East Asia

Asia > East Asia

"Far East" redirects here. It should not be confused with Russian Far East.

East Asia was the cradle of ancient civilizations such as Imperial China, ancient Korea, ancient Japan and the Mongol Empire, and is today home to 1.6 billion people. Sometimes described by the Eurocentric term Far East, the region contains world metropolises such as Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong, elaborate temples and complex traditions, as well as vast plains and high mountains.

Countries and regions[edit]

Map of East Asia's cities, regions and countries
The world's most populous country and one of the oldest civilizations, with a vast array of cultural and natural treasures among the frenzied development.
  Hong Kong
This former British colony markets itself as Asia's World City. Come for the skyscrapers and shopping and still find beaches and sleepy villages on car-free islands.
Isolated until the 19th century, Japan is today the world's third largest economy with both technology and tradition to offer.
  Macau (Macao)
A former Portuguese colony with liberal gambling laws and beautiful colonial architecture in its UNESCO listed historical city centre.
A nomadic land of vast spaces and mystic Buddhism.
  North Korea
The world's most secret society and last remaining outpost of the Cold War.
  South Korea
A hotspot of innovation and pop culture and in many ways the opposite of its northern neighbor.
The remnants of the Republic of China, and an island of sharp contrasts: lush mountains, skyscrapers, gentle tai-chi and good food.
  • The Russian Far East might be categorized with East Asia, but is part of Russia.
  • While Vietnam has a cultural connection with East Asia, it is usually considered part of Southeast Asia.
  • While Wikivoyage classifies Mongolia as part of East Asia, it has important ties to Central Asia.

As mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are remarkably different from a traveller's point of view, they are covered in separate articles. This is not a political endorsement of any claim regarding the sovereignty of these territories.


Chinese characters at a king's former palace, Seoul, South Korea
  • 1 Beijing — surviving five dynasties, the Communist Revolution and the Cultural Revolution, over 800 years of ancient cultural sites can be found throughout this very modern city
  • 2 Hong Kong — Cantonese-Chinese port city with a long British heritage crowned by Victoria Peak
  • 4 Pyongyang — dominated by some of the most dystopian communist architecture
  • 5 Shanghai — the main business center in China; an ultramodern, cosmopolitan metropolis on the cutting edge of a new world
  • 7 Taipei — center of government, commerce and culture of Taiwan
  • 8 Tokyo — a huge, wealthy and fascinating urban jungle with high-tech visions of the future, side by side with glimpses of old Japan
  • 9 Ulaanbaatar — a starting point for most travel in Mongolia

Other destinations[edit]

Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, built by Songtsän Gampo in the 7th century
  • 1 Altai Tavan Bogd National Park - home to Mongolia's eagle hunters and highest mountain.
  • 2 Great Wall of China — longer than 8,000 km, this ancient wall is the most iconic landmark and an archeological wonder of China
  • 4 Panmunjeom — the only tourist site in the world where the Cold War is still reality
  • 5 Seoraksan National Park — South Korea's most renowned national park and mountain range
  • 6 Taroko Gorge — incredible place for hiking in East Asia
  • 7 Tibet — mysterious place in the Himalayas with a unique local culture, considered by many to resemble the mythical Shangri-La
  • 8 Yungang Grottoes


Tibetan Buddhism transmitted from China to Mount Koya, Japan

East Asia, also popularly known as "the Far East" (especially when compared with the other "East", the Middle East) is the core of what used to be known in the West as The Orient, supposedly a mysterious land inhabited by a race of inscrutable tea-sipping Orientals. Behind the caricature, though, is a uniting factor in the form of Chinese influence: China, as by far the largest and, historically, the most technologically and societally advanced culture in the region, has given its writing system (Chinese characters), religion (Mahayana Buddhism) and philosophy (Confucianism) to all the countries in East Asia.


Despite the unifying factor of Chinese influence, scratch below the surface and you will find a wide range of cultural differences. In China, even within the "Han Chinese" community, the local customs, traditional architecture and cuisine vary widely from region to region, and people native to one region may find certain customs from other regions entirely foreign. In addition, the respective ethnic minorities also practise their own local customs. While the traditional cultures of Korea and Japan have obvious Chinese influences, they still retain many native elements which make them unique in their own right.


