Greetings from China!

We are currently ensconced in Hangzhou, where we are visiting my oldest daughter, who is working her first major job here in the city. It is so incredibly gratifying to see your daughter out in the world, doing her thing, and we are so proud of her.

Before we head to Shanghai tomorrow, I just have to comment on this country. Everything you’ve heard about China is all wrong. It’s amazing how western media will vilify a country. I’m not going to “both sides” the argument here, as there are just as many bad aspects to this country as their are to the country of my origin, so if you’re looking for me to point out the terrible things, then look elsewhere. There’s no shortage of crappy people out there on the internet that will be more than willing to give you the full scoop on all the awful things that China does, and the internet is full of that stuff. I’m no longer interested in it.

What I want to remark on here is the progress that has happened in China in the eleven years since I’ve lived here. The cities in this country are a marvel, especially Hangzhou, which is just so beautiful and orderly that I’m shocked we didn’t spend more time here when we lived in the country.

When we left here in 2014, we existed in conjunction with the constant taxi ride. If you wanted to go anywhere from where we lived in Shanghai, you had to get a taxi. And when you got that taxi, it was a crapshoot in terms of the quality of the driver and whether they were going to take you on the longest route possible to get where you needed to go. There was also the simple notion that you might not be able to get a taxi at all because of the state of the weather or how busy things were or how late you were choosing to go some place.

Now, everyone uses Didi, which is the Chinese equivalent of Uber. It’s pretty much the same as Uber before Uber went downhill and started charging exorbitant amounts of money to get places. It’s the typical enshittification of the industry, where once they have you in their grip, they start milking you for shareholder profits. Didi is the same, but affordable and nicer than Uber. For some reason, Didi hasn’t turned awful like Uber.

One of those reasons is that every car that we’ve ridden in has been an electric car. I would venture to say that 75% of the cars on the road in the two cities that we’ve been to are electric and that is just amazing. I find it fascinating how this country can be moving forward so quickly while Trump is doing a 180 degree turnaround from electric and going full fossil fuel. It’s depressing, especially considering how quickly China has moved to electric. The cities are now quieter and the air is cleaner. Yes, we’ve had some bad days while we were here, but none as bad as they used to be when we lived here.

And the cars are bastions of innovation. They all look different and interesting. I marvel at all the sizes and shapes of the cars. There are still quite a few internal combustion engines here in Hangzhou and they stand out because of the incredible sameness of the vehicles. They look like every other car you’d see in North America…just…boring. I saw a lime green Aion vehicle on the road yesterday and even our Didi driver couldn’t help but admire the audacity of such a car. It was gorgeous to look at.

We went from Shanghai to Hangzhou on the bullet train and we rode in Business Class, which is essentially first class, on the train. It was so easy. And the ticket cost me thirty-five U.S. dollars, which was a steal for what we were doing. The train stations are like well-run airports. The gate appears on the sign and you just head off in the direction of your train. I didn’t have to suffer through security and I rolled my luggage onto the train with me. The ride was smooth and incredibly fast.

China is its own thing. In my humble, white dude estimation, they’ve had to deal with being isolated for so long that it seems like they just said, Screw it. We don’t need anyone else. And with the way that a place like the United States portrays them, that’s probably the right call. I am watching in real time as the country I was born in falls apart. It sick and depressing and utterly baffling. Simultaneously, I am watching as a country like China, who has been dealing with odds that have been stacked against it for almost a century, thrives by relying on itself and trying its best to climb out of the morass of history to become something extraordinary. And it appears to be doing just that.

I’m not a Chinese propagandist, and I realize that my view of the country is the naive view of a foreigner that only sees certain things. As I said, if you want the bad stuff, just look around. It won’t be hard to find.

It’s just that I’m jazzed about this country. It’s a great place to be and I’m incredibly happy that my daughter is happy here. I spent nine years of my life in this place and I find that I miss it quite a bit.

Want to learn more? Enjoy this gift article from the New York Times. Everything about it is true…