Notes from China, part 2

China is big!

Hello from Chongqing! I’m struggling to get wifi access anywhere, so I’m typing this out on my phone. This week will be short. Next week I’m hoping to do a more comprehensive reflection.

I feel one dominant emotion from the past week: awe at China’s scale. From China’s nature (like Three Bridges Natural Park in Wulong, home to the three largest natural bridges in the world), to its history (20-30 million dead in the Taiping Rebellion alone, my god), technology (massive drone shows over the rivers of Chongqing, sponsored by the country’s ultra-competitive EV companies), population (20% of humanity), and infrastructure (largest bridge in the world, a high speed rail network that dwarves the rest of the world combined), everything here feels supersized. The Middle Kingdom does indeed feel like the middle, everything else in orbit.