shanghai, hangzhou, shenzhen, and guangzhou. china is massive and every city feels like a completely different country. the weather was great, people were genuinely kind, and the temples and history blew me away. there's so much depth to the culture you could spend months and barely scratch the surface. the technology caught me off guard. everything runs through wechat and alipay: paying, ordering food, navigating, unlocking shared bikes. you can't function without them. on the other hand, google, whatsapp, and most western apps are blocked, so without a vpn you're cut off from the rest of the internet. felt like living in a parallel digital universe. the language barrier was real. almost nobody speaks english, signs are all in mandarin, and google translate became my best friend. everyone stared at me constantly. not hostile, more like genuine curiosity, like they'd never seen a foreigner up close. and some cultural differences catch you off guard. people casually letting one rip in the middle of a subway car and nobody bats an eye. just how it is.