If shit keeps going the way it is, the US.
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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It's been the US for me for over a decade. Never going back there, most likely. And I was only visiting.
Keeps going? I've been avoiding it for decades and I can see it from my porch.
Last time I visited the customs office emptied out into a literal ghetto. Like, an entire 4 blocks of ought-to-be-condemned housing with rusted out patchwork wrecks abandoned in yards and on the street (or worse following behind you). The corner gas station had more security features than most prisons in Canada, and every street sign had numerous bullet holes. That was their welcome mat 2 decades ago. F that shithole country.
I went to four different cities in China and at least a significant proportion of people seemed very selfish and out for themselves across the board, I'm not going to say never but it's definitely at the bottom of my list of places to return to.
Vatican. Once you’ve visited it there’s not much reason to go back.
People's Republic of China.
Was born there, probably ain't ever going back.
So much conservatism, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, ableism especially against people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities, even if the condition was mild.
Massive government corruption, inadequate safety regulations, when it come to the internet and press, those get censored, can't even have fun watching foreign media.
Complete lack of understanding for people suffering with depression nobody take it seriously, spritualism is applied to medical issues.
Hukou system limiting the very little rights you have. (I had a rural Hukou and that sucks)
To top it all off, this is a country that have rejected me for being the 2nd child born in my family (during the One Child Policy). Legal papers were denied, the government effectively refused to ackowledge my existence and demanded/extorted a large amount of money, a "fine" they call it. My parent's didn't have it so it took several years of saving up for it, before I could get legal papers and legal recognition of my existence. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihaizi)
When I was a kid, I didn't know it at the time, but when my mother explained my origins, I feel like society basically just rejected me. An outcast, an anomoly, something that shouldn't have existed. All for the sin of existing without a government permission-slip.
Wow. I always thought if id been born in China that would be one of the worst developed places to be. Thats unfortunate but glad you got out
Would probably depend where in China. I think you're better in China than in a lot of African countries or North Korea.
Did the rural Hukou mean you cannot move into a city?
You can, but there are rights being limited.
For example, even tho I was born in Guangzhou, I was still treated as though I was born in my father's village in terms of Hukou (the actual place of birth on the birh certificate would be with Guangzhou as the birthplace, but that doesn't matter to Hukou).
Even though my parents work in Guangzhou (广州), I couldn't attend public school in Guangzhou, and my parents have to pay for a separate, privately-run "school", which according to my mother, was worse than the officially government run public schools. But they still had the same "patriotic education" (This "patriotic education" would be considered indoctriction by most westerners). Same with my older brother.
If my family hadn't left China, my mother told me I was gonna have to go back to somewhere in Taishan (That's 台山，not 泰山) to continue beyond primary school because of there was supposely problems with getting enrolled in a Guangzhou middle school / highschool or something.
So like you're basically treated as immigrants... sort of...
(I don't know all the details of Hukou, I might ask my parents about it later.)
But even in the US, for example, even undocumented immigrant children (at least before the current admin, idk about now) could still enroll in public school, meanwhile China is denying their own citizens from attending public school, just because their ancestry is different. You could be born in Guangzhou and live your entire life there, and still have problems with your rights. It's like countries within a country.
P.S. I remember my mother said she was a teacher before giving birth to me, but becuase she violated the One Child Policy, she can't ever get any government-related jobs ever again, that includes being a teacher, or possibly even working at state-owned factory/warehouse.
That's very interesting. I heard it could be harder to change your hukou in some instances than it is to change citizenships.
Okay so new update: I asked my mother about it:
Before 邓小平 (Deng Xiaoping)'s 开放改革 (Opening up and Reforms), you are not allowed to move outside of your Hukou. The Hukou we had was in 台山 (Taishan), so you were basically stuck there before, unless you have official matters or something.
