1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> 3<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" version="XHTML+RDFa 1.0" dir="ltr" 4 xmlns:fb="https://ogp.me/ns/fb#" 5 xmlns:og="https://ogp.me/ns#"> 6 7<head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"> 8 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> 9<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/chinafile_favicon.png" type="image/png" /> 10<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> 11<meta name="description" content="âItâs really tough doing anything in China right now,â my friend told me. Heâs a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai with a locked-in grin. We were waiting for our food in a Taiwanese restaurant in a lovingly-renovated toy factory in Shanghai. China was my home for 20 years, before moving to the U.S. in 2015. This was my first visit since the pandemic. Almost a decade away from" /> 12<meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (http://drupal.org)" /> 13<link rel="image_src" href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/article/featured/robot_coffee_in_beijing_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" /> 14<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/postcard/app-life-china" /> 15<meta property="fb:app_id" content="454460787921552" /> 16<meta property="fb:admins" content="4403816" /> 17<meta property="og:site_name" content="ChinaFile" /> 18<meta property="og:type" content="article" /> 19<meta property="og:title" content="App Life in China" /> 20<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/postcard/app-life-china" /> 21<meta property="og:description" content="âItâs really tough doing anything in China right now,â my friend told me. Heâs a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai with a locked-in grin. We were waiting for our food in a Taiwanese restaurant in a lovingly-renovated toy factory in Shanghai. China was my home for 20 years, before moving to the U.S. in 2015. This was my first visit since the pandemic. Almost a decade away from the place where I got married, had kids, started a few companies, and sold one. It may be hard to make money in China in 2026, but it is very pleasant to spend it." /> 22<meta property="og:updated_time" content="2026-08-26T15:12:11-04:00" /> 23<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/article/system/robot_food_delivery_in_hotel_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" /> 24<meta property="og:image:url" content="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/article/system/robot_food_delivery_in_hotel_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" /> 25<meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" /> 26<meta property="og:image:type" content="image/png" /> 27<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" /> 28<meta name="twitter:site" content="@ChinaFile" /> 29<meta name="twitter:site:id" content="84786801" /> 30<meta name="twitter:title" content="App Life in China" /> 31<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/article/system/robot_food_delivery_in_hotel_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" /> 32<meta name="twitter:description" content="âItâs really tough doing anything in China right now,â my friend told me. Heâs a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai with a locked-in grin. We were waiting for our food in a Taiwanese restaurant in a" /> 33<meta property="article:section" content="Postcard" /> 34<meta property="article:tag" content="Chinese Economy" /> 35<meta property="article:tag" content="Coronavirus" /> 36<meta property="article:tag" content="E-Commerce" /> 37<meta property="article:tag" content="Electric Vehicles" /> 38<meta property="article:tag" content="Lifestyle" /> 39<meta property="article:tag" content="Public Bikes" /> 40<meta property="article:tag" content="Quality of Life" /> 41<meta property="article:published_time" content="2026-08-26T15:11:52-04:00" /> 42<meta property="article:modified_time" content="2026-08-26T15:12:11-04:00" /> 43 <title>App Life in China | ChinaFile</title> 44 <style type="text/css" media="all"> 45@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/system/system.base.css?tlj5bb"); 46@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/system/system.messages.css?tlj5bb"); 47@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/system/system.theme.css?tlj5bb"); 48</style> 49<style type="text/css" media="all"> 50@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/comment/comment.css?tlj5bb"); 51@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/field/theme/field.css?tlj5bb"); 52@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/node/node.css?tlj5bb"); 53@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/radix_layouts/radix_layouts.css?tlj5bb"); 54@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/search/search.css?tlj5bb"); 55@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/modules/user/user.css?tlj5bb"); 56@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/views/css/views.css?tlj5bb"); 57</style> 58<style type="text/css" media="all"> 59@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/libraries/annotator/annotator.min.css?tlj5bb"); 60@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/colorbox/styles/default/colorbox_style.css?tlj5bb"); 61@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/ctools/css/ctools.css?tlj5bb"); 62@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/panels/css/panels.css?tlj5bb"); 63@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/libraries/fontello/css/fontello.css?tlj5bb"); 64@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/custom/chinafile_alter/css/admin.css?tlj5bb"); 65</style> 66<style type="text/css" media="all"> 67@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/stylesheets/screen.css?tlj5bb"); 68@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/stylesheets/hotfix.css?tlj5bb"); 69@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/stylesheets/editor.css?tlj5bb"); 70</style> 71<style type="text/css" media="print"> 72@import url("https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/stylesheets/print.css?tlj5bb"); 73</style> 74
74<script type="text/javascript" defer="defer" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/google_tag/gtm_5v5s2p/google_tag.script.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 74
