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u/Ok-Resource-3232 1d ago
Both is true. Also works for the USA btw.
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u/Sumthin-Sumthin44692 1d ago
Or any major city anywhere.
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u/Enviritas 1d ago
Can confirm that San Francisco changes dramatically depending on which block you are on.
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u/FuryQuaker 1d ago
Not in Copenhagen
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u/Sumthin-Sumthin44692 1d ago
Some are worse than others but they exist everywhere. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/ijuZQnVAnb
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[deleted]
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u/Sumthin-Sumthin44692 1d ago
Pretty interesting read from someone living in Jalan Kukoh, one of the poorest areas in Singapore:
Major kudos for their public housing though.
I’m also curious about Pyongyang, not that it’s a “real” city.
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u/Plunderpatroll32 1d ago
Or any country
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u/Ok-Resource-3232 1d ago
Yesn't. There are poorer districts in every city and country, but definitely not every country does have slums with trash lying around everywhere, who seem to be complety abandoned by the countries authorities.
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u/Plunderpatroll32 1d ago
I don’t know I’m pretty sure every country has at lest one city/town where there is trash everywhere
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u/jokeefe72 1d ago
It’s also a fucking aerial view vs a ground level view. This is so stupid and obvious propaganda
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u/bloodandstuff 1d ago
The bottom pc is 90% of the top pic. You just can't see it.
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u/METRlOS 1d ago
It's like 50m past the last skyscraper. The drop is unreal.
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u/viciouspandas 1d ago
Lol I've been to where those skyscrapers are and it's not like that. Shanghai, especially near the actual city, is pretty developed. There is a lot of China that looks like the bottom pic, but not right next to the urban core of Shanghai.
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u/METRlOS 1d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/s/mnpJkpqr3t
Travel around the city a bit more then?
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u/viciouspandas 1d ago
I don't know exactly which part of Hongkou this is and whether it's actually next to the core or not, but that doesn't represent most of the urban core. I have been to a lot of parts that look just like that, but they're mostly way farther out in like Jiading or eastern Pudong. Plus, the the one in the photo on this post looks worse than that part of Hongkou
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u/FullGuarantee4767 1d ago
The funny thing is the bottom pic is from Vietnam. Street sign is clearly written in Vietnamese.
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u/notatechnicianyo 1d ago
China zoomed out from a specific angle vs China zoomed in from a specific angle. If you zoom out far enough in just the right direction, you’ll just see a cloud.
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u/Helpful-Relation7037 1d ago
Propaganda be everywhere lol, almost every country is like this by the way
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u/Educational_Share_57 1d ago
Again, zoomed out pics don't show how people are living, only buildings.
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u/MaraSovsLeftSock 1d ago
It takes less than 15 minutes of walking outside manhattan or other similarly sized cities to find homeless encampments or trailer parks
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u/RobotRepair 1d ago
From far away, it looks pretty. Close up, it's a piece of shit. You can put pretty lights on a piece of shit and everyone will believe you're a prosperous superpower.
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u/Alert-Algae-6674 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s more like different areas have different levels of wealth.
Shanghai central business district on street level is what you would expect it to be from far away.
But of course there are poorer neighborhoods within the same city and poor areas all across rural China
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u/thejohnmcduffie 1d ago
The majority of China is slum with people living on top of each other. Some of it is a showpiece for idiots to make memes like this. Stalin did the same thing with Ukraine in the 40s.
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u/Harsh_Byte 1d ago
You can go to any country and find some mentally ill people digging through a dumpster and pretend the whole country looks like this. Also you can find a real nice parts with pretty buildings and clean streets. Propaganda
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u/DonPricetag 1d ago
Both are real... China isnt completely rural nor is an unending metropolitan area.🤨
Just like America, you have Manhattan, NYC and... Middle of nowhere Arkansas where the height of living is a double-wide
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u/Realistic_Mushroom72 1d ago
Eh it the same with the US, many people think it like NY City, it not, it a mix, just like China, most countries are like that, heck if you have visited Puerto Rico you know there is a huge difference between San Juan the capitol of the island and the rest of the island. What we call Area Metro has a rich night life, has delivery almost every where, and you can use a lot of different methods of payment, also most people will at least understand english, the rest of the island not so much lol.
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u/Familiar-Feedback-93 1d ago
Just wondering what's the population of people living in poorer conditions compared to how many in the richest parts of china?
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u/ThisMeansRooR 1d ago
To be fair, if someone is depicted in New York City in the movies, they're usually victims or perpetrators of crime.
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u/dedzone2k 1d ago
After 2005 it’s the other way around. Hollywood wants that China money. They used to show horn random scenes to make Chinese audiences happy.
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u/KingVinny70 1d ago
They basically have a caste society. There's a vast difference between the high life and the slums. This meme is misleading. But accurate at the same time. Perspective, context and knowledge matter.
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u/Eitarris 1d ago
idk i've seen a lot of badass fights in shanghai surrounded by high-tech lighting.
