2021-06-30
"I felt the biggest change was in transportation," said Wen Xian, a Chinese scholar when speaking of the exponential development of China during an interview with Yegor, a Ukrainian influencer who recently took a trip to Chinese capital Beijing to find out how technology has reshaped the lifestyles of the Chinese.
Wen, who has worked and lived abroad, hailed Beijing's rapid development in its subway construction, saying the subway network in the capital is kept very busy nowadays, bringing huge convenience to the people living in the city.
He also applauded the role played by today's mobile phones which have turned from a communication tool to multi-function smart devices that integrate payment and information collection and sending. "Water, electricity and gas bills can all be paid on mobile phones," he told Yegor.
Zhou Jiying, a returnee from the U.S. also shared with Yegor her opinions on how technology is transforming the lifestyles of the Chinese. A big point she mentioned was mobile payment. "When I was in the U.S., I used to pay by cash. But in China nowadays, online payment is very convenient," she said, adding that she doesn't have to carry a purse any more.
Zhou praised China's highly-developed logistics industry, too. According to her, many commodities sold online come with free shipping, and basically the commodities are delivered in just a couple of days. "Sometimes it arrives right in the next day," she added.
During Yegor's Beijing trip, he experienced the high-speed train, one of the most important ways for people to travel in China today that represents the "speed of China." In China, train tickets can be booked and paid for on mobile applications, and all the passengers have to do is to go to the train stations with a digital version of the tickets, usually in the forms of picture and QR code, and get on the train. It is amazing that Yegor's 49km high-speed train ride from Beijing's Chaoyang district to Huairou district only took 22 minutes.
"What I've seen is a big progress under the leadership of the Communist Party of China that has influenced the life of the people here in China," Yegor said at the end of his Beijing trip.