How to go to China

September 18, 2025

These are some field notes from my trip to China back in 2024 — they have been sitting in my drafts for too long, so I just decided to hit the publish button.

tldr: I went back to China for the first time in ten years, and wow, was it an incredible learning experience. Really emphasizes the value of taking a “prepared mind” towards travel.

Feel free to skip to the section that is most interesting:

China, in general: China’s development over the years, from my own (limited) perspective
The land of convenience: breaking down the superapps that fuel Chinese everyday life
卷: Extreme, harsh competition: competition in China is evolving even further
Masters of scale: America leads innovation, while China leads in large-scale infrastructure development
Food in China: studying a food-centric culture and society
Preparing for a trip to China: setting up the superapps, VPN, visas, and other considerations

China, in general

China is a country of over a billion people. When you go to the big cities, the scale is unprecedented — a “small” Chinese city has five million people — especially considering how well-developed the city infrastructure is. I was ready for a big shock for this trip in 2024, because the previous times I went to China were 10 and 20 years ago. I hope to break this pattern and return to China before 2034.

China is still awe-inspiring in terms of scale, but it wasn’t as mind-blowing as the last time I went. When I first went to Shanghai in 2004, I distinctly remember it being somewhat chaotic and messy, especially compared to the clean and manicured Bay Area suburbs I grew up in. Once, I distinctly remember being smacked in the face simultaneously by both sewer smells and the sharp elbows of Chinese grandmas furiously shuffling through the crowded street.

When I returned to Shanghai in 2014, it felt like a completely new society: I was surrounded by countless new skyscrapers and modern infrastructure developments. I distinctly remember turning to my brother and whispering (much too loudly), “Wow, this place is like a cleaner and more orderly New York City — but also if you replaced everyone with Chinese people!”

In spite of its massive scale, China is still not as cosmopolitan as you might think. I have a (white American) friend finishing her chemical engineering PhD at Tsinghua, which is one of China’s top universities.

When she visits other cities besides Tier-1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing, people will still often gawk at her, occasionally follow her out of curiosity, and often remark 外国人 — foreigner! It doesn’t come from a place of malice, as Chinese people are certainly friendly and very curious about foreigners and ex-pats, but China fundamentally is an incredibly homogenous society, especially compared to similar-sized cities in the US.

The land of convenience

The foundation of convenience is that China has minimal petty or violent crime. I was warned about pickpockets and robbery when I first visited twenty years ago, but the omnipresent connected camera system has done wonders in eliminating that issue. Of course, there are still the opportunistic ticket scammers who prey on clueless, non-Mandarin-speaking tourists, but it’s not the norm.

The bright side is that this very same clueless, non-Mandarin-speaking tourist will have no safety issues when wandering around anywhere in the cities, even late at night.

Once people heard that I was from America (in particular, the San Francisco Bay Area), they would immediately talk about a) how the safety in China was so much better and b) the crime in SF/California. Surely we can attribute some of this to sensationalized media coverage, but most of it is not an exaggeration.

Convenience in China is also synonymous with the super app experience. Formally speaking, the design philosophy of Chinese apps is diametrically opposed to the minimalism of American apps, overwhelming the user with an array of functionalities and visual icons. Imagine forcing the hyperstimulated visual experience of a Vegas casino onto a smartphone screen — whatever you’re thinking of, it’s pretty close to the visual layout of the average Chinese super app.

These Chinese super apps literally have everything that you need for daily life. You can visit one app (like Tencent’s WeChat or Alibaba’s Alipay) and get connected to every single function you need.

