Notes from a small Chinese town — Yongkang, Zhejiang — written in English: building, driving, and daily life beyond the big cities.
China moved 198.95 billion parcels in 2025 at about $1.06 each. The US moved 23.9 billion at $8.20 each. I found the sorting yard behind those numbers — and the 2:30 AM shift that feeds it.
On a hotel roof I found a maze of steel ducts. It is the visible end of a rule the US does not have: China caps wok smoke at 2.0 mg/m³. America only fights the fires.
China has built 2,800+ fake ancient towns and 40% sit empty. My county took a different path: it moved 17 genuine old buildings into the new block.
Yongkang spent $164 million on a five-star hotel for 620,000 people. Its own accounts explain why: 77% of revenue came from banquets, not rooms.
Polestar sold 69 cars in China in the first half of 2025, then shut its last showroom. I found one parked at a zebra crossing in my county town.
The characters over the gate of Fangyan mountain were cut in 1985 by Ren Zheng, the calligrapher whose handwriting still ships inside Chinese copies of Office.
China retires small tractors at 10 years. The subsidy is ¥1,000; a replacement is ¥3,400. So a 40-year-old machine still works the fields. Here is the maths.
At 2.8 m per storey, China’s seven-floor lift rule and its 16-metre limit trip on the same floor. That’s why old apartment blocks stop at six.
I took delivery of a Li Auto i6 on 27 June. On 11 September the order page went dark. Inside the 76 days, and the battery-supplier switch nobody in the West has to think about.
Chinese developers sell parking spaces with a charging pile built in. Owners pay for it, then install their own. Here’s the electricity bill that explains why.