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Plenty of Americans did this when America had military bases in Afghanistan and Central Asia after 911 with Russia being indifferent and even helping us carry a helicopter once with their helicopter. They were happy to see anyone try to tame the steppes people I guess. Now putin actively pushes out any remaining us interests in central Asia. But during Bush cheney 2001-obama we had a lot of Americans there doing stuff with China back during china's pre covid pre Xi golden age
You are one of my favorite youtuber / travel vloggers. Why? Because you're humble...you're honest...and you have no agenda but to share yourself and your respectful experience of the people and places you encounter.
but...needing a passport (or any form of legit ID) to retrieve your ATM bank card is a good security thing (in any country)...especially in these times of digital/cyber crime
Yes, but don't they know you'll be in the country in advance? They watch you constantly and take nonstop scans of your documents, seems like it would be something they could easily get working if they felt like it. It's scary and could be a big problem if you have another problem, like losing the passport. Do the nice places in China even have cards? They all use WeChat. It's unclear if I can even get that, I've been wanting one to check it out.
Why? Anyone can just show up in America and stay as long as they like, no requirements at all. You’re saying the rest of the world doesn’t work that way? Crazy!
India also has one time zone, but China is a lot wider. So I checked online and the sun rises at 10:16 in Kashgar and at 7:35 in Beijing. Very bizarre, especially for the Kashgarians. It would work for me though since I like to sleep in. I'd wake up around sunrise every morning.
At the time when PRC was estaiblished, the majority of Chinese were illiterate, so the division of timezones would bring many misunderstandings among people and cost a lot, so the govt decided to unify them as one.
Nice video but you misunderstood the little boy. He said ‘I’m off school but going for some training (培训)’ which ended at 9 or 10 pm. It might have been some private tuition required by his parents.
So, in Japan the hotels takes copies of guests passports as well. Not required for Japanese citizens, but when I accompany my foreign friends to a hotel, they demand my passport as well even though I’m japanese.
Sorry Tommy but you are displaying a serious flaw in your traveling habits. First in Russia and now in China, Could you PLEASE start bringing your passport with you at all times, you can’t predict the situations you will encounter that requires more than a verbal excuse for not proving who the heck you are. Any delay raises the possibility of suspicion.
Awesome video bro. Dang, you got mocked by a Chinese Granny (26:35).. she was speaking to you in all 第四声, haha... Also, at 34:40 无花果 (figs).. Just finished it. Best video about Xinjiang on the internet currently. You're a real one, big Tom!
Having a small brained travel buddy was awesome, I bet. 🤪 I favor Sabbatical, but you top travel folks keep us happy while spreading friendship the the best you can.
Kashgar is a dream destination for me! I'm a silk road enthusiast! Thanks for sharing gives me the confidence as an American to possibility take the journey there...shame they tore down most if not all of the old city tho!
@@Yooperal3 A 6.4-magnitude earthquake occurred in Kashgar area in 2020. Many old houses were damaged and most of them became dangerous buildings. So we had to rebuild it.
@陈仲衡-l9d Oh ok I do know the area has lost alot of the original old Town and alot was replaced with newer buildings. Anyways I still would love to see the beautiful city of Kashgar! Thanks
@@Yooperal3 It is strongly recommended that you install Chinese translation software on your mobile phone before you set off, such as Youdao Translate or Baidu Translate. Tommy can speak a little Chinese, at least he can communicate in basic way. I don't know how good your Chinese is, so please be sure to prepare well in advance. In addition, there is China's Alipay for payment. APN is used for Internet access. Baidu Maps was used for navigation.
@@ctourmaline we are not 100% perfect. Nobody is perfect. We have confidence. We should Let some foreign judge what we can do better and improve in the future, like poverty stuff, why people can speak Mandarin(a common language), how most minorities communicate with each other efficiently and can gain more economic opportunities from the hinterland of china and how anti-terrorists can know the root cause of terror attacks.
Funny how you refer to whether the local food is hygienic but then you touch food that you don’t buy. What’s up with that? I dig these videos and appreciate vicariously visiting countries I’ll probably never get to visit.
Maybe two strange foreigners going to the suburbs and wandering into and around a private wedding venue got someone's attention? If two Chinese tourists visiting the US did the same in a private wedding venue in a small American town, perhaps they would also be watched? As for the lack of Mandarin - most of the people you met in the suburbs were 60+ years of age. If you visit Montreal, you'll find lots of people can speak English; but if you go to Lac-à-la-Croix Quebec, you'll find very little English is spoken ... especially for those who are 60+ age group. If you go to Peawanuck Ontario, you might find many of those 60+ who cannot speak English or French ... but they're fluent in the Cree language.
Exactly what I wanted to say. Tommy and Connor, two differently looking caucasians, just popped up in such an odd place and wandered around asking people questions in language they couldn't understand. Of course they would get the attention of the neighborhood watch guys 🤣🤣🤣
"If two Chinese tourists visiting the US did the same in a private wedding venue in a small American town, perhaps they would also be watched?" No. No they wouldn't. Not by authorities.
When Westerners assimilated red Indians, no problem. When English replaced Irish, Welsh, Tagalog, Hindi, no problem. This is what happen when you dominate the social media.
