Gonna take this opportunity to ask: anybody know of some good things to do in San Francisco on Christmas day? I'm coming to visit and will be alone for the most part.
Christmas Day is the exact best day to go around all of the sightseeing locations in SF without having to worry about parking or crowds. I've done this 3 times now, whenever guests come, and it's great.
You can hit all of the places in SF like the Golden Gate Bridge, Chrissy Field, Coit Tower, Pier 39, etc.
Exactly. Chinese friends tell me "Chinese" food one finds in Chinatowns in western cities is heavily adapted to western tastes and nothing like what is eaten in China.
I have a hunch that the 'Tso' is actually a corruption of 'sauce', meaning instead of being named for a military general, 'general' is the name of the sauce.
What laws are these? I find it strange to hear anyone claim that US laws determine what is made and sold as Chinese food. There are some laws regarding food safety, but they apply to all foods.
This is probably not what either of you meant, but until 2005, it was illegal to import sichuan peppercorns. This resulted in a lot of dishes missing a fairly important taste, even in otherwise authentic Sichuan restaurants.
As an AU/NZ/DE citizen who has been mostly based in China (but also a year in LA, 2 weeks SF) since 2001, I can tell you that Auckland is a best case example.
Compared to SF (which has one of the oldest Chinatowns in the US... unlike LA's, which incidentally was ruthlessly bulldozed to make way for a 'required' freeway by racist local government) much of Auckland's Chinese population is recent, which is perfect. Recent mainland immigration brings real Chinese food as Chinese eat it.
SF is dealing with Americanized interpetations of Chinese food that persist from the modified cuisine of multiple generations of Cantonese immigrants distilled through American popular culture. You know:
(1) Paper box
(2) Disposable chopsticks
(3) Fujian/Guangdong style egg (yellow) noodles
(4) Canto-Americanisms like 'chop suey' (Mandarin 'chao cai') and 'dim sum' (Mandarin 'dian xin') and such.
(5) Total overuse of meats and a relative lack of vegetarian options
(6) Total overuse of heavy sauces (oyster, sweet and sour, etc.)
By contrast, despite an early presence of Chinese in New Zealand, just fifteen years ago you would be hard pressed to find any Asian food at all in central Auckland, and certainly there was no or next to no honest mainland-style Chinese cuisine available at all, anywhere in the city.
FWIW I upvoted you! I'd always wondered if the Chinese in Auckland was any good or not compared to China (I'd suspected yes, but good to know!). It has been crazy watching all the good asian food popup over the last 20 odd years. It all feels so natural and part of NZ culture now (e.g. there are 7 Korean, 3 Japanese, 2 Chinese and 1 French restaurants directly across from the office!).
seattle and the east side are 'okay' but nowhere near what you'd find in the sunset/richmond, san gabriel valley, or manhattan + queens
for example in a single neighborhood you can find halal chinese, dim sum, szechuan, hot pot, proper roast duck, chinese bakeries, shanghai style dumplings, fresh noodles ...
the bar for comparison should be beijing, shanghai, singapore, hong kong, taipei, etc.
Not at all. There are good restaurants and there are bad restaurants. Most of the customers in the SF Chinatown restaurants are Chinese, so you know there are going to be some good restaurants.
I honestly don't see what is broken here. No one has the unquestioned right to enter any country except one where they hold citizenship. This post documents one person who was turned away for what he felt was an unreasonable position but that's still up to the United States to decide. It may shock people on Hacker News to learn this, but many other countries turn people away for "frivolous" reasons or no reason at all. For instance, Canada:
No one has the unquestioned right to enter any country except one where they hold citizenship. This post documents one person who was turned away for what he felt was an unreasonable position but that's still up to the United States to decide.
Yes it is. And it is up to the people to decide not wanting to go to US ever again, as stated in this post.
Seems like you got offended by something the writer said. All he stated that he doesn't ever want to go there and I think he is allowed to state that without anyone getting upset about it.
I was responding to the assertion that this is "broken," not to the author of the original article. The author has every right to not visit countries which have wronged him and I see nothing wrong with that. What I do think is wrong is to immediately reply to someone else with a retort of "maybe fix your country."
I see. I think I missed your target and point somewhere in "for what he felt was an unreasonable position" and "It may shock people on Hacker News to learn this". Sorry.
