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First Time in China: What Europe Hadn’t Prepared Me For
Shanghai

First Time in China: What Europe Hadn’t Prepared Me For

Aug 18, 2026 24 min read

Before my first time in China, I worried about cultural differences. Instead, I found QR-code payments, a stubborn firewall, barely any English, robots using lifts — and a system that somehow became completely normal within three days.I had travelled long-haul before, but only once, to New York. So China was not my first encounter with a seriously