See also: Imperial China, Mongol Empire, Pre-modern Japan, Pre-modern Korea, Pacific War

East Asia was one of the cradles of world civilisation, with China developing its first civilisations at about the same time as Egypt, Babylonia and India. China stood out as a leading civilisation for thousands of years, building great cities and developing various technologies which were to be unmatched in the West until centuries later. The Han and Tang dynasties in particular are regarded as the golden ages of Chinese civilisation, during which China was not only strong militarily, but also saw the arts and sciences flourish in Chinese society. While the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan conquered China, the invaders were assimilated into Chinese culture and became the Yuan dynasty. Chinese It was also during these periods that China exported much of its culture to its neighbours, and till this day, one can notice Chinese influences in the traditional cultures of Vietnam, Korea and Japan.


The Forbidden City in Beijing

However, Chinese dominance was to end during the 19th century, when Western powers arrived and forced the various East Asian states to sign unequal treaties. It first started with the First Opium War in 1841, when China lost to the British and war forced to cede Hong Kong and Weihai to Britain. Meanwhile, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy forced Japan, which had adopted an isolationist policy for centuries, to open up to the West in the Black Ships Incident in 1853, which eventually resulted in collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and started the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Japan would then rapidly modernise under the rule of Emperor Meiji, adopting Western culture and philosophies, and growing into a powerful colonial empire based on Western models. China, meanwhile, was slow to adapt, resulting in it losing more wars to various Western powers and its newly-industrialised neighbour, Japan. As a result of these wars, China lost more territory to various foreign powers; Taiwan and the Liaodong peninsula to Japan, Harbin to Russia, Zhanjiang to France, and the Shandong peninsula to Germany, while numerous foreign nations obtained concessions in various Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Hankou, Guangzhou and Xiamen. China also lost control of its tributaries, with Vietnam being annexed by the French, and Korea and the Ryukyu Islands being annexed by the Japanese. All these would eventually lead to the collapse of the millennia-old imperial system in China, with the Republic of China being founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1912.

Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims, Hiroshima



"Traditional" tourist boat sailing past Hong Kong's skyline

More changes were to come at the end of the 20th century. The death of Mao Zedong resulted in the end of the disastrous Cultural Revolution. After a brief power struggle with Mao's appointed successor, Hua Guofeng, Deng Xiaoping emerged victorious and abandoned a hardline Communist policy to introduce market-oriented reforms, which have transformed China into one of the world's fastest growing economies. China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy in 2009. In the 1990s, the British and Portuguese colonies of Hong Kong and Macau respectively were returned to Chinese rule (albeit under special administration status). While the larger cities near the coast like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have grown to become rich and modern, much of the country still suffers from poverty and China's former leader Hu Jintao has pledged to modernize the more inland parts of the country, though whether or not China can rise from the ashes to achieve its past glories during the Han and Tang dynasties remains to be seen. Pretty much the only exception to East Asia's economic success is North Korea, which has refused market-oriented reforms and continues to adopt a hardline Stalinist policy to this day.


Chinese calligraphy

Japanese, Korean and Mongolian are distinct and dominant languages spoken in their respective countries. There are no other languages widely spoken in Japan and South Korea, although English is generally learnt in school by most people. Russian is often spoken as a second language in Mongolia. Japanese and Korean are not related to Chinese, but both languages have many Chinese loan words due to the long history of Chinese cultural dominance in the region.

The situation in China is more complicated, with Mandarin being the official language and lingua franca, and many mutually unintelligible dialects such as Cantonese and Minnan (known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia). Extensive travel in China will be very much helped by learning some phrases of Mandarin, since almost everyone will understand at least the basics of that language. Learning another dialect, although appreciated, will not be of much use outside of its immediate area. Bear in mind that the tonal aspect of each Chinese dialect is also difficult to master. In addition, China is home to many ethnic minorities who speak languages unrelated to Chinese.

Taiwan also uses Mandarin as its lingua franca, although most people speak other Chinese dialects or unrelated languages as their mother tongues. Cantonese is the main language in Hong Kong and Macau, but Mandarin has been compulsory in all government schools since their respective handovers back to China, though in Hong Kong, the use of Mandarin is a touchy political issue, and most locals are more proficient in English than in Mandarin.

