I think you are correct that most (Americans at least) don't know any cultural differences between Chinese cities unless they have a personal tie to knowing the

I think you are correct that most (Americans at least) don't know any cultural differences between Chinese cities unless they have a personal tie to knowing them, such as business or relationships. And yet I was still taken aback when you described how little you know about California. I had assumed being on a site like ycombinator, which is arguably the most famous startup incubator, based in sillicon valley, the most famous startup hub, that you would know many globally dominant companies (uber, google, apple, facebook, netflix, twitter, intel, adobe, etc, etc) are headquartered/founded there, not just a few sorta successful IT companies.