A Swede Returns to Silicon Valley from China
This whole post is very self-aggrandizing and naive, to the point of amusement.<p>&quot;Far from the expected glass towers of a technological utopia, what I found was a surprisingly run down city that reminded me of traveling in Eastern Europe.&quot;<p>Why would you expect that? A cursory bit of online research would have informed you otherwise. For such a self-professed online junkie, this strikes me as odd.<p>&quot;I was told not to discuss religion and politics, which is really all we talk about in Sweden, and I was confused by the sheer amount of narcissistic Ayn Rand followers.&quot;<p>What?! Told by who? SF is and has historically been one of the most politically vocal places in the US! Ayn Rand followers? What? I&#x27;m sorry but this is just laughable. What is an Ayn Rand follower? Really, was Market St filled with people clutching well-worn copies of &quot;The Fountainhead.&quot; Total nonsense.<p>&quot;Beijing was dirty, gritty, and wild ..&quot;<p>Beijing is actually one of the most orderly cities I&#x27;ve ever been to. One of the safest as well. The only grit is the air pollution.<p>&quot;Beijing was an insane mix of history and futurism&quot;<p>Beijing is actually pretty intent on systematically erasing its architectural history. There are very few hutongs(traditional neighborhoods) left in Beijing. Most of them were destroyed prior to the Olympics. Also for every one Rem Koolhaus designed glass towers there are 10K nondescript glum tower tower blocks, spreading outward from the ciy to the hinterland.<p>Beijing has some of the worst air pollution on the planet, people regularly wear respirators outside on bad days, it also has some of the worst traffic on the planet, these go hand in hand of course. The future is in moving away from that model of everyone should own a car despite their being viable alternatives(Beijing has a fantastic subway system.)<p>&quot;I fell in love with Beijing before I had even stepped out of the taxi from the airport.&quot;<p>I don&#x27;t even understand how this would be possible, that drive recently(2 months ago) took me an hour and 45 minutes to get from the airport to the ring road and there is nothing interesting along that route. The drive from SFO into the city is actually far more interesting by comparison.