One will not invent two different names for the same territory if it is not the same reference. Why would someone call it Greece if it is not different from Macedonia?! Why I should call it North when it is not different from Macedonia?! I'm Macedonia, but you are not. You are either Greek or USA, if you are Macedonia you will never use something else to subjugate the name Macedonia.
35:18 That's made from Nicotiana rustica, known in Xinjiang as Mo he yan 莫合烟, which might be transliteration of the Russian name. It was imported from the USSR in 1930s and became popular in Xinjiang. Rather strong, quite harmful, but used to be a common indulgence. Gradually fallen out of favor in early 2000s, but I guess it is not outlawed.
@@EphemeralProductionsThey love their government and their government loves them! XingJiang is most invested territory of China by the central government! You don’t like Chinese government because you were brainwashed by CNN and BBC! Did China start any war in the last thirty years? Did they insist that their system is the best for the world to copy?
being followed in China is normal as a foreigner, they assign the secret service to monitor almost all visitors. this information was given to me by a resident of Beijing who works for the train station ^^.
That's why western media only give half the story or just the negative stories only. For years now I look for both sides of the story by reading eastern media too.
What are you talking about? Everyone around the world can watch many many yt and other social platforms videos as WELL as travel to many countries. You may not research or travel however a lot of westerners do 😂
4:50. Logging on checking the hotel one is staying at with the immigration authorities is so so common across the world Tommy. China is not the exception. Lots of tracking goes on behind one’s back.
_Cheers_ !! I think if you "added up" the....."intellect's".....IQ, it'd be on par with that of an amoeba! (note: that _might be_ an insult to the amoeba!!)
Not sure if you mean White people or all Americans, but In the 'desert' States many White people know the local Language. Or anywhere in the USA where Natives still speak their Language, Americans might pick up some words because they might live near the reservations
Yes, this is important but not described in the video, and another important thing is Uyguars is not turkic even though they speak very similiar language
I am surprised you as a foreigner , go around not bringing your passport, i think as a seasoned traveller , you know International protocol a passport is recognised but not your ID from your country.
無花果 - Wu hua guo - fig. Without flower fruit. That's what you bought. Technically, the flowers of figs are inside of the fruit, but there's no external flower (edited).
i am here at 15:30, just cant ignore that funny translation they have there. 古城宿集Gucheng Suji means Old town housing complex. What they are doing is building a hotel complex for the ancient city. for some reason they "decided" to translate it as the ancient city of housing complexes..
I dont understand why you dont bring your passport with you in places like ughyur china 21:34 you could get stopped for filming in certain areas, and end up in trouble like in russia. Especially ughyur filming， which can be dangerous
@@brken_blndie yeah i was confused on if he filmed the video recently or months ago because he said it's September in the video, but I see his hitchhiking friends in this video from videos recently
If you're a tourist in another country, your passport is your only acceptable ID. What's wrong with that? Ask any foreign visitors in the U.S. if they can go about without their passports.
I went about the US without my passport except when flying. The US has no standard national ID, they have drivers licenses for like 50 different states, so the bar for acceptable ID is already quite low and varied. Also they don't really ask for ID often. Even when I went inside a state capitol for a tour, the only check I was subject to was walking through a metal detector which beeped and they told me I'm fine. Some people don't even have any ID and it's apparently controversial to require one for voting. In the months I've spent in the US in total, the only time I was asked for ID was at an airport (passport probably required in this case) and to have alcoholic drinks
He just needed to prove that his name matches the name on the card stuck in the atm, I don’t see why his other cards doesn’t prove that. They just wanted his passport so they can keep a record of him being there.
@@alex15095 Driver license has link to all the information, your address, your car, your insurance, your crime record ..... That is why it is accepted in US. In most countries, passport is the only accepted document. It makes nonsense to complain that.
@@cjamo65able Come on. Why are you complaining? I just pointed out the common practices of requiring passports for important financial transactions. You just started labeling me and others who agree with me. Should I start labeling you a red neck, a MAGA, a white supremacist, a racist, a sinophobia?
When you ask the two ladies at 26.35 what they think of Muslims it would have been very disturbing had they answered in the negative in this sensitive region where racial harmony was tested during the riots in 2009.
Line of the video -- "This is the kind of Chinese tackiness I love". Dude great vids. I love the way you present China, balanced and inquisitive. In 2015 I took a job with a Chinese company in SZ but working in the states. Until the pandemic, I was going back and forth the SZ from the states, 1 month there -- 1 month back home. Fell in love with China. Things changed and I left that job right around the time the pandemic ended but I've been back a few times in the past years. Like many Americans, my view of China before I went was negative. My first trip there I saw how wrong I was. Great people, great food, always welcoming to foreigners and all those little quirks, like the cherry farm with the wedding hall.
It is the older generation of Uyghurs that can't speak Mandarin. China introduced mandatory Mandarin language leaning in schools in autonomous regions about 20 years ago so the ethnic minorities could integrate and apply to more jobs and pursue more advance education in top universities in the country.
