It is safe for transgender travelers to traveling to China as vacation? I thinks China looks like a exciting country and I've heard there are many interesting things to see for sightseeing tourists. So I considering traveling there, since both me and my family thinks it looks interesting there. But I have no idea about how transgender/LGBT friendly China is and how safe it's there. Hopes I can get a answer.
Hello Sebby, I can offer half an answer to your query. I have traveled a lot in the orient over the past 15 or so years (over 80 trips since 1999), virtually all for work and definitely all in male mode. I have had the opportunity and blessings to be able to visit much of Eastern China, primarily Beijing, Shanghai and north of Hong Kong areas. There were many good things and many bad things. I loved the people and the beauty seen in many of the cities and in much of the country side, particularly in the Shanghai and Suzhou areas. The air was dirty, at times painful to breathe, pollution everywhere, crowds beyond imagination and traffic horrendous. I treasure almost all of the opportunities that I was able to experience. I was spending my company's dime and I carried male privilege. There were many times that it took money and being male to work through the things that happen during travel. I usually traveled either alone or with local Asian colleagues and very much relish the memories. I do not know how I would have been able to get through many of the situations in female mode. Many of my cis women friends, both western and eastern had to regularly wrestle through gender barriers that never entered into my male life. My Asian travel experience and male presentation made it easy to travel with my wife where as I would have been at a great disadvantage had I needed to aid her when presenting as Anne.
Dealing with local Asian people in any of the regions that I visited was great, getting through the governmental road blocks in male mode was tenable. Navigating through those same road blocks in the gender biased, male dominant, often corrupt infrastructure is something that I never want to have to do in Anne mode.
I apologize if I have burst any bubbles but my experience suggests really thinking this through and possibly thinking about another region of the world for trans travel. Hopefully some other site members can offer some more positive advice.
Regards,
Anne
Hi,
I cannot specifically give you personal advice for this region of the world, but I can definitely share with you some resources that I have used to make informed travel decisions. This next year I am planning to study abroad in Jordan, and I have been using these pages to help make an informed decision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_China
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country/china.html
specifically in the above site:
LGBTI Travelers: Homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997, but there are no civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Prejudices and discrimination still exist in many parts of the country. Same sex marriages are not legally recognized in China and local authorities will not provide marriage certificates to same-sex couples. There are growing LGBTI communities in some of China's largest cities and violence against LGBTI individuals in China is relatively rare.
Hope this helps!
I have visited China just once (Quingdao) last year. My concern was air pollution, not my presentation as a woman. No problem in the airport, but remember that China is a communist country. Police even beat citizens there. But people are very nice and kind. Those government people treat foreigners differently, and also the price tags are different.
I just tried to stay within the hotel because of air pollution, and seldom went out for sightseeing.
barbie~~
How about Thailand instead? Both trans friendly and interesting.
Personally I'm never going to China.