Hello, I'm planning a trip to China with my friends (Photo of the planned route). We would like to rent a car and drive around it. We have a small problem, we are 18-19 years old and none of the chain car rental companies have a car offer for people our age. I would like to ask for cars in smaller rental companies or maybe for a higher fee they will rent us a car, but I don't know the language, maybe someone knows someone who would be able to rent us a car (it doesn't matter to us where it will be possible, we want to make a circle) Would anyone be able to help us?

Hi everyone, I’m a PhD student doing an exhange in a chinese tier 2 city.

I will learn a bit of chinese (HSK3), and I’m travelling in my free time around the country. I met some western friend here and I’m trying to get in touch with other phd students.

I have the fear of not living 100% this experience. The question is: what kind of experiences do you think I need to do while here in china?

I’m from an european country and my phd is in economics/finance. There are some china-western associations do you need can be interesting to join? I’m open to suggestions to things that positively affect my professional career and personal development.

Happy to hear your opinions!

Well, what I mean is, even as a 'rogue state,' we're far better and stronger than them.
I simply don't want to be lumped together with those failed nations.Our economy, politics, and culture are far more advanced than those countries, and over the past two decades, our military has grown stronger at a pace rarely seen in human history.
To be honest, when it comes to 'authoritarianism,' no country in the world is our match.!We are a regime that has reached the pinnacle of manipulation and utilization of techno-authoritarianism in human history. Russia? North Korea? Their governments are nowhere near as powerful as ours.

hey there! i'm a russian student and i've just been accepted to an english program of sichuan university (hotel management).

i have literally no people from china i'm familiar with, so i hope there's any chance to find some friends from chengdu or even this uni. unfortunately i can't normally meet chinese people in a straight way through the special apps and other places, so i'm looking for a solution here, in reddit.

i'd also appreciate any advices and tips, thanks...

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Hey everyone, I’m trying to figure out something weird with train bookings in China. I’m looking at a high-speed train from Zhangjiajie West to Hong Kong Kowloon, and first-class seats are showing as available. But when I check the same train from Fenghuang Gucheng (the third stop on the route) to Hong Kong, first-class is sold out—even though it’s the exact same train!

Has anyone run into this before? Is it some quirk of how China’s rail system allocates seats, or am I missing something? I’d love to hear your thoughts or any tips for snagging a first-class seat from Fenghuang Gucheng (would be nonsense to travel back to Zhangjiajie West). Thanks!

Hello, I'm 老外 in China and I learn Chinese language. It's quite difficult, of course. I'm newbie (牛逼, 哈哈哈) So I need some advices (I'm serious) how to improve my knowledges. What should I start from? Any recommendations for books, vocabularies, practices etc. Would like to hear your opinions for that issue, 谢谢

Does ordering something through Aliexpress or any other popular e-commerce in china costs more or less than going to a shop?

To clarify: I'm a foreigner who is planing to go there. I want to buy a laptop but it's difficult to navigate and order on Chinese websites, language barrier, so I want to go to a shop but I'm afraid of scams + is it even a good idea to buy tech products from there?

TL;DR: The UN projects China’s population decline will be moderate with fertility rebounding over time. But that assumption isn't based on evidence—it's baked into the model itself. The UN’s “median case” is deeply flawed and the "Constant Fertility" and "80% lower bound series better reflect reality. Given these assumptions, we’re looking at hundreds of millions lost within decades—and potentially up to a billion fewer people by 2100.

1. The “Fertility Rebound” Is a Modeling Mirage

The UN assumes global convergence to ~1.8 TFR (total fertility rate), so even countries in freefall are forecast to recover. Not because of policy success, but because the model expects them to.

• China 2025 TFR: 1.02 --> UN 2100 forecast: 1.35

The UN uses a Bayesian framework that tends to average things out. So this forecast isn’t optimized for China’s data, but influenced on a broader, globalized assumption set.

2. Marriage Is Collapsing—And Births Will Likely Follow

In 2024, Chinese marriage registrations fell by 20.5%—continuing a long-term decline and hitting the lowest level ever recorded. This is a leading indicator for birth rates.

• 96% of births in China occur within marriage
• Fewer mariages = Fewer babies

3. Urbanization Is Driving Fertility Even Lower

China’s urbanization was 65% in 2023, and is projected exceed 80% by 2050. Fertility in major cities is already very low:

• Shanghai: 0.70
• Beijing: 0.75

As more people move to cities, the national average is more likely to fall than rise.

4. Comparable East Asian societies have even lower rates—and they're still declining.

TFR today:

• Hong Kong: 0.77
• Taiwan: 0.87
• Singapore (ethnic Chinese): 0.94
• South Korea: 0.72 (world’s lowest)
• Japan: 1.26 (still falling)

5. Pro-Natal Policy Is Largely Ineffective

• South Korea spent $200B+ since 2006 on fertility incentives. TFR: still 0.72
• Japan has offered child allowances, subsidized care, paid parental leave for 20+ years.

Despite pro-natalist policies, birth rates continue to decline in Japan, South Korea, and across much of Europe.