In addition to spoken Mandarin being useful in many locations, written Chinese is more or less the same across the language varieties, and Chinese characters were the base of the Japanese scripts and formerly used for Korean. Thus one may be able to get a written message across even without any common language – the characters represent meanings that can be understood even by people who would pronounce them differently. However, the meaning of the words have often drifted apart slightly or not so slightly: the characters 手紙, literally "hand paper", mean "letter" to the Japanese, while they would be taken as "toilet paper" in China. In South Korea, Chinese characters occasionally appear in newspapers, as well as in official government and academic documents.

An obstacle for the Chinese student is that Mainland China and Singapore use simplified characters (introduced for the communist literacy campaigns), while traditional characters are used elsewhere. The Japanese Kanji are more or less the same as a subset of the traditional Chinese characters.

English remains a useful language for a traveler, although with the exception of the former British colony of Hong Kong, it is generally rare to encounter locals who are conversant in English. It is taught in school in all countries and many people have a much easier time reading and writing English than speaking it. Due to heavy American influences in Japan and South Korea since the end of World War II, the Japanese and (South) Korean words for many modern concepts are derived from American English. North Korean rejects English loan words for obvious reasons.

Get in[edit]

By plane[edit]

The main intercontinental gateways to East Asia are Hong Kong (HKG IATA), Tokyo (NRT IATA & HND IATA; TYO IATA for all airports), Seoul (ICN IATA), Shanghai (PVG IATA), Beijing (PEK IATA & PKX IATA; BJS IATA for all airports), Guangzhou (CAN IATA) and Taipei (TPE IATA). However, there are also many other cities with connections to other parts of Asia, which can be convenient entry points for certain travelers. Transferring through mainland China, though increasingly an option in terms of flights, is painful and time-consuming (you may also require visas) and best avoided. If arriving from Europe, transiting via Bangkok or Singapore Changi in Southeast Asia may prove cheaper than a direct flight.

By train[edit]

The Trans-Mongolian train of the Transsib crossing the Gobi desert on its six day journey between Moscow and Beijing

The Trans-Siberian Railway connects Russia to Mongolia and China, and China is linked to Vietnam with the jointly operated Kunming and Nanning to Hanoi routes. Another increasingly popular alternative is going via Central Asia and take the twice weekly service between Almaty in Kazakhstan and Urumqi in China, a journey of around 31 hours dubbed the "new silk route". There is a rail link from Russia (Khasan) into North Korea (Tumangang), with regular trains running from Moscow to Pyongyang, though in practice using this route is difficult if not next to impossible for western tourists, and is generally only available for North Korean and Russian citizens.

By bus[edit]

The Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan to China, is the highest border crossing in the world. The Irkeshtam Pass and Torugart Pass connect Kyrgyzstan with China via the ancient Silk Road.

By boat[edit]

It's possible to take ferries from the Russian Far East to Japan and Korea, try Heartland Ferry (Korsakov - Wakkanai) and Fesco (Vladivostok - Toyama) for the easiest options.

Cruise ships also operate between Southeast Asia and East Asia, with several sailings from Singapore to Hong Kong, and occasionally even as far afield as Yokohama.

Get around[edit]

Travelling in North Korea is only possible as part of a state-sanctioned guided tour, and any form of independent travel is generally banned for visitors, who will be watched closely and placed under heavy restrictions. Other countries in East Asia present many options to travellers for travelling around and between them, though transportation infrastructure ranges from very convenient and well-developed in Japan and South Korea to somewhat outdated and lacking in Mongolia.

By plane[edit]

Plane travel is the fastest way to travel between countries in East Asia, as well as long distances within them. Plane travel within China tends to be cheap by Western standards, although there is some governmental price regulation to keep the prices from being too low. Most flights include meals, which can range from boxes with assorted snacks to steaming hot meals. Vegetarian, halal or kosher meals are usually not available at short notice, but may be available if you make arrangements with the airline well in advance. To be safe, check with the airline or your travel agent before you book your flights. Delays are common in some places (like China), sometimes by several hours.

Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai and Taipei each have two main airports; one close to the city centre for domestic flights and some short range international flights, and one far from the city for most international and intercontinental flights. Transferring from the domestic to the international airport and vice-versa can take up to two hours or more, depending on traffic conditions, so make sure you give yourself ample time to make any transfers.

