About China

I’m currently in Shanghai, the largest and most affluent city in China. It’s been a busy week of traveling across this huge country, and now Shanghai will be my final stop.

When people ask me, “How’s China?”, finding a quick way to describe this place is challenging. China has been very good to me, and it’s an amazing country. You run out of words like crazy, hectic, and madness for a place like China. To put it simply, there’s a lot of people packed into a country that’s developing at a breakneck pace. It’s really a contrast to the west, where as a society we’ve already gone through industrialization and it’s challenges. The Chinese people have grown to know nothing else than being surrounded by masses upon masses of other people. Things like personal space and privacy seem practically nonexistent.

What leaves the biggest impression on me about China, aside from the massive population, is the sense that you’ve got a rich, all powerful government, and a relatively poor mass population. The government has done great things for the country, especially with it’s infrastructure and other state sponsored megaprojects. But this is still a country where even after you buy a property, the government still owns the land. Talking to Chinese who wish to emigrate from China, this seems to be the most important issue. It’s not the restrictive freedom of speech ( see Internet censorship), the one child rule, or any of the other challenges facing China, it’s land ownership.

With that said, the plane ticket to china may have been the best ticket I’ve ever bought. If words can’t describe china, perhaps a few more pictures can help.