Love your videos and interactions with locals. Always insightful. Yes. It does suck when your card is stuck in a foreign ATM. Happened to me in Stuttgart. Never got my card back though. Glad to see that you're safe Tommy.
Whenever I have been to China, too often they had "improved" versions of historic places. Sometimes it's because the original building was gone - due to age or destruction during cultural revolution. The new place would be very clean and set up for tourists - but not feel authentic at all. It felt like going to the "EPCOT" version, to give an American equivalent. The mosque you went to reminded me of that.
Unlike the west, Chinese ancient building wasn’t made by stone but wood, with time been it will collapse that why they have to rebuild a new one. I remember my grandparents’ house, it was built in later Qing dynasty (I guess after 1870) hand was heavy damaged when was a child living with them. The wall is made by bamboo sticks and mud, some walls were off mud and you can look through those bamboo bones to the room next. Nearly a walls were not vertical and it was a miracle those houses were not down. In any means today, such house are not safe for living in yet it was my sweet home with my lovely grandmother I miss her too much
The western need for "authentic" old feel is lost in East Asia, where everything is made of wood etc and has been burned down a billion times throughout history, even the great wall of China that most people know isn't as "ancient" as they want to believe, because the ancient walls where not made out of bricks.
@@BerryMike-d9v^ this. Why destroy and rebuild on purpose? Waste of time. The originals were never built to last, or were destroyed by natural disasters / warfare. Of course, it’s easier to assume the “communists” destroyed it.
Thks for bringing us to this nice exotic town in China 👍 However, your occasional paranoia reactions or over cautious responses somehow reflected a feeling of tension 😮
Gees, Can I say that’s the darkest American I have ever seen? I thought Americans were all decedents of white Europeans colonialists plus a couple of native Americans who survived their slaughter.
@sanzhang-tx1zm comparing the chinese grow up from china and the us, chinese kids in the us have tanner skin color, probably because of more sun shine in the US.
the song you played in the beginning is a BANGER an absolute banger! Gulyarxan its legit the first song if you type in Uighur music lol best part about it tho is how its basically about how fine the girls/his girl is compared to everything in the world plus the girl dancing and the whole vibe lol i respect it....danm shame like everywhere else in the world afew ruin it for many i may not agree with islam but i like alot of the people...speaking of bros i see you have a fellow murican! hes is cool lol
You pretend to be neutral, but you don't believe that China is a peaceful and inclusive country. I don't appreciate this attitude. You separate the locals from the Chinese very much, and you can't accept that China is not only Han nationality. Regarding language, there are different languages all over China. If you come to the countryside in Guangxi, Guangdong, there are many old people who can't speak Mandarin, which is not a big problem. My grandmother is a Hakka member of the Han nationality, but she can't speak Mandarin, but it doesn't mean that they are not Chinese.
i was there in 1985, and it looks nothing like it did, i dont recognise anything except the mosque, i see a chinese city. back then there were hardly any at all, just a handful chinese soldiers in baracks next to the mao statue and they didnt dare to go into the city wich at that time was tiny, sandy and flyridden. but the people were lovely and welcoming and the noodles, flatbreads and skewers great despite of ramadan they served us with warm smiles and were desperate to tell us how they were being surpressed but nobody knew about them back then. neither did i but i just wanted to get away from the han area, 3 days on a train to urumqi and 3 days on a bus through the desert with no windows and friendly uyghurs, it was special and felt very different, nothing like this.
@@ctourmaline english and chinese and a dictionary and lots of hands and feet, uyghurs were a very expressive people back then, they really wanted to be able to leave the country and go to mekka to do the haj but above all they were shocked we had no idea in the west that they were there a muslim minority that was turkish in ancestry, quite a few blondish and blue eyed people too to my own amazement. a lot of writing in the sand so it could be wiped out easily in case of danger or just pointing in the dictionary and what occurred a lot all over china that conversations abruptly changed into a very innocuous english lesson whenever a person showed up that was deemed to be sussed. old shanghai was a hotbed of people who were eager to talk to foreigners, they had a lot to tell.
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Thanks for supporting the channel through these promotions. Really helps fund the travels, otherwise I'd have to start OnlyFans.
Bro actually had a plan on onlyfans💀
Over 200 comments in an hour of posting your vid, impressive. But here's a part of china you're not supposed to see. 高平炎帝陵謁祖祭典-瑞芳青雲殿進場
Don’t you feel like you might be poking a bear here?
Indigenous Disneyland
Bro i thought you where rich🤣
You met Mike my fellow English teacher in Xinjiang, with his girl friend, wow such a coincidence.
啊😂
You do a great job of opening up the world for me.
It's people like you who I like to follow because you show the world places the MSM doesn't. In real life scenarios.
Awfully hard to read
Unless they are real life scenarios it pretty much ruins the atmosphere
Kinda bad for vlogs
I love Tommy's videos more every time I see one. Huge respect for all the languages he can speak.
Two of the vloggers I was watching most lately collaborating! I didnt expect this🎉😂
First Video I've seen of a Westerner entering The Land of the Dragon from its border with Kyrgyzstan.