74
75<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/jquery_update/replace/jquery/1.12/jquery.js?v=1.12.4"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 75
75
76<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/misc/jquery-extend-3.4.0.js?v=1.12.4"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 76
76
77<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/misc/jquery-html-prefilter-3.5.0-backport.js?v=1.12.4"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 77
77
78<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/misc/jquery.once.js?v=1.2"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 78
78
79<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/misc/drupal.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 79
79
80<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/jquery_update/js/jquery_browser.js?v=0.0.1"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 80
80
81<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/misc/form-single-submit.js?v=7.100"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 81
81
82<script type="text/javascript" src="//rum-static.pingdom.net/pa-54a5b733abe53df81ed455ec.js"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 82
82
83<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/entityreference/js/entityreference.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 83
83
84<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/libraries/annotator/annotator-full.min.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 84
84
85<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/annotator/js/annotator.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 85
85
86<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/annotation/js/annotator_store.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 86
86
87<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/annotator/js/annotator_permissions.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 87
87
88<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/libraries/colorbox/jquery.colorbox-min.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 88
88
89<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/colorbox/js/colorbox.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 89
89
90<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/colorbox/styles/default/colorbox_style.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 90
90
91<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/custom/curlies/curlies.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 91
91
92<script type="text/javascript"> 93<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!-- 94 95(function ($) { 96 $(document).ready(function () { 97 $('h1, h2, .field').curlies(); 98 }); 99})(jQuery); 100//--><!]]> 101</script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 101
101
102<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/google_analytics/googleanalytics.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 81 bytes, lines 102-103
102 103<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=
103G-BTTGZVN5B6
vendor: 12 bytes, line 103
103"></script>
104<script type="text/javascript"> 105<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!-- 106window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments)};gtag("js", new Date());gtag("set", "developer_id.dMDhkMT", true);gtag("config", "G-BTTGZVN5B6", {"groups":"default","anonymize_ip":true}); 107//--><!]]> 108</script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 108
108
109<script type="text/javascript" src="https://netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 109
109
110<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/radix/assets/javascripts/modernizr.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 110
110
111<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/radix/assets/javascripts/radix-script.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 111
111
112<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/javascripts/mobile-classes.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 112
112
113<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/javascripts/toggle.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 113
113
114<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/themes/cftwo/assets/javascripts/menu.js?tlj5bb"></script>
vendor: 1 bytes, line 114
114
115<script type="text/javascript"> 116<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!-- 117jQuery.extend(Drupal.settings, {"basePath":"\/","pathPrefix":"","setHasJsCookie":0,"ajaxPageState":{"theme":"cftwo","theme_token":"8YIlRuzNvQK_J9K_dyrSEyy5KzOAxrfFbAmIFjzKk5M","js":{"sites\/all\/modules\/custom\/cbox\/includes\/cbox.js":1,"https:\/\/www.chinafile.com\/sites\/default\/files\/google_tag\/gtm_5v5s2p\/google_tag.script.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/jquery_update\/replace\/jquery\/1.12\/jquery.js":1,"misc\/jquery-extend-3.4.0.js":1,"misc\/jquery-html-prefilter-3.5.0-backport.js":1,"misc\/jquery.once.js":1,"misc\/drupal.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/jquery_update\/js\/jquery_browser.js":1,"misc\/form-single-submit.js":1,"\/\/rum-static.pingdom.net\/pa-54a5b733abe53df81ed455ec.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/entityreference\/js\/entityreference.js":1,"sites\/all\/libraries\/annotator\/annotator-full.min.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/annotator\/js\/annotator.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/annotation\/js\/annotator_store.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/annotator\/js\/annotator_permissions.js":1,"sites\/all\/libraries\/colorbox\/jquery.colorbox-min.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/colorbox\/js\/colorbox.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/colorbox\/styles\/default\/colorbox_style.js":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/custom\/curlies\/curlies.js":1,"0":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/google_analytics\/googleanalytics.js":1,"https:\/\/www.googletagmanager.com\/gtag\/js?id=G-BTTGZVN5B6":1,"1":1,"https:\/\/netdna.bootstrapcdn.com\/bootstrap\/3.1.1\/js\/bootstrap.min.js":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/radix\/assets\/javascripts\/modernizr.js":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/radix\/assets\/javascripts\/radix-script.js":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/javascripts\/mobile-classes.js":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/javascripts\/toggle.js":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/javascripts\/menu.js":1},"css":{"modules\/system\/system.base.css":1,"modules\/system\/system.messages.css":1,"modules\/system\/system.theme.css":1,"modules\/comment\/comment.css":1,"modules\/field\/theme\/field.css":1,"modules\/node\/node.