It's weird, I come across quite a few of these "in defense of China" articles that basically say that you are not allowed to your own personal opinions. I don't get it. I can certainly agree that no visitor can claim to fully understand the culture, but I think you are allowed to opine as to whether you enjoyed your time here compared to other places.

The author contends that it is bad somehow to take vacations from China (if you live here) to other destinations like Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and others. Why? A little time away can make the heart grow fonder!

In the face of nearly unanimous opinion that China can be somewhat cold and boring compared to beautiful tropical paradises with warm, friendly cultures like Bali and Thailand, some people feel some sort of instinctive need to write these deeply ironic articles about why our personal feelings or opinions are wrong. How can they be wrong? They're our personal preferences!

So what if I think Chinese food is oily and monotonous, I'm not going to claim some sort of objective truth about the value of Chinese food culture relative to anything else, some people love Chinese food more than anything else! But please, don't go telling us that just because we don't personally like a thing that we are somehow defective humans. Many Chinese don't like foreign food and culture too, and they have every right to! They're just personal feelings!

On the positive side, I did find redeeming value in #s 6 and 3. If you're traveling TO ANY COUNTRY, don't let these happen to you!

Otherwise, don't let anyone bully you, compare all you like. Don't presume to know the universal truth, but you are allowed to decide what you like and don't like. That's your right.