Plenty of Americans did this when America had military bases in Afghanistan and Central Asia after 911 with Russia being indifferent and even helping us carry a helicopter once with their helicopter. They were happy to see anyone try to tame the steppes people I guess. Now putin actively pushes out any remaining us interests in central Asia. But during Bush cheney 2001-obama we had a lot of Americans there doing stuff with China back during china's pre covid pre Xi golden age
What a beautiful city. Thankyou so much, Tommy, for bringing us there.
People seem very nice and the French girl is a nice travel companion She gives your videos a sense of humor
I think you may be a bit thirsty, my guy. She's in like 5% of the video. But I do have to say she makes appearances like some kind of cryptid lol
You are one of my favorite youtuber / travel vloggers. Why? Because you're humble...you're honest...and you have no agenda but to share yourself and your respectful experience of the people and places you encounter.
You are cheated like me before he describe his stories in Russia. This guy is a hidden human rights democracy activists.
Thank you for taking us on the tour....love the lack of opinions....
I’m so happy you met up with SmallBrainedAmerican! I love both of y’all’s content!!
Tommy & SBA, Touching tips in China.. 🍻🍻
😂😂
Very impressive. Keep yourself safe. Love your attitude and your videos.
Curious why don't keep your passport or copy on you. I know of a guy that got tossed in a Russian jail for that 😉
😂😂😂
Genuinely shocked when it's a legal requirement in most countries on earth
Corrupt officials will take it and hold it hostage for a bribe.
You mean the 1st guy or the 2nd guy
I know right?!
but...needing a passport (or any form of legit ID) to retrieve your ATM bank card is a good security thing (in any country)...especially in these times of digital/cyber crime
yeah i was in
Thailand lost my card in an atm and someone tried to use it before i could get it back.
@@MojoZ20 exactly.
Yes, but don't they know you'll be in the country in advance? They watch you constantly and take nonstop scans of your documents, seems like it would be something they could easily get working if they felt like it. It's scary and could be a big problem if you have another problem, like losing the passport. Do the nice places in China even have cards? They all use WeChat. It's unclear if I can even get that, I've been wanting one to check it out.
yeah，it‘s wired for him to blame on this
He lived in China for a number of years, he knows very well that you can't do anything at a Chinese bank without your passport.
我“有”胡子不是我“戴”胡子😋 非常好的视频，你在镜头前始终保持了一种放松、自然和真实的状态，很独特，非常喜欢你的视频
与其说放松自然，不如说感觉成天提心吊胆。
Love the collabs with SBA
As a Chinese, i like your videos so much！
别高兴太早，虽然好中立，但骨子里白人至上是掩饰不了的
@@aphrodite090909 are you? 😏
He goes to some really interesting spots
I like watching channels like this one where you can see how the people truly are and how they see the world around them!
Travelling without your passport again, gotta stop that lol
Right. I had no idea that anyone even DID that. lol. Until I found Tommy!
Why? Anyone can just show up in America and stay as long as they like, no requirements at all. You’re saying the rest of the world doesn’t work that way? Crazy!
@@Deetroiterhow could I possibly enter the US without a passport? Oh wait… I see what you mean 😂
@@DeetroiterStupidity is bad, but the pretending Stupidity is even far worse!Oh no ! There is a thing called "American Exceptionalism" ! 😢
he filmed this before the russia thing
India also has one time zone, but China is a lot wider. So I checked online and the sun rises at 10:16 in Kashgar and at 7:35 in Beijing. Very bizarre, especially for the Kashgarians. It would work for me though since I like to sleep in. I'd wake up around sunrise every morning.
只是参照同样的标准，同一个标准会显著减少沟通障碍。人们的生活并不会在同一个标准里。北京人7点起床，新疆人10点起床。这不会影响人们正常的作息。
At the time when PRC was estaiblished, the majority of Chinese were illiterate, so the division of timezones would bring many misunderstandings among people and cost a lot, so the govt decided to unify them as one.
Nice video but you misunderstood the little boy. He said ‘I’m off school but going for some training (培训)’ which ended at 9 or 10 pm. It might have been some private tuition required by his parents.
So, in Japan the hotels takes copies of guests passports as well. Not required for Japanese citizens, but when I accompany my foreign friends to a hotel, they demand my passport as well even though I’m japanese.
in the US the same, foreigners needs to show their passports to the frontdesk.
Why do they need the info?
@wowswc Use your brain 😂
To avert credit fraud. It’s so prevalent
But they don't have to report it to police!
Sorry Tommy but you are displaying a serious flaw in your traveling habits.
First in Russia and now in China,
Could you PLEASE start bringing your passport with you at all times, you can’t predict the situations you will encounter that requires more than a verbal excuse for not proving who the heck you are. Any delay raises the possibility of suspicion.
I wouldn’t have my passport on me in those countries either… why make it easier for the government to locate you
Then don't enter those countries if you dont respect their rules. @@caladr9367
Awesome video bro. Dang, you got mocked by a Chinese Granny (26:35).. she was speaking to you in all 第四声, haha... Also, at 34:40 无花果 (figs).. Just finished it. Best video about Xinjiang on the internet currently. You're a real one, big Tom!
