tourist should know.

China is the fastest growing country in the world, and this can already be seen with the naked eye. The unusual architecture of buildings, temples and parks are just a few of the distinctive features of a country that is unlike any other part of the world. When you get here, you find yourself on another planet: skyscrapers in the shape of eggs and trees, islands built on garbage, an airport - a concert hall hall. China is a completely different world, a different culture, mentality, spiritual values, a different mindset, its own laws, which I had to deal with in the worst sense... Everything is different here. This is where you change and shake yourself up properly.

Rule #1: Learn the Laws

Before entering China, be sure to familiarize yourself with the local laws (you will find out why as the article progresses). Be sure to keep the emergency number of the Russian Embassy and the phone numbers of your banks with you.

Rule #2: Find an alternative Internet

Rule #3: More money is better

Yes, this is paradoxical, but China today is not at all about poverty and low prices, even here a good thing will not be cheap, and taxis can charge an astronomical price for a trip. Therefore, it is better to take care of converting rubles to yuan in advance. It’s better upon arrival or in Russia in general.

And one more piece of advice: feel free to bargain, this is the only way to fight their prices.

Rule #4 (Important!): Keep your eyes on the road

To travel around the city, it is generally better to choose a bus or taxi. But be careful! Chinese drivers are crazy. Despite the fact that this is a country of prohibitions and rules, they are in no hurry to comply with them on the road. Here they can safely drive through a red light, not stop at a zebra crossing, run into a person, and if they hit them, they will drive on, and the person will be left to die on the side of the road...

Rule #5: Don't use your driver's license.

In China, you can only drive electric scooters without a local license. You cannot drive any other vehicle! And gasoline mopeds are completely prohibited in many places. If you take the risk of riding and are stopped by the local police, don’t argue or get emotional. Arguing and standing up for one’s innocence can lead to arrest from 15 to 30 days, as my friend was unlucky this time.

The Chinese pre-trial detention center is a real prison with rats, wooden bunks, a hole in the toilet, no opportunity to wash, brush your teeth or even just drink water.

Rule No. 6: rely only on yourself

The public in China is very unfriendly. I would call them biorobots. The locals are very closed and withdrawn into themselves and their affairs. If you suddenly need help or a hint, then you should not rely on them. Therefore, before you go for a walk, stock up on everything you need: maps and guides, translators, a phone charger, water, and so on.

Rule No. 7: Be prepared to speak on your fingers

Immediately download an offline translator, for example, Google Translate. The Chinese don't understand English at all. By the way, there are those who understand Russian. Don't be afraid to ask them about it. For other cases, always have a cheat sheet with the hieroglyph of the place you need on hand. In general, I advise you to learn a few phrases in Chinese and several possible answers to them, for example, such as “Bu la” (not spicy) or “duo-shao-tsien” (how much does it cost?). This will make your vacation easier and, perhaps, give you some privileges.

Rule #8: Bring your medications with you.

Although Chinese medicine is famous for its effectiveness, it does not always have the right effect on our body.

Rule #9: Be prepared for local cuisine

Most Chinese dishes taste unusual to us. Especially because they like to make food either sweet or hellishly spicy. But you won't go hungry here. Restaurants have very large portions. The Chinese have their own measure of weight - jin - which is approximately 500 grams. China has a wide variety of plant foods and soy products. No milk at all. But at every step there are small Chinese cafes, which locals call “Chifanki”. And I just call them “Nabirashki”. You see for yourself what your food looks like, and you choose your own toppings for the rice to suit your taste. So don't be afraid of street food.

By the way, they cook simple white rice divinely. On average, the bill for lunch per person will be from 100 to 250 rubles, and in a supermarket, for example, a mango costs about 20 rubles.

Rule No. 10: look for Russian-speaking photographers

If you want to take a photographer for a walk, the most convenient way is to find a Russian speaker who lives in China. However, be prepared that our compatriots are driving up prices quite well.

The Chinese can reduce the cost for their services, however, they are more difficult to find due to their absence in all social networks familiar to us. They have their own media platforms: Weibo and Meipai - analogues of our Facebook and Instagram.

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Photo: Teya Flow, Instagram, Shutterstock/VOSTOCK

Every day a person lives is associated with compliance with the laws of the country in which he lives.

Law: its role in society

Why are laws made? To regulate various processes in society, even in those areas that at first glance seem quite ordinary: paying for travel on public transport, shopping in a store, etc. Law is a philosophical category aimed at maintaining the functioning of society, being a connecting link all processes occurring in it in order to maintain balance and harmony, as well as the correct course of things. Laws are aimed at resisting chaos, and were invented to fulfill them.

