I was just in Beijing, and the electric cars are real, like teslas but with fewer features to keep costs down (which is fine honestly). The traffic was still ba

I was just in Beijing, and the electric cars are real, like teslas but with fewer features to keep costs down (which is fine honestly). The traffic was still bad, maybe even worse, and the metro network, greatly expanded since I left in 2016, was super crowded even off peak (they could build 2X the lines and still not go past demand!). Alipay worked mostly and I didn’t need to use cash once (like before, when I had to pay 20k 3 months rent with a lot of 100 RMB bills!), the convenience stores all had self checkout, all the grocery stores to, the McDonald’s has take out lockers… I didn’t see any drones or self driving cars there, but I’ve used latter at least in SF that it wouldn’t turn my head. I’m still not exactly in love with it, I was happy to get back to Seattle (too crowded and the pace of life was a bit hectic, I’m getting old), but the change was definitely there, especially compared to my first trip to Beijing in 1999.