It's not really a counter example. The Eurocrats would love the peoples of Europe to be citizens of a united states of Europe (polls suggest people are not so inclined). The Schengen agreement is a logical step towards that goal and is undeniably helpful for travellers. Countries in the continent of America don't appear to have any such ambition.
Wouldn't the "United" states be similar? Each "state" of the union was like it's own country until they formed their own group. People from the USA usually identify with their state first before the country.
On the other hand, one may contest the premise that a country has a right to refuse entrance to any individual.
I, for one, would rather live in a world where individuals are free to travel at will (protected by international agreements) than in one where only goods and money benefit from this kind of protection.
As someone who lives in a Schengen area country, I experience both, so maybe that influences my opinions : it seems quite retrograde and unbearable to forbid people to just travel as they wish.
If you accept the assertion that countries are allowed to police their borders as they see fit, sans abuse and neglect, then it justifies it on the basis of "reasonable practice." This was a discretionary entry and discretion was withheld. Then again, as I pointed out elsewhere, my angst is not with the author of the article, just the comment to which I replied.
(I happen to subscribe to the theory that, since the world is highly unlikely to do the reverse, borders should be relaxed to the point where people can move as freely as capital, but we're not anywhere close to that, either.)
This is a pretty empty argument. It's up to the United States to decide all of its policies. So what? That doesn't make it unreasonable for outsiders to comment on how stupid or broken they are. Similarly broken policies in other countries aren't really much justification either.
I also have some pretty horrible experiences with the Canadian border (about as bad as the US side seems to be for most).
I was denied entry once for an entirely frivolous reason (before anyone asks, no, no criminal record or DUI or anything) and it made subsequent entries extremely difficult/stressful but I was not turned away.
Edit: That second link. Trust me on this: the worst innocent thing you can ever tell a CBSA agent is that you're dating a Canadian. Especially if the agent decides that they don't like you.
I'm also never going back to Canada, because there's nothing up there worth it for me to be treated that way.
Pretty ironic considering the US started producing tourism adverts. Maybe they should add a disclaimer to the bottom: only applicable to WASPs with $10k in the bank who have never left their home country before.
It's not my country, you assumptive douche. The author was rejected from entering the USA on arguably questionable, but still legal terms.
Based on his account, I'm forced to believe he acted appropriately, and therefore I feel bad for him, but he doesn't have a given right to enter a foreign country.
My advice remains. Custom officials in airports are much better equipped to handle foreigners. So, to hedge your safest bets for next time you go to the US, make the airport your first port of entry.
> The author was rejected from entering the USA on arguably questionable, but still legal terms.
And no one was questioning the legality of this. Legal does not mean good.
>My advice remains. Custom officials in airports are much better equipped to handle foreigners. So, to hedge your safest bets for next time you go to the US, make the airport your first port of entry.
How is that not broken? Why should it matter if you enter via airport or train.
There was no reason to turn him away, other than misperceptions and bigocy by the border agents. That's what should be fixed.
Cultural isolation defines me as a person. So no problems there. How did you like Ukraine? Where were you based? Was it cheap and comparable to Thailand for a place to bootstrap in?
The isolation is extreme when it's an unknown language and non-"western" culture. Though I would still consider Ukraine relatively western.
I was in Luhans'k, an industrial city with a college district, located near the eastern border with Russia. I worked remotely from a euro-style ($1200/mo) flat. It was 4 years ago.
I loved walking around the city in the snow, looking at shops and markets. The local tech scene was pretty much dead, at least for a foreigner who didn't speak the language. It might be as cheap as Thailand, but probably less accessible and fun. I have yet to visit Asia. I couldn't handle continuing to bootstrap there because of my isolation.
Edit: I think you'd have MUCH better luck in Kiev.
I believe even better chances in Lviv, in terms of not feeling so isolated.
The West of Ukraine is more orientated to the European Union, than the East of Ukraine, which looks towards Russia and has a large ethnic Russian population.
My, albeit brief, experience in Lviv was that enough people spoke at least basic English enabling me to communicate. Knowing German also helped in many cases, as did learning at least the basics of Ukrainian for simple daily situations.
Housing is expensive, if you want something other than a badly fading Soviet era apartment on the edge of town. Food and entertainment is reasonably cheap.
Perhaps the most astute observation in here. Lost count the number of times I've missed the 'the next big thing' when it was right in my face. Each time I tell myself that I'll pay more attention next time. But we all know the definition of crazy.