By train[edit]

Main rail lines in East Asia. Unlike what the maps may convey, there are no train services between the Koreas.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have extensive and modern train networks, but for reasons of geography and politics none of them connect to other countries. China also has an extensive network which is the main mode of long distance travel domestically. International services are available from China into North Korea and Mongolia, and there is also a rail link from mainland China into the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Mongolia's railway network is restricted to a single line that passes through Ulaanbaatar on the way from Moscow to Beijing. North Korea's network, while relatively extensive, has outdated infrastructure and its use by tourists is generally forbidden, the exception being the line from Pyongyang to Beijing via Sinuiju. Although the railway networks between North and South Korea are physically connected, the political situation means that cross-border trains do not operate, and will likely not do so for the forseeable future.

Japan has a well-developed high-speed rail network known as the Shinkansen, which covers most of the country except Hokkaido (new line planned or under construction) and Okinawa. While Shinkansen are fast, clean safe and reliable, you will pay relatively high prices, even compared to similar trains in Europe. South Korea and Taiwan have begun to develop their own high-speed networks, known as the Korea Train Express (KTX) and the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) respectively, with high-speed services along the main business corridors between Seoul and Busan in South Korea and between Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. China's high-speed rail network, known as China Railway High-speed (CRH), and is the longest in the world, with connections between all the major eastern cities and an "international" link to Hong Kong. Where high speed rail exists, it is usually the fastest mode of transport over short to middle ranges and often (though not always) beats flying in terms of price. Extremely long services without change of trains are only available in China, where some high speed trains have sleepers, but they are not as fast as a flight would be.

By bus[edit]

Bus travel is a popular cheaper option in East Asia, though in general somewhat slower than taking the trains, with many long distance bus routes connecting most cities domestically.

By car[edit]

Freeway outside Taichung



Renting a car is usually the best way to see the countryside and smaller towns, although driving around Asia's mega cities are not for the faint of heart, and touring the likes of Tokyo, Shanghai or Taipei in a rented car is really considered a bad idea.

Traffic drives on the left in Hong Kong, Macau and Japan, and drives on the right everywhere else in this region.

By ferry[edit]

China has a good network of ferries for its internal river network as well as internationally to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

South Korea has a ferry network between the mainland and its many islands, most of which do not have airports. Ferries also depart for China and Japan.

Japan also has a domestic ferry network connecting its different islands. While rail service is available between Honshu and Hokkaido, this is restricted to passenger service, and the only way to transport a car between the islands is by ferry.


Taipei 101, the tallest building of Taiwan
  • China
  • Stroll through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing and then walk along the famous Great Wall
  • Enjoy the iconic karst scenery in and surrounding Guilin in the Guangxi Region
  • Take a boat cruise along the Yangtze River
  • Hike on the breathtaking Tibetan Plateau and enjoy the local culture in Western Sichuan and Northern Yunnan
  • Stroll the Bund with a fabulous view of the Pudong skyscraper district in Shanghai
  • Marvel at the scores of Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an
  • Visit the historical sites along the old Silk Road in the Xinjiang Uyghur Region
  • Ascend the hill to Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet and take the long bus ride across Tibet to Mount Everest base camp
  • Hong Kong
  • Ride the tram up to Victoria Peak in Central Hong Kong
  • Take a ride across Victoria Harbour on the famous Star Ferry to Kowloon for the best skyline views
  • Climb 268 steps to the massive Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island
  • Japan
  • Ride the Bullet Train and stay in a capsule hotel or traditional ryokan
  • Play Pachinko, vertical pinball
  • See the Peace Park in Hiroshima and the Peace Museum in Nagasaki
  • Korea
  • Macau
  • Admire centuries-old Portuguese architecture and ruins or test your luck at one of the numerous casinos of Macau
  • Mongolia
  • Witness Kazakh Eagle Hunters in action at the Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii in Western Mongolia.
  • Taiwan




East Asia is the best place to experience baseball culture outside the Americas. The sport is hugely popular in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, with professional leagues that often draw a full house of spectators. In fact, Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) is considered by many to be the best professional league outside the United States.

