Chinese visitors to the US are usually disappointed. American visitors to China are usually impressed. Why?

中国游客去美国通常都会觉得失望，而美国游客来中国通常都会觉得惊艳，为什么？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Ty Doyle

I'd point the finger at two things: first, there is an enormous perception gap. Your typical American has been told for a generation that China is a “develo economy,” which is basically a code word for “poor place” in the West. China is also known for being a and a place where laborers work around the clock to make Americans t-shirts and iPhones. So yes, when Americans visit the best parts of China - and they tend only to visit the best parts - and see cityscapes that are every bit as nice as back home (nicer in some spots), it's not surprising that people say “wow, that wasn't what I was expecting!” Call it ignorance, call it arrogance/racism, call it whatever: the bottom line is that your typical American has overly low expectations for Asian destinations other than Japan.

我想指出两点：第一，巨大的认知差距。你们美国人一直被洗脑：中国是一个“发展中经济体”，这基本上就是西方对“贫穷地区”的隐晦代称。

美国人还一直觉得中国是这样的国度，工人夜以继日地为美国人生产T恤和I-phone。

所以，当你们美国人访问中国最好的地方时—游客往往只去最好的地方—看到和美国老家一样漂亮的城市景观，人们会惊叹说”哇，这和我想象的中国不一样”。

你可以说这是无知，可以说这是傲慢/种族主义，随便你怎么说：最重要的是，你们这些典型的美国人对除了日本以外的亚洲国家的期望过低。

In contrast, Hollywood culture is omnipresent, and it sends a message to the world that Americans live ridiculous, opulent lives in amazing, exciting places. So people arriving to crowded, dirty cities and unimpressive accommodations if they can't afford a decent hotel room (a lot of Chinese travelers are not wealthy by American standards) kinda bursts that bubble.

相比之下，好莱坞文化无处不在，向世界传递了一个信息：美国人在令人惊叹、令人激动的地方过着荒唐、富足的生活。所以如果人们去到拥挤、肮脏的城市，如果人们住不起高档的酒店(按美国人的标准，很多中国游客并不富裕)，那么这种对美国的幻想就会瞬间破灭。

Second, because of language barriers, a lot of Chinese tourists understandably travel in Chinese group tours. When I lived in San Francisco, this would always be the time of year when I'd see the buses traveling around the city. What always struck me was how much time they spent in parts of the city that weren't that great. I get, for example, that a Chinese tourist might want home cooking in the same way that an American abroad might crave a hamburger, but it always seemed to me as though the tours missed a lot of what makes the city interesting. In contrast, if you're an American in a major Chinese city, you can usually find enough people who speak English to get around fairly easily.

第二，由于语言障碍，很多中国游客选择跟团旅游。我住在旧金山的时候，每年的这个时候我都会看到旅游大巴在城市里穿行。让我印象深刻的是，他们在城市中不太出彩的地方消磨了很多时间。例如，如果中国游客喜欢家常菜，就像美国人在国外可能也很想吃汉堡一样，但在我看来这些游客似乎错过了这座城市的许多有趣之处。相反，如果你是个身处中国大城市的美国人，你总能找到足够多的会说英语的人，你可以轻松地四处走动。

David J Wong

Expectations.

Chinese visitors have expectations that the United States will look like what they see in movies and TV shows.

They think of the US as the land of opportunity. For instance, even the Chinese nickname for San Francisco is “Golden Mountain.”

因为期望值吧。

中国游客希望看到的是他们在电影和电视节目中看到的“美国”。

他们认为美国是一片充满机遇的土地。你看，就连圣弗兰西斯科（旧金山）的中国昵称里都带着一个“金山”。

Then they go and encounter this:

结果他们看到的是这样的景象：

In contrast, many Americans think of China as a backwards, poor place where its ci ens are denied basic freedoms.

Then they go there and see this:

相比之下，许多美国人原以为中国是一个落后、贫穷的地方，无自由可言。

结果等他们去到中国，看到了这样的景象：

It’s not surprising that the America of the Chinese imagination doesn’t meet expectations while the China of the American imagination is far surpassed by the reality.

中国人想象中的美国大为逊色，而美国人想象中的中国却被现实远远超越，这并不奇怪。

Don Johnson

Perception lag.

Both Chinese and Americans think of America as a wealthy country, and China as a develo country. They expect America to be modern and clean, with good infrastructure. They expect China to be more run-down, dirtier and generally poorer.

