No car vending machines. The people are really curious. I can pretty much understand most talk. So I hear the weird shit . Like I was in a elevator and a woman and her daughter was behind me. The mom said to the daughter, "look, look at the foreigner! See baby? A foreigner." In the west that would be kinda racist . I just turn around smile and wave.

Some people come up to me and start speaking Russian. I tell them I can't speak Russian. Talk to me in Chinese or English. They might continue to talk in Russian in hopes I'm lying. They really want to practice their Russian I guess.

Cab drivers can be absolutely retarded. I was riding with my son and the driver kept saying USA USA. 我是USA人。 （ I am USA person) then ,你ok 吗？ Just a total nonsense mix of random English words he's heard. Then kept screaming my son is so white. He's half Chinese. Scared my son.

The Uber drivers seem more mentally stable.

The mix of very uneducated villagers traveling with their young well educated children ( country developed fast last few decades) makes for some interesting interactions.

Children are often embarrassed at the questions their parents ask me. Which can be silly.

There is a stark contrast between the older generation, over 50 and the younger.

Water isn't very reliable. So we don't shower everyday here at home. Like every three days we all go to a public shower where the men and women separate and shower together.

My father in law asked me if we have such showers in the states and I said we all have showers at home. He pridefully said that these days many if not most Chinese too have in home showers and toilets. I say America never really had a time where homes had no showers or toilets so we don't have the public shower culture.

Hmm what else...

Middle aged women have no fear here. They will walk into traffic to cross the street no matter what. Car, truck, tiger, doesn't matter. They've seen it all. Live or die, they like to gamble. It's all a game of Majong to them. Once they cross the street and cheat death they smile as if they accomplished something huge with the extra 30 seconds they saved. Toss their lit cigarette, Urge me to ignore the red light and cross too.

Littering is normal. I would pick up used tickets my aunt dropped and she would take them out of my hand and throw them on the ground again.

No one wears seatbelts.

Grandma's have their grand sons pee openly in the grass not 10 feet from a empty bathroom.

Construction workers have no porta potties . So they will pee on their work truck and get back to work.

They are extremely curious. And will stare, take pictures. Ask questions and sometimes even touch.

They are very proud of how safe they feel here. Women can generally walk around alone in the midst of the night.

The poor people are not nessesarilly more dangerous like in the states.

It is mostly a high trust society.

In the north they are deathly afraid of a cold floor. If even a single step bare foot is placed on a hard indoor floor everyone in the room will scream to put on your indoor shoes or your foot will freeze, you will get sick. Winters here must be something terrible to inspire such fear of a cold foot.

Drinking is a culture unto itself. A younger man must tap his cup lower than his more respected peer when doing a cheers. He must wait until an elder drinks before he can himself drink his beer or liquor. One person generally pays for everyone and the next time another person will treat the group.

The women are incredible care takers who clean constantly , cook most impressively and pride themselves in how they direct, control and push their husbands into what ever direction they think best. Stubborn like a frozen tree. Absurd lengths will be taken not to spend one penny. Hard to accept different ways of approaching a problem because the group way is the safe way even if it makes the least sense to do it that way.

The children are generally more tame than American children.

A Chinese little girl will sit on a ride masked and not move at all for 20 minute. The parents all praise her. Saying 好乖！ Mean while my kids are kicking, moving, grabbing pigeons ect.

Many more observations.

It's an entirely different world.

Worth crossing off a bucket list.