Don't Come to Hangzhou!!!

[Bereta_Eder]

So bad bar+ignorance of local customs=bad news.

Then again maybe your friend just got lucky but he got VERY lucky then. Anyway having the toerh guy hiring mobsters to kill him goes a bit too far isn't it? Unless the bar was a real ****hole and the people who frequent there are too. But it does sounds a bit like paranoia but you know best. maybe.

[Drake Tungsten]

Jesus, that's ****ed up, DaShi...

[DaShi]

It has nothing to do with local customs. China doesn't have as many customs for courtesy as Japan does. They even have less than the West except when addressing a superior.

This bar tries to encourage foreigners to come there only because they want their money. I've been there before with no probelms. This guy was just a *****. I've heard that he has gotten into fights before with foreigners and even other Chinese. It clearly wasn't about his girlfriend as he had no concern for her after throwing a bottle at her face. Just some frustrated loser with low self-esteem.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Chinese don't exactly have a reputation as gang-bangers.

They have a 5000 year reputation for gang thugery and corruption, at least among those who can read. Even know the goverment is busy touting china umteenth crusade against endemic corruption.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
They have a 5000 year reputation for gang thugery and corruption, at least among those who can read.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Azazel
Yep. Now organized crime will arrive to HK, as well!

Aren't gangs everywhere? I mean, the Yakuza is particularly notorious. Hack, they even operate in the open.

[Mr. Harley]

Unfortunately DaShi, lefty is correct in his statement concerning corruption and gang thuggery. Very often if you want complete safety in areas like that, you are better off finding who to pay off (gangs and/or police) and paying them a monthly protection fee. The problem is they will jack it up because as a foreigner they both dislike you and perceive you as having more cash. China has never had a judicial system that resembles what we have here in the west, and what we consider corruption and blatant unfairness are the norm. The only chance the typical Westerner has is if he is connected to a large company who has an active and desired prescence in the district. Then you get action. If you are working for someone, or your friend is, with connections have HIM (her is unlikely in China, again for cultural reasons) file a complaint with his equivalent in the police system.

Throughout Asia there is very little, if not absolutely no, tradition of tolerance. I assume you are fluent in Chinese which helps considerably, but you are still, and any children if you should you marry a local woman, be considered second class citizens at best. This has nothing to do with "developing" or "industrial", Japan is exactly the same way. Tibet might have been the only exception, which makes my point for me.

[Lord Merciless]

DaShi, do you and your friend happen to be Japanese? If you are, then you are screwed in China. They would hate you with a passion.

[The Mad Monk]

:

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

I had been reading of various eras of gang thuggery, warlord thuggery, and omnipresent corruption there since I was a child. Its modern forms were popular subjects in both USA and Brit film industries from the 1930s onward. I suppose is is not a popular subject among the current censors within China, but the reputation is almost stereo-typlical here, much of it as portrayed in films is BS of course.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by DaShi
It has nothing to do with local customs. China doesn't have as many customs for courtesy as Japan does. They even have less than the West except when addressing a superior.

This bar tries to encourage foreigners to come there only because they want their money. I've been there before with no probelms. This guy was just a *****. I've heard that he has gotten into fights before with foreigners and even other Chinese. It clearly wasn't about his girlfriend as he had no concern for her after throwing a bottle at her face. Just some frustrated loser with low self-esteem.

Then I guess your friend just got very lucky... And what else would they want you for DaShi if not for your money??!!!

In any case it doesn't explain the bartender beating your friend. If anything he should have tried to calm the spirits. **** happens

[DanS]

Yeh, I'm sort of confused as to why the bartender got involved.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
I had been reading of various eras of gang thuggery, warlord thuggery, and omnipresent corruption there since I was a child.

I don't deny that occurred some of the time. With a history of thousands of years, that is to be expected. There were good years, there were bad years. Some emperors were good (a few were even great), some were tyrants, and some were idiots. The country was unified at times, splintered at others.

Sounds quite normal to me.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
China has never had a judicial system that resembles what we have here in the west, and what we consider corruption and blatant unfairness are the norm.

No doubt you gleaned this knowledge from not so scholarly sources.

[DaShi]

Live with it Urbie.

Lord M. neither myself or my friend are japanese, contrary to popular belief. Our group consisted of two Americans, a French man, and an Irish man.

The bartender is an *******. Afterwards at the police station he was trying to be all friendly with us. Afraid of losing foreign customers.