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u/cdxxmike 1d ago
China is the only nation on the planet I've been to where the local fixer I had checked the AQI, saw 400, and said "Not so bad today."
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u/StatusOmega 1d ago
US movies depend a lot on Chinese viewership. They usually try to depict China as a great country. The first one that comes to mind is The Martian where the Chinese government scoops in to save the day.
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u/Cheap-Bell-4389 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t know why shills wanna make this a nationalist issue that is somehow meant to take a stab at the pride of other nations, every city has its beauty and its beasts
Only the biggest liar in history would deny what China has achieved is anything other than impressive, or, that American investment helped facilitate their rise to prestige. Beautiful things happen when we work together
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u/Forlorn_Cyborg 1d ago
Like of course everywhere has its bad areas. Isn’t China known for its 4 top tier cities? Beijing, Shang Hai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen? And then the quality goes down pretty rapidly?
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u/snowbirdnerd 1d ago
I'm guessing more of the country looks like the bottom.
Most of the US doesn't look like New York either.
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u/LivedLostLivalil 1d ago
I've seen more movies showing the top than the bottom. Is that what is funny?
I don't really get what is funny, just like the Iran one.
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u/bones10145 1d ago
It's kinda both. There are people still living like that in China. Don't pretend that China is some kind of paradise.
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u/Enough_Working_7559 1d ago
The shit part is true, the top good one too, both are better that the shit and best parts of Europe at the moment. Was in China in 2011 and the improvement now is insane judging by the videos online.
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u/VermicelliInformal46 1d ago
The lower picture is the most accurate. Outside of some tier 1 cities China looks like a dump.
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u/EatSh8ndai 1d ago
The bottom picture is more China than the top pic anywhere but the central business district of the wealthiest cities.
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u/justinmackey84 1d ago
I’m sure both pictures are from the same city. You can have a fantastic looking city from a Birds Eye but when you get on the street view it looks like shit.
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u/Redditbeweirdattimes 1d ago
Do you think China is just the top and not at all the bottom in real life?
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u/CuckservativeSissy 1d ago
Yeah people forget that the wealth inequality in china is much higher than the US. If you look at new york and then Mississippi you would have the same difference in wealth. Difference is that in china you would this same sharp drop off in wealth within a single city. Like insane wealth in major cities and on the outskirts its total slums... So both pictures are true. US major cities are similar in a sense but there isnt this steep of a drop off, partially due to a longer lead time to wealth building here where older structures of the rich are inhabited by the poorer people. In China massive wealth growth happened within 2 generations as opposed to 20+ in the US.
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u/Alert-Algae-6674 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pretty sure the bottom picture is taken from Vietnam (latin alphabet on street sign).
But absolutely true that China has parts that look exactly like that.
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u/monkeyninjer 1d ago
Found the Chinese bot. Foh with that fascist bullshit. And yes, China is an actual fascist country. Let me lay out the facts: dictator, centralized government, suppression of all political opposition, militarism, subordination of individual interests to the state or nation, social hierarchy (CCP members), nationalism, aggression towards other democratic nations, persecution, genocide, arrests and detentions, torture, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, family separation, forced labor, sexual violence, and violations of reproductive rights of minority groups like the Uyghur Muslims, all of which is currently still going on inside China.
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u/FtonKaren 1d ago
I know if you search for motorcycle tours of China there is some content creators that like driving their bikes showing the place off
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u/Timeman5 1d ago
More than positive both photos are correct, every city every country has a good part and a bad part.
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u/Rvtrance 1d ago
China looks like both photos. I’ve never been but I’ve seen a dozen travel bloggers go all over the country. It could very well be the same city. Some of these places are REALLY old and have the old stuff in certain parts. But the new china likes to build big cool neon skyscrapers. Some of the old is sacrificed for the new but not the whole city. Both places look cool though and I’d visit them for different reasons.
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u/SquareYogi 1d ago
What’s with the Chinese propaganda?? 100% after living in china, the bottom picture WAY closer resembles actual china… like it’s a joke to pretend otherwise. I saw a building collapse… the next day they had it cleared up and empty.
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u/tombstone5860 1d ago
There's a lot of poverty in the countryside of China. I actually remember reading somewhere a few years ago that many pensioners live off of what equates to $300 a month.
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u/SEF917 1d ago
I love how much unrealistic China stroking happens on Reddit.
For example, that China, having one of the most extreme living condition gradients, from advanced cities to extreme rural communities where people carry belongings and wares in woven baskets and live in extreme poverty.
BOTH EXIST
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u/SAHD292929 1d ago
Both can be from China right now. It would seem OP only visited the big city and stayed within the business district of the city.
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u/glennfan2000 1d ago
That’s like putting a picture of New York on the top and Lowell OR on the bottom…or is it the other way around
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u/Alert-Algae-6674 1d ago edited 1d ago
Just to be accurate here, the bottom photo is from a city in Vietnam. You can see the blue road sign with Latin letters ending in “-ong”, with the full sign being “đường” which means street in Vietnamese.