In China, it is illegal to save a drowning person.

Sometimes the imagination of legislative bodies amazes with its sophistication and limitlessness that one only has to throw up one’s hands when getting acquainted with the absurd and strange laws of some countries. For example, in China it is prohibited to save a drowning person.

It sounds, of course, absurd and cruel. But in China it is indeed forbidden to save a drowning person. Why is this so? This requires understanding the philosophy of a country like China. It is illegal to save a drowning person because the Chinese believe in Fate, inexorable and unyielding, with which one must live in peace and harmony.

What does Fate mean to the Chinese?

In China there is a saying: “Fate comes first, Luck comes second, and Feng Shui comes third,” which briefly explains the degree of influence of factors on a person’s life. For the Chinese, Fate, which comes first, means the path of life determined by the Higher Powers, which is beyond the limits of human will.

Fate is a combination of a person’s innate qualities that have a significant impact on him and which cannot be changed by his environment, upbringing, or education. A person’s personal-cosmic code, a kind of unique passport, is his moment of birth.

A person’s destiny is the relationship of an individual with other people, the place he occupies in a complex society, combined with such important factors as luck and luck. The Chinese even developed a one-of-a-kind system that allows them to determine and explain Fate without interfering with it in any way. That is why in China it is forbidden to save a drowning person, so as not to violate what is destined for him from above.

Of course, the Chinese are a bit strange people who do not want to come to the rescue in difficult times. After all, if in China it is forbidden to save a drowning person, then this means standing calmly and looking at this terrible process, and perhaps taking photographs? Can the Chinese really be so inhumane to their fellow countrymen? Apparently not.

A real case of saving a drowning Chinese man

Not so long ago, in the summer of 2014, in the city of Qingdao, located on the coast, an incident occurred on the water that practically blew up the press. A young girl from Murmansk saved a drowning Chinese man. While relaxing with a friend at sea, 33-year-old Evgenia Konovalova (that’s the heroine’s name) saw that a person on the water needed help. According to the savior, almost all Chinese do not know how to swim, which means they do not risk going far into the water. They just walk along the shore, going ankle-deep into the sea. One daredevil decided to swim a little further than the others on the circle, but could not stay on it and began to drown. Thanks to the courage of Evgenia, who did not know the prohibition laws in this country, another vacationer was saved. The Chinese media glorified the brave woman on all pages, forgetting about the taboo they had once imposed with their own hands.

As a thank you, Evgenia, who had practically become a national heroine, was given a ticket to a unique flower exhibition and many different souvenirs.

Amazing laws of China

There are also a number of laws in China that seem unusual to us. Here are some of them:

It is true that in China it is forbidden to save a drowning person, just as it is true that in other countries there are rather eccentric laws that are nevertheless enforced and were invented in connection with certain events.

It’s not only China that surprises with its own laws.

Ridiculous laws of other countries

If in China it is forbidden to save a drowning person, then the laws of other countries are even more amazing.

India

• Anyone who kills a cow in the state of Bihar (northern India) will be hanged.
• Those who remove cow dung will have their hands cut off.

Alaska

• It is prohibited to wake up a polar bear for the purpose of taking a photo together.
• It is prohibited to give moose drinks containing alcohol.

Americans are the most original when it comes to coming up with laws, so the fact that in China it is prohibited to save a drowning person is nothing compared to the laws of various US states.

• In Los Angeles, it is illegal to lick frogs. The adoption of such a law was due to the discovery of the fact that the skin of some representatives of croaking creatures contains hallucinogenic substances, which for the time being were used by local drug addicts.
• In Minnesota, you can't hang women's and men's underwear on the same line;
• All cats in the Cresskill State must wear three bells to warn birds of their approach.
• In West Virginia, it is legal to take roadkill animals and cook them for dinner. This law was passed to save money on road clearing.
• In the city of Zion, Illinois, it is illegal to serve lighted cigars to dogs, cats, or other pets.

How the “Golden Shield” works, popular Chinese sites and other interesting facts.

Recently, Russian providers have been blocking site after site. Some journalists accompany the news about the ban of another resource with comments like: “Russia is following the path of China,” “soon we will have the same situation as in China.” What does it mean? Are we really approaching the level of internet censorship of an authoritarian state? How to live with this? This article will help answer such questions.

Plus, China is very close. This country has 4209 km of common border with Russia. In some cities of the Far East there is a clear dominance of emigrants from the Middle Kingdom. You can meet a Chinese in many parts of our country. And a modern Russian should have a general understanding of life in China, including the peculiarities of the national Internet.

How many Chinese people use the Internet?

The table shows how the number of Internet users among Chinese changed from 2000 to 2016. 600 million people in the country do not use the Internet at all!. This fact will be a little less shocking if you remember that China has relatively few young people (due to the government's one-child program), which is the main engine of progress.

This chart shows the percentage of people of different genders and ages in the population. Please note that there are significantly fewer girls than boys. The fact is that due to the fact that there could only be one child, some mothers terminated the pregnancy if they were not satisfied with the sex of the fetus.

And here is the percentage distribution of Internet users in different age groups. The older generation actively avoids modern technologies.

And this diagram shows how very popular mobile Internet is among the Chinese. 9 out of 10 network users access it from a smartphone.

And almost everyone communicates using one or more instant messengers.

What is the Great Firewall of China?

The Internet appeared in China in 1994. The first connection took place at the Institute of High Energy Physics. A few years later, offices of large companies and wealthy Chinese began to connect to the network. In 1998, the government realized that the time had come to think about protecting the masses from harmful information and began developing the Golden Shield system, which was launched in 2003.

What does the Golden Shield protect against?

First of all, from pornography and political disinformation. Site blocking criteria are constantly changing and improving.

Blocking can be done using keywords (“porn”, “Tibet”, “human rights”) and blacklists. Currently there is a transition from black lists to white lists. That is, now a Chinese person can go to any site that is not blocked. And in the future, he will be able to visit only authorized resources.

In conclusion of the review of sites, it should be noted that the Chinese Internet is huge and each of the above services has many analogues.

Why do the Chinese need digital addresses?

One of the characteristic features of the Chinese Internet is domain names consisting only of numbers. For example, 4399.com hosts a large portal with flash games:

300 million Chinese have learned/are learning English, but it is difficult for them. Many people find it easier to remember the numerical sequence than the Latin alphabet. In addition, many Chinese have email addresses whose first part consists of numbers.

The order of numbers in website names is often not random at all, but phonetically based. For example, at the address 1688.com Alibaba store is located. And the number series “1, 6, 8, 8” sounds like “yau-liyo-ba-ba” in Chinese.

How do the Chinese feel about porn?

It’s not news to anyone that in China there are penalties for creating porn sites and that they are filtered by the national firewall. But last year an unprecedented incident occurred, which was covered by many world media. 30 thousand people were arrested for watching porn. And this is just the beginning.

Where do the Chinese go online other than home/work?

In the 2000s, Internet cafes (passport-only entry) began to gain popularity, some of which could seat several thousand people. You've probably read terrible stories about how residents of the Celestial Empire spend days in such establishments. Sometimes this ends in death.

In 2012, a visit cost about 1.5 yuan or 7.5 rubles per hour. Young Chinese people like to stay in such establishments instead of hotels.

Currently, chain bars are becoming a thing of the past and are not approved by the state.

Just like in Moscow, the subways of major Chinese cities have Wi-Fi. Wireless Internet is easy to find in any metropolis. Travelers recommend looking for it at Starbucks.

Many tourists are unpleasantly surprised that hotel rooms offer wired Internet access instead of Wi-Fi (and is often not included in the room price).

In 2013, there were only 1,400 McDonald's with free Wi-Fi throughout the country. If in Russia this is a mandatory option for the outlets of this fast food restaurant chain, then for China it is not! And they are trying to refuse Wi-Fi, since the Chinese are big fans of freebies and take up all the seats at the tables without ordering anything.

They sit for hours on the floor in bookstores so as not to buy anything.

And they are slowly dismantling the Great Wall of China for economic needs.

Do the Chinese like online games?

The Chinese are not only big fans of freebies, but also avid gamers. Every second Internet user plays online games.

Is it really that bad for the Chinese?

The level of Internet censorship in China is far from the highest. In neighboring North Korea, only a few organizations with special permission have access to the network (according to unverified data, there are about one and a half thousand of them). For example, embassies of foreign countries. At the same time, they can access the Internet, but they cannot distribute Wi-Fi, so as not to intimidate local residents.

Ordinary Koreans use their own Gwangmyeon network (via Dial-Up), which foreigners know little about. And even this local network can only be accessed from work computers. When a wealthy North Korean comes to China, the first thing he does is run to an online bar.