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Cameras, Cars, and Culture: Notes From a Brief China Visit

What I saw in a very brief stop in Beijing this week.

I spent 15 hours in Beijing, China on Tuesday. It was a wild visit, fit into a layover, and not nearly enough time to make deep observations about Chinese culture or society. But it was sufficient to see a few things I felt compelled to write about this week. So think of today’s post as a travel blog, or something like it. Here are some notes from my very brief time in Beijing:

Cameras everywhere

I’d read about China’s vast surveillance system but couldn’t fully grasp it until seeing it in person. After arriving before sunrise, the dark drive from the airport was filled with flashes as cameras on nearly every street recorded our movements. As I walked around Tiananmen Square, I saw the light fixtures with multiple cameras affixed, including some holding more than ten cameras. I took a photo of the cameras and nobody came out and said anything. But as you move about Beijing, you absolutely feel watched.

Lots of electric cars

Electric vehicles are everywhere in China. When Louise Matsakis covered the country’s electric car boom last year for Big Technology, she wrote that, in Wuhan, “most of the cars on the road have green license plates, indicating they’re electric vehicles.” And indeed, those green license plates were omnipresent in Beijing as well. At one point in the drive, they were the only plate I could see on the road. So many car brands I didn’t recognize filled the streets, many of them with green plates. There were plenty of Teslas, but I saw far more cars from BYD, a Chinese brand that is now the top seller of EVs globally.

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Mobile payments rule

Whether it’s the grocery store or parking garage, mobile payments are standard in Beijing. Many businesses didn’t accept physical credit card at all, so I had to rely on a guide’s Alipay account and then reimbursed him in cash. It seems inevitable we’ll all eventually use systems where peer to peer and consumer to business payments are done entirely via the phone. Seeing it in action in China was like getting a peek at the future.

Not many foreigners

It’s cold in Beijing and not really ‘in-season,” but I still didn’t see many foreigners. I went to tourist hotspots like the Forbidden City and Great Wall, but heard English only once. Outside of some German I heard on the Great Wall, that was it for Western languages. The flight back wasn’t full either.

Read more: Dwarkesh Patel had a similar experience in a visit last year.

Soviet influence

Though not entirely surprising, it was stark to see China’s Soviet inspiration up close. Soviet themes appear China’s flag, and in its architecture. Across the street from China’s Forbidden City — the longtime home of its emperors —sits China’s Great Hall of The People, built in Soviet neoclassical style.

Bottom Line

Visiting China made me more curious about the country and eager to visit again. There have been some intellectual debates about whether travel is a worthy endeavor, and I land on the affirmative side of the argument. You can get a sense of something by reading about it, or watching it on TV, but there’s no better context than seeing it in person. I have way more questions now than before the visit, and I suppose that’s where understanding begins.

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What Else I’m Reading, Etc.

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The Pizzagate gunman was shot dead by police in North Carolina [Guardian]

Number of The Week

$2 billion

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Ryan Broderick writes the Garbage Day newsletter and hosts the Panic World podcast. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how the internet has fundamentally changed since the pandemic, in a special episode with Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz. Tune in to hear Broderick's insights about the rise of viral normie culture which includes Hawk Tuah and the Costco Guys, why sites like BuzzFeed are struggling to adapt, and how platforms are shifting from follow models to algorithmic feeds. We also cover shifting online political movements, the massive growth of OnlyFans, and why BlueSky might actually succeed where other Twitter alternatives failed. Hit play for a fascinating analysis of how internet culture is evolving and what it means for society.

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