After the 开放改革, people were allowed to move to cities. 广州 (Guangzhou) was the capital city of 广东 (Guangdong), so thats where a lot of people, my mother amongst them, moved to, for economic opportunities. All the rural places have is farming, farmed sucked, there were no machines at the time, unlike American farmers. As for the education thing, she said if we hadn't immigrated to the US, that was gonna be a problem. We'd have to go back to Taishan for Highschool, because the 高考 (Gaokao, similar to SAT/ACT but like 10x harder) has to be taken where your Hukou is. And Hukou is also for social benefits, if your Hukou is rural, you get less of any social benefits you might have (which was barely anything to begin with).
And, although Hukou transfers existed, Guangzhou did not do them, so it was impossible.
I asked: "So its like being a permanent 2nd class resident?", and she said Yes.
As messed up this administration is, at least naturalization still exists, my maternal grandmother just got approved for naturalization, the oath ceremony is next month. I know its weird, jumping from one burning pot to another, but a lot of our relatives are here, so... it is what it is. People say "Move to Canada, EU, etc...", but, as my mother say, (paraphrased) "you can move to a lot of places, but can you find money there?"
We already have investments here almost everyone is already a US citizen, relatives are also US citizens, like what other options are there? In EU, for example, you gotta learn another language, have zero knowledge of where everything is, how thing work, income, zero relative to ask to borrow money if thing are dire, etc.... All assets have to be liquidated, so... yeah... its unrealistic.
Not the best home ever, but its the one we have, it has been home for over a decade for us, its a home to 5 million of the Chinese diaspora, and its a diverse country, people aren't as hostile as some other places in the world, like even Europe is pretty much a homogenous white society with not much diversity. So... this is home, the best that we can have given the circumstances. Lets hope 2028 election goes well and the constitutional order in the US is restored.
And god forbid, please no fucking USA-China conflicts, I don't wanna get targeted by both governments (China would target me of being "Han-Traitor", and the US would try to do the "Internment Camps" again), it would be the worst timeline ever.
Probably Egypt. Went to Hurghada and from the first moment I got there I was being scammed. The aggressiveness and directness of the scamming is something I've never seen and I've been almost everywhere. Only Morrocco comes close to it. I usually take it easy, but there one cap driver had me literally screaming at him for some fucking humanity. 75% of the people there see you as nothing more than a walking and breathing sac of money to be squeezed.
Never again.
I don't have any "never again" countries because something bad happened. However, I find that a lot of Caribbean countries/destinations are pretty one and done for me.
South Korea.
It was fine. Lots of people spoke English and there was lots to do and everyone was nice.
But after being in Seoul for two hours I was like: "oh".
It felt just like America with more statues. I'm sure there is lots more to do and see that is more essentially Korean than Seoul was, and while I don't have anything against it, I just couldn't see making the effort to go back again given how familiar it all felt being from North America.
I don't have a single bad thing to say about the country or my time there, but there are so many places in the world I'd love to see I don't think I'd make the effort again.
Japan on the other hand.
There isn't one. If I had to pick the one I want to revisit the least, I guess it would be Belgium. Nothing against Belgium, but Bruges aside it isn't really the most interesting place to visit.
Big In Bruges energy
I thought Bruges was super fucking cool, but I love the idea of hating on it like the movie does
I don’t have a desire to go back to the UK. Don’t have anything against the place, there isn’t anything there that entices me. Of all the European countries I visited I found it the most boring.
but how though why do people refuse to go back to the us or uk?
I don’t know what more too say to you. Nothing entices about going to the UK. If I am going to spend the resources to go to another country it won’t spend those resources on a UK trip.
- France
- Italy
- Mediterranean Sea Cruise
- Germany
Are the European areas I would spend time and money seeing.
I live in the US so I don’t know what to say to you about that.
As somebody from the UK I understand your original comment but putting Germany on this list is interesting -- I find German and UK culture to be very similar.
Culture isn’t a factor for me.
Why Germany is on my list:
- The bars and restaurants in Germany are orders of magnitude better than the UK.
- There are a lot less assholes in Germany
- I once lived there and it would be interesting to revisit those places.
- They drive on the correct side of the road.
- Germany women are a lot more approachable.
All subjective and I'm not going to disagree with you. I hope if you ever do find yourself back in the UK that you have a more enjoyable time.