Communication (WeChat): WeChat is the dominant messaging platform used by Chinese residents and Chinese around the world. It combines informal messaging along with an Instagram-style social media feed, but it’s also used for business. Business cards are dead: most of my meetings ended with us adding each other on WeChat.
Payments (WeChat, Alipay): China is functionally a cashless society, with everyday payments running through Alipay or WeChat payments. Cash is technically still a legal form of tender, but you run the very real risk of whoever you’re transacting with not having change. Even beggars will panhandle using a WeChat or Alipay QR code now.
Taxi (Didi): Didi, China’s equivalent of Uber, can be called through the superapps. Interestingly enough, the navigation apps are all linked to the traffic grid (actively showing how long each traffic light is red or green). When combined with the aggressive Chinese city driving from both cars and electric mopeds, this allows for a higher transport throughput than my mathematical models would have predicted.
E-commerce (WeChat, Alipay): E-commerce platforms like Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are often integrated into superapps, allowing users to shop for literally anything.
Medical services (WeChat, Alipay): Many superapps now offer features for booking medical appointments, accessing health records, and even telemedicine consultations. Alipay has even launched an AI medical assistant to guide patients through pre-appointment, hospital visits, and post-consultation support.
Public transportation (WeChat, Alipay): We ordered all our train tickets through the superapps too. It’s infinitely tougher to deal with the official government transport webpages.
Entertainment (WeChat): Museums, restaurants, and other institutions will often rely on a WeChat account where you must use to book your tickets and reservations. At many restaurants, you simply scan a QR code within the superapp to see the menu, place the order, and pay your check — all within the app.
Food delivery (Meituan): Everywhere you look, you’ll see yellow Meituan food delivery mopeds zipping around — for the equivalent of $4.00, you can order a healthy meal from a restaurant and have it delivered to you within 30 minutes of ordering.

卷: Extreme, harsh competition

The negative side of the convenience in China is the creation of its supply-side. 卷 (pronounced joo-an) is a term that has arisen describing the sense of anxiety around the competition all throughout China (in schools, in businesses, in workplaces, in social settings, etc.). Chinese convenience is only possible because of the ridiculously low price of human labor (at least relevant to American standards), where the competitive nature pushes labor costs down.

For young people especially, there are a variety coping mechanisms to deal with the 卷-ness of China. Youth unemployment in China is really high right now, and some of the young people in Shanghai are at least seeking more hedonism than I would have thought (read: there were way more people going to the club on a rainy Wednesday evening than I would have thought possible).

In the last few years, both western media and academic circles have pointed out an evolution of mindset within many youth in China, from 卷-competition to lying-flat to run:

competition (卷): exemplified by China’s education system and tech startup 996 culture — work from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week
lying-flat (躺平): opting out of the struggle for workplace success, similar to America’s “quiet quitting” trend
run (润): trying to leave/immigrate from China

It’s a fascinating social dynamic that is magnified in China due to its unique blend of rapid economic growth, intense competition, and societal pressures. I had been exposed to some of these ideas through reading and tracking news and academic publications, but it’s a completely different proposition when you’re spending time immersed in this environment.

Masters of scale

I recently finished watching the 2024 Paris Olympics. I don’t know if other people do this too, but after I watch every single Olympics, fairly or unfairly, I benchmark it against all the Olympics that I’ve seen. And the most impressive Olympics that I ever saw was the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As to why, there’s probably some convex combination of that being the Olympics where Michael Phelps won his record eight gold medals, the US Redeem Team beating Spain to re-cement America at the pinnacle of basketball, Usain Bolt vaulting to the world’s attention, just to name a few things. It was also the first Olympics I remember watching (at an incredibly impressionable age too).

But more importantly, I remember the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony itself. And nothing compares to the sheer size, grandiosity, and coordination that I watched at that opening ceremony. I can still remember myself sitting in front of the TV, mesmerized by the thousands of coordinated performers. Just like we Americans say “everything is bigger in Texas”, I think people should also start saying that “everything is bigger, more coordinated, and more efficient in China.”

The 2008 Beijing Olympics is also interesting because it marked the zenith in recent US-China relations.

Almost two decades later, it’s obvious that US-China international relationships have worsened since. And it’s for a variety of different reasons, and publicly pontificating on the exact reasons is certainly above my pay grade.

But it’s undeniable that, at this current moment in 2024, the US and China are not the best of friends.

Some people that I spoke to in China mentioned that it was regrettable that the current relationship is so bad, especially since the two countries are incredibly complementary in abilities. The US is the tech innovation hub in the world, and China is the undisputed master of scale. As one person put it to me, “the US is the best at going from 0 to 1, and China is the best at taking it from 1 to 100.”

The most recent example here is with electric vehicles. Much of the technology that has made modern electric vehicles possible was pioneered in the U.S. (and also Japan). But if you look at which country actually has the highest percentage and aggregate number of electric cars on its roads, it’s China.

I was shocked to see that over 50% of the cars in Shanghai were electric cars, and 100% of the buses and moped scooters were electric. It was actually slightly eerie at how quiet such a large city could be without the sounds of gasoline-powered traffic.

China took the fundamental technology for electric vehicles, and with the initiative pushed by the government, scaled the engineering and technology for electric vehicles throughout the country. As I pointed out before, no one can hold a candle to China’s ability to scale things to be bigger, cheaper, and more efficient.

