this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
459 points (88.1% liked)

World News

55796 readers
2067 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ganoo_slash_linux@lemmy.world 180 points 5 days ago (62 children)

Not everyone can feasibly do this, you need to speak mandarin + read/write chinese, legally be able to work, and have some way to deal with the gfw. Also tap water may not be drinkable but thats more of a nuisance since you can filter/boil it.

Also idk what the article is talking about with flying delivery drones and self driving cars in shenzhen, if you order meituan delivery its probably gonna be delivered by a gig worker on a scooter cuz thats all young people can get employed as these days. Delivery is insanely cheap and can't possibly pay much, but also cost of living is relatively low, but still shenzhen is on the expensive end as far as living in china goes.

Finally paying for everything via alipay/wechat and visiting everywhere with biometrics is yet another convenience/privacy tradeoff. Visit china on a 10 year tourist visa, everywhere you go by train, every tourist attraction or national park you visit, every digital payment, is all linked to your passport. Equivalent for chinese citizens would be the national id card/number. China more or less skipped the credit card adoption phase afaik. Not that places won't take cash but it's less common especially in cities.

China is not a magical land where everything is perfect and futuristic. It's a big country with a lot of people in many, many big cities that operates on totally different cultural systems. It is affordable from the perspective of a tourist who earns USD/Euro etc.

Source: I spent a month there in 2025

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 69 points 5 days ago (54 children)

Also tap water may not be drinkable but thats more of a nuisance since you can filter/boil it.

When I visited the U.S. the tap water there wasn't really drinkable. People said it was fine, but my friend bought bottled water, which I paid for during my stay because the tap stuff smelled evil. Tried the tap water at a restaurant and I physically couldn't swallow it. Supposedly Massachusetts has pretty good water, too.

China is not a magical land where everything is perfect and futuristic. It's a big country with a lot of people in many, many big cities that operates on totally different cultural systems.

I like this take. You often hear places hyped up in media because that garners clicks, but everywhere has its pros and cons. Living in Sweden, I've heard absolutely bananas claims about my country. I'm comfortable here, but not everyone will be, and it's certainly not the utopia some people believe it to be.

China has some good things going for it. I'm not a fan of the lack of privacy there, but simultaneously Europe is taking a leaf out of that playbook. They seem to have decent healthcare, and the infrastructure is seeing some major work that a lot of places here in Europe sorely needs.

The working culture in China is off-putting to me, though I feel similarly for a lot of other places here in Europe as well. Germany for example has a really rough work culture, which always makes it funny when American immigrants sing its praises.

The world is complex.

[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

When I visited the U.S. the tap water there wasn't really drinkable. People said it was fine, but my friend bought bottled water, which I paid for during my stay because the tap stuff smelled evil.

What else did you think about your visit to Florida?

[–] butwhyishischinabook@anarchist.nexus 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They said Massachusetts lol. I get that everyone has different taste but I don't think I've ever met anyone else that described the water there as impossible to swallow. But I believe them, I thought the water in Poland tasted bad and I'm sure that was largely just because of what I was used to.

[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Oh, I misinterpreted what they said about Massachusetts, but you're right. I thought they have generally decent water and also couldn't pass up the opportunity to complain about Florida's water. I'm sure there are variances across the state, but what I've experienced in Florida is horrible, sulfur-smelling water. Walking around as people are watering their lawns at night is a noxious experience. But you're also right that a lot of it can be attributed to the mineral content of water in a given place and what we're used to (except for Florida... their water is objectively non-potable).

That's fair, if it's So Flo it's literally swamp water lol

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (51 replies)
load more comments (58 replies)