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/radix_layouts\/radix_layouts.css":1,"modules\/search\/search.css":1,"modules\/user\/user.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/views\/css\/views.css":1,"sites\/all\/libraries\/annotator\/annotator.min.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/colorbox\/styles\/default\/colorbox_style.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/ctools\/css\/ctools.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/contrib\/panels\/css\/panels.css":1,"sites\/all\/libraries\/fontello\/css\/fontello.css":1,"sites\/all\/modules\/custom\/chinafile_alter\/css\/admin.css":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/stylesheets\/screen.css":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/stylesheets\/hotfix.css":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/stylesheets\/editor.css":1,"sites\/all\/themes\/cftwo\/assets\/stylesheets\/print.css":1}},"annotator":{"element":".node-article"},"annotator_store":{"prefix":"\/annotation\/api","showViewPermissionsCheckbox":false,"showEditPermissionsCheckbox":false,"urls":{"create":"\/annotations","read":"\/annotations\/:id","update":"\/annotations\/:id","destroy":"\/annotations\/:id","search":"\/search"}},"annotator_permissions":{"showViewPermissionsCheckbox":0,"showEditPermissionsCheckbox":0,"user":{"uid":0,"name":"Anonymous","roles":[1]},"permissions":{"admin":{"user":[],"roles":[8,3]},"delete":{"user":[null],"roles":[8,3]},"read":{"user":[],"roles":[1,2,6,5,8,3]},"update":{"user":[null],"roles":[8,3]}}},"colorbox":{"opacity":"0.85","current":"{current} of {total}","previous":"\u00ab Prev","next":"Next \u00bb","close":"Close","maxWidth":"98%","maxHeight":"98%","fixed":true,"mobiledetect":true,"mobiledevicewidth":"1000px","file_public_path":"\/sites\/default\/files","specificPagesDefaultValue":"admin*\nimagebrowser*\nimg_assist*\nimce*\nnode\/add\/*\nnode\/*\/edit\nprint\/*\nprintpdf\/*\nsystem\/ajax\nsystem\/ajax\/*"},"googleanalytics":{"account":["G-BTTGZVN5B6"],"trackOutbound":1,"trackMailto":1,"trackDownload":1,"trackDownloadExtensions":"7z|aac|arc|arj|asf|asx|avi|bin|csv|doc(x|m)?|dot(x|m)?|exe|flv|gif|gz|gzip|hqx|jar|jpe?g|js|mp(2|3|4|e?g)|mov(ie)?|msi|msp|pdf|phps|png|ppt(x|m)?|pot(x|m)?|pps(x|m)?|ppam|sld(x|m)?|thmx|qtm?|ra(m|r)?|sea|sit|tar|tgz|torrent|txt|wav|wma|wmv|wpd|xls(x|m|b)?|xlt(x|m)|xlam|xml|z|zip","trackColorbox":1},"urlIsAjaxTrusted":{"\/search\/results":true}}); 118//--><!]]> 119</script>
119 120<link href="//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.2.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
120<script type="text/javascript">var switchTo5x=true;</script>
120 121
121<script type="text/javascript" id="st_insights_js" src="https://ws.sharethis.com/button/buttons.js?publisher=457a290a-9652-4a5f-ac83-f1f0590148d8"></script>
121 122
122<script type="text/javascript">stLight.options({ 123 publisher: "457a290a-9652-4a5f-ac83-f1f0590148d8", 124 doNotHash: false, 125 doNotCopy: false, 126 hashAddressBar: false, 127 publisherGA:"UA-25322293-1" 128 });</script>
128 129</head> 130<body class="html not-logged-in page-node page-node-56706 node-type-article panel-layout-cf_twocol panel-region-middle panel-region-top panel-region-top_left panel-region-top_right cf-hide-annotator header-small secondary-light" > 131 <div id="skip-link"> 132 <a href="#main-content" class="element-invisible element-focusable">Skip to main content</a> 133 </div> 134 <noscript aria-hidden="true"><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5V5S2P" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> 135 <div id="page-wrapper"> 136 137 <header id="header" class="header" role="header"> 138 <div class="container"> 139 <a href="/" title="Home" rel="home" class="logo">ChinaFile</a> 140 141 <nav class="navbar navbar-default" role="navigation"> 142 <!-- Brand and toggle get grouped for better mobile display --> 143 <div class="navbar-header"> 144 <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbar-collapse"> 145 <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span> 146 <span class="icon-bar"></span> 147 <span class="icon-bar"></span> 148 <span class="icon-bar"></span> 149 </button> 150 </div> <!-- /.navbar-header --> 151 <!-- Collect the nav links, forms, and other content for toggling --> 152 <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbar-collapse"> 153 <form class="search-form navbar-form navbar-right" action="/search/results" method="post" id="search-form" accept-charset="UTF-8" role="form"><div><div class="container-inline form-inline form-wrapper" id="edit-basic"><div class="form-item form-type-textfield form-item-keys form-group"> 154 <label class="element-invisible" for="edit-keys">Search </label> 155 <input placeholder="Search" class="form-control form-control form-text" type="text" id="edit-keys" name="keys" value="" size="20" maxlength="255" /> 156</div> 157<input type="submit" id="edit-submit" name="op" value="Search" class="form-submit btn btn-default btn-primary" /></div><input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" value="form-rX3PXTqfEbrG7ux-Or0IQiswUAQ9tXIL5zRW_CUruJ8" /> 158<input type="hidden" name="form_id" value="search_form" /> 159</div></form> <ul id="main-menu" class="menu nav navbar-nav"> 160 <li title="" class="menu-link-reporting--opinion"><a href="/reporting-opinion">Reporting & Opinion</a></li> 161<li title="" class="menu-link-conversation"><a href="/conversation">Conversation</a></li> 162<li title="" class="menu-link-library"><a href="/library">Library</a></li> 163<li title="" class="menu-link-multimedia"><a href="/multimedia">Multimedia</a></li> 164<li title="" class="menu-link-topics"><a href="/topics">Topics</a></li> 165<li title="" class="menu-link-contributors"><a href="/contributors">Contributors</a></li> 166 </ul> 167 </div><!-- /.navbar-collapse --> 168 </nav><!