@@chopsticksandtrains Damn didn’t know I was getting shade from the Ayis!
Zillions of viewers love your videos. Do what you love!
Having a small brained travel buddy was awesome, I bet. 🤪 I favor Sabbatical, but you top travel folks keep us happy while spreading friendship the the best you can.
Kashgar is a dream destination for me! I'm a silk road enthusiast! Thanks for sharing gives me the confidence as an American to possibility take the journey there...shame they tore down most if not all of the old city tho!
Who gave you the wrong message
@kinni143 wrong message of what?
@@Yooperal3 A 6.4-magnitude earthquake occurred in Kashgar area in 2020. Many old houses were damaged and most of them became dangerous buildings. So we had to rebuild it.
@陈仲衡-l9d Oh ok I do know the area has lost alot of the original old Town and alot was replaced with newer buildings. Anyways I still would love to see the beautiful city of Kashgar! Thanks
@@Yooperal3 It is strongly recommended that you install Chinese translation software on your mobile phone before you set off, such as Youdao Translate or Baidu Translate. Tommy can speak a little Chinese, at least he can communicate in basic way. I don't know how good your Chinese is, so please be sure to prepare well in advance. In addition, there is China's Alipay for payment. APN is used for Internet access. Baidu Maps was used for navigation.
I am a Han Chinese. Thank you so much for trying to bring some positive views about China to the rest of the world, thanks, my fellow American.
positive?
@@ctourmaline we are not 100% perfect. Nobody is perfect. We have confidence. We should Let some foreign judge what we can do better and improve in the future, like poverty stuff, why people can speak Mandarin(a common language), how most minorities communicate with each other efficiently and can gain more economic opportunities from the hinterland of china and how anti-terrorists can know the root cause of terror attacks.
You finally visited it. I asked a few months ago and happy to see it from your pov.
2 of the best travel vloggers
can't stop watching these videos! 🤩
Visit central Asia
The video is fun to watch, including people and cultures in different countries.
that's one of the most interesting videos on your channel for sure. Thank you!
美国人总是利用一切机会造谣抹黑对手，其他美国人相信谣言，互相吹捧，生活在虚假的世界里
Funny how you refer to whether the local food is hygienic but then you touch food that you don’t buy. What’s up with that?
I dig these videos and appreciate vicariously visiting countries I’ll probably never get to visit.
Watching him touch food just to point it out for the camera bothered me so much
americans have clean hands
Ah yes, the antiseptic white hand
😂@@Myce
You mean the donut? But he bought it after touching it
Maybe two strange foreigners going to the suburbs and wandering into and around a private wedding venue got someone's attention? If two Chinese tourists visiting the US did the same in a private wedding venue in a small American town, perhaps they would also be watched?
As for the lack of Mandarin - most of the people you met in the suburbs were 60+ years of age. If you visit Montreal, you'll find lots of people can speak English; but if you go to Lac-à-la-Croix Quebec, you'll find very little English is spoken ... especially for those who are 60+ age group. If you go to Peawanuck Ontario, you might find many of those 60+ who cannot speak English or French ... but they're fluent in the Cree language.
Exactly what I wanted to say. Tommy and Connor, two differently looking caucasians, just popped up in such an odd place and wandered around asking people questions in language they couldn't understand. Of course they would get the attention of the neighborhood watch guys 🤣🤣🤣
If Chinese tourists in America did that, they wouldn't be followed around by a spy lol. At most they would just be asked to leave.
"If two Chinese tourists visiting the US did the same in a private wedding venue in a small American town, perhaps they would also be watched?" No. No they wouldn't. Not by authorities.
@@alanbrown342 I call it bull. We have all watched 'The first blood'.
The Government agents are watching them so they dont go close to concentration camps or uyghur villages that are being bulldozed by the CCP
Never would’ve known this place existed if it wasn’t for this video. So thanks.
Sidenote: this is the last video where Erica appears. Guys only after this.
thank god, I was scared I was gonna start letting girls into my treehouse.
Why is this necessary info?😂
@@ronchee998It would be a little weird if she just disappeared without anyone saying anything, wouldn't it.
She wouldn't
Tommy is SUS 🤣
I am three generations of xingjiang ,West countrys always have two standard with another countrys ,
When Westerners assimilated red Indians, no problem. When English replaced Irish, Welsh, Tagalog, Hindi, no problem. This is what happen when you dominate the social media.
_Always_ elevating YT with your content. Thanks, little brother!
Another great video, I'm glad that you finally reached this place Best regards from Macedonia 🇲🇰!
You mean North Macedonia?
One will not invent two different names for the same territory if it is not the same reference. Why would someone call it Greece if it is not different from Macedonia?! Why I should call it North when it is not different from Macedonia?! I'm Macedonia, but you are not. You are either Greek or USA, if you are Macedonia you will never use something else to subjugate the name Macedonia.
I had no idea all of China was in the same timezone.
Well! All China has one OFFICIAL time zone based on BeJing time. but locals have their own time, too!
90% of the population live in eastern part.
多个时区，一个时间🛀
We used to have multiple time zones decades ago.
@@hong3170 Even if only 20% of the population lives in the west, the population is still huge for China
Thanks for showing us your travels.
