What struck you about China?

How modern everything is.  Watching the travel channel convinces you that China is still medevil in many ways but the reality of it is China is far ahead of most  countries

Hi there,

This question popped up and I was interviewed on China the other day for a feature story and thought this might be interesting to anyone wanting to move to China.

Cheers,
Nicole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=808sJfmm5vI&t=1s

I arrived in China in 1998.  At that time in Beijing Bicycles were still easily outnumbering cars while the city itself seemed quite modern. It was summer and there were people flying kites in Tian An Men Square.  I was awestruck that I was actually there and experiencing China.
I was with my wife. She is Chinese. I'd met her in the US several years before.  We had already been married for a couple of years before I was offered a Job in Macao. We were moving to Macao but very soon found we preferred to live in ZhuHai instead.  We came to Beijing for a few days on our way to Jilin Province to visit her family.  My first trip to Jilin was incredible.  She's from a small city and there had not been a white person in the area since World War II. Locals all stared at me everywhere I went.  They all assumed I was Russian because that's what that last visitor had been.
I came from New York however what struck me more than anything was the sheer number of people here.  New York is crowded, the most crowded city in the US, and yet Beijing was on another level.

I was most struck by how safe it is!  Coming from the US where you constantly worry about guns and violence, it was very nice to find China to be so safe.  Also, I moved to China 6 years ago, and China was very welcoming to Americans.  It changed during the Trump presidency, but, when I first moved to China, people would approach me to tell me how great they thought America was.  Safety and the level of friendliness were the two things that struck me as being something I didn't expect!!!

I've been in China now for nearly two decades. But the memories what are forever imprinted on my very being will last with me until I die. For I will never forget them.

The first thing that I noticed was just how laid back, unworried, and unhurried everyone was. No one was all that concerned about losing their job, getting in trouble with the police for breaking some obscure law or the other, and just how calm everyone was. It was refreshing.

The second thing that I noticed was how rich all the Chinese were (compared to Americans). They owned their homes and their cars. Not rented them from banks, but owned them outright. I found out later that it was because taxes were limited in scope and application. No endless rules, fees, taxes, and charges one on top of the other.

The third thing that I noticed was how free everyone was. There were no random car roadblocks. No police with machine guns and big German shepards looking for terrorists and drugs, and no burly unsmiling gorilla of a man (or woman) looking down on you. No one cared how much money you had in your wallet and why.

All of this was the complete opposite of what I had heard, read and learned inside of America, and it was a great happy surprise as I had come to believe that America was the "best". LOL.

I have written extensively about China HERE.

This is such an informative interview. Thanks for sharing Nicole. Sounds like an awesome experience. Congrats on your new book.

Thanks for sharing. When I came to China for the first time, I found that China is really beautiful and very convenient. For example, when shopping, I can use WeChat or Alipay to pay directly through my mobile phone.

Very much agree with ncsmiith!