-- /.navbar --> 169 </div> 170 171 <div class="submenu"> 172 <div class="chinafile-submenu chinafile-menu-reporting hidden-xs"> 173 <div class="container"> 174 <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_3 view-dom-id-6771c48b6014a7fb94228a21d68d4bc1"> 175 176 177 178 <div class="content view-content"> 179 <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> 180 181 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/notes-chinafile">Notes from ChinaFile</a></span> </div> </div> 182 <div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> 183 184 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/viewpoint">Viewpoint</a></span> </div> </div> 185 <div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd"> 186 187 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/features">Features</a></span> </div> </div> 188 <div class="views-row views-row-4 views-row-even"> 189 190 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/postcard">Postcard</a></span> </div> </div> 191 <div class="views-row views-row-5 views-row-odd"> 192 193 <div class="views-field views-field-name">
193 <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/media">Media</a></span> </div> </div> 194 <div class="views-row views-row-6 views-row-even"> 195 196 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/culture">Culture</a></span> </div> </div> 197 <div class="views-row views-row-7 views-row-odd views-row-last"> 198 199 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/environment">Environment</a></span> </div> </div> 200 </div> 201 202 203 204 205 206 207</div> <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_2 view-dom-id-7f014b2b53a6f3acf0af7026ed494751"> 208 209 210 211 <div class="content view-content"> 212 <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> 213 214 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/caixin-media">Caixin Media</a></span> </div> </div> 215 <div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> 216 217 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/earthbound-china">Earthbound China</a></span> </div> </div> 218 <div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd"> 219 220 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/my-first-trip">My First Trip</a></span> </div> </div> 221 <div class="views-row views-row-4 views-row-even"> 222 223 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/out-school">Out of School</a></span> </div> </div> 224 <div class="views-row views-row-5 views-row-odd views-row-last"> 225 226 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/reporting-opinion/two-way-street">Two Way Street</a></span> </div> </div> 227 </div> 228 229 230 231 232 233 234</div> </div> <!-- /.container --> 235 </div> 236 <div class="chinafile-submenu chinafile-menu-library hidden-xs"> 237 <div class="container"> 238 <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_1 view-dom-id-1b094bbe087ed26ccdf6eee072be9257"> 239 240 241 242 <div class="content view-content"> 243 <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> 244 245 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/books">Books</a></span> </div> </div> 246 <div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> 247 248 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/excerpts">Excerpts</a></span> </div> </div> 249 <div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd views-row-last"> 250 251 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/reports">Reports</a></span> </div> </div> 252 </div> 253 254 255 256 257 258 259</div> <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_2 view-dom-id-46063cfea0e65270f5ad005a68d6cb2e"> 260 261 262 263 <div class="content view-content"> 264 <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> 265 266 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/china-world-podcast">China in the World Podcast</a></span> </div> </div> 267 <div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> 268 269 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/sinica-podcast">Sinica Podcast</a></span> </div> </div> 270 <div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd"> 271 272 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/china-africa-project">The China Africa Project</a></span> </div> </div> 273 <div class="views-row views-row-4 views-row-even views-row-last"> 274 275 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/library/nyrb-china-archive">The NYRB China Archive</a></span> </div> </div> 276 </div> 277 278 279 280 281 282 283</div> </div> <!-- /.container --> 284 </div> 285 <div class="chinafile-submenu chinafile-menu-multimedia hidden-xs"> 286 <div class="container"> 287 <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_1 view-dom-id-34b302eb5d48316039f319f95f56b117"> 288 289 290 291 <div class="content view-content"> 292 <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> 293 294 <div class="views-field views-field-name">
294 <span class="field-content"><a href="/depth-of-field">Depth of Field</a></span> </div> </div> 295 <div class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> 296 297 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/multimedia/infographics">Infographics</a></span> </div> </div> 298 <div class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd"> 299 300 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/multimedia/photo-gallery">Photo Gallery</a></span> </div> </div> 301 <div class="views-row views-row-4 views-row-even views-row-last"> 302 303 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/multimedia/video">Video</a></span> </div> </div> 304 </div> 305 306 307 308 309 310 311</div> <div class="view view-chinafile-sections-menu view-id-chinafile_sections_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_2 view-dom-id-226bd1c7b8e1357dc8dc6369b91d2ca4"> 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321</div> </div> <!