All the Chinese flags in the touristy areas in town was due to the fact because you were there around National Day - 1 October. Awesome vlog.
loving the collab
I like the way he transform uyghurian "Thank you" Rahmet 2:01 -> Rahmat 9:23 -> Raman 38:25
35:18 That's made from Nicotiana rustica, known in Xinjiang as Mo he yan 莫合烟, which might be transliteration of the Russian name. It was imported from the USSR in 1930s and became popular in Xinjiang. Rather strong, quite harmful, but used to be a common indulgence. Gradually fallen out of favor in early 2000s, but I guess it is not outlawed.
Thank you for showing people how Xinjiang is like
I love practicing 汉字 while watching your videos, really great as many have already said.
Some people have a go at China but it seems to be clean the people are friendly unlike Britain at the moment
@kevgray. they are very friendly and loving! It’s their GOVT that ain’t, and us messed up.
@@EphemeralProductions Same for the US when you think about it..
Or you might not be safe even in Australia when some mad Chinese guy throws boiling water on your baby.
I could go on...
@@EphemeralProductionsThey love their government and their government loves them! XingJiang is most invested territory of China by the central government! You don’t like Chinese government because you were brainwashed by CNN and BBC! Did China start any war in the last thirty years? Did they insist that their system is the best for the world to copy?
Because you live on some council estate, don't paint the rest of U.K as the same.
being followed in China is normal as a foreigner, they assign the secret service to monitor almost all visitors. this information was given to me by a resident of Beijing who works for the train station ^^.
Would love to see u and smallbrainamerican visit Japan together. Introduce him to the Yakuza guy. I'm sure he misses u.
Another thing to note about hotels is that most cannot take foreigners only a handful
you are absolutely right, we westerners only watch and read western news, so basically we only know what we are served, that's very true
@@veed3 Bot
That's why western media only give half the story or just the negative stories only.
For years now I look for both sides of the story by reading eastern media too.
What are you talking about? Everyone around the world can watch many many yt and other social platforms videos as WELL as travel to many countries. You may not research or travel however a lot of westerners do 😂
@@sword7872 Bot😸
@@mylamberfeeties875 CCP-bots
4:50. Logging on checking the hotel one is staying at with the immigration authorities is so so common across the world Tommy. China is not the exception. Lots of tracking goes on behind one’s back.
"With an American intellectual" is the slickest low-key sarcastic burn I've ever heard. LOLOLOL
absolutely, I laughed.
He’s called Small Brained American for a reason
@@davidlericain 😆😆😆😆😂
_Cheers_ !! I think if you "added up" the....."intellect's".....IQ, it'd be on par with that of an amoeba! (note: that _might be_ an insult to the amoeba!!)
i think its just a twist on his youtube name @smallbrainedamerican
Does US peope speak the language of American indian?
Does US live rent free in every Chinese heads? HAHAHAHA I'll answer for you, YES.
@@ryanp8925 US gov does keep china in its head which is good unless it's tariff free.
Not sure if you mean White people or all Americans, but In the 'desert' States many White people know the local Language.
Or anywhere in the USA where Natives still speak their Language, Americans might pick up some words because they might live near the reservations
They speak Turkic language
really strange ways to end last couple of videos, but very interesting, I enjoyed very much
there was an earthquake in Kashi many years ago destroyed the old city. so they renovated part of the old city and rebuilt part.
Propaganda
Yes, this is important but not described in the video, and another important thing is Uyguars is not turkic even though they speak very similiar language
@@camzaro ， When people present the facts that do not fit your wishful narratives, you call them propaganda?
Watch the Vice piece "China’s Vanishing Muslims" and they tour the same spots in kashgar.
An earthquake called ccp
Thank you bud really needed this today
I am surprised you as a foreigner , go around not bringing your passport, i think as a seasoned traveller , you know International protocol a passport is recognised but not your ID from your country.
I've been to 65 countries, I NEVER bring my passport out. A copy has always been suitable.
@ryanp8925 you mean you walk on streets with a copy of your passport? If so, it is still a passport , am i right?
love startin the morning to a banger video
16:56 that's wild seeing a Peet's Coffee ad all the way over there
I wonder if it's the real deal or the usual Chinese knock-off
Thanks for your wonderful travels.
Tommy you’re a legend
haha, such a good teacher! telling that boy to use the trash can! i laughed my ass off
Youre the first person to say WHY the crackdown started. The rest of the world is intentionally blind to the dangers of that religion.
Right, but the crackdown was merely the excuse used to put millions of innocent people into concentration camps in Xinjiang.
Thank you! Have New Year!
無花果 - Wu hua guo - fig. Without flower fruit. That's what you bought. Technically, the flowers of figs are inside of the fruit, but there's no external flower (edited).
In English, it is call a Fig.
we need more content brotha thomas!
i am here at 15:30, just cant ignore that funny translation they have there. 古城宿集Gucheng Suji means Old town housing complex. What they are doing is building a hotel complex for the ancient city. for some reason they "decided" to translate it as the ancient city of housing complexes..
Nice to see people live lives with less want. I really hope the West and China can avoid conflict.
