I Ignored the Media and Visited China 🇨🇳

Harry’s first time in China, on a six-day transit visa, with Mac and Ali and guided in Shanghai by Jim, whom he books and links.

He opens with the statistic the video is aimed at — 73% of people in Western countries hold unfavourable views of China — and sets himself four targets: find a Chinese wife, eat the best Chinese food he can find, meet a local who changes his perception, and buy a fake. He fails the first comprehensively and on camera.

The most interesting stretch is the surveillance. Harry counts the cameras, notes that this would read differently at home, then asks locals what they think and reports an answer he says nobody covers: they’ll take it, because crime is near zero and you can walk anywhere at any hour.

His verdict at the end is unqualified — the preconceptions were wrong, the people friendlier, the food better, the country cleaner and more advanced than he expected — with the police presence as the one thing he still finds a little worrying.

Key moments

• [00:00] The number the video is built against: 73% of Western respondents hold unfavourable views of China.
• [00:00] Travelling here is hard because the Western apps are blocked — Google Maps, social media — so without Mandarin you improvise.
• [00:34] The four targets.
• [03:20] Landing: factories, housing and development to the horizon, and 1.4 billion people.
• [03:57] Through immigration with no trouble at all.
• [04:32] A six-day transit visa, obtained on arrival.
• [05:04] The maglev — 270 mph, eight minutes from the airport, and the fastest transfer he has done.
• [05:34] The comparison he keeps making: the trains in the US and UK are not in the same conversation.
• [06:39] Livestreaming as a street occupation — a man singing to nobody in person and 18 people online.
• [07:43] Eight or nine cameras on one pole, five on the next.
• [08:16] The potted history: resisting capitalism, one-party communism, widespread poverty by the 1970s, and Deng Xiaoping’s experiment in a single fishing village that became a city of 10 million.
• [09:21] China now second in world GDP.
• [09:58] The marriage market: parents and grandparents advertising their children’s height, job and attributes.
• [10:35] Locals generally want locals — but a foreigner is a rare candidate rather than a hopeless one.
• [11:09] Brokers take a commission if a marriage results, scaled to how eager the parent is.
• [13:20] Rejected three times in a row, and he leaves it in.
• [14:30] A mother tells him plainly he isn’t a candidate for her daughter, and he concedes she’s probably right.
• [15:03] Middle-aged women dancing in the park for exercise and company.
• [16:11] A multilingual local who stops them unprompted, gives an impromptu guide to the skyline, and asks Harry to show all sides of China rather than the Western media version.
• [17:15] His argument, which is the best thing in the video: speak someone’s language and you meet them heart to heart instead of being treated as an outsider.
• [19:28] Police everywhere. Harry’s own line: it doesn’t bother him because he isn’t doing anything wrong — and it would land differently in the West.
• [20:01] Lunch in a packed neighbourhood noodle shop, chosen because everyone in it is Chinese.
• [21:46] Fried pork with Worcestershire sauce, which is a genuine Shanghai influence.
• [22:19] Slurping as the compliment.
• [22:19] The dog question, and a local’s answer: 1.4 billion people eat many things, famine has driven people everywhere to it, and in Shanghai people dote on their dogs.
• [23:23] Asked about the surveillance, locals say they’re fine with it — near-zero crime, and you can go anywhere at any hour.
• [23:54] Harry: nobody ever reports that half of it.
• [24:24] Roast duck, which he calls the best he has ever eaten.
• [24:55] The Communist Party was founded in Shanghai; filming isn’t allowed at the site.
• [25:25] Party membership is hard to obtain — around 97 million people, under 10% of the country.
• [25:55] Handshakes are soft here, and a handshake can seal an agreement without paperwork.
• [27:02] Jim, on his own country: many Chinese are becoming more nationalistic, access to outside information is limited, and with only state media people are easily misled.
• [27:32] Ginger and brown sugar tea.
• [27:32] Number plates: green for electric, blue for petrol. EVs at about 40% of usage, and Teslas cheapest in the world here.
• [28:04] The one-child policy is now a three-child policy.
• [28:34] Western brands as aspiration rather than resentment — a queue round the block for a New York bagel shop.
• [29:07] On being gay in China: easy enough in Shanghai and among the young, very hard in a small city and with family.
• [30:08] The duck again, and beer.
• [31:28] A full-body massage where the therapists hang from handrails and walk on them. 260 for two, and nobody knows the word for softer.
• [34:46] Jing’an Temple, and throwing coins into the bowl for a wish.
• [35:06] His religion figures: about a third agnostic or atheist, 16% Buddhist, 7% Christian, 1.7% Muslim.
• [36:33] The fake market, where the goods come straight from the factory.
• [37:23] The seller claims she’s already giving him the special price.
• [38:01] Then raises it from 180 to 250 when he pushes. He names the move.
• [39:13] He walks. She takes 100 yuan, about $14.
• [40:21] She tells him she isn’t the owner and works on a small margin.
• [40:59] A robot café making an Americano for 11 yuan.
• [42:19] The verdict: every preconception wrong, the people friendlier and the food better than expected, super modern and clean — with the police presence the one thing that still bothers him.

Extracted pages

• Place: Shanghai
• Country: China
• People: Jim, Mac, Ali
• Tips: Judge a place for yourself, Travel with a local guide, Haggle with a reference price