I spent a bunch of time in China recently, and it's interesting how effortlessly people in larger Chinese cities seem to make new friends. First of all, a lot

I spent a bunch of time in China recently, and it's interesting how effortlessly people in larger Chinese cities seem to make new friends. First of all, a lot of their life just takes part outside, together with other people. They meet to do their Tai Chi exercises in the morning, hang out in front of stores and schools during the day, meet at little hot pot places to eat together, play with their kids outside in the evening, and then do some line dancing before going to bed. It's much closer to the kind of social interactions I used to have as a student than I have now as an adult. Second, it's interesting how easily they exchange contact information. I bought shaving utensils, and the salesperson gave me their personal WeChat contact so I could talk to them in case there's a problem with my purchase. Somebody asked to take a picture with me, and then exchanged WeChat contact info to talk to me more. A kid asked for my WeChat so she could exercise her English. We met a couple on a walk at night, and we exchanged some words, and then our WeChat contact info. And in each of these cases, there was some follow-up, and in some cases, regular chitchat. I don't know what the reason for the difference is, but it's one of the things I really enjoy about living in China.