Beyond the headlines, stereotypes and political debates lies a country that might challenge everything you thought you knew.
I have just spent another two weeks travelling through China, visiting Chongqing, Chengdu, Luoyang and Beijing. And once again, I was reminded of something I have learned throughout my travels: the world is often very different from the version we are presented with.
China is a particularly fascinating example.
When China appears in Western news, the conversation usually revolves around geopolitics, trade wars, surveillance, censorship, Taiwan or its rivalry with the United States.
These are legitimate topics. But they tell us surprisingly little about what everyday life in China actually looks like.
And that everyday reality can be quite an eye-opener.
A Glimpse Into the Future?
One of the most striking things about travelling through modern China is how effortlessly technology has become part of everyday life.
In many places, your smartphone is practically everything.
You pay for meals, order coffee, book transportation and access countless services through a handful of applications. WeChat and Alipay are deeply integrated into daily life.
Cash still exists, of course, but mobile payments dominate many urban transactions.
For visitors, getting everything set up can take some patience. Once it works, however, the convenience is remarkable.
Then there is the infrastructure.
China has developed an extraordinary high-speed railway network, connecting major cities with modern trains that make travelling enormous distances surprisingly comfortable.
Its metro systems are equally impressive.
And then there is Chongqing.
A city where trains disappear through buildings, roads climb between skyscrapers, and urban development seems to operate in three dimensions.
Sometimes it feels as though somebody decided to build a city without accepting the usual limitations of geography.
As someone who loves infrastructure and urban development, I find this fascinating.
The Small Things That Surprise You
It is not always the skyscrapers or impressive railway stations that leave the strongest impression.
Sometimes it is the small things.
The cleanliness of many public spaces. The convenience of ordering food. The efficiency of public transportation. The availability of shared bicycles. The increasingly visible presence of electric cars and buses.
In some neighbourhoods, the traffic feels noticeably quieter than in many European cities.
And while tipping has become an increasingly complicated social expectation in some parts of the world, it is generally not part of everyday restaurant culture in China.
These things might sound insignificant individually.
Together, they shape the experience of being somewhere.
They make you question why certain things seem so complicated back home.
Why does building a new railway line in Europe sometimes take decades? Why do our cities struggle to integrate different forms of transportation? Why do we so often accept outdated systems simply because we have become accustomed to them?
China certainly does not have all the answers.
But it raises some interesting questions.
China Is More Than Its Megacities
Of course, there is a danger in visiting Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing or Chongqing and assuming that the entire country looks like that.
It doesn’t.
China is enormous, geographically, culturally and economically.
There are vast differences between wealthy coastal cities, inland metropolitan areas, small towns and rural communities.
The futuristic skyline of Chongqing tells one story. The historical heritage of Luoyang tells another.
And beyond the major urban centres, millions of people experience a very different China.
That diversity is precisely what makes the country so interesting.
Reducing China to its impressive infrastructure would be just as misleading as reducing it to the negative headlines.
Both are incomplete pictures.
Admiration Is Not Political Endorsement
This is an important distinction.
Acknowledging China’s achievements does not mean ignoring its problems.
There are legitimate concerns about political freedoms, censorship, surveillance, human rights and economic inequality.
The digital systems that make everyday life convenient also raise questions about privacy and control.
And impressive infrastructure does not automatically translate into a better quality of life for everyone.
We should be able to admire China’s railway network without supporting its political system.
We should be able to appreciate its urban development while questioning its governance.
And we should be able to recognise its achievements without pretending that its problems do not exist.
A country does not have to be perfect to teach us something.
Unfortunately, discussions about China frequently become a contest between two extremes: those who portray it as a technological paradise and those who see nothing beyond an authoritarian state.
Reality is considerably more complicated.
Perhaps the Real Culture Shock Is Our Own Perception
I have travelled extensively, including to countries that regularly appear in international headlines for all the wrong reasons.
One thing these experiences have taught me is that political narratives rarely capture the complexity of everyday life.
People go to work. Families spend time together. Friends meet for dinner. Young people make plans for the future.
China is no different.
Behind the enormous infrastructure projects and geopolitical ambitions are more than a billion individuals living their lives.
And those lives deserve to be understood beyond the political labels we attach to their country.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about visiting China is not discovering how different it is from Europe.
It is realising how many assumptions we carry with us without ever questioning them.
We are often quick to believe that our way of organising society, building cities or developing infrastructure is the natural benchmark against which everything else should be measured.
Travelling challenges that confidence.
Sometimes we discover that we have things to teach others.
Sometimes we discover that others are doing things considerably better than we are.
Both experiences are valuable.
Go and See for Yourself
China is not a utopia.
It is not the dystopia sometimes portrayed in Western discourse either.
It is a fascinating, contradictory, rapidly changing country that cannot be understood through headlines alone.
After visiting Chongqing, Chengdu, Luoyang and Beijing, I leave with more questions than answers.
And I consider that a good thing.
Because travelling should not simply confirm what we already believe.
It should occasionally make us uncomfortable with how little we actually know.
You do not have to agree with a country’s government to appreciate its people, culture or achievements.
You do not have to admire everything you see.
You simply have to remain curious enough to look beyond your assumptions.
The greatest culture shock is sometimes discovering that the world is not the way you were taught to imagine it.
And that is exactly why I travel.
Maarten Van den Driessche
QuixoticGuide.com — Widen Your World
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