I dont understand why you dont bring your passport with you in places like ughyur china 21:34 you could get stopped for filming in certain areas, and end up in trouble like in russia. Especially ughyur filming， which can be dangerous
More interesting or attract more clicks
This was before Russia doubt he'd still be doing that now
@@brken_blndie yeah i was confused on if he filmed the video recently or months ago because he said it's September in the video, but I see his hitchhiking friends in this video from videos recently
Maybe he is scared they’ll keep his passport?
@@duploman0003he had previously lived in china for many years, he knows the rules very well. hes doing it for dramatic effect.
Epic adventure you and your friends go on hope you go to more places that never been too
you would think tommy has already been in enough trouble for walking around without a passport in a foreign country
dude I enjoy your videos so much keep it up, I've been eagerly waiting for this one after watching that border crossing.
If you're a tourist in another country, your passport is your only acceptable ID. What's wrong with that?
Ask any foreign visitors in the U.S. if they can go about without their passports.
I went about the US without my passport except when flying. The US has no standard national ID, they have drivers licenses for like 50 different states, so the bar for acceptable ID is already quite low and varied.
Also they don't really ask for ID often. Even when I went inside a state capitol for a tour, the only check I was subject to was walking through a metal detector which beeped and they told me I'm fine. Some people don't even have any ID and it's apparently controversial to require one for voting. In the months I've spent in the US in total, the only time I was asked for ID was at an airport (passport probably required in this case) and to have alcoholic drinks
He just needed to prove that his name matches the name on the card stuck in the atm, I don’t see why his other cards doesn’t prove that. They just wanted his passport so they can keep a record of him being there.
@@alex15095 Driver license has link to all the information, your address, your car, your insurance, your crime record ..... That is why it is accepted in US. In most countries, passport is the only accepted document. It makes nonsense to complain that.
Why are you Chinese agents so angry about him mentioning the passports? 😂
@@cjamo65able Come on. Why are you complaining? I just pointed out the common practices of requiring passports for important financial transactions. You just started labeling me and others who agree with me.
Should I start labeling you a red neck, a MAGA, a white supremacist, a racist, a sinophobia?
Yo Tommy🎉 glad you're doing well.
now that’s a title. it really got me hooked and i instantly clicked the video. you’re doing great mate calm down 😊❤
十幾年前，新疆地區發生過多起嚴重的恐怖襲擊，原因是極端宗教滲透和聖戰思想盛行，一些地區開始出現大鬍子和黑罩袍，這不是新疆的傳統服飾和打扮，中國政府意識到問題的嚴重性，開始建立聯防機制，尤其在一些農村和偏遠地區，只要有陌生人進入，就會引起當地的防範，Sabbatical先生可能就是遇到這種情況。
Good work washington163. Your social credit has increased .1%
China is moving forward while USA and Europe got filled with criminal immigrants @@meast21
@@meast21great work you just earned 50 cents from Biden anti China fund 😂😂😂
@@meast21 well said ned bot
@@meast21you can’t handle the truth.
When you ask the two ladies at 26.35 what they think of Muslims it would have been very disturbing had they answered in the negative in this sensitive region where racial harmony was tested during the riots in 2009.
Great vid my uygher 🫡
Uyghur please...
@@mono-tonicUyghurs in china
Line of the video -- "This is the kind of Chinese tackiness I love". Dude great vids. I love the way you present China, balanced and inquisitive. In 2015 I took a job with a Chinese company in SZ but working in the states. Until the pandemic, I was going back and forth the SZ from the states, 1 month there -- 1 month back home. Fell in love with China. Things changed and I left that job right around the time the pandemic ended but I've been back a few times in the past years. Like many Americans, my view of China before I went was negative. My first trip there I saw how wrong I was. Great people, great food, always welcoming to foreigners and all those little quirks, like the cherry farm with the wedding hall.
It is the older generation of Uyghurs that can't speak Mandarin. China introduced mandatory Mandarin language leaning in schools in autonomous regions about 20 years ago so the ethnic minorities could integrate and apply to more jobs and pursue more advance education in top universities in the country.
They do understand, more or less. They just don't understand his Mandarin.
Was the T attacks a real problem there? Is there really extremism in China?
Thanks Tommy for rocking out China.
Definitely don't forget your passport again.
I guess he has a few of them. Being an asset is cool.
@@AtlanticPerspective an asset for whom?
Love your videos and interactions with locals. Always insightful. Yes. It does suck when your card is stuck in a foreign ATM. Happened to me in Stuttgart. Never got my card back though. Glad to see that you're safe Tommy.
Laisena seemed like a really nice kid, she enjoyed talking to you.
Whenever I have been to China, too often they had "improved" versions of historic places. Sometimes it's because the original building was gone - due to age or destruction during cultural revolution. The new place would be very clean and set up for tourists - but not feel authentic at all. It felt like going to the "EPCOT" version, to give an American equivalent. The mosque you went to reminded me of that.
