Yawn.....

I have been in China nearly 9 years now. Never got into any fights. I worked with a guy in Shanghai who got beaten up about once a month.
I think a lot if it is related to lifestyle, and behavior.

I need one of the earlier posters of this thread to give me a few classes in English grammar, synthax and spelling, please. I have just forgotten everything.

@yankee
So have most native speakers, at one point or another.

It's spelled syntax. Not synthax. Haha,没关系的

Agree that lifestyle and behavior have a lot to do with it. But, Dudesons, I'm genuinely sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Easy to laugh about it now, right, but I think getting attacked must be a horrible experience. I've been hit a few times but it was easy to shrug off, never been seriously beaten up, and hopefully never will!

@ tigertiger
That is very good for you, so did I !
I never got into a fight but I was randomly attacked as a lot of foreigners do here in China....which was my initial point. I would agree that Kunming is safer than other cities in China. But if you read the news or hear what friends tell you, it's quite obvious how rough it can be here.
And being attacked being related to lifestyle and behavior, is doesn't make much sense. That means that being mugged, attacked and being raped has to do with lifestyle. Try to tell that to a rape victim, for example.

I got in a fight once in my life because I was young, strong, (stupid) and thought fighting is masculine. That was many, many years back. Point is, if I would have meant getting in a fight I would have written it, but I wrote -randomly attacked- because, I was attacked while not being provocative. And I wasn't insulting or indecent. Not that I was walking naked with a Japanese flag on my beanie hat or such stuff.
And anyone who knows me, knows that I can be a jackass (as every human being is) but I am not the violent or aggressive type or looking for fight. If I have to, I do, or I run for my life.

On the positive side. I was never a victim of theft or petty crime. So I give China a jiayou for that one. I know they are around but so far I might just be plain lucky.

@Chris8080
Thanks, I appreciate that. It does suck and I was lucky everytime it happened, but not everyone around me did. My ex got hit by a flying bottle. A friend of mine partially blinded as he got glassed (right in his face) with a beer-mug and ICU'ed after people jumped on his head. I mentioned the tazing already, just in case if anyone is interested in the details.

I'm not making this s#*t up, and that is just the stuff that happen to me and close friends. Oh yeah the best part, the cop station is literally 100 yards away and it took the police 45 minutes to respond to the foreign beating which was inititated by a forum. That invites Chinese or anyone who is interested to (properly)"meet and greet" foreigners.

If you can read chinese you may still find traces of it on baidu at least for Beijing and Shanghai.

as i said mostly before and shortly after the Olympics.
But I don't think it is necessarily what this country is. There are d*#@% in this place as there are everywhere else in the world. I have good friends that helped a lot to chose to stay.

yeah, your ex was hit with a flying BOTTLE. key word is BOTTLE. in other words, you probably spend far too much of your waking life in bars around other people with BOTTLES in their hands, drunk out of their minds, and with repressed anger towards life in general that alcohol seems to bring to the surface.

I feel for you, but I don't agree with what you say. You said foreigners often get beaten up in China - this is simply not true, and it gives the wrong impression to people who might be interested in coming here. Ok, someone who regularly gets wasted and goes to Kundu will have a relatively high chance of getting in a fight. But the same could be said of a Chinese person. As a foreigner in China I feel pretty safe. It's not as if we're targeted for a beating.

I have never been attacked either, but I class that as getting into a fight.
What has that got to do with lifestyle? It has a lot to do with the places to you go to, and who you hang out with. Some of which (people and places) can be a magnet for trouble.