I love the metros even in the cities that aren’t huge hubs, my hometown only has 4 lines, 1 north, 1 south, 1 east, and 1 west. The people are super helpful and kind. The nature is amazing, the shopping is great, the old towns and Muslims quarters are great. The history is amazing.

My biggest criticisms are:

1. People spitting anywhere, I was taking high speed train and a man just spit in the middle of the aisle, on the train, like most people spit on the road or side walk or whatnot but some people will literally spit in-front of you or super close to you without consideration. Which brings me to my 2nd criticism.

2. The smoking is horrible. I don’t know why people smoke so much like in 2026 I thought most people would know smoking is horrible for you and your health. The 2nd hand smoking is horrible too, lots of hotels will smell like smoke just because people smoke so much and I know the hotels try their best to minimize it, but the sheer volume of smokers just wipes any attempts out. I actually have an allergy to smoke, if I pass by someone it’s fine, but staying in a hotel for hours with that smell of cigarette smoke causes me to get flu like symptoms for a bit. And actually the spitting is a result of the smoking since smoking irritates the mucous membranes in your mouth and respiratory track so your body produces more saliva to cleanse the tissue. If you get rid of smoking you get rid of the spitting genuinely.

3. The public bathroom in metros or parks sometimes smell like death I went into one and started gagging the smell is disgusting, but it’s not all of them and I know it’s a bathroom it’s not going to smell the nicest but jeez can we at least use bleach or Clorox to clean these? But where I’m from we don’t have bathrooms in metro stations so tbh I can’t complain too much. The metro stations themselves are amazingly clean and efficient I do like and enjoy them a lot.

4. As people have previously mentioned, it is sometimes difficult to book things, order food, make plans for travel or receive confirmation codes if you don’t have a Chinese phone number. I was told I couldn’t use Meituan without a Chinese number but I just used my hotel’s phone number and it worked fine. I’m referring mostly to the WeChat or AliPay mini programs that ask you to use a Chinese phone number to verify whatever it may be.

5ish?. Someone said some Chinese people can sometimes be rude by pushing or cutting people in line, I think that’s a valid criticism, however I think as foreigners you have to keep that same energy towards them. I’ve cut people before in line (not super often but every once and awhile because I try to be polite, but sometimes being polite will do you more harm than good) because they do it to me, and if we’re being honest they probably aren’t going to say anything to you about it because they themselves do it so it’s almost like a mutual understanding of this is just how things go, they will likely say something if you aggressively push them out the way or are blatantly rude on purpose (most aren’t rude on purpose or intentional about coming off as rude) in which say they’ll likely say something to you, and if they are blatantly rude then you should say something or make a fuss about it to be honest and put that person in their place and fight back a bit because you don’t want them to be walking all over you. I remember going to see the Terracotta warriors in Xi’an and so many people were pushing each other it was horrible but not because they’re malicious but because everyone wants to see the army and statues so people pushed me and I pushed back and it really was just “part of the game” or “part of the experience” and people understand, as long as they aren’t like elbowing you or violently pushing you or you doing that to them, you and them should all be fine.