Unlike the west, Chinese ancient building wasn’t made by stone but wood, with time been it will collapse that why they have to rebuild a new one. I remember my grandparents’ house, it was built in later Qing dynasty (I guess after 1870) hand was heavy damaged when was a child living with them. The wall is made by bamboo sticks and mud, some walls were off mud and you can look through those bamboo bones to the room next. Nearly a walls were not vertical and it was a miracle those houses were not down. In any means today, such house are not safe for living in yet it was my sweet home with my lovely grandmother I miss her too much
The western need for "authentic" old feel is lost in East Asia, where everything is made of wood etc and has been burned down a billion times throughout history, even the great wall of China that most people know isn't as "ancient" as they want to believe, because the ancient walls where not made out of bricks.
@@BerryMike-d9vUyghur built using stone and clay bricks, not wood
@@Austine1452 需要说明一点，秦汉时期的长城都是就地取材，有石头就用石头，没有石头就用泥土，但是明代的长城都是用的砖块。现在能参观的长城基本都是明长城。
@@BerryMike-d9v^ this. Why destroy and rebuild on purpose? Waste of time. The originals were never built to last, or were destroyed by natural disasters / warfare. Of course, it’s easier to assume the “communists” destroyed it.
Fire video you got a new sub
Thks for bringing us to this nice exotic town in China 👍 However, your occasional paranoia reactions or over cautious responses somehow reflected a feeling of tension 😮
Great video
How come the woman from France keeps popping up and disappearing? Is she traveling with you? Traveling alone?
Traveling mostly alone.
Great video!
“That’s the whitest Chinese person I’ve ever seen” - him to you, probably 😂
There are small population of Russians in China as well, they are white Chinese.
Tajiks are a branch of Iranians, white maybe...
If you come to China, you will find that many Chinese people have fair skin.
Gees, Can I say that’s the darkest American I have ever seen? I thought Americans were all decedents of white Europeans colonialists plus a couple of native Americans who survived their slaughter.
@sanzhang-tx1zm comparing the chinese grow up from china and the us, chinese kids in the us have tanner skin color, probably because of more sun shine in the US.
the song you played in the beginning is a BANGER an absolute banger! Gulyarxan its legit the first song if you type in Uighur music lol best part about it tho is how its basically about how fine the girls/his girl is compared to everything in the world plus the girl dancing and the whole vibe lol i respect it....danm shame like everywhere else in the world afew ruin it for many i may not agree with islam but i like alot of the people...speaking of bros i see you have a fellow murican! hes is cool lol
You pretend to be neutral, but you don't believe that China is a peaceful and inclusive country. I don't appreciate this attitude. You separate the locals from the Chinese very much, and you can't accept that China is not only Han nationality. Regarding language, there are different languages all over China. If you come to the countryside in Guangxi, Guangdong, there are many old people who can't speak Mandarin, which is not a big problem. My grandmother is a Hakka member of the Han nationality, but she can't speak Mandarin, but it doesn't mean that they are not Chinese.
不是这样的，他是一个幽默的人，我会偶尔关注他，但也有好几年了。
@@lakeriver8825 你的意思是他在展示他的幽默吗？我不太懂为什么被人拍照不上去问下什么情况，而是直接跑掉，仿佛有什么了不得的事情一样
@@lakeriver8825 至少这个视频他是有预设立场的，带着挑事儿的态度，没做得过分而已。
@@lakeriver8825I like the guy but he's starting to virtue signal to appease the China haters in his home country.
是美国华裔和东南亚华裔错误的使用Chinese，把Chinese当成ethnic. 他们不应该叫自己Chinese, 应该叫自己南洋汉人，汉裔美国人。因为他们没有中国的nationality，所以他们就不是Chinese。
Love your Vlogs Tommy. I don’t ever want you to stop!
i was there in 1985, and it looks nothing like it did, i dont recognise anything except the mosque, i see a chinese city. back then there were hardly any at all, just a handful chinese soldiers in baracks next to the mao statue and they didnt dare to go into the city wich at that time was tiny, sandy and flyridden. but the people were lovely and welcoming and the noodles, flatbreads and skewers great despite of ramadan they served us with warm smiles and were desperate to tell us how they were being surpressed but nobody knew about them back then. neither did i but i just wanted to get away from the han area, 3 days on a train to urumqi and 3 days on a bus through the desert with no windows and friendly uyghurs, it was special and felt very different, nothing like this.
Can only imagine the change
@@SabbaticalTommy tom you do a great job love the blogs keep pushing on
you can speak uighur language at that time?
@@ctourmaline english and chinese and a dictionary and lots of hands and feet, uyghurs were a very expressive people back then, they really wanted to be able to leave the country and go to mekka to do the haj but above all they were shocked we had no idea in the west that they were there a muslim minority that was turkish in ancestry, quite a few blondish and blue eyed people too to my own amazement. a lot of writing in the sand so it could be wiped out easily in case of danger or just pointing in the dictionary and what occurred a lot all over china that conversations abruptly changed into a very innocuous english lesson whenever a person showed up that was deemed to be sussed. old shanghai was a hotbed of people who were eager to talk to foreigners, they had a lot to tell.
@@divandivaparexcellence2436 even nowadays many Uyghurs dont know Chinese. I doubt at that time those Uyghurs knew much Chinese...