[odiroot]

From my very short experience in China (just under 2 months) the cities feel super safe (excluding terrible driving). But this is just an anecdote, naturally.

My Chinese friends generally also feel safer in China than in the Western EU. What I noticed in Chengdu and Shenzhen, literally everyone walks with their nose glued to a smartphone (very frequently iPhone). Apparently robberies are not a common thing.

OTOH I've heard pick-pocketing is quite common in Beijing and Shanghai.

[baybal2]

A friend of mine from Allwinner had his apartment burglared (despite living in a walled community,) a coworker had his money stolen out of his bag in a cafe.

Shenzhen was not always that safe. Back 10 years ago, the city had unenviable reputation, but it went from one of most unsafe to one of safest.

That was done at the cost of having a police post every 100 meters (quite literally,) and it is not cheap.

[gingabriska]

It's a big city so you can always find such rare cases somewhere.

Doesn't tell us much about how safe a particular city is.

[ekianjo]

Shenzhen was almost nothing 10 years ago and now it has something like the GDP of Hong Kong. It has changed massively in a very short time.

[njepa]

Not 10 years ago. Maybe 30 years ago. There were a number of 40-50 floor skyscrapers being completed in the '90s.

[hi5eyes]

anecdote: my friend in shanghai got robbed of his wallet a month ago

gangs are prevalent just under the radar

[TomMarius]

I live in Prague and never ever have felt unsafe. One or two times I actually got into a light-ish fistfight, one time after a car crash and the second one was road rage, however I still deem Prague as an exceptionally safe city.

[odiroot]

Makes sense, cause it's not Western EU. I also totally feel safe in my home town (Warsaw).

[TomMarius]

I wasn't aware it's so different that western/central/eastern EU matters.

[turtlecloud]

I think the implication is more Africans/Arabs/refugees in western EU