5 ways China is not how you imagine

China. We’ve all heard this name repeated maybe a million times these years.

When I moved to China back in 2016, I didn’t know just how much living here will change my world views. This country is definitely not how you think it is and not what the media tells you.

For starters, we have to realize an important thing: whether we like it or not, China and the Western world are frenemies at best, enemies at worst. The positive news the Western media pushes are few, the emphasis is usually put on negative news because shock and fear sells better than happiness. People are curious creatures and like to look whenever they see something shocking happening.

The media knows this and so they like to push forward mostly shocking and negative news. So think about it, if the media pushes a fair amount of negative news about ally countries, it only makes sense that they push even more negative news about enemy countries.

Back to China. Before I came here, people would tell me that China is backwards, technologically behind, dirty, and authoritarian. So that’s how I thought when I first came to… Shanghai. Imagine my surprise when I landed at an enormous airport, the likes of which I haven’t seen before. Once I settled in, I realized that China is not how I imagine it is at all! How? Here’s how!

1. No one uses bills and coins

If you come to pay here in China and you take out some cash, people will think you’re either 80 years old or have lived in a cave for the last 10 years. I’m not kidding, everyone here pays by phone!

Everyone pays by QR code here, literally E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E

Wanna buy something? Whip out your phone to pay.

Wanna pay for entrance? Whip out your phone.

Wanna buy an airplane ticket? Train ticket? Drinks? You know the drill.

What about homeless people, beggars? They ACCEPT phone payments!

Yes, even the beggars in China have phones and take phone payments.

2. Hospital waiting times are non existent

Back in Canada I had to wait upwards of 4 hours to see a doctor for a common cold. We would joke with my family that it’s better to heal yourself in Canada than go to the clinic or hospital.

I thought China, as many people call it a developing nation, would be worse. Boy oh boy was I wrong…

I remember when I went to do a physical check in order to get my health insurance for my new job. I came in to the check-in desk and was told I need to dart back and forth between different offices. What?

Let me explain.

In China, each doctor gets their own office, and the patients need to go to line up at the various offices to see doctors. Each doctor here sees more than 100 patients each day, so you can imagine the level of experience they acquire.

My physical examination had 10 different tests to do including ECG, blood pressure, blood samples, vision and hearing tests, X-ray, general checks, and a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head. How long did the examination take?

ONE HOUR.

ONE.

HOUR.

I’ve never undergone even one test in one hour before in Canada… Let alone 10 different tests! And at the end there was a breakfast included: boiled egg, some rice porridge, tea, and two buns.

3. You can buy anything you can think of online (at ridiculously low prices)

Want some 2$ shoes? How about a new car? Maybe you’d like a cat or dog? Taobao is the go-to platform for any of these things and more.

If you have balls, go and find Taobao on the Play Store (here), download it, use Google translate, and check for yourself about what kind of things you can find there.

When I need painting accessories, I buy them on Taobao for a fraction of the price I would buy them in Canada (or in the stores in China).

When I need clothes, shoes, accessories, hats, anything I wear, I just buy them online. Why? Because most of the items have a free return policy if they don’t fit or you don’t like them, so you don’t need to pay the delivery fees to return your package.

Talking about packages, man oh man, the sheer volumes of package delivery made my eyes pop out of their sockets.

If you’re the type of person into numbers, here’s one for you:

$84.54 billion

This is the amount of sales on the Taobao platform. In a SINGLE DAY.

The double eleven holiday (on November 11th) every year, celebrates single people all over China. During that time, shops put discounts comparable with the US’ Black Friday, and the ‘poor and oppressed’ people in China spend money like water.

This picture speaks for itself.

Here are some weird things you can buy on Taobao from a quick Google search:

Customized faces? Fake eggs and sausages? A dog face pillow? Fly swatter Mona Lisa? Why?

4. Food delivery here is top notch

So, at night, when I get hungry and I feel too lazy to cook, I open up my food delivery app (we’ve got two main competitors here: Eleme and Meituan). Immediately my mind drifts back to Canada…

A few years ago, when I was in Canada, I woke up at 6am and felt hungry. Everyone was gone and I was left with an empty house and an empty fridge. I opened my phone with a hopeful feeling only to find that all the restaurants and fast food joints nearby were closed. When looking through the food delivery app, I saw the delivery prices were simply crazy. I felt like crying… In the end, I had to drive my car around looking for anything open. By 7:30, one of the bakeries nearby opened up and I went there to eat pizza…

In China, this scenario is impossible unless you live in a remote village in the middle of a field. From 4am, you can see food stalls and restaurants open their doors to customers. What about food delivery apps? They have delivery available 24/7!

Delivery times here are super short. You will usually have to wait less than 30 minutes to get your item from the moment you place your order. If the shop is a few kilometres away from you or if your order is large, you might have to wait up to an hour or so.

The delivery drivers cannot be late to bring you your order, or they will lose money. That’s how the platforms ensure a quick and efficient service. The drivers choose which deliveries they would like to make and earn different amount based on different deliveries.

We love you, food delivery gods! :D

If your food is not up to standards, the platform will help you figure out what went wrong. Is it the shop at fault? Or the driver who dropped your meal? You will get compensation if you’re wronged. And this brings me to the last item!

5. You can complain to the government (and they will ALWAYS help you)

The Chinese government is really there for you. I am not paid by anyone for what I’m saying, and God knows I complain enough about the government here. I am saying how I feel. In Canada, I always felt my government doesn’t give a sh*t about me, no one was there to help me with my problems, but when it came time to pay taxes, the government would line up to take as much as possible! Even now, I am angry and frustrated at the Canadian prime minister.

The Chinese government is doing many good things for the Chinese people. What do you expect? It’s China: a country for Chinese people, not for Americans, not for Canadians, not for Russians. We’ve all got our own countries and, naturally, each country should first and foremost worry about the interests of ITS OWN people.

One of the absolutely amazing things you can do here that you cannot do in Canada is COMPLAIN.

Has your employer wronged you? Asked you to work free overtime? Didn’t pay you on time? Failed to properly deduct taxes? Didn’t pay your insurance contributions? Call the government hotline for Labour Inspection at 12333. They will sort things out.

I’m serious, when you mention 12333 to your employer, it’s like using a magic spell: no one dares to do anything illegal all of a sudden.

You can also complain if you’ve received subpar service at a shop or restaurant.

Cue personal story :) Read on!

Back in 2020, I bought a pair of bluetooth earbuds for 20$ in Miniso. After 10 months, the earbuds wouldn’t charge anymore. I went to the store and they told me the warranty period for the earphones is only 1 MONTH! Are you kidding me? One month? For bluetooth earphones?

So I called the hotline 12345 (service centre for anything related to the city) and filed a complaint saying that the earphones have a quality issue and the warranty period is unacceptably short. The operator recorded my complaint. After 2 days I got a call from the OWNER of the mall where the Miniso store is, asking me to come by for a free replacement of the earbuds and saying sorry for the troubles given to me!

In Canada, this kind of situation would NEVER happen, and I know firsthand the bitter feeling of getting owned by shops with their return and exchange policies…

If it wasn’t for the government here, I would have to pay for a new pair of earphones and the company would be able to continue ripping off customers.

My point is that here, in China, although I’m a foreigner, I feel that the government can protect the working man, which is a feeling I never had in Canada…

Anyway, that’s a bit of what I had to say. China has many problems, much like any other country (looking at you, US), but it also has many great things. Any coin or medal has two sides, so I hope people can look at things more objectively. You’re more than welcome to share your views and ask questions in the comments section, I’ll be happy to answer what I can.

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I will leave that pearl for my next article ;) Cheers!