-- /.container --> 322 </div> 323 <div class="chinafile-submenu chinafile-menu-topics hidden-xs"> 324 <div class="container"> 325 <div class="view view-topics view-id-topics view-display-id-panel_pane_2 view-dom-id-9253171cb48846a12fdd5ade0305a07f"> 326 327 328 329 <div class="content view-content"> 330 <div class="views-view-grid cols-5 container-fluid"> 331 <div class="row-1 row-first row row-fluid"> 332 <div class="col-1 col-first col-sm-5ths"> 333 334 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/arts">Arts</a></span> </div> </div> 335 <div class="col-2 col-sm-5ths"> 336 337 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/energy">Energy</a></span> </div> </div> 338 <div class="col-3 col-sm-5ths"> 339 340 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/law">Law</a></span> </div> </div> 341 <div class="col-4 col-sm-5ths"> 342 343 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/religion">Religion</a></span> </div> </div> 344 <div class="col-5 col-last col-sm-5ths"> 345 346 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/society">Society</a></span> </div> </div> 347 </div> 348 <div class="row-2 row row-fluid"> 349 <div class="col-1 col-first col-sm-5ths"> 350 351 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/business">Business</a></span> </div> </div> 352 <div class="col-2 col-sm-5ths"> 353 354 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/environment">Environment</a></span> </div> </div> 355 <div class="col-3 col-sm-5ths"> 356 357 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/media">Media</a></span> </div> </div> 358 <div class="col-4 col-sm-5ths"> 359 360 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/rural-life">Rural Life</a></span> </div> </div> 361 <div class="col-5 col-last col-sm-5ths"> 362 363 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/technology">Technology</a></span> </div> </div> 364 </div> 365 <div class="row-3 row row-fluid"> 366 <div class="col-1 col-first col-sm-5ths"> 367 368 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/economy">Economy</a></span> </div> </div> 369 <div class="col-2 col-sm-5ths"> 370 371 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/health">Health</a></span> </div> </div> 372 <div class="col-3 col-sm-5ths"> 373 374 <div class="views-field views-field-name">
374 <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/military">Military</a></span> </div> </div> 375 <div class="col-4 col-sm-5ths"> 376 377 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/science">Science</a></span> </div> </div> 378 <div class="col-5 col-last col-sm-5ths"> 379 380 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/urban-life">Urban Life</a></span> </div> </div> 381 </div> 382 <div class="row-4 row-last row row-fluid"> 383 <div class="col-1 col-first col-sm-5ths"> 384 385 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/education">Education</a></span> </div> </div> 386 <div class="col-2 col-sm-5ths"> 387 388 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/history">History</a></span> </div> </div> 389 <div class="col-3 col-sm-5ths"> 390 391 <div class="views-field views-field-name"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/topic/politics">Politics</a></span> </div> </div> 392 <div class="col-4 col-sm-5ths"> 393 </div> 394 <div class="col-5 col-last col-sm-5ths"> 395 </div> 396 </div> 397 </div> 398 </div> 399 400 401 402 403 404 405</div> </div> <!-- /.container --> 406 </div> 407 <div class="chinafile-submenu chinafile-menu-contributors hidden-xs"> 408 <div class="container"> 409 <div class="chinafile-menu-contributors-inner row"> 410 <div class="col-sm-9"><div class="view view-contributors-menu view-id-contributors_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_1 view-dom-id-feb425bac42a5fb843cd69a16ebef5db"> 411 412 413 414 <div class="content view-content"> 415 <div class="views-row views-row-1"> 416 417 <a href="/contributors/zhou-na"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/assets/images/profile/zhou_nuo_profile.jpg?itok=oJ5EuUT7" width="93" height="93" alt="" /></a> 418 <a href="/contributors/zhou-na">Zhou Na </a> </div> 419 <div class="views-row views-row-2"> 420 421 <a href="/contributors/max-duncan"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/assets/images/profile/max_duncan_2025_sm.jpg?itok=uPc2Is2E" width="93" height="93" alt="" /></a> 422 <a href="/contributors/max-duncan">Max Duncan</a> </div> 423 <div class="views-row views-row-3"> 424 425 <a href="/contributors/isabel-hilton"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/assets/images/profile/ih_0.jpg?itok=E6E7sPNC" width="93" height="93" alt="" /></a> 426 <a href="/contributors/isabel-hilton">Isabel Hilton</a> </div> 427 <div class="views-row views-row-4"> 428 429 <a href="/contributors/james-palmer"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/assets/images/profile/palmer_2_0.jpg?itok=-G8-rldM" width="93" height="93" alt="" /></a> 430 <a href="/contributors/james-palmer">James Palmer</a> </div> 431 </div> 432 433 434 435 436 437 438</div></div> 439 <div class="col-sm-3"><div class="view view-contributors-menu view-id-contributors_menu view-display-id-panel_pane_2 view-dom-id-04031cbc1af388253474c786665865c2"> 440 441 442 443 <div class="content view-content"> 444 <ul> <li class="name"> 445 <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/robert-daly">Robert Daly</a></span> </div></li> 446 <li class="name"> 447 <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/zha-jianying">Zha Jianying</a></span> </div></li> 448 <li class="name"> 449 <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/ian-johnson">Ian Johnson</a></span> </div></li> 450 </ul> </div> 451 452 453 454 455 <div class="view-footer"> 456 <a href="/contributors" class="see-all">See All</a> </div> 457 458 459</div></div> 460 </div> 461 </div> <!-- /.container --> 462 </div> 463 464 </div> <!-- /.container --> 465 <div id="breadcrumb" class="visible-desktop"> 466 <h2 class="element-invisible">
