China Since Last Time (Part 1)

I just spent a few weeks in China for the first time in three years, and it gave me the opportunity to reflect on some of the trends I've witnessed since I first stepped foot in the country in 2007.

The first and most obvious change is that the air pollution situation really has improved. Dramatically. While air pollution is still very much present in China, it really is much, much better. The skies are clear most days, and while a little haze often still lingers, I could still see vast distances across the city (Shanghai). On the train from Shanghai to Beijing I did notice significant pollution, only for it to clear up again by the time I got to Beijing. There were still good days and bad days as well, but overall it was at least an order of magnitude better than three years ago.

Similarly, the food quality seemed to improve as well. Restaurants seemed cleaner, food seemed fresher, including from the smaller restaurants/stalls right on the streets. Progress(?) was obvious in other ways as well. In particular, China is nearly cashless at this point. Everyone uses their cellphone to pay with Alipay or one of the other payment services at this point. And I do mean everyone and everywhere, very much including the rich and poor, at upscale shopping malls and small street vendors. Cellphone payment is simply universal now. Everyone still seemed to be accepting cash (because you need a Chinese bank account to get Alipay and being a brief visitor I didn't have one), but reluctantly and often with limited change. Three years ago this wasn't even on the radar, so this revolution seems to have occurred very quickly.

Other feats of technological adoption have also occurred. Online shopping and food delivery went from minor phenomena to the majority of transactions in a very, very short time. Chinese people order absolutely everything online, and they get it delivered the same day. When I asked my Airbnb host about a local store, he told me he didn't know any because he just ordered everything online now. He was completely serious.  They also seem to order stupendous amounts of food delivery, as every restaurant has a steady stream of delivery people coming and going at all times. People order their meals, but also their afternoon milktea online without a second thought.

Finally, other things that used to be a hassle in China have also gone online. I remember ordering train or plane tickets was always an exercise in inconvenience, emailing copies of my passport to strange offices or going across town to buy a ticket in person. Now people order high speed train tickets or plane tickets quickly and easily from their phones (including for foreigners!). This may not seem novel to us in the U.S., but it's a big change for China, and frankly the process seems much better executed there. I, for one, have never actually ordered a plane ticket from my phone, but I did see people do it China.

It seems that, at least in its infiltration into the daily lives of the relatively affluent, China's consumer technology, both in its implementation and adoption, has surpassed that of the U.S.  I don't quite know if this is a bad thing or not, but it has happened. This also quite surprising, as twelve years ago it was hard to get decent wifi there, but there's no mistaking it. Perhaps Orwell was wrong, and authoritarianism doesn't stifle technology - at least not when it so conveniently facilitates surveillance.




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