Never really noticed anything formal, people dress plainly not formally.Self expression "loud" clothes just have not taken hold in their culture yet. we travelled in whatever made us comfortable. Red sox hats, sport teams shirts, university logos t shirts , shorts,etc. 99% of the chinese had no clue what our words or symbols meant. Our group was a spectacle regardless of what we had on, the big group following the "Disney" paddle kind of set us apart from the regualrs.
They do recognize NBA stuff, i was wearing my Boston Celtics shirt and got quite a few smiles and finger pointing from younger chinese people in the big cities.
It is a shame that we could not buy much clothing, the sizes are not meant for anyone with "curves" or shoulders or stomachs or i guess body fat. when their shirts increase in size it is only the length, not width. were unable to find sizes in what would be an american XL so i could not buy many of the cool tshirts or formal shirts to fit me, such as the olympic shirts, panda reserve shirts, cool asian shirts, etc. Fortunately, at the Hard rock cafe hong Kong they had all the bigger sizes so i could at least get those shirts ( they actually have one or two that can only be purchased there and not online store, be sure to ask which onesif you decide to go), by the way after three weeks of chinese style food, the burgers ,fries,nachos, etc, never tasted better, we didin't realize how much we missed american style food until we ate that last night at Hong Kong hard rock cafe. we actually felt a bit homesick.
Red Hair, wow that should be interesting , it will be like the circus came to town!!!
To Birdie1981, not sure what the best time is to go, we had hot weather but no rain, according to our guides ours was a first. Really plays a role when you go to the great wall because they bus you to a location way up in the mountains and unfortunately if there is or has been a lot of rain fog can be an issue because of the huge deep valleys, ours was the first group to actually be able to see miles and miles (to the horizon) of the wall and i tell you it was breathtaking, if this was the only thing I did in China i would have been satisfied, i wish that we had an entire day to hike along the wall, that is actually top on my list should i ever return to china. Probably my favorite day of the tour next to the panda's