Thirty years ago they would have been right. When I first arrived at Beiing’s Capital Airport, it had less than 10 gates and you had to walk across the tarmac to get on the plane. Shanghai had only one bridge across the Huangpu river to Pudong. There were no private automobiles and virtually no expressways. There was a desperate housing shortage, and washing machines were a luxury item.

认知滞后。

中国人和美国人都认为美国是一个富裕的国家，而中国是一个发展中国家。他们想象中的美国是现代化的、干净的、基础设施一流的。他们想象中的中国是破败的、肮脏的、贫穷的。

如果放在30年前，他们双方的认知可能都是对的。当我第一次到达北京首都机场时，机场只有不到10个登机口，必须自己步行到停机坪才能登上飞机。上海只有一座横跨黄浦江和浦东的大桥。那时的中国几乎没有私人汽车，几乎没有高速公路。那时的中国住房严重短缺，洗衣机都能算是个奢侈品。

But since then, China has been building at a breakneck speed - the country is chock-a-block with infrastructure, and it’s all brand new. The parks are new and labor is still cheap, so they are cared for by armies of landscapers and street cleaners. Whereas the US basically has the same stuff it did thirty years ago, and a lot of it is not well maintained.

So when you fly from Shanghai’s Pudong Airport to JFK, you go from a brand new terminal to one whose acoustical tile ceiling has leak stains. You drive in a beat-up tax over beat-up roads to get to Manhattan, which is dirty and constantly under construction.

但从那个时候开始，中国就一直在以惊人的速度全力建设—这个国家到处都是基础设施，而且都是崭新发亮的。这些公园都是新建的，劳动力成本低廉，有大量的园林设计师和街道清洁工进行打理维护。而美国基本上还和30年前一样，很多东西都没能得到很好的维护。

所以当你从上海浦东机场飞往肯尼迪国际机场时，你会从一个崭新的航站楼抵达一个铺着隔音砖的天花板上渗着污渍的航站楼。你搭乘一辆破旧的出租车，驶过破旧的道路，来到又脏又乱、一直在施工的曼哈顿。

Of course, these are generalizations - there are plenty of run-down and poorly maintained places in China, and lots of gleaming new modern ones in the US. But if your expectation is that America is rich and shiny, and China is poor and dirty, you are going to be greatly surprised - and that’s often what happens.

当然了—中国也有很多破败不堪、维护不善的地方，美国也有很多崭新、现代化的地方。但如果你的预期是美国富裕到闪着金光，中国贫困脏乱差，你肯定会非常惊讶的—这是常有的事。

Nivek Krutiy

I’m not an American or Chinese but I can understand why because I’ve been to both places.

我不是美国人，也不是中国人，但我可以理解，因为这两个地方我都去过。

My expectation of the US before I went there was that it’s one of the most sophisticated countries in the world. While it is true to some extent, it is not in some aspects. For instance, most of the roads there aren’t as smooth as some other developed countries that I’ve been to. Even the roads in Chinese cities are smoother and shinier. The public transportation, frankly, sucks, especially when compared to China’s very advanced trains and buses. New York is very filthy and shabby compared to China’s Shanghai and Beiing. Many buildings in the US feel like they’re stuck in the 80s-90s which I actually like though. Los Angeles today almost look the same as it was in 80s movies. The majority of American airports feel very 80s-90s. Many new cars there still have red signal lights at the back. Such thing has long been absent in other countries, even in some poor countries !

在我去美国之前，我对美国的想象是：美国是世界上最发达的国家之一。虽然这在某种程度上是对的，但在某些方面并不是。例如，美国的大多数道路都比不上有些发达国家的道路那样平坦。中国城市的道路就更平坦、更光亮。坦率地说，美国的公共交通很糟糕，尤其是和中国非常现代化的火车和公共汽车相比的话。

与中国的上海和北京比起来，纽约显得非常肮脏、非常破旧。美国的许多建筑似乎都被困在了80 -90年代，不过我其实喜欢这一点。今天的洛杉矶几乎还和80年代电影中的场景一模一样。大多数美国机场给人的感觉都是80 -90年代的建筑。很多新车的后面仍然带有红色的信号灯。这在其他国家，甚至在一些贫穷国家都早就不存在了！

As for China, before I went there (To Mainland China, not Hong Kong.), I was expecting the country to be backward and shabby and dull. While it was true to some extent during my first visit in 2009, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The city centers feel exactly like a developed country and are impressively very clean. The city centers in Shenzhen made me feel like I was in Japan. I came to China again in 2013 and I was even more impressed. Roads are shiny smooth, cities are clean, infrastructure feels high quality, and contemporary-looking buildings everywhere. The Made-In-China bullet trains work like a charm. It’s not the China that I used to imagine it to be.

