{"id":3964,"date":"2026-09-16T18:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/?p=3964"},"modified":"2026-09-16T18:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:15:33","slug":"viajar-para-a-china-so-provou-que-nao-sabemos-nada-sobre-a-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/viajar-para-a-china-so-provou-que-nao-sabemos-nada-sobre-a-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling to China only proved that we know nothing about China."},"content":{"rendered":"
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I recently returned from Asia and now, with my routine slowing down, I can finally resume writing the newsletters. After three months traveling between China, South Korea, and Japan, I have so much to share!<\/p>

Without a doubt, China was the country where I felt the most culture shock. And not just in the big cultural differences, but even in the small everyday things. I spent a month there, between Shanghai, Furong, Zhangjiajie, and Chongqing.<\/p>

As soon as we arrived in Shanghai, we took the famous bullet train that floats on the tracks, the Maglev. It connects Pudong Airport to downtown Shanghai, covering about 30 km in just 7 minutes. It can reach speeds of 430 km\/h and is considered the fastest commercial train in the world.<\/p>

The curious thing is that when you get on the train, you don't find any of that futuristic decor you'd expect. I'd say it's actually quite simple, with a kind of 90s feel. But yes: the train is super fast. The scenery outside the window simply flies by. I even tried not to look outside too much so I wouldn't get carsick, haha\u2026<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Our accommodation was far from the city center, in a residential neighborhood. As soon as we left the subway station, we were met with a sea of motorcycles and delivery drivers riding hoverboards. And they were even riding hoverboards into the elevator!<\/p>

The first thing a digital nomad does is go to the supermarket, in an attempt to maintain a routine like someone who "lives" in that place. Then I had another shock: several enormous aquariums with live fish and seafood, where you, the customer, choose what you want, catch the animal, put it in a bag and take it home. I saw a woman drop the fish on the floor, where it struggled for a few seconds.<\/p>

And above our heads, there was a track where bags were being carried. From what I understood, the employees collect the items from online orders in these bags, place them on the track, and they are automatically sent to some kind of central location where they are checked and then collected by the delivery drivers.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Look, that was just the first day in China, lol\u2026<\/p>

In Furong, the famous historical town with a waterfall in the middle of the village, life was more tranquil and spontaneous. Passing by restaurants and shops, the staff spent a good part of their time chatting, eating, or napping. Since it was hot, many men wore the famous "Beijing bikini": pulling their shirts up to their chests, showing their bellies to cool off. And that included the shopkeepers, haha\u2026<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Furong<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Meanwhile, Chongqing, the "Cyberpunk 8D" city, was truly a parallel multiverse. A chaotic mix of modern and ancient elements. From entering a building through the ground floor that was actually the 26th floor of another; finding a small shop selling live birds that were slaughtered at the time of purchase; historic villages full of cafes...\u00a0aesthetic<\/em>; an event to find a suitor for their children through printed posters; in addition to the bombardment of lights at the city's tourist attractions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Chongqing<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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To avoid going on too long, because I think this topic alone could fill a book, the main conclusion is that...\u00a0China is unique and extremely diverse.\u00a0<\/strong>It's pointless to try and define it with a single adjective. It's a complex country, with an ancient culture, full of similarities and differences compared to what we know in the West.<\/p>

Is there a lot of technology? Yes. Is there poverty? Yes, but I didn't see ONE homeless person. Is it safe? Super! Is there a climate of repression? I didn't see anything, in fact the Chinese people are very comfortable (really!): they wear whatever clothes without judgment, dance in public, play games with friends in the square, love to record videos for social media, spit in the street\u2026<\/p>

And when you walk through the shopping malls, it's just like any other capitalist city: full of international brand stores like Nike, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Apple, McDonald's. Lots of people shopping everywhere. This helps to dispel the image that every communist country "is horrible," which some people talk about.<\/p>

Well, this is just a small taste of my experience. And the only thing I'm sure of is that I want to go back soon!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A month spent traveling between Shanghai, Furong, Zhangjiajie, and Chongqing was enough to realize that China is far more complex than we imagine.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vitamina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3964"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3985,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964\/revisions\/3985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latte.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}