I went abroad not long ago, and I haven't been abroad for a long time, and this is the first time I have gone out in the past three years.
Of course, in my spare time, I will go to YouTube to watch videos, in fact, the Internet is quite interesting, mainly because you can see the comments of netizens from all over the world.
So I checked the videos taken by foreign tourists or Internet celebrities on YouTube in China, and for the sake of timeliness, I only watched the past six months, which is almost from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first half of this year.
To ensure that it is a real voice, I only search for videos that are not in Chinese, and are videos that are visiting China for the first time, and are not YouTube bloggers who mainly speak China.
I found that many videos about China have quite a lot of traffic, for example, the following blogger has 1.45 million subscribers on YouTube, and the video about China travel in the picture below has 610,000 views.
Another example is the American blogger below, whose video about China has been viewed 1.16 million times, and she has nearly 600,000 subscribers.
The following channel, for example, also has 206,000 subscribers and 340,000 views of its Chinese video.
After watching N videos, I have a few feelings,
1：标题很多都用not what you had expected这样的标题，意思是告诉观看视频的观众中国和你以为的不一样。
上面的图片中也可以看到，还有博主用I visited the most hated country in the world这样的标题，当然了内容其实是正面的。
These vloggers use such headlines, of course, because they can get traffic, but it also shows that ordinary Westerners are so ignorant of China.
There is a YouTube channel run by two American travelers, two American bloggers who benefited from China's 144-hour visa-free policy, so they came to China once in February this year, visited Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and have now left China, and they explain in a video about China why so many Westerners come to China and feel different from the China they know in their own country's media environment.
The narration was done by one of two American bloggers, who said that as Americans, they have a very narrow perspective on China, and very few students are taught about China in schools, only a few brief introductions to the ancient Chinese dynasties, Mao Zedong and communism.
He said that the most important impression of China was Panda Express, a fast-food chain that is common in the United States, and that he later learned that some of the food in it was actually found in the United States, not really Chinese food.
In the United States, the information about China received by ordinary people is mainly political, and the Chinese message from the American media and politicians is that China is in decline, China is dangerous, and China is evil
"China is failing, China is dangerous, China is evil"
The two bloggers first went to Guangzhou, where they were amazed by the modernity of Chinese cities, stayed in Guangzhou for a few days and then took the high-speed train to Shenzhen, commenting that Shenzhen is the most futuristic city in China.
It is precisely because of the actual travel that they found that China is so different from what they know from the media in their own country, that so many foreign bloggers invariably use the title "Not what we/you expected" when posting videos on YouTube, which means that China is different from what you think.
In fact, I also found that many foreigners who come to China for the first time will pay attention to the number of cameras in Chinese public places in their travel videos.
I think this has something to do with the fact that the Western media has a lot of propaganda about the Chinese government's deployment of cameras everywhere to monitor ordinary people, and they are trying to instill in ordinary Westerners the idea that China does not deploy a large number of cameras for the sake of urban security, but is used to monitor ordinary people in order to create an image of China's authoritarianism and ilfreedom.
Before the outbreak of the epidemic in 2019, I also received Austrian customers to visit, took them to Shenzhen to play, climbed Lotus Mountain or something, I found that one of the customers paid attention to the camera, and in the process of climbing Lotus Mountain, I kept saying that there is a camera here and there is a camera, and I realized at that time that this may have something to do with the fact that Western media like to play up cameras everywhere in China.
But in fact, some foreigners in China have also realized that the existence of cameras has indeed reduced the crime rate, improved the efficiency of solving crimes, and made China's streets safer at night.
And the camera density in some Western cities is not low, but the law and order is still not good, which is worth playing.
2: Many video writers often say that they are a little nervous (tense) before visiting China, and some people use words such as adventure and scared, but in the end they find that China is actually different from what they thought, and these emotions are completely unnecessary.
Like the following Australian Internet celebrity channel is the first time two people traveled to Shanghai, China, their YouTube channel has 958,000 fans, the video below has been viewed more than 2.6 million times, and the comments are as high as more than 12,000, to be honest, it has played a very good effect from the perspective of publicity.
But at the beginning of the video, he also said that he was nervous about traveling to China, and even a little scared.
I'm actually quite curious why they would say that, why are they so nervous or even scared when they come to China? Later, I saw that they explained the reason in the video.
Like this Australian Internet celebrity, he said that he was worried that he was holding a camera equipment to shoot a video in China and didn't know what would happen, whether someone would come to stop the filming or something, and he didn't know what China was like in all aspects, so he was a little nervous.
I think it may be that they often watch Western media reports, and the news that Western journalists shoot in China and then are blocked, and of course that fear disappears when they come, because they find that the streets of China are full of people taking pictures with their mobile phones.
Like the previous two American bloggers posted a video a few days ago about their experience in China in February, and also responded to some comments on the video, they also said that they felt tense (nervous) at first when they came to China, but in the end they found that they were actually very similar to traveling to South Korea, Japan and other East Asian regions.
