CHINA
Country Overview:
“Love the food, hate the government”
I arrived in China in May 2013 and left August 2020. I taught English for awhile, did my master’s of politics & foreign policy at Tsinghua University, worked for a year at China Today, and then two years at Xinhua News Agency. I spent most of my time in Beijing, but also traveled to Shanghai, Wuhan, Inner Mongolia, Shenzhen, Panjin, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, Xi’an, Sanya, Macau, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Chinese Banks
Chinese banks are just as bad as U.S. DMVs. They are slow, anal about paperwork, no one is in a good mood, and no matter what you went there to do, there’s about 15 steps that need to be taken to get it done. I can order laundry detergent and donuts to my house in 15 minutes using only an app, but exchanging currency takes well over an hour. Fix the system, China, it’s broken.