466You are here</h2><ul class="breadcrumb node"><li class="first last"><a href="/reporting-opinion/postcard">Postcard</a></li></ul> </div> 467 </header> 468 469 <div id="main" class="main"> 470 <div class="main-container container container-fluid"> 471 472 <div class="main-header"> 473 474 475 476 </div> 477 478 <div id="content" class="main-content"> 479 <div class="l-cf-twocol l-panel" > 480 <div class="l-top l-twocol-wrapper container container-fluid"> 481 <div class="panel-pane pane-views-panes pane-featured-photo-panel-pane-1" > 482 483 484 485 <div class="view view-featured-photo view-id-featured_photo view-display-id-panel_pane_1 visual-box view-dom-id-f9a77b6c64b65643d77cb20b85d4b539"> 486 487 488 489 <div class="content view-content"> 490 <div class="views-row views-row-1"> 491 492 <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-featured-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/article/featured/robot_coffee_in_beijing_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" title="App Life in China" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="gallery-node-56706-6cRdLD8JTgU" data-cbox-img-attrs="{"title": "", "alt": ""}"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/assets/images/article/featured/robot_coffee_in_beijing_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg?itok=F1_4Cm1z" width="1500" height="843" alt="" title="" /></a></div> </div> 493 <div> <div class="photo-credit">Jeremy Goldkorn</div> </div> 494 <div> <div class="photo-caption"><p>A robot barista and its human enabler in Beijing, June 2026.</p> 495</div> </div> </div> 496 </div> 497 498 499 500 501 502 503</div> 504 505 </div> 506<div class="panel-pane pane-node-title" > 507 508 509 510 <h1>App Life in China</h1> 511 512 513 </div> 514<div class="field-name-subtitle field field-name-field-common-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"> 515 <h2>Notes on a Long-Delayed Return to China</h2> 516 </div> 517<div class="panel-pane pane-node-authors-date" > 518 519 520 521 <ul class="author-date"> <li class="author">by Jeremy Goldkorn</li> <li class="create-date">August 26, 2026</li></ul> 522 523 </div> 524<div class="panel-pane pane-node-share" > 525 526 527 528 <span class="st_facebook_large" st_title="App Life in China" displayText="Facebook"></span><span class="st_twitter_large" st_title="App Life in China" st_via="chinafile" displayText="Tweet"></span><span class="st_email_large" st_title="App Life in China" displayText="Email"></span> 529 530 </div> 531 </div> 532 533 <div class="l-upper-wrapper l-twocol-wrapper container"> 534 <div class="l-twocol-left"> 535 <aside class="col-sm-4 col-md-4 l-twocol-right">
536 <div class="panel-pane pane-views-panes pane-contributors-sidebar-panel-pane-1" > 537 538 539 540 <div class="view view-contributors-sidebar view-id-contributors_sidebar view-display-id-panel_pane_1 view-dom-id-570d01530cce101d163aaa3e5941e8ac"> 541 542 543 544 <div class="content view-content"> 545 <div class="views-row views-row-1 clearfix"> 546 547 <div class="views-field views-field-title"> <h3 class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/jeremy-goldkorn">Jeremy Goldkorn</a></h3> </div> 548 <div class="views-field views-field-field-profile-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/jeremy-goldkorn"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/epsacrop_220x220/public/assets/images/profile/goldkorn_sm.jpg?itok=8SbdqLgy" width="220" height="220" alt="" /></a></div> </div> 549 <div class="views-field views-field-field-profile-about"> <span class="field-content">Jeremy Goldkorn is an editor and writer whose work has focused on China, and he is an Editorial Fellow with ChinaFile. He co-founded the Sinica Podcast in 2010, and was Editor-in-Chief of The China...</span> </div> 550 <div class="views-field views-field-view-node"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/contributors/jeremy-goldkorn">More</a></span> </div> </div> 551 </div> 552 553 554 555 556 557 558</div> 559 560 </div> 561 </aside> 562 563 <div class="panel-pane pane-node-content" > 564 565 566 567 <article class="node node-article clearfix"> 568 569 570 571 572 <div class="content"> 573 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> 574 <p class="dropcap">âItâs really tough doing anything in China right now,â my friend told me. Heâs a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai with a locked-in grin. We were waiting for our food in a Taiwanese restaurant in a lovingly-renovated toy factory in Shanghai. The place was really nice but it was about half full.</p> 575<p>I heard the same complaint nearly the whole month of June, which I spent with my family in Beijing, Shanghai, and cities and villages in Jiangsu, Hebei, and Yunnan provinces. It seemed that everyone we met, aside from pensioners and government employees, felt they were working harder and harder for smaller rewards. Many of them mentioned the word âinvolutionââwhich Iâd been reading about from afar <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006391" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">since 2020</a>âbut it also seemed as if life in China had never been this good.</p> 576<p>China was my home for 20 years, before moving to the U.S. in 2015. This was my first visit since the pandemic. Almost a decade away from the place where I got married, had kids, started a few companies, and sold one. We did some tourism and mountain walking. We saw old friends, former colleagues, classmates, and relatives, among them entrepreneurs and arts industry freelancers, a family of small-plot farmers with a rural tourism business, a few white collar workers, and people employed by the government. We toured some old-age homes.</p> 577<p>It may be hard to make money in China in 2026, but it is very pleasant to spend it. A major element of involution is the brutal competition in every market that puts downward pressure on prices as consumers, spoiled for choice, demand higher and higher quality. Hotels, trains, flights, food, clothes, cars, phones, electronics, massages, mountaineering gear, Labubus: all are cheap compared to the United States.</p> 578<p>But first you have to figure out how to pay for stuff. The country has gone cashless, and you need a mobile phone tied to a verified identity to use Alipay and WeChat Wallet, and these are the only digital wallets that work. Our first task after clearing customs at Shanghai Pudong Airport was to get our devices connected; a friendly sales lady helped us fiddle with phones and we left her stall with one working local mobile phone with payments enabled. We had another two American phones which worked for most purchases but not always. Once you have the apps working, you have access to a digital world layered on top of the physical world. App life in China means seamless service, rapid delivery of food or anything else you care to buy, bike-shares, museum tickets, car-hailing, and public transport. (All countries are going this way; but in China, you only need one app: either Tencentâs WeChat, or Alibabaâs Alipay. These give you access to all other digital services, and I never needed to download another app during our time in China. Behave yourself in online spaces and youâre in consumer paradise. This is the bleak future Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley friends <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/29/elon-musk-wechat-twitter-rebranding-everything-app-for-west" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">would prefer</a>.)