At first, they would think that it would be strange to shoot a video in China, that someone would not allow them to shoot it, or that there would be a Chinese police officer staring at them or telling them that they could not shoot.
But even in countries that think they are more friendly to the United States, some people tell them that they can't shoot something, but no one in China has ever told them that they can't shoot things.
So much so that they feel that shooting videos in China is the easiest thing, and they think that it may be that there are cameras everywhere in Chinese society, so everyone thinks it's normal.
3: In the video comment area, there are often many foreigners who have been to China to comment that China is completely different from what the Western media promotes, and there is a lot of information about China in the Western media, but it is basically negative information.
Popular comments also include some Westerners who have been to China to say that the actual China is different from what the Western media reported.
Like in the video of the Australian Internet celebrity channel, I took screenshots and took some comments and put them here.
1) Some Australians say that they have lived in China for more than many years, saying that the reports of China and Australian media are completely different, and that the Australian media's reports on China are very twisted and skewed.
2) An Australian woman said that China made her feel very safe, and she also went to the United States, but felt that the United States could not be compared to China, because as an Australian woman, she felt very insecure when she was in the United States.
3) There is also an American who has been to Shanghai, China, said that he has been to China four times, and each time he can see China's progress and changes, he saw that China is very clean in the park in Shanghai, there is no garbage and graffiti of all kinds, and even the skatepark looks very clean, there are many electric cars driving in the city, the whole city is very convenient, it is already a cashless society, and at the same time China is very safe, in the United States he does not dare to go out at night because he is afraid that black people will shoot him at gun.....
4: The first high-frequency word that these tourists will mention is very safe, followed by good infrastructure, friendly people, very modern feeling, cashless society with developed mobile payment, diverse culture, etc.
In fact, Chinese people can often feel strongly after going abroad, safety is actually the first need of travelers, I recently encountered locals on the street trying to steal my things, and underage beggars grabbed my arm to ask for money, really a little frightening and nervous.
I haven't experienced this kind of thing in China for many years.
And what foreign bloggers talk about a lot is that they feel that China's cities are very quiet, although there are a lot of people, but there is no feeling of a large number of car engines roaring and noisy, because China's transportation electrification is progressing very rapidly, and electric cars are very quiet.
5: Once these videos are positive about China, there will be some unfriendly voices in the comment section about whether these bloggers are taking money from China.
Like the two American bloggers mentioned above, they responded to this question head-on, of course, answering this question sarcastically, joking that you can't say how much money China gives.
And joked that they can get billions, trillions of money from China, and millions of dollars with 30,000 video views, and then seriously explain that most of their YouTube channel is actually about the Philippines (because they have lived in the Philippines for a long time),
And how could China fund a channel where most of the videos are about the Philippines, and even more so considering that the Philippines is now in tension with China in the South China Sea, and the channel is watched by a large number of Filipino fans.
Generally speaking, no matter how many distorted reports about China Westerners receive before coming to China, once they come to China, due to the huge contrast between their psychological impression and reality, it has caused a huge impact, so that the proportion of people who will have a great change in their impression of China after coming to China is very high.
So I have always felt that foreigners visiting China is the best way to promote foreign tourism, it is more persuasive, and we can still make money, so it is a good thing that the country has introduced policies in recent months to facilitate foreign tourists to come to China.
In fact, although it is said on social media that there are more foreigners coming to China, in fact, this is only compared with last year and the epidemic.
I checked the number of foreigners visiting China in the first quarter of this year, and found that it is still far from returning to the level of the same period in 2019.
In the first quarter of 2024, the number of foreign arrivals was only about 60% of that of the same period in 2019.
According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Beijing received 469,000 inbound tourists in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 3.1 times, recovering to 67.2% of 2019;
Among them, the total number of foreign tourists was 375,000, recovering to 64.6% of 2019.
It is worth noting that among the foreigners who came to Beijing in the first quarter,
The largest source market is the United States with 52,000 passengers, and the second is Japan with 30,000 passengers.
The third is Russia with 29,000 passengers, and the fourth is Germany with 22,000 passengers.
The fifth is South Korea, with 17,000 passengers.
From January to March this year, Shanghai received 904,600 inbound foreign tourists, an increase of 354.4% over the same period last year, but the number of inbound foreign tourists from January to March 2019 was as high as 1.5151 million, which was only 59.7% of the same period in 2019.
Foreigners' impression of China often changes dramatically after they come to China for the first time.
The core of all this is still due to the continuous improvement of the mainland's hard power and the quality of the people.
As a result, there is a huge contrast between the actual China that ordinary Westerners see when they come to China and the China they see in their own media, which will not only lead to a change in their impression of China, but also greatly shake the level of trust in their own media.
In various comment sections, I have seen many people use negative words such as bias and distortion to describe their own media's coverage of China, which fully shows that when you do better and better, it will be more and more beneficial to the improvement of external image and publicity.
For example, after watching many videos, foreigners mentioned a lot of security, mobile payments, high-speed rail, the city is quiet, it feels very modern, etc., all related to China's technology and industrial hard power.