All Subjective…
Of course the list of places that I want to visit is subjective…
I'm not looking for an argument, I was just commenting on the similarities of the cultures.
I'm not looking for an argument
But you keep arguing with me…
When did I argue? You're entitled to your opinions and as I said I'm not going to disagree with you. Pointing out that they are subjective was not an attack but an observation. I just wished you would have a better time if you ever came back because it sounds to me like it wasn't a good one.
Lol
Australia. Not that it was wholly terrible. It just wasn't what I expected and I overcooked it by staying for 2 years.
To be fair, it could never have lived up to the super-positive stereotype it has here in the UK.
We think of Aussies as fun-living, friendly, witty, laid-back beautiful people who are down to earth yet somehow savvy and open-minded. They love a drink and a BBQ and have a 'live and let live', inclusive attitude. Basically everything we Brits would love to be if we weren't so repressed.
I think this cliche comes from a cross between Crocodile Dundee and through meeting the thousands of charming Aussies who end up working behind bars when they visit the UK in their youth.
Also, with the British weather being what it is, we imagine anywhere with a sunny climate would encourage people with a similarly sunny disposition.
Anyway, I'll spare you the details, but having travelled extensively throughout Australia - well beyond Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane - I found little of the stereotype I'd expected and quite a lot of the opposite.
I did meet some great people, but they were mainly Irish 🤣
Yeah I mean, we've been heavily influenced by the US and UK historically, so we have a deeply racist disposition. Our treatment of Indigenous Australians is as much of a blight on our history as it is for other English-speaking nations like the US, Canada and South Africa. I do still strongly believe we're doing better in a lot of ways, for example we've started using indigenous place names, acknowledging traditional land ownership and other steps. But we're far from perfect, and if you come here with that conceptualisation then you'll definitely be disappointed.
Yeah the cut the tall poppy syndrome is rampant there.
They celebrate alcoholism.
It’s still legal to hit children in certain states
In fact domestic violence was pretty normalized and women in droves die per year to it.
And they think the rest of the world is going soft by trying to be more inclusive in minority rights. Women in particular.
I mean it has some appeal with the beaches but yea, the people are still 1970s -1980s chauvinistic crowd.
I will give them this though: they do look after people with disabilities a heck of a lot better than another countries I’ve seen. Never mind ‘the elevator broke.’. That shit doesnt fly there not even for a second. And they did stomp down the classism way more than UK attempted to.
America. I visited maybe 15 years ago and felt like I was a criminal in the passport control. Super-authoritive people, iris scanning, fingerprint scanning, photography...
Ill stick to europe.
And it's all theatre. It's never actually stopped real criminals.
I think it's worth saying that security theater isn't pointless. Criminals tend not to be the brightest, and they tend to like to go for low hanging fruit. That makes even the pretense of security somewhat of a preventative, even when security doesn't work. Same way a fake security camera helps.
The trouble is that they have a ridiculous amount of rights to be racist to people, abuse their power, and screw people over. Basic xray machines and security guards by itself would be reasonable, even as security theater
The United States. I have zero interest in going to a country where I could get kidnapped by masked goons or have my phone stolen by the government for sharing memes they don't like. I have no interest in going to a country where I could get shot and killed randomly by some whacko who had a bad day and decided to shoot up the place. I have no interest in going to a country where I could be charged thousands of dollars for getting hurt. And I have absolutely zero interest in giving my money to a fascist country that regularly threatens my country's sovereignty and whose economy is on the brink of total collapse. That dumpster fire can stay down south, thank you very much.
Every time I look at the United States and everything that's been going on there, it only makes me more proud to be Canadian and ever more vigilant to prevent the same from happening to us. We have our problems, sure, but at least we have actual healthcare, no mass shootings, and no fascism.
I have no interest in going to a country where I could be charged thousands of dollars for getting hurt.
Tbf, you can go to like half of the countries in the world and the heathcare is just as horrible, and the locals always try to scam you, so its not unique to the US.
(But I don't disagree with your other points)