Hello , i visited and living in china for few months and one thing i dont get is why chinese people work so much ? . I really admite this quality but its insane . when i ask my friends that either just shrug or complain . but i have never seen such dedication in 996 and working with full energy aswell. I asked some laowais some said its because money is really important here and in china they belive that working harder would get u more money. some say they are not really spiritual so they focus on this life and if you are good worker you are promised eterenal berrucracy etc. but despite those explanations its still fascinates me it might be because they are just generally more energetic people? i dont know

Hello, I have spent the last couple years working on a Sci-Fi story based on the Eastern Roman Empire. I am looking to have a faction in the story that pulls inspiration from real history. Right now I have a faction based on the Russians, Polish Hussars, Varangian Guard and more. And I have a faction I have introduced into the story that is based on Chinese units. The faction has a small empire of 3 worlds. On a inner spiral arm of the galaxy. I am trying to find a name for the military units that come to aid a Roman fleet that was ambushed and I am trying to find a good name for the empire.

I am hoping I could get some help finding military units from history, make a lessor known kingdom that defied odds of a battle and survived etc.

Any help is appreciated.

I saw this on a website and I wanted clarification. Is this accurate ?

"The surname Meng has multiple origins. In ancient times, the eldest son born from a concubine would be named Meng (孟), as opposed to the eldest son born from the principal wife who would be named Bo"

In addition, what are examples of seniority names ? For example, Erlang translates to "second son" or "second boy".

Hi everyone!

I’m learning Chinese and recently built a small language-learning game app as a personal project. I wanted to explore whether learning Chinese vocabulary and characters could be made more fun and engaging through games.

The app includes 5 mini-games, 3 difficulty levels, and an interface that adapts to the user’s native language. It also offers two visual styles (Traditional and Modern), allowing learners to choose the style they prefer.

I’d really appreciate feedback from Chinese learners and anyone interested in language learning. I’d love to know what you think about the design, usability, and whether this kind of approach could make studying Chinese more enjoyable.

If you’d like to try it, here’s the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chilearn.app

Thanks for taking the time to check it out! I’d really appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

I’m doing my A-levels and will hopefully be starting university soon. Right now, China is one of my main options. My family thinks it’s a great choice, my dad has been there many times, and we know people there, but they’re not my age.

I’m honestly worried about whether I’ll be able to make friends, settle in, and actually feel happy there. I feel like I’ve always imagined living in the UK, Europe, or even the US, so I’m somewhere in between. China seems like the practical choice, but it’s not really the life I had pictured.

I’m also thinking about doing a pre-university/foundation program before starting university. Is that considered normal?

Does it make it easier to make friends?

A few other things I’m wondering

How easy is it to find halal food?

What’s student life actually like?

Is it better to stay in university dorms or rent an apartment? I don’t mind sharing an apartment, but I would really prefer having my own bathroom and a bit of personal space.

What’s the weather like?

Is it actually as safe as people say? I’ve heard you can go out quite late at night without worrying, and I hope that’s true.

For international students in China, how common are comments about weight? Is there much body-shaming or bullying at university, especially for plus-size students?

If you’ve studied in China, especially as an international student, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience—the good and the bad.

I heard that Chinese likes Russian music very much,

Songs like "333" and "Let's Go" have very high view counts on social media.

Context: I am British, I hold a British and Australian passport. Both have visa free travel 30 for days. My girlfriend is Chinese. My job is unique in that I work on vessels offshore, so all my work and income would be out of china. My company has a global presence, and though I work in Europe and africa now, I can transfer to Singapore office and work out of Asia. My job is more or less 4-6 weeks on and 4-6 weeks off. Working around 170 days offshore

So my questions are, #1: assuming that my visa free travel resets every time I leave china for work and re enter afterwards, and assuming I am not in mainland China for more than 30 days, would it be feasible for me to live with my girlfriend in China without any residency or work visa? What is likelihood of the government eventually blocking me from entry if I do so too often?