至于中国，在我成行之前（我去的是中国大陆，不是中国香港)），我以为中国落后、寒酸、萧瑟。尽管2009年我第一次到访中国时，在一定程度上确实如此，但并没有我想象中的那么糟糕。城市中心给人的感觉就像一个发达国家，而且非常干净。深圳的市中心让我感觉身处日本。2013年我再次到访中国，我觉得更为惊艳了：道路平坦，市容整洁，基础设施一流，到处都是现代风格的建筑。中国的国产高铁大获成功。这已经不是我过去想象中的中国了。

Basically, China is a develo country that feels like a developed country while the US is a developed country that does feel like a developed country to some extent but is oddly backward at some aspects.

总体而言，中国是一个发展中国家，但感觉已经是一个发达国家，而美国虽然是一个发达国家，但在某种程度上感觉确实是一个发达国家，但在某些方面又落后得很古怪。

A.K.

Expectations. Americans do not expect China to be high tech and modern, but it is. The Chinese expect US cities to be modern and high tech, but they're not. New York City is a chaotic mess and that can be a big part of its appeal if that is what you're expecting. Visitors who instead expect polished and shiny will be disappointed.

期望值的问题。美国人不曾预想到中国是高科技的、现代化的国家，但中国确实如此。中国人预想中的美国城市是现代化的、高科技的，但事实却并非如此。纽约市是一个混乱无序的城市，如果你已经预想到这一点，这可能是它的魅力所在。但相反地，期待看到光鲜亮丽的纽约的游客将会大失所望。

Poorly planned itineraries. Some of the most interesting places in the US are not major cities. Are Chinese visitors to Bryce Canyon often disappointed? Something tells me that the answer is NO. This reminds me of that Cecil Hotel documentary I watched on Hulu (if I'm not mistaken) in which visitors from the UK were taken aback by the urban grime of Downtown L.A. The concept of researching a place before going there is apparently lost on some people.

行程计划不周。美国一些最有意思的地方并不在大城市。去布莱斯峡谷的中国游客会失望吗？直觉告诉我，答案一定是否定的。这让我想起了我在Hulu上看的塞西尔酒店的纪录片(如果我没记错的话)，在这部纪录片中，来自英国的游客被洛杉矶市中心的城市垃圾吓了一跳。显然，有些人在出发之前不会先行了解目的地。

George Arno

First, I would say that “some” Chinese visitors to the US are disappointed, and I can answer why in one word: “Hollywood”. American TV and movies depict much about the US as being beautiful, clean, orderly, and very friendly, but more and more visitors discover grimy cities and tourist attractions, homeless people everywhere (some of whom panhandle aggressively and some of whom are scarily crazy), police who are often terse and unfriendly, citizens who expect visitors to speak perfect English and may also become rude and confrontational when they don’t, et al.

首先，我想说，是“有些”来美国的中国游客感到失望，我可以用一个词来回答为什么：“好莱坞”。美国的电视剧和电影对美国的描述大多是美丽、干净、有序和友好的，但越来越多的游客发现，美国的城市和旅游景点脏乱不堪，到处都能看到无家可归的人，警察往往惜字如金、态度不佳，美国公民希望游客都能说一口完美的英语，如果游客说得不好，美国人可能就待人粗鲁、咄咄逼人了。

Second, many American visitors to China are impressed and surprised, and I can, again, answer why in one word: “Media”. The US media often paints a bleak picture of an impoverished, repressive, warmongering China that may have been somewhat accurate 50 years ago, but does not in any way describe the modern China of today.

第二，许多到中国旅游的美国人都觉得令人惊艳、大出所望，我还是可以用一个词来回答原因：“媒体”。美国媒体经常把中国描绘成一个贫穷、压迫、好战的国家，50年前可能确实如此，但今天的现代中国早已今非昔比了。

Abel Nicolae

To have a true american experience, you need a considerable ammount of money. You can’t go to the US on a two week vacation with 2000 dollars and say you’ve experimented american life. In a word, the US is expensive. On the other hand, the same 2000 dollars, when going to China, automatically turn you into an overlord, because of the exchange rate. So yeah… basically the experiences can’ be compared economically.

要想体验真正的美国生活，你需要花费相当多的钱。你不可能靠口袋里的2000美金在美国度假两周，然后大言不惭地说你体验过美国的生活了。简言之，美国是个销金窟。另一方面，用同样的2000美元去中国旅游，因为汇率，你就自然变成了尊荣的国王了。所以，旅游体验感无法在经济上进行同等比较。