5 Interesting Things That Make China Awesome

When we think about what makes China great, the knee jerk reaction seems to be to consider economic policies and trade strategies. However I think China has become great primarily due to its ability to turn problems into solutions and the great creativity and industriousness of its people. In this article I've picked 5 interesting things that have always stood out in my mind as great examples of China's positive mentality which has helped guide its unprecedented sucess.

1- Trickle Down Economics China Style

To my mind China is the only economy where the goal of "trickle down economics" has ever come close to working. When i first saw the Westlake here in Hangzhou, besides the beauty of the place one of the things that struck me was just how clean and litter free the whole area is...I couldnt figure out how local government managed to keep it so pristine given that millions of tourists were passing through each month...that was until I saw the legions of "self-employed" rubbish cleaners unleashed at dusk each day..

In China id go so far as to say that despite being kinda rude throwing a plastic bottle on the ground could almost be considered as morally virtuous... Each day hundreds of thousands of collectors scour the streets and bins of Chinese cities for bottles, plastic, office waste and cardboard. One day my curioustity got the better of me and I asked how much one of the bottle collectors made and I was pleasantly suprised to find out he made almost 3000 rmb a month (an average college grad might be lucky to get this） on top of the other side hustles he had going. The same things can be seen in almost every local residence where Ayi's will collect the "rubbish" of residents and send them off for recycling in exchange for cash to supplement their incomes.

The local governments ensure a fair price on recyling efforts, the streets, tourist locations and residential areas all stay clean and people find gainful employment...Whats not to love ? Its win-win for all involved. No wonder China has an unemployment rate the envy of most Western countries. Nothing with a $ value is wasted in China..

2 - Playing the Hand Dealt...

Sensory organ defects and blindness are huge contributors to global disability and in the West impact significantly on healthcare spending . China's huge population means that although rates of both congential and aquired blindness and visual impairment are comparable to global average, in terms of sheer numbers China has one of the worlds largest blind demographics.

In typical Chinese style, an extremely practical solution to this problem which aligns perfectly with China's cultural appreciation for the importance of body work in maintenance of health is blind massage. These shops are found ubquitously throughout Chinese cities and are run and staffed entirely by blind people reducing impact on social services and allowing gainful employment.

Blind practitioners are trained in Chinese medical principles including deep tissue massage, cupping, scraping etc. Although the idea that one sense gets better is probably best left to Marvel's Daredevil, there is definetly a level of compensation in the sense of touch which allows blind practitioners to be remarkably accurate in their ability to diagnose underlying tissue problems and areas of pain or tightness.

3 - Fintech....China leading the world with cashless payment technology

Ive written about this exstensively and I think this article which I wrote in August 2016 helps illustrate just how far China is ahead in this area. That being said this is a market which changes rapidly and the advancements coming on the horizon are going to blow people away. Alibaba is messing about with face recogition, Amazon Go style shops, better credit services....Its competitor Wechat is further integrating payment services into its app, offering 3rd party development through mini-programs and innovating in many other ways...Like i said before there is an app for every market gap here in China. The seamless integration of cashless payments has allowed the app market to also flourish in ways not possible in the West.

4- Sharing is Caring: China's sharing economy

It started with bike sharing...Whether you love them or hate them, they are here to stay. (I hate them, but i cant help but be disparagingly awestruck by the scale and market penetration in such a short time)....Hundreds of thousands of shared bikes have been rolled out in Chinese cities.

Download the specific bikes companies app (there are numerous companies competing in this space, pay a deposit, search for the nearest bike, scan the QR code to unlock the bike, ride the bike to your destination, rescan the QR code to lock the bike...leave wherever (in practice this seems to be taken a little too literally). I am already seeing things like sharable phone charging banks, cars, umbrellas (this is a bit of a disaster) and electric scooters. Watch this space....

5- Implementing Sustainable Technologies...

Although much is made of China's struggles with environmental issues my own experience is that in the last several years China has become remarkably progressive in its utilization of green and sustainable technologies both at an industrial level by government and through private sector innovation. Much is made of Uber's entrance and exit here in China and Didi's reign in the app based taxi hailing sector but Ive not yet heard anybody mention "Caocao" (曹操传车) . Caocao is similar to Didi and Uber but instead utilizes a fleet of entirely electric cars. Likewise fleets of electric buses are replacing petrol and diesel engines in many of China's 1st and 2nd tier cities and will become the norm nationwide as capacities are built and older technologies phased out.