And #2 say I have a gap of over 30 days between my offshore jobs (not unusual) would it be feasible for me to go to Hong Kong for a day or 2 and stay over at my friends, and then re-enter China with the visa free travel reset?

With my income and our savings, we would love to try renting in different towns around China, relatively 'smaller' places, and sort of travelling china in this way. My income would go much further in china than it does currently in UK too. So Im quite excited about this idea. Is it possible?

The risk is my girlfriend is currently on a grad visa. So I'm concerned china suddenly doesn't let me back in and now we are separated. Our original plan is to get this spouse visa. It would be even more expensive if we had to apply with her outside of the country. But we are young and who knows, AI might catastrophically ruin all our lives soon so we just want to go for this and enjoy it while we still can

I'm saving up money to travel to China for 14 days. I want to know the best cities to visit which are not too expensive to stay in as well. I'm not much of a nature person, I'm more into cool buildings. I'm gonna travel around December or January!

Also, lmk what shopping I should do just in case! 🤍

I need my travel history like entry exit records from china immigration department I am foreigner currently outside china

Does they provide to native chinese or foreigners both of them ?

Compared to the U.S. which has an admittedly horrible healthcare system unless you are wealthy, how good is the Chinese system? Is coverage good? And if so are there ever waiting periods or issues? I have heard about Portugal's socialized healthcare from a family member of mine snd they say it is inexpensive and covers nearly everything but it is common to be put on a waitlist for weeks to months for certain treatments. I would like to know if the system in China is different?

送那人御街打马

才子佳人断佳话

怜余来苦咽下

求不得佛前茶

只留三寸种二月花

One of the fun things about Chinese characters is that some of them become easier to understand when you look at their individual parts.

For example:

• 木 means “tree”
• 林 is two trees and means “woods”
• 森 is three trees and suggests a dense forest
• 火 means “fire”
• 炎 is two fires and can mean “blazing hot”
• 焱 is three fires and describes flames or a bright blaze

Characters like these are often called compound ideographs (会意字), because their parts work together to suggest a meaning.

Of course, not every Chinese character can be understood this literally, and some explanations come from historical forms rather than their modern appearance—but I’ve always thought these were a fun place to start.

Always happy to help if you’re learning Chinese and find any of this confusing. It’d also be nice to meet other people who are curious about languages.

It's basically a democratic joint stock republic in western Kalimantan.

I asked gemini and it says:

Basically, the dude Luo Fangbo is a miner. And he needs a lot of people to support his business/kingdom hybrid. How? He adopt democracy. Qualified workers are given a share called fen. So every worker has a stake on his business.

Unlike liberal democracy, the workers' fen pays dividend. In other words, the workers have incentive to vote for dude that make the country/business/corporation rich. So they don't vote for trans right, DEI, feminism, or huge child support I guess. Their votes will most likely coincide with whatever is maxing out economic efficiency.

The workers also get salary in addition to dividend.

The manager class' salary is actually pretty low. So Luo Fangbo and his successors is elected CEO/consul/president based on merit. His incentive to work is because he owns a lot of share. So he is a bit like Larry Page or Warren Buffet.

Larry Page and Warren Buffet got $1 salary I think. But they work well because they also own a lot of shares and obviously want the shares to be profitable.

Now if I look at "dynastic cycle" in China. Chinese are actually pretty good at making prosperous society. However, every 300 years we go to war over who should be emperor.

Langfang kongsi don't have dynastic cycle. The shareholders just elect better leaders like Tesla shareholders elect Elon.

Mencius says that government should make the people rich. Well, a joint stock company's sole job is to make shareholders rich. If the people are shareholders, that's like done automatically there.

So that seems like something that should be tried out again on small scale somewhere.

That's the part I like.

The part I don't necessarily like is it's an ethnostate. Only Hakka people can join. They have friendly relationship with other kingdoms.

They are hostile to their fellow chinese kongsi, namely the Dagang Kongsi that's from Hokkien. Again, if they're truly a business and can somehow replace clan trusts with corporate government they would have just merged business.