I don’t know exactly what the future holds between the two countries, but I would confidently bet that the next few decades will be largely driven in concert by the US and China. America is a land of innovation and entrepreneurship, and China is a huge country that is enormously proud of its 5000 year history. I’m not the first one to point out that these arcs of history have happened before, with two great powers coming into conflict as their ambitions cross, the so-called “Thucydides trap.”

Napoleon famously stated: “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”

Food in China

Let’s end this on a more optimistic flavor: food!

China is quite possibly the most food-obsessed culture and society on the planet. Where else would a commonplace greeting be: 你吃了吗？— Have you eaten yet?

China is a culinary wonderland, where the sheer variety and quality of cuisine is divine.

people will specialize on pulling noodles for 10 years
each region will have people specializing in particular dishes
the concept of “food tourism” within China is huge, with people traveling to different regions specifically to try local specialties
seasonal eating is deeply ingrained, with certain dishes and ingredients celebrated at specific times of the year

It’s also incredibly affordable. I would describe my food optimization function as the tastiest food for the most affordable price, and Chinese food hits that. I can spend the equivalent of 12 USD and eat huge amounts of incredible food.

There are countless tomes written on Chinese cooking. But what I’ve found to be the best English book on Chinese cooking, is Fuschia Dunlop’s recent book, Invitation to a Banquet. It’s a combination of expert knowledge (Dunlop trained in Sichuan for many years), exacting descriptions, and comprehensive historical context delivered at the right time and in the right amount. Plus, it’s full of incredible sentences, like describing Chinese green vegetables as “not merely the nameless ‘two veg’ accompanying a serious piece of meat, but a vital part of the nutritional and aesthetic architecture of almost every meal.”

I was perusing my list of notes from the book, and I think the most representative section of the book, the one that best encapsulates Dunlop’s perspective on the philosophy of Chinese cooking, is this one:

“A Chinese chef can look at an initially unattractive item like jellyfish and ask: what can I do with this? What are its downsides and what are its potential assets? Clearly, it is colourless, almost invisible and, aside from an edge of unattractive fishiness, virtually without flavour. But what does it have going for it? Perhaps its brisk, slippery mouthfeel – something anyone Chinese would enjoy. The question then becomes: how can I compensate for its deficiencies and make the most of its assets? With jellyfish, the answer usually is to clean it thoroughly, dispelling any hint of unpleasant fishiness, preserve its vibrant texture, and prepare it with accompanying ingredients that provide what it lacks: salt and sesame oil or vinegar for flavour, slivered cucumber or spring onions, perhaps, for colour. And lo – something overlooked by every other food culture in the world becomes a delectable salad. The same dispassionate, analytical approach can be applied to anything.” (174)

There seems to be almost a unifying theory of Chinese cooking, at least with some number of principles to make sense of an almost impossibly-huge landscape of food.

As Dunlop points out:

“Chinese cuisine is like a fractal pattern that becomes more and more intricate the more closely you examine it, to a seemingly infinite degree. The more I know, the less I feel I know.” (346)

They say that the great books can be read over and over, allowing readers to learn more and more from every subsequent pass. I think her book is so good that I’m going to have to keep chewing on it to digest more of its ideas.

But until then, I will continue reflecting and eating more Chinese food — to deepen my study of the field, obviously.

Preparing for a trip to China

You can only understand so much about China from reading or watching videos. This holds for all travel, but especially for China.

My personal opinion is that everyone should go spend time in China, not only because it’s an important culture and society to understand, but because it’s an incredible experience.

There are some particular things to note about traveling to China, especially if you’re an American:

Visa: you have to get one, and make sure this is all set up ahead of time.
Superapps: the two core essentials are WeChat and Alipay. Meituan is a good one to download for food delivery if you want to try that, but you’ll likely need to validate in the US — MAKE SURE TO SET THESE UP AHEAD OF TIME IN THE US, because you’ll need to do confirmation code validation via text message. For Didi, you can directly book it through WeChat or Alipay once you have payments enabled.
Translating apps: Use Apple Translate or Google Translate with a VPN.
Maps: Google Maps doesn’t work — try using the 高德地图 (Gaode ditu) app or Apple Maps.
VPN: Your mileage may vary. I downloaded a panoply of VPN apps, but the most useful one was the VPN that came built into the eSIM I bought for my phone.
Power adapter: make sure you bring a universal power adapter.

Some other excellent China field notes I enjoyed reading: