{"id":2322,"date":"2026-06-04T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/99chinatravel.com\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2026-06-04T07:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:00:24","slug":"we-were-almost-entirely-wrong-about-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/99chinatravel.com\/?p=2322","title":{"rendered":"We Were Almost Entirely Wrong About China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We thought we had a reasonable picture of China. We were wrong \u2014 not a little wrong. Almost entirely wrong.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first video in our series documenting 22 days of private travel through 11 Chinese cities. No tour buses. No group schedules. Just the two of us, with a different local guide in each city, trying to understand one of the most extraordinary countries on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>What we found: streets cleaner than most European capitals. A Maglev train from the airport. Drone food delivery in 12 minutes. A supermarket that is also a fulfillment center. Retired people dancing in the park at 7:30 in the morning. And a question that followed us for the entire trip \u2014 how did a country that experienced one of the worst famines in human history in the 1950s become the world&#8217;s second-largest economy within two generations?<\/p>\n<p>We bring two very different perspectives. Tressa is American, born and raised in the US, with all the Cold War assumptions that came with it. Zarko grew up under communism in Bulgaria, left as a political refugee at 25, and built a business in Seattle before we retired to Burgas on the Black Sea. When he looks at China, he is looking through the eyes of someone who actually lived inside a communist system. Our questions are completely different \u2014 and together, we get a little closer to something real.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode: landing at Shanghai Pudong, riding the Maglev, exploring Nanjing Road and the Bund, visiting the Huawei and Xiaomi flagship stores, discovering HEMA Fresh (Alibaba&#8217;s hybrid supermarket-fulfillment center), watching drone delivery in the financial district, and spending a remarkable morning at Fuxing Park with retirees who made us completely rethink what retirement should look like.<\/p>\n<p>We flew business class on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul \u2014 a natural hub from Burgas, with fares a fraction of European carriers on a 10-hour flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u2708\ufe0f How we traveled: Private guides in each city. Business class via Turkish Airlines. Hotel on Nanjing Road, Shanghai.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddf3 Cities in this series: Shanghai \u00b7 Guilin \u00b7 Longji \u00b7 [more coming]<\/p>\n<p>\u25b6\ufe0f This is Episode 1. New episodes published regularly \u2014 subscribe so you don&#8217;t miss the series.<\/p>\n<p>\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501<br \/>\nBZ Travel &amp; Filter Journeys is hosted by Zarko and Tressa. We travel privately and comfortably, targeting authentic experiences over tourist checklists. Our audience is 55+, curious, and done with group tours.<br \/>\n\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501<br \/>\n\ud83d\udccd Chapters<br \/>\n00:00 We were almost entirely wrong<br \/>\n01:10 Who we are \u2014 two very different perspectives<br \/>\n03:47 The question we couldn&#8217;t answer: how?<br \/>\n04:48 Flying business class via Istanbul<br \/>\n05:14 Arriving at Shanghai Pudong \u2014 the Maglev<br \/>\n06:11 Nanjing Road: first impressions<br \/>\n07:48 The Bund at sunset<br \/>\n08:00 China&#8217;s internal tourism surprise<br \/>\n08:40 Tech day: Huawei flagship store<br \/>\n10:23 Xiaomi SU7 and DJI \u2014 Chinese innovation up close<br \/>\n12:05 HEMA Fresh: the supermarket that&#8217;s also a fulfillment center<br \/>\n13:59 Drone delivery in 12 minutes \u2014 financial district at lunch<br \/>\n15:24 BYD, Nio, and China&#8217;s EV revolution<br \/>\n17:22 Fuxing Park: what retirement should look like<br \/>\n19:55 How did this happen? China&#8217;s modern history explained<br \/>\n23:50 From Shanghai to Guilin \u2014 what&#8217;s coming in the series<br \/>\n#China #ChinaTravel #Shanghai #PrivateTravel #SeniorTravel #BZTravel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We thought we had a reasonable picture of China. We were wrong \u2014 not a little wrong. Almost entirely wrong. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/99chinatravel.com\/?p=2322\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Were Almost Entirely Wrong About China - Travel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We thought we had a reasonable picture of China. 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