What I Miss the Most from Home

It has been two months since I left China, and I begin to miss the things I can do there but cannot do here. I miss the scan-and-pay function on Wechat, the frequent subway trains, and the rapid delivery service.

In China, one must have a Wechat account if he or she has a smartphone. Wechat is a communication app. Because everybody uses it, Wechat developed a function that enables us to pay others by scanning their barcode. Restaurants or stores usually stick their own barcode on the wall. Your phone can identify the barcode in a few seconds and then it links directly to your deposit in the app or credit card so that you can type the amount of money and pay right way. Since then, we don’t take cash or credit card with us when we are outside. All we need is our phone. However in America, neither do everyone use the same communication app nor do they use a scan-and-pay app as a custom.

There are sixteen subway lines in my city, Shanghai. Truly there are many bus lines in Santa Barbara as well, but they are on the ground, which means they share public transport system with other vehicles, thus causing them slow. Shanghai subways are precisely on time, and the maximum waiting time for the next train is no longer than 10 minutes. However, the bus shift here is not frequent at all. The buses of the same line come every thirty minutes, and they often delay or be early. I miss the subways no much because they are so efficient and convenient. I can control the transportation time better everyday when I was at home.

Speaking of the delivery service, China is the fastest. You can leave a low rate online to the seller if you have your shipment three days after you placed the order. Most the time the delivery comes within one day, and it is free or no more than two dollars. However in the U.S., take Amazon as example, you have to be the prime member in order to have the two-day shipping “privilege”. And many times, the item you are buying doesn’t even offer two-day or standard shipping, you have to wait half a month to one month to get the shipment.

Overall, by recalling what I have in China but don’t have in America, I found that people in China live in a faster pace of life than Americans. Maybe I will get used to the slowness here.