China vs the US: China has better public transport, food, e-commerce

China has the US beat in more than a few
areas.
Reuters

• After traveling in China for
  six weeks, it became apparent to me that there are certain things
  the country unquestionably does better than the US.
• High-speed rail is extensive and convenient; the food is
  complex, diverse, cheap, and delicious; almost all young Chinese
  people use mobile payments instead of cash; you can get any kind
  of errand done with China’s on-demand services apps; and China’s
  e-commerce platforms make Amazon look dated.
• That’s not to say visiting the country was easy. Few people
  speak English and many of China’s most convenient services, like
  mobile payments, won’t work for foreigners. But, despite this, I
  found my time there to be an incredibly enriching experience.

I’m not sure what I expected before visiting China.

Whenever I spoke to people who had visited the country before,
the dominant reaction I received — whether the person was white,
Chinese-American, or something else — was along the lines of an
exasperated sigh and a face that said, “You haven’t seen anything
yet.”

Even when I was in Hong Kong during the first week of my
five-month trip, when I told Hong Kongers that I was about to
embark on six weeks in China, they smiled knowingly.

“Hong Kong is Diet China,” one told me. “Hong Kong is China
without all the extra difficulties, weirdness, and
inconveniences. Get ready.”

After traveling in the country for six weeks, I think I
understand a lot of what they were trying to convey. From an
American perspective, China does not operate in the way you
expect it to.

For example, it is altogether pretty common for companies to

have job listings that include qualifiers like “men only” or
“only aesthetically pleasing women.”

On a smaller scale, times are more or less suggestions. Once when
asking the bus station when the last bus to the town I was
staying would leave, I was told, “7 p.m., maybe.” It left at 6:40
p.m. and I missed the bus. Another time, on top of a mountain,
when I asked when the cable car closed, I was told, “whenever the
workers decide its time to go home.” A sign said 7:00 p.m.. The
cable car stayed open until 7:30 p.m. 

Among other things: Personal space is nonexistent, few people
speak English, and you’ll often be told things are not possible
with little or no explanation (and that’s assuming you understand
enough Mandarin to hear the explanation in the first place).

But despite those difficulties, it became apparent to me that
there are certain things the country unquestionably does better
than the US. Here’s a few:

1. High-speed rail and public transport

Fast, seamless
cross-country travel.

Shutterstock

Traveling to China can often feel like visiting the future. The
cities stretch out for what seems like forever, while new
skyscrapers, bridges, and futuristically designed landmarks
spring up every year.

Nowhere is this feeling more apparent than when you encounter
China’s high-speed railway network. At 15,500
miles, the country’s “bullet train” is the world’s largest.

The practical result of this is that you can pretty much
travel in anywhere in China via high-speed rail. It’s usually
comparable in speed to air travel (once you factor in security
lines and check-in) and far more convenient.

What’s perhaps most amazing is that the entire system has
been built in the last decade. China’s first
high-speed rail line was
a single 70-mile demonstration line built
specifically for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

In many major cities, the high-speed rail station is located
towards the center of the city and is directly connected to that
city’s metro, which creates a fast, seamless public
transportation experience.

Read more about China’s high-speed rail »

2. Food

Even after six weeks in
China, I wasn’t sick of Chinese food.

Harrison
Jacobs/Business Insider

Chinese food is considered to be one
of the most complex and diverse cuisines in
the world by chefs, food critics, and travelers. Americans, and
the rest of the West, tend to think of China as one monolithic
place, but the opposite is true. China is comprised of over 1.3
billion people, 23 provinces, 56 ethnic groups, and at least as
many different cuisines. Libraries-worth of
books have
been written simply on China’s food.

Each cuisine has different flavor profiles, hallmark ingredients,
and cooking methods. Sweet and sour is a common taste in
Shanghainese cuisine, while Szechuan food is known for its
extensive use of the numbing peppercorn of the same name.
Steaming is extremely popular in Cantonese cuisine, while a
number of western and northern regions boil dishes in a “hot
pot.” As you can probably guess, none of those hot pots taste
remotely similar.