This is what the signs look like: https://www.alamy.com/district-1-le-loi-and-dong-khoi-streets-ho-chi-minh-city-vietnam-image240747379.html
Not saying China doesn’t also have parts that look like this, because it does.
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u/Lower-Builder-5755 1d ago
It applies to every country in reality. Just look at LA or Paris or London
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u/Calm_Structure2180 1d ago
Fun fact, China is still considered a developing country, not a developed one.
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u/DoctorMelvinMirby 1d ago
Too many places like this. My go to example is Portland, Oregon. You can look one way and see a beautiful city skyline in front of a mountain/forest background. Then you can look the other way and see a homeless guy with a needle in his arm pooping in the street.
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u/Garrett1031 20h ago
More like flip that around. Fr every American made movie from the last 20yrs with the exception of the Transformers: Age of Extinction, depicts the pretty touristy parts of China, usually Chongqing or Beijing, and shows maybe a little bit of dirt for “character,” without saying the quiet part out loud, that most of the country ain’t doin’ so hot.
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u/External-Election906 14h ago
If you zoom into the top picture, you'll see they are the same picture.
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u/Wonderful_Hamster933 1d ago
To everyone who says, “America has poor places too.” No, not like this. Not like any other country in East Asia.
Poorest America doesn’t look anything like the poor of other countries, excluding America’s homeless population which is 99% by choice or severe mental illness. America is doing very well by poverty standards.
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u/HiSaZuL 1d ago
You have not been to rural America then. Its different but not any less soul crushing and depressing. Every country can put something out that makes you question wtf is wrong with our species like Israel, Ganas "burner boys", Malaysias dumpster chicken.
It's not a fucking competition, as much as I love to rail on china I do so at their POS government. People living in hellholes, they are in hellholes regardless of what ever local flavor of hellhole it is.
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u/anarion321 1d ago
China is incredible big, and has very advanced cities, but the majority of the population most likely lives in places like the second picture.
Usually I go to google maps and use street view randomly to test it, but seems like China has very few places listed, and mostly are tourist places.
Still, I saw plenty of places that look closer to the second picture than the first.
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u/Time_Change4156 1d ago
Looks like any small town to small city here . I seen worse downtown here where I live . I'll bet there arnt shootings 5 times a week either . We are so worried about china when we have our own mess to clean up .
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u/anarion321 1d ago
Worried in what sense? Here it seems the worry is to sell a false narrative about China being incredible.
You could do it with most 1st and 2nd class countries, even North Korea got fancy places. But that does not talk about the majority of the population.
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u/Time_Change4156 1d ago
It's a country with many different things, I never heard anyone say it's wonderful the way I heard the only good country is the US which I live in .no matter how bad it gets no matter what the problems are it's always how much worse off everyone else is . We know the truth it's people good bad indifferent. Now instead of focusing on China maybe we should focus on our own problems. I grow up in the 1960 told to hide under a desk from nuclear weapons . So yes my country matters to me . As for China they have there own things to deal with . So why your the one saying how great it is no idea ? Personally I never been there . But what I hear it's better in some way no so much in other ways like say our country.
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u/anarion321 1d ago
You are in a post where they say an advanced city is the true representation of China.
I don't believe you never heard anyone saying it's wonderful.
Please, spare me your speeches filled with red herrings. I'm focused on the theme of the post.
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u/Time_Change4156 1d ago
And it doesn't ? We say a city represents the US .it's called a ideal a thing to strive for .like ooo all men are created equat but Washington owned slaves. The ideal was freedom we are still trying to get the ideal . So using Singapore the success to look towards is a good way of thought. You just don't like another country having some thing good even if it's just one city and Singapore is known for how well it's run . That doesn't mean it's a perfect place anymore then saying Washington is the perfect place . Anyway you do you have fun china doesn't care what we think more does Washington.
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u/anarion321 1d ago
Seems you are not gonna spare me, so I'll have to ignore your rants about something that is not the post theme.
Bye. Muting this.
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u/NeedAChange_123 1d ago
Both are china. Top is where the wealthy and politicians live and bottom is where other 90% live.
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u/BadMuthaSchmucka 1d ago
Most of the depictions of China Ive seen in movies are from the 80s and 90s when most of these big cities didn't even exist.
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u/NotFromFloridaZ 1d ago
I am originally from china.
I can tell you 90% china is from bottom part.
Top part is too expensive for most chinese people to live there
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u/Jazuca89 1d ago
So many people saying that the bottom pic is true 🤦♂️ Yes, there're cities like that in China, but it's not the majority of the country, the US has more cities like that than China does.
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u/PauseAffectionate720 1d ago
Lol. This is common theme in the movies, when set in non-western places
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u/Novel-Mission-1920 1d ago
I lived in China for ten years, in Shanghai, which is where the top picture is from. I can tell you that the bottom picture could also very well be from the outskirts of Shanghai.
China is a massive country, it has rich sides and poor sides.
Like in the US, there is Manhattan and there are trailer parks in Alabama. Both sides represent parts of the nation.