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      A couple and their child on a scooter. Until recently, urban couples could officially have only one child.

      MY INITIAL CULTURE SHOCK

      My first exposure to Chinese culture was in Hong Kong where I lived for a year and a half. Being a British colony, Hong Kong is much more Westernized than the rest of China. But when I first boarded a plane to Shanghai, I could see immediately that things were going to be very different. The plane was full of Chinese men all wearing similar dark blue or green trousers and jackets and all smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. They all wore white shirts. Every single one of them.

      The first thing you notice when you leave the airport in China in summer is the intense heat, the ear-splitting noise and the strange smells. These sensations can be overwhelming for a first-timer to China, like a hard slap in the face. The air and noise pollution are certainly more than you ever expected. In large cities, you seldom see the sun and the sky is usually gray or yellow.

      You may also feel overwhelmed by the crowds. People are always ‘in your face’ in China, and you rarely find yourself alone. Streets are packed with people jostling one another, which can be irritating. They often stare at foreigners, making you feel awkward. But many Chinese are friendly and will go out of their way to help you. Traffic is completely chaotic. Be very cautious when crossing the street as cars will very rarely stop for you.

      Everything feels different and foreign. This is normal. Even if you expect it, it can still be a bit overwhelming the first few days. Initially, the food may make your stomach churn. And you may feel unnerved to see people spitting in the streets, or so many people smoking, including young women.

      But don’t despair. Keep an open mind and a willingness to learn, and you will adapt quickly and enjoy your new environment. Many things that seem totally foreign at first quickly become part of the everyday reality of life. Each time you go back to China, the transition is smoother until you get to the point that when you step off the plane a ‘China’ switch is thrown and you are ‘back home’ again.

      LOOKS CAN BE DECEPTIVE

      China’s big cities don’t look much different from any other big modern city in the world. Towering steel and glass skyscrapers, upscale shopping centers, young people dressed in designer fashions, modern subway systems and countless restaurants and clubs are all part of the new China. But you may be surprised by the astonishing bling factor seen in big cities. Urban Chinese are obsessed with Western fashion and luxury goods. Jack Ma, the chairman of the Alibaba Group, is the richest person in China with an estimated worth of US$30 billion. His group of companies has transformed Internet shopping in China.

      But get off the main thoroughfares, into the side streets and the back alleys, and you’ll see a very different China. Behind the glitzy façade, most Chinese remain a conservative people governed by Confucian values and thousands of years of history. You’ll see peasants carrying shoulder poles with baskets of fruit alongside businesswomen with iPhones, old Chinese men dressed in traditional padded jackets and black cotton-soled shoes with pet birds in bamboo cages in the same park where young men dressed like NBA stars are playing basketball, a back alley in Beijing where people still burn coal bricks to stay warm in the winter just around the corner from a high-rise luxury hotel. Although eating Western fast food is a status statement in China, the vast majority of Chinese still prefer traditional Chinese food prepared the same way it has been for centuries. While many Chinese have embraced Western culture, young people still bow to the wishes of their parents, pay their respects to their ancestors and are fiercely proud of their long history and culture.

      MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN CHINA

      I first went to China in 1985 as a college student to study Chinese. Before that, I had lived in Hong Kong, which whetted my appetite to see the real China. After a long flight from San Francisco, full of Chinese men smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, we landed in Shanghai, spent the night there, then boarded the train the next morning for Nanjing where I would be studying at Nanjing University. It was immediately apparent that this was not the Westernized Hong Kong I knew. Back then, China had a raw, rough quality about it. At the same time, it had an aura of deep history and cultural richness that immediately attracted me. The streets were teeming with bicycles and people but very few cars, and everyone was dressed in dark blue or green Mao outfits. Although I was expecting a dour, downtrodden people who had just a few years earlier survived the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese were happy, open and generous. I felt at home.

      Relaxing in a traditional garden in Suzhou, spring 1985.

      A cheerful taxi driver plying his trade.

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