I'll be honest:
I was a bit scared before coming to China 🇨🇳
Turns out, as usual, the media had it all wrong
10 days in Shanghai and everything just works:
✅ food is great
✅ super safe
✅ quality of stuff is high
✅ accommodation is good
✅ people are open, and many speak English (at least in Shanghai)
✅ very affordable, you could easily stay longer
How to actually get around:
📱 You use Alipay to pay for everything: metro, taxi, food, shops. I have not seen cash yet
📶 eSIM just works, everywhere
🗺️ Chinese people love Apple here (there is the biggest Apple Store I have seen in my life in Shanghai). so, I was surprised, but Apple Maps just works fine and even shows which metro lines to take. no problem moving around
🪧 Street names are in Chinese and English
And the city itself is unreal. Skyscrapers everywhere, old and new mixed together, full cyberpunk megacity vibes
Definitely gonna stay full 4 weeks here. Next stop: Chongqing 🌆
@levelsio and
@dhh were right. it's worth it