Having hiked a bit of the Great Wall during a layover in November of last year, China even an hour outside the Beijing airport is a bizarre amalgamation of tech

Having hiked a bit of the Great Wall during a layover in November of last year, China even an hour outside the Beijing airport is a bizarre amalgamation of technology (concrete everywhere, solar, modern roads) and much much older techniques (pre-mechanized farming, no centralized utilities, stores with shelves whose stock looks like it's the US Great Depression). It was certainly different from what I was expecting from the news. I'd highly encourage going if you can (and layover/transit visa's in most international airports are free and don't require pre-approval).