</p> 579<p></p><div class="view view-photo-embed view-id-photo_embed view-display-id-panel_pane_3 visual-box view-dom-id-57ec5ec26899a7a7c90b68c305f23168 grid-4 photo-object"> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/gourmet_hot_dog_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" title="Gourmet Hot Dog" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="gallery-node-56726-6cRdLD8JTgU" data-cbox-img-attrs="{"title": "", "alt": ""}"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/assets/images/photo/system/gourmet_hot_dog_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg?itok=jNv2uhE5" width="620" height="827" alt="" title="" /></a></div> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-credit"> <div class="field-content photo-credit img-credit">Jeremy Goldkorn</div> </div> <div> <div class="photo-caption img-caption"><p>A gourmet hotdog mini food truck in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, June 2026.</p></div> </div> </div> 580<p>A ride share took us to our hotelâa local chain outlet in the shitty peri-urban zone around Pudong Airport, but new and clean, and serving free espresso and oolong tea in the lobby. After dumping our stuff, we went in search of dinner. We found an outdoor square at a cross-street where a handful of people sat around plastic tables eating and drinking beer, talking loudly. Street vendors were selling fried rice with spicy Guizhou sauces, and a small restaurant run by a Uyghur family was grilling lamb and vegetable kebabs.</p> 581<p>What a relief to be gorging on street-cooked food, with no restraint or care what the hell they made it with, away from the constant American anxieties over dietâthe allergies and pickiness, the protein-maxxing and Wegovy, the authenticity-policing and foodie one-upmanship. Not on this gritty street. We shoveled wok-fired treats into our mouths like starving soldiers.</p> 582<p>Food has been good everywhere in China since the end of widespread scarcity in the late 1990s, but itâs on another level now, with all kinds of new styles and fusion cuisines. Most remarkably, the international food is excellent. There are good coffeeshops and craft burger joints everywhere, even in small towns (Shanghai is the âworldâs most compelling coffee cityâ <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-23/why-shanghai-is-the-world-s-most-compelling-coffee-city-right-now" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">according to</a> Bloomberg). I ate the best hot dogs of my life at a small food stall in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. New ice-creams (including those made by famous Chinese brands such as Moutai liquor and Wuyutai tea), snacks, baked goods, and low-calorie sports drinks are delicious.</p> 583<p>The excellent quality of the foodâand the swiftness of its arrival when ordered by appâis also connected to involution. A friend who owns a chain of restaurants told me he has to constantly offer discounts and do special promotions because all of his competitors are doing it. Chinese consumers find and buy almost everything online, and the algorithms feed them the best deals. Customers also rate restaurants ruthlessly on the apps, so lower prices do not mean a tolerance for lower quality. Every yuan is harder.</p> 584<p align="center">* * *</p> 585<p></p><div class="view view-photo-embed view-id-photo_embed view-display-id-panel_pane_2 visual-box view-dom-id-5592dedc42b66db69e50ff042ca99910 grid-8 photo-object"> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/robot_food_delivery_in_hotel_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" title="Hotel Robot Food Delivery" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="gallery-node-56711-6cRdLD8JTgU" data-cbox-img-attrs="{"title": "", "alt": ""}"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/robot_food_delivery_in_hotel_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" width="1058" height="1388" alt="" title="" /></a></div> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-credit"> <div class="field-content photo-credit img-credit">Jeremy Goldkorn</div> </div> <div> <div class="photo-caption img-caption"><p>A hotel robot delivers food ordered online from a restaurant in Yangzhou, June 2026.</p></div> </div> </div> 586<p class="dropcap">The enormous Hongqiao Railway Station, with its 16 platforms for high-speed trains, is connected to the equally enormous Hongqiao Airport. We bought our tickets at a ticket window; most people just use their phones, but we did not have our identities verified so we still needed to go to the counter. The waiting room, like all airports and railway stations in China, keeps the lighting low. In summer the air conditioning is set to 26 degrees centigrade (78.8°F), by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070712161054/http:/news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/03/content_6192841.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">2007 government decree</a>. The energy-saving temperature is just on the comfortable side of stickyâfor me. But not for my son, who grew up in the icy blasts of Tennessee climate control. Once we were on the train, though, I could have made a wide-eyed Chinamaxxing TikTok of him. We balanced coins on our seat trays as the speed hit 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour), and arrived a little too soon in Yangzhou.</p> 587<p>Yangzhou has been a commercial center and salt-trading hub since at least 500 BCE. It sits at a key node between the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, which goes all the way up to Beijing. There is a Grand Canal Museum, but it was so crowded on the Sunday that we visited that we were pushed past the exhibits too fast for my Chinese reading abilities (there was minimal English signage). No matter, the festive atmosphere was more interesting: I donât remember ever being in a history museum in China with such an enthusiastic crowd.