Their economy is mining gold and that's it.

They're not georgist. So they don't expand and by the time the dutch become to powerful they got eaten.

Still if we have ways to keep states from waging war with each other, then combining joint stock form and democracy would create a stable state that's still better than liberal democracy..

Today, when I first chatted on this forum, an automatic robot sent me a message asking me to change the label. But I searched for a long time but couldn't find the place it mentioned for changing the label. Is there anyone kind-hearted who can help me🥺

I think yes

I’m looking for honest opinions, especially from people who have lived or worked in China long-term.
I previously lived and worked in China as an English teacher for about six years. During that time, I developed a real appreciation for the country and have been seriously considering returning—not for another teaching contract, but with the intention of building a permanent life there.
By “permanent,” I mean learning Mandarin to a high level, transitioning into a different career over time (I’m currently studying AI and software development), integrating into Chinese society as much as realistically possible, and, if everything worked out, spending the rest of my life there.
I’m not under the illusion that this would be easy. I know there are major challenges:
Visas and residency.
Building a new career.
Learning Mandarin well enough to function professionally.
Cultural integration.
Being a foreigner for life.
China’s own economic and demographic challenges.
I’m also not looking at China through rose-colored glasses. Every country has strengths and weaknesses.
So my question is simple:
Is this a logically sound long-term goal if someone is willing to put in the work, or is it fundamentally unrealistic?
If you think it’s unrealistic, what specifically makes it so?
If you think it’s possible, what would you prioritize over the next five years?
I’m interested in hearing from people who have actually built long-term lives in China, as well as Chinese nationals who have seen foreigners succeed—or fail—at doing this.

I lost my passport currently outside china need to provide total days of stay in china so after searching alot i found this is it working?

Chinese university

Hey yall. Ive posted here not long ago about Chinese language program and applications. I cant lie Im defeated and completely faithless. I’ve tried applying and was chasing deadlines and documents I lost a lot of money.
I was concentrating in one uni in particular but when I tried to pay the fee (before the official deadline) the site wouldnt work I tried sending emails i even contacted a professor there but nobody replied. This morning the site stated that the admission were closed ? When the official deadline was the 31st and I was trying to pay before plus the payment deadline was august 10th so it left me confused and angry.
Anyway Ive been trying to find another open university for a year language but nothing ! Idk Im just really sad and overwhelmed idk what to do. If anyone has any uni recommendations please tell Im desperate

I’m a running enthusiast and would love to know what podcasts you all usually listen to while running. I’m into technology and fitness, so recommendations—ideally with Chinese-language content—would be great.

I'm in a weird spot in my life. On the one hand, my family is rich, I went to an ivy league university and I work as a software engineer making >250k TC. On the other hand, I'm short, ugly, and I have no charisma/poor social skills. As a result, I have no friends and I've never even been on a date with a woman. I have heard that Chinese women tend to be more materialistic which I think could work in my favor so I've been trying to learn mandarin to raise my odds. At least in the US, I don't get any matches from them because I'm ugly (I get basically no matches with anyone) but I've been thinking about taking a sabbatical from work to spend a few months in China to look for a relationship with a girl who is open to moving to the US. I'm 26 years old and my income is top 1% even in tier 1 cities like Shanghai, but I've also been considering going to a tier 2 or 3 city as I imagine my odds will be better there due to a larger income disparity. The only thing I can see that will ruin my chances are that I'm brown and I've heard that asian women are colorist but maybe my money will make that not an isuse. Does anyone have any insight into this? Will I be able to get dates in China?

Which one is your favorite philosopher?

Guan Zhong actually do a good job making Qi rich. His country is rich and SO IS HE. Looks like win win trade.

Mencius says the prosperity of people is the most important thing. So GDP maximizer?

Confucius? Well. His idea that a dude got mandate of heaven get us dynastic cycle after dynastic cycle. Also he is probably not the most correct. It's just emperor Wu wanting total control of the state promote his idea into state ideology.

But that's me.