Pop culture[edit]

Former South Korean president Park with two popular K-POP groups; Super Junior and SNSD

The entertainment industry is huge in East Asia, which has caused it to develop a distinctive pop culture scene. Famous pop stars often perform at concerts which attract sell-out crowds.

From the 1950s to the early 2010s, Hong Kong and Taiwan were the main centres of Chinese popular culture, with most famous singers and actors originating or based in the two territories. Due to the linguistic variation of the "Chinese language", in addition to Mandarin, songs may also be performed in Cantonese or Minnan. However, the pop culture scene of mainland China has begun to eclipse those of Hong Kong and Taiwan since the 2010s, with many top singers and actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan having re-located to the mainland due to the much higher earnings potential.

South Korea is a relative newcomer to the international pop culture scene, though the hallyu or Korean wave phenomenon at the turn of the millennium has sent waves across much of the continent. Despite the language barriers, many famous Korean singers have almost always performed to sell-out crowds in other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and Korean soap operas carry a loyal following in many neighbouring countries. On the other hand, the pop culture scene is non-existent in North Korea, and only government propaganda is allowed to be broadcast in the mass media.

Perhaps the pop culture scene in Japan needs no introduction, as most Westerners would already be familiar with it to some extent through games, comics (漫画 manga) and cartoons (アニメ anime). In addition, the music scene is very vibrant, with famous singers like Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi making headlines in newspapers all over the world.


Hot Springs[edit]


Board games[edit]

Go players in South Korea

Perhaps one of the unifying features among East Asian countries is the strategy board game of Go (Japanese: 囲碁 igo or 碁 go, Chinese: 圍棋(traditional) / 围棋(simplified) wéiqí, Korean: 바둑 baduk). While Chinese in origin, it is also popular in Japan and Korea. China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all have domestic tournaments for their top professional players, and there are also international tournaments for the top domestic players to compete for national glory.

China, Japan and Korea each has its own national variant of chess, which are significantly different from international chess. Chinese xiangqi (象棋) and Korean janggi (장기) share the same origins and as such, are similar to each other, though the rules of the modern games have diverged significantly. On the other hand, Japanese shogi (将棋) hardly resembles any other variant of chess known to exist.






Tipping is very rare generally in East Asia.


Quite exotic street food in Beijing

East Asian cuisines are extremely varied, and there is a world of difference between the cuisines of the harsh arid desert and mountainous regions, and the bountiful and fertile subtropical regions near the coasts. Japanese cuisine is probably the most celebrated internationally, and widely regarded by connoisseurs to be second only to French cuisine as the most refined cuisine in the world. Korean cuisine has also been gaining in popularity due to the popularity of Korean dramas throughout east and southeast Asia, and the large Korean diaspora in the United States. In contrast to Japanese cuisine, Korean cuisine does not emphasize subtlety, and many Korean dishes are heavily seasoned and famously spicy, with Korean barbecue perhaps being the most popular type of Korean food internationally. Chinese cuisine is the most diverse in the region due to the sheer size of the country; ingredients and taste profiles vary widely from region to region, with notably different culinary traditions in ethnic minority areas like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet.

Chopsticks are the main eating utensil of East Asia. Outside of restaurants specializing in Western cuisine, forks are rarely available and knives are not to be used at the table but spoons are available for soup.



Noodles are readily available throughout the region, with Northern China and Japan providing many variations.

If you'd like to sample lots of different street food, East Asia is a good place for this.

Tokyo, Kyoto and Hong Kong are generally regarded as the best cities in the region for fine dining, though Seoul and Taipei are also rapidly catching up.

Western restaurant review websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor are generally unreliable for East Asian countries, as locals often do not post reviews there. Instead, each area typically has its own restaurant review website. These are Tabelog for Japan, OpenRice for Hong Kong and Dianping for mainland China, the former two of which have English versions available.


Tea is the quintessential East Asian drink. Generally, green (unfermented) varieties are preferred over Western-style black tea, but the varieties available cover the entire color and taste spectrum. China, in particular, produces a wide variety of tea, ranging from green teas to black teas, and even the same type of tea comes in many different grades. Note that East Asians generally drink their tea neat, so unless you are at a shop which specifically makes milk tea, milk and sugar may not be available except in Mongolia, where milk tea is served with all meals, and Tibet, where yak butter tea is traditional.

