What is your take of China

I used to study at Surrey and now graduated. Because basically everyone was so nice to me so I didn't get the chance to ask this questions until now. I wonder what is the general impression of China for the UK students? Expecially when it comes when you considerate to visit here?

Bcause I am working for a program to provide opportunities for youngsters to spend gap year or summer break in China to immerse Chinese culture and living style while studying Chinese. However, compare to the similar programs to other countries, our program seems to have fewer applicants with the same service and much lower price. So I want to ask what is your impression of China, and what elements may you concern when considering to visit here? Like the language barrier, safety, polution, etc.?

Your answers are very much appreciated!

I'm quite critical of the Communist regime, the high levels of ingrained patriotism can be off putting (this is why I don't like the US that much either), more so the weird looks/glances the chinese give to foreigners, plus the racism I believe is pretty prevalent (that advert of washing a black man into a white man speaks volumes + that meme of a black man removing his ironman mask and the chinese couple getting shook)

Firstly, thanks for the deeply insight reply! It is very helpful! I suppose you are right about these points of racism, have you visited China before? And for the communism, I was so convienced that capitalism and multip-parties are superior, until the president Donald Trump and breixt happened in the row, now I am confused, as the politics has not effect our daily lives in China.

Unlike most of western countries, the majority population in China is still Asian, and never had a chance to travel abroad China, so people at here do not know how to live with people have different culture backgrounds and colors, that is also why I am committing to the program to bring more western visitors to China. Also, as lots of westerns have the impressions of China from the media they receive, Chinese people also take impressions of western cultures from TV series/movies/medias, which also contain strong biases. I'd rather to discribe the so called rasism "culture insensitive", as it can be changed if they know how offensive it can be. Because, historically, Asian people are also the victim from rasist.

At last, sorry for all the lecture above. If you and your friends ever want to visit China at summer break or gap year, let me know.

I know that the chinese government has done some questionable things in the past and there is some tension between them and western countries, but I think it’s still a great country to visit. As for the language barrier, I can speak mandarin (I’m chinese) so it wasn’t much of an issue, but I’m not gonna lie, if you couldn’t speak mandarin, you would have a bit of a hard time as not many people there speak great english. It’s passable for most young people, but I wouldn’t rely on it.
I guess because China is so homogenous, you would get some weird stares if you don’t look East Asian, but people are generally polite and treat you nicely, even if they consider you and “alien” of sorts.
Safety wise, China is a country with plenty of bad people with bad intentions. However, I think chinese criminals are more discreet, in that instead of outright robbing you, they’ll pickpocket you. So just keep your personal belongings safe at all times.
I encourage any young people to go, as they really have a great culture and there’s some great food there as well.
祝你成功!

Are you Chinese?

Now let me tell you: China is really safe.

You still don't know enough about China.

I think you misunderstood me. What I meant was that since China is a big country with a large population, there are lots of people with bad intentions. I didn’t mean that a large percentage of people will want to pickpocket you.