The cuisine is so diverse and specific that it is not uncommon
for a particular county or town to be famous for a single dish
that is not made anywhere else in the country.

Whenever I talked to friends back home about visiting China for
so long, their first question was often, “But didn’t you get sick
of eating Chinese food all the time?” Friends, if you understood
how diverse Chinese cuisine is, you’d know that’s a silly
question. 

Read more about some of the best foods in China
»

3. Mobile payments

Even street musicians use
QR codes and mobile payments for tips.
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider

Paying with your phone isn’t a novelty in China these days.
Paying with cash is.

Over the last 15 years, mobile payments in
China have
grown into a $16 trillion market dominated
by China’s two biggest tech giants — Tencent and Alibaba. Mobile
payments totaled $9 trillion in 2016, according to iResearch
Consulting Group. Meanwhile, the US saw
$112 billion in mobile payments in 2016, according to a
Forrester Research estimate.

Tencent and Alibaba’s competing mobile payment apps — WeChat Pay
and AliPay, respectively — are used by just about everyone in
China, from fancy restaurants and high-end designer boutiques
down to street vendors, taxi drivers, and even panhandlers. All
you need is a phone-scannable QR code to give or receive
money.

Ninety-two percent of people in China’s top
cities 
said that
they use WeChat Pay or AliPay as their primary payment
method
, according to a 2017 study by Penguin
Intelligence. And the amount spent per month through those
services keeps going up.

The one caveat is that those services don’t work for most
foreigners as they require a Chinese bank account. When I
encountered a cafe that only accepted mobile payments, I had to
beg someone in the cafè to use their account to pay for me.

Read more about mobile payments in China »

4. On-demand services 

In every Chinese city,
there are tens of thousands of workers fulfilling city-dwellers’
ever wish on-demand.

Harrison
Jacobs/Business Insider

While most people know about Chinese internet giants like
Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, the hottest concept in Chinese tech
and startups over the last several years is on-demand services.

In China’s major cities, you can get just about anything done
with a mobile phone and the right app. Want a manicure or
pedicure done at your home in a few hours? Queue up
Heli Jia, a startup connecting freelance nail artists and
stylists with customers for in-home treatments. For in-home
massages, check out Gongfu Xiong. For food delivery, get Ele.me
or Meituan Dianping. 

That’s just the start. People living in China can
hire photographers, personal chefs,  and driving
instructors through different apps. They can get their

car washed, laundry done, or
rent a bike or scooter in a few clicks. While the US has many
of these services as well, in China, they tend to be more
affordable, more convenient, and speedier.

And that’s without even getting into e-commerce.

5. E-commerce and logistics

JD.com
prides itself on deliveries packages within a few hours of orders
being placed.
JD

I know, I know. You’ve got Amazon Prime and your packages
magically show up two days after you order them with free
shipping (minus the $119/year and the human costs,
revealed by Business Insider’s Hayley Peterson). 

In China, e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com pride themselves
on even faster shipping with no fee or membership.

JD.com
makes 90% of its deliveries in China within 24 hours. 57% of
its deliveries are made within 12 hours of order placement. Let’s
put it this way: If you realize that you forgot your toothbrush
at lunch, it’ll be delivered to your hotel before it’s time to go
to bed.

And it’s only going to get more fast and efficient. JD.com is
already using drones to expand its high-speed delivery network to
over 100 rural villages and counting throughout China. JD’s
CEO Liu Qiangdong
has said he expects drone delivery to cut costs by 70% once
it reaches scale.

Both Alibaba and JD.com now have fancy Whole Foods-style
supermarkets that offer incredibly fresh high quality food
delivered within 30 minutes of an order being placed. It’s

a marvel to see in action.

There is a human cost. There are 1.2
million kuaidi, or express couriers, in China
who
suffer low pay and often a brutal schedule of seven-day work
weeks with as long as 12 hour shifts.