Beer is also an important drink, especially in Northeast Asia. There are parts of Northern China where beer is drunk more widely than tea — especially in Qingdao, home to Tsingtao beer — and Kirin and Asahi beer are quite popular in Japan.

Japan is also the home of sake, commonly called rice wine though brewed similarly to beer and with a similar amount of alcohol by volume. Rice wines are also available in other parts of East Asia.

Liquor, such as shochu in Japan or soju in Korea, is very popular throughout most of East Asia. These drinks are ingrained in their cultures, and are an entertaining experience. Korea might be called the "Ireland of the East," given its drinking culture. Beware, however, that the most common victims of crime (what little there is) in Korea and Japan are irresponsible drinkers outside bars. China also has a tradition of drinking grain liquors known as baijiu, which often have higher proofs than European liquors such as whisky and vodka (up to 65% alcohol). Chinese baijiu comes in many different styles, some of the more common ones being erguotou and maotai. In Taiwan, the national drink is a variant of baijiu known as kaoliang, which is produced on the island of Kinmen.

Legal drinking ages are 20 in Japan and 18 in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea (though note that you are regarded as one year old at birth in South Korea, counting begun years instead of completed ones).


The Chinese are Chinese, the Japanese are Japanese and the Koreans are Korean. The common Western practice of labelling all East Asian-looking people as "Asian" is often not well-received here, and despite having cultures that are strongly-influenced by Chinese culture, the Japanese and Koreans appreciate it when visitors emphasise the unique aspects of their cultures.

Stay safe[edit]

North Korea is extremely safe too, as long as you don't speak bad of the Kims

East Asia is probably one of the safest regions on the planet for travelers, at least when it comes to violent crime and is characterized by stable politics and low crime. The main exceptions are the Chinese territories of Tibet and Xinjiang, which see occasional unrest, and Hong Kong, where soaring tensions between the Chinese government and the locals had led to violent protests and a growing secessionist movement, though foreigners are usually not the target of the violence. Xinjiang has a reputation for indiscriminate bombings and stabbings, but is claimed to be safer now due to the government's harsh crackdown. Be extra careful when in large crowds such as at train stations and markets. Tibet has the occasional risk of ethnic unrest. This tends not to pose much of a threat to international travellers, as foreigners are almost never targeted. The heavy police presence keeps crime low. It is standard practice to block visitor entry at the slightest hint of trouble to China's Tibetan regions or during important dates, so know before you go, or you may be turned away from buying a bus or train ticket and have to reroute your entire trip in sudden frustration.


Many parts of East Asia are mountainous. Use caution when driving or trekking up in these areas. Road safety in mainland China can range from lacking in coastal regions to suicidal in western regions. General rule of thumb is: more remote the region, more reckless the driver. Buses are fairly safe during the day time but not so much at night. Sleeper buses should especially be avoided due to their tendency to self immolate, take a night train instead. Due to lack of law enforcement, self driving in mainland China is not advised. Hire a car with a driver should the need arise.

Stay healthy[edit]

Healthcare systems vary widely from country to country. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have modern and well-equipped healthcare systems, with the hygiene levels and standards of treatment in local hospitals being at least on par with Western countries. Macau also has good healthcare facilities for routine consultations, though you may need to be evacuated to Hong Kong if your case requires attention from a specialist or certain specialised medical equipment. Mainland China's healthcare system is much more of a mixed bag. While hospitals with standards of treatment mirroring that of the West exist in major cities, you will generally be paying a steep premium for their services, and the standard of local Chinese hospitals may not be up to what Western visitors are willing to put up with. Health care in North Korea is a mixed bag. Heavy investments in the sector have been made since the 1940s, but international embargoes have hampered the development since the 1990s and critical infrastructure, such as electricity supply, may fail. There are also reports on widespread corruption. You might want to be evacuated to one of the neighbouring countries should a medical emergency arise.

The air quality in the industrial cities of northern China can border range from bad to terrible to outright dangerous. People with serious respiratory problems should seriously consider not traveling there for long periods. Check PM2.5 reading before arrival.

Second-hand smoke is a problem in China with 320 million smokers (over 60% of the adult male population). While few locations ban smoking, second-hand smoke mainly affects travelers on hard seat carriages on slow trains and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