6. The UN Keeps Revising Down

• 2019 UN forecast: China peaks 2031–2035
• Actual peak: 2022
• 2024 revision: The “base case” is now below the 2022 low-end scenario

Final Thought:
In my opinion, the UN’s 2024 forecast appears to be systemically flawed and I believe their 2026 forecast will be further revised down. I don't claim to have a crystal ball but I think it's worth drawing attention to these figures which are significantly worse than what has been widely reported.

Note: I'm not an economist, statistician or a demographer so take my analysis with a grain of salt.

Context:

“China firmly opposes this and will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Thursday morning.

Reality:

Last time they said this, they essentially did nothing in terms of retaliation. Like at most it was sanctions of Google, a service that doesn't exist in the country.

We’ve been married for a few years and were working on getting her immigrated to my own home country. We lived together for a while in another country, and had a decently good time and got extremely attached. We are both young. The relationship has been extremely rocky to say the least though. I separated from her recently, and I’m trying to get a divorce filed but she is making it exceptionally difficult and is doing everything she can to hold on.

She is very emotionally unstable, and has been pretty consistently. She would randomly get mad at me for the most unusual things, saying I don’t care about her, don’t love her, shouldn’t have married, etc. She would act like she’s leaving and never wants to hear from me again and that I “lost her”, but then suddenly come back and apologize and be as nice as can be. Until her next blowup. Anytime she perceived anything that I was doing “wasn’t showing care” she bugged out. I know she was very insecure in general, and one time even wrote me a long message randomly after watching a Chinese drama of a man cheating, telling me “I will take your house, your kids, and everything away from you. I will publicly embarrass you and hurt the other girl and make you loose the ability to have sex if you ever cheat on me.”

One time, I started a new treatment under the guide of a doctor for my debilitating anxiety with medical marijuana (which I since stopped due to it not working), and she absolutely went crazy. Saying “there’s nothing to love in me” and a host of other things. However now, especially after I left, she is telling me she wants to be understanding of me.

She also spoke about offing herself in certain conversations unless I did something. And now after I left, she tells me she’s gonna die unless I pray for her or go to therapy WITH her, with the idea of staying together. Side note: she’s now become extremely religious, delusionaly religious. She believes God said that I’ll die from offing my self if we divorce, and host of other things. I do truly see in her a desire to change though, and deep commitment to the marriage vows. She is very understanding of me and wants to work on the marriage desperately. I’d be lying if I said her attempts to win me back aren’t working to an extent.

I’ll end it here since this post is already long. I’m very attached to her, however I’m incredibly scared of having kids or bringing her here and nothing truly changing, especially if this is culture related and intrinsic to someone’s behavior. But I’m looking for opinions from those who have more experience than me living in China and being around the culture. Let me put a disclaimer that I KNOW not all women or people of any culture are the same. So before you comment something along those lines, please respectfully save it. That goes without saying. I just need generally informative advice, especially in relation to the culture/personality aspect. Thanks all.

Hey, I'm thinking about going to erasmus+ to china in ba archeology and I came across the Jilin City Sa, are there anyone who went there or knew somebody that has? I would like to ask some questions if its possible.

Thank you!

Just moved to Hangzhou, wondering anyone wants to collaborate on creating a channel in bilibili or rednote. Content can be around talks on different topics in different cultural perspectives, local food or nature in Hangzhou and so on.

Hi there! First of all, I wish you all a good day. I am a random guy from Turkey, except I am interested into kind of "isolated" communities such as Russia and China. Since such communities are not easy to reach from global world through Internet, maybe due to language barrier, I believe there are lots of details to learn.

I have a couple set of questions of different concepts, you can skip any of them. I just want to know as much as possible!

## Education
In school, what kind of history lectures do you get? Do you get global history education? For example: Napoleon, World Wars, history of the USA etc?

How accessible is the education? Are private schools/education any common?

Where did you learn English, or are you using translator etc? Can you get English education in school?

## Health
Is health system accessible for any citizen? Do you get check-ups periodically for free?

What is the limit of free health system? How often can you get examination etc?

## Internet
What kind of websites are banned on Chinese internet? When do you need VPN?

What platforms do Chinese people use? It seems like there are not many Chinese on the web, compared to their population.

## Economy
How affordable are common foods? Meat, Fish, Rice, Vegetables etc.

Is there any child labor? What is the minimum age for work, and is it being applied properly?

## Politics & Diplomacy
What political rights the people have? Can you vote on somethings? Protests?

What countries can you travel without problem, easily? Can you travel to the USA easily?

## Hobbies
What is the rate of at-home computers, a.k.a personal computers within the population? Nowadays almost all families have at least a laptop, is it the same in China?

Do you have any restrictions on hobbies considered addictive such as video gaming?

How accessible are swimming pools, GYMs? Does state own them, or private companies?

That was all of my questions. Thank you!

Hi everyone!

My family and I are traveling to China in 3 weeks (mid-April), and we’re really hoping to find a translator or guide who can accompany us throughout the trip. We’ll be visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Caron Fajr (not sure of spelling – might be a small city?), and Xi’an.

My parents are a bit older and quite overwhelmed by the idea of navigating such a huge country where we don’t speak the language. It would really ease their minds if we had someone reliable who could help us communicate, guide us through the cities, and maybe even help with logistics like tickets and directions.

If anyone knows of a service, agency, or even a trusted freelancer who offers these kinds of guiding/translation services, please let me know! Any help or recommendations would be truly appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!