Wife's Clothing. What to wear?
 

My wife and I are leaving for China next week traveling independently. We will be in Beijing the 2nd week of Sept and then on to Xian, ChengDu, Lhasa, Guilin and Shanghai. She is concerned as to what she should wear. Will Shorts be appropriate in all cities(except Lhasa). Will pants be more appropriate? How cool will Beijing be at that time? Will it still be hot in Shanghai the end of Sept?

Weather and temperatures can always be found in detail on the Web from numerous sources. Try www.weatherbase.com for month-by-month details of temperature and rainfall, city by city, across China (and note that Lhasa is likely to be perfectly comfortable).

If the weather's warm enough then shorts are appropriate everywhere. You'll see many Chinese walking around with suit trousers rolled up above their knees. In Beijing you'll see many men topless, and in Shanghai you'll see many people wandering about in pyjamas. Wear whatever makes you feel comfortable.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

i suggest that you don't wear your wife's clothing

ok-I really have to disagree with Peter here. I was in 3 of your cities last April-it was boiling hot-over 85 degrees every day, and I particularly recall being out on that hot concrete of Tiananmen Sq. with hordes of Chinese tour groups, and I did not see one short amongst them-I don't recall seeing any Chinese wearing shorts-not there, or in even hotter Shanghai. (that's not to say there weren't any-as I'm sure you know, there are quite a few Chinese out there!) What I would advise is taking trousers and maybe a pair of shorts-and then start out wearing trousers and observe the scene to see if shorts will look out of place. Generally speaking, I don't advise wearing shorts internationally, except in beach areas. (I never wear them, myself).

Beijing should be 60's weather in Sept, (but maybe not-last Apr. was a veritable heat wave) Shanghai yet warmer. Actually, at that time of the year, I shouldn't think you'd have much need of shorts.

P.S. And for those of you who are wondering, given my previous stance on wearing shorts in Thailand, I consider Thailand and China to have different clothing protocols where shorts are concerned- China is self-evidently a different world than Thailand!

Just returned yesterday from 3 weeks in China, where we all wore shorts almost daily. Visited Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Suzhou and Shanghai. I checked with my wife and daughters just now, who are fairly sophisticated if informal people, and none of them felt out of place, either at tourist spots or in restaurants. We noticed a lot of variety in the clothing people wore, including some (mostly younger) women in shorts. It was in the mid or high 90's and very humid, and maybe this was a seasonal change from April when Spygirl was there, but we noticed generally an extremely loose and tolerant attitude among people. The funniest thing was seeing many middle aged and paunchy med with their shirts rolled up at their waists to expose their mid-sections. As Westerners we were generally perceived as curious appearing outsiders, and I suspect that, if our dress did seem odd to anyone, it was probably perceived as simply another of our foreign oddities (like my failure to roll up my shirt despite the heat!). Perhaps we should have been embarassed about how we dressed, but we certainly felt presentable enough and never felt awkward about it.

rhkkmk - exactly what i was thinking !
LOL, nice one.

Shorts will be fine, I observed enough people (tourists and locals) wearing them in Shanghai last month that I don't think you'll feel out of place.

Shorts are perfectly OK in China even though middle-age "ladies" in China generally do not wear shorts. In large cities people generally understand that Americans are very casual in terms of clothing.

Shorts may be perfectly okay in the hot and humid summer weather of China, but I just got back my photographs from my trip to Beijing and beyond, and there are many, many Chinese in my pictures, in and around the Forbidden City and Tianamen Sq. in particular, and not a one of them were wearing shorts, as I previously stated. However, as Ed said, and I certainly agree, that the Chinese appear to be most tolerant concerning a tourist's attire, with little to no pretentiousness that I could see (unlike some other places I can think of!) So it may be true, that in April when I was there, it was just not considered the season for wearing shorts, despite the oppressing heat, and so I didn't see any Chinese wearing them, despite the fact that many western tourists were wearing shorts.

P.S. I see on this thread that apparently something rhkkmk posted was deleted-wonder what that was all about??

i got very nasty...

Our family will also be traveling to China in Sept. This is our second trip in Sept. And if we did not have to be there in Sept for business we would pick another month due to the heat. We will be visiting Xian, Lijiang, Guilin and Hong Kong. We visited Beijing and Shanghai on our last visit. Our last trip we went with a group and most of the women on the tour wore shorts or sundresses. This trip we will be traveling independent of a tour and I am bringing shorts.