Growing up in the US, China was a country that was mentioned a lot but I knew nothing about it. The gold oval "Made in China" sticker on every product in the 2000s always made me curious. What were they doing over there that allowed them to make so much stuff?

This past week I got to see China with my own eyes. From Shenzhen through Guilin to Chongqing. Here are ten things I noticed.

I didn't see any robots that the US doesn't have, but China has certainly adopted robots more than in the US. In each of the hotels I stayed at, they had these rectangular robots that ride the elevator and deliver stuff to your door. Also, in Shenzen, a drone delivered my coffee order. Getting adoption for these robots in the US is more of a regulation problem than a tech problem.

I sampled electric vs gas cars in Shenzen and found 85% of cars on the road were electric. Lots of brands I'd never heard of and hardly any gas stations.

It felt safe enough that I could leave my laptop out in public and it wouldn't get stolen. It felt safe in spite of lack of presence of enforcement. I never heard a single siren and barely saw any police. That doesn't mean enforcement doesn't exist, but I didn't see it physically.

Didi (The Uber of China) drivers are in uniform and the car is always clean and nice, it's like the Uber Black experience at a fraction of the cost. Food and clothes felt about 60% cheaper. The quality-per-dollar is not close.

Most of the images in the Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum, and in ads from big companies like Pepsi, were obviously AI-generated. If a US company did the same, it'd be called cheap and low quality.

That gap says something about each country's appetite for new tech. In this way, the US feels old. Like an old man, it rejects what's new.

Apps that are foundational to living in the US are completely blocked by the China Firewall. China's "everything apps," replace them and do it well. Even as a foreigner I used them to order transport, pay for things, and translate and they worked surprisingly well.

I saw little luxury fashion or flashy cars. What's strange is the Chinese international students I've known in the past are the opposite, head to toe in designer, begging you to know how rich they are. I guess the parents with wealth send their kids to the US to flex because they don't want them doing it in China.

I didn't see a single gym outside of the hotels I stayed at.

Every Chinese place seemingly sold the same oil slop noodle bowls. It felt like the food a poor country would eat, which makes sense because it wasn't long ago that they were poor.

It's a fact that Chinese people are getting taller because they are incorporating more protein in their diet. I would bet this trend continues.

I took bullet trains between cities, and I could see the way people were living in between our destinations. There were lots of rice farmers doing things manually and buildings without AC. It felt as if those towns were stuck in the 1900s.

I'd still rather live in the US. But if I had to bet on which country looks more like the future in twenty years, it's not a close call. It seems like it's a good time to be China.