Public security is related to the popularization of cameras, and in the 2023 A&S Global Security Top 50 list, there are four Chinese companies in the top ten, of which Haikang and Dahua rank first and second respectively in the world, in addition to Tiandi Weiye seventh, Uniview Technology ninth;
The popularity of mobile payment is related to the popularity of mobile networks and smartphones, and the Huawei ZTE of mobile networks, as well as the glory of smartphones, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, VIVO, and Transsion are all world-class companies, especially worth mentioning two things,
One is that Huawei released the Mate 60 pro at the end of August last year, which solved the problem of chip localization, and the other is the sudden emergence of Transsion mobile phones.
Transsion Holdings will achieve revenue of 62.295 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 33.69%. Its net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 will be 5.537 billion yuan, an increase of 122.93%.
As a domestic mobile phone manufacturer that has been working hard in sinking markets such as Africa and South Asia around the world, its mobile phones use a large number of UNISOC mobile phone processor chips, and it is the largest customer of UNISOC mobile phone chips, and the number of UNISOC mobile phone processor chips purchased by Transsion will even account for 48% of UNISOC mobile phone processor shipments in 2023.
The popularization of the high-speed rail network is related to China's complete mastery of high-speed rail technology, from Changchun, Tangshan, Qingdao to Zhuzhou, all have the strength to manufacture high-speed rail;
The developed infrastructure is related to China's mastery of various infrastructure technologies from subways, large bridges, skyscrapers, road construction, etc., and China has broken through and mastered the famous shield machine technology;
The quiet city is due to the popularity of electric vehicles, which is related to the large number of Chinese companies competing with each other to enter the electric vehicle industry, which is not only more advanced, but also cheaper.
I have no doubt that the light of the lighthouse cannot be stopped in the dark night, but of course only if we become a global beacon.
There will be a lot of things from China that will change the world in the future, and now Chinese mobile phones and drones have been widely used around the world,
In the future, there will be a manned landing on the moon before 2030, which has been officially announced, and this matter has always been very important to me, and the Americans are now saying that they want to return to the moon, but it is clear that the return to the moon in 2024 that they originally formulated cannot be completed.
The U.S. re-entry program was approved in December 2017 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Space Policy Directive 1, formally approving the U.S. program to return to the moon for a manned lunar landing.
On May 14, 2019, then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the moon landing was named after Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology and the goddess of the moon.
The program is to pass Artemis 1 (2021, unmanned in-orbit flight tests),
Artemis 2 (2023, manned flight tests in orbit),
Artemis 3 (2024) three missions,
and finally achieved a manned landing on the moon on Artemis 3, which was set in 2024.
At present, the Orion spacecraft of Artemis 1 has successfully completed an unmanned flight around the moon on the morning of December 11, 2022 US time, and landed safely in the Pacific Ocean in western California after several delays.
And on January 9, 2024, NASA once again postponed its manned mission to the moon,
The Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions will be postponed until September 2025 and September 2026, respectively.
China's manned lunar landing plan is before 2030, if the Americans postpone it again, then it is difficult to say who will land on the moon first between China and the United States this time, and Chinese astronauts will become the only one outside the United States to successfully land on the moon, which will have a great impact on the world, after all, the country that can land on the moon manned, its hard power will be respectable.
Behind China's quiet city, China's new energy vehicles have entered the world on a large scale, and last year, the mainland's 4.91 million exports included only 1.203 million new energy vehicles, and there is still a lot of room for growth.
The rapid progress of robot technology will continue to be used in overseas factories and service industries in the future.
When hard-core technology and industry continue to break through, it will further expand China's attractiveness.
I have always felt that propaganda, as soft power, is rooted in hard power, and the essence of today's strong discourse in the West is the dividends brought by hard power.
As soon as the door of the mainland's reform and opening up was opened, many Chinese elites went to the West once, and immediately after they returned, their faith collapsed, and the perception of the dire situation of capitalism for many years immediately disappeared, and was replaced by a wave of going abroad and immigration. Many of the movies made back then also reflected this craze.
Behind this is a huge hard power gap.
And I think it's the same way around, just imagine, today's Chinese cars are only going faster in the first half of the electrification, and the streets of big cities are full of electric vehicles, which has already made foreigners in China feel why China's cities are so quiet.
If one day the mainland takes the lead in achieving a high degree of unmanned driving, when ordinary people in the West come to China for the first time and find a scene like a science fiction movie, with unmanned vehicles running all over the streets, I believe that the perception of China's backwardness formed by the long-term propaganda of the Western media will collapse more completely.
Just after I finished writing the above text, I saw the following news,
From May 1, 2024, the main urban area of Hangzhou will be fully open to unmanned driving, with a total area of 3,474 square kilometers and a serving population of more than 10 million.
Focusing on the breakthrough of hard-core technology will make our lives more and more convenient, and at the same time, we will also find that the external propaganda that we found difficult to do in the past will become easier and easier.
Source: Ningnan Mountain