</p> 588<p>We stayed at the Yangzhou State Guesthouse, a sprawling complex of faux traditional buildings, water features, gardens, and pavilions set alongside Slender West Lake ç¦è¥¿æ¹. The hotel is owned by the city government; itâs ballsy enough to call itself âState Guesthouseâ because former General Secretary Jiang Zemin is from Yangzhou, and judging from the photos on display, gave his blessing to the hotel. And itâs a nice place: an abundance of extremely helpful and polite staff. Also robots. There were vacuum cleaning bots and street-sweepers. They deliver room service and food bought from ecommerce platforms which couriers leave at reception.</p> 589<p>In Beijing, one restaurant manager said the robot that was worth the money was a busboy bot that moves around in a set pattern; human waiters pile trays and dirty dishes on the bot and it makes regular stops at the kitchen, where humans clear its cargo. At the cityâs spacious Olympic park, there is a humanoid robot barista who takes orders, talks, and answers questions as it prepares the coffee. But it is assisted by a human. When I asked if it was concerned by job losses caused by robots, it said: âYouâre a very deep thinker.â</p> 590<p>Also parked in the grounds of the Yangzhou State Guesthouse: a camera-clad drone or robot that looked a little like R2D2 in police livery. It was my first brush on this trip with the panopticon that the Chinese state has been constructing for more than a decade. I remember first noticing the blossoming of surveillance cameras before I left China; my wife and I used to drive around the countryside surrounding Beijing in those years, and in about 2012, I started getting speeding tickets from villages all around Hebei and Shanxi. Every small police jurisdiction had installed speed- and license plate-readers, and every time Iâd enter the reduced speed limit of a village or town, Iâd get busted by an electronic eye.</p> 591<p></p><div class="view view-photo-embed view-id-photo_embed view-display-id-panel_pane_3 visual-box view-dom-id-3138ddd4e9d42f03e99a8ecd75ac3d5e grid-4 photo-object"> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/police_robot_drone_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" title="Yangzhou Police Robot Drone" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="gallery-node-56716-6cRdLD8JTgU" data-cbox-img-attrs="{"title": "", "alt": ""}"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/assets/images/photo/system/police_robot_drone_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg?itok=PAU2LOfX" width="620" height="827" alt="" title="" /></a></div> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-credit"> <div class="field-content photo-credit img-credit">Jeremy Goldkorn</div> </div> <div> <div class="photo-caption img-caption"><p>A police robot in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, June 2026.</p></div> </div> </div> 592<p>The system is now vastly more complex. Aside from the ubiquitous cameras, it is not possible to move around a city on any form of transport or pay for anything without the apps, and they always know who and where you are. In Yangzhouâs Geyuan 个å, a lovely traditional courtyard garden of rock and bamboo, you need to watch a video advertisement and scan y
592our face to get toilet paper. Once only: the dispenser remembers who you are and wonât give you seconds. Some parts of Beijing look like a spoof science fiction film about a surveillance state: we visited a friend in a part of Haidian District where there are a lot of government buildings and housing compounds. There are horizontal bars above the street every 50 meters, each bar holding more than a dozen different camerasâwe counted them. Our friend pointed out the different types: that one reads license plates, this one is for facial recognition of pedestrians, this one scans the faces of people inside cars, that one is used for gait recognition, who knows what that odd-looking one does? His apartment complex gate no longer had security guards: During the pandemic they were replaced with face-scanners that admit only registered residents.</p> 593<p>The ever present surveillance must be one factor behind the remarkable improvement in public manners everywhere we went in China. Very little spitting, no jostling to get off planes, people seem to respect personal space much more than they used to. But itâs not just the cameras and facial recognition software. One friend in his fifties in Beijing said that the pandemic had changed everyone, but also that his parentsâ generation were mostly dead or houseboundââthey all had really rough manners because of the way China was when they were young.â WeChat and the other apps also mean thereâs far less need for physical queues, and no point in jostling to get ahead if you are in one.</p> 594<p align="center">* * *</p> 595<p class="dropcap">There is more urban space in China than there used to be. Thereâs body space because of the apps and the good manners. Malls are empty unless they have live events or lots of restaurants. In some neighborhoods, the only humans are helmeted, uniformed couriers in red or yellow jackets buzzing about on electric bikes, anxiously checking their phones to make sure theyâre not late for the next delivery. If theyâre late, they get punished by the algorithms.</p> 596<p>Online life spills onto the streets wherever there is photogenic scenery. In Yangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, and all over Yunnan, we saw flocks of young women dressed in replica historical clothing for hours-long photo shoots to create images for their social media feeds. At the same locations, you find people livestreaming sales pitches for scenic tours, cosmetics, and training services. Restaurants that get famous for a specialty dish or a visit by a famous customer (like Nvidia CEO <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jensen-huang-food-tour-beijing-7f45e7f09ce6ec17f8bd83afd600f1dc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Jensen Huang</a>) become âinternet celebrity check-in spotsâ or âmust-go selfie spotsâ (<a href="https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BD%91%E7%BA%A2%E6%89%93%E5%8D%A1%E7%82%B9/63989710" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">ç½çº¢æå¡ç¹</a>) which then attract crowds of customers whose primary aim is to get a good photo rather than try the food. The selfie economy is global, but China is the selfie superpower. (The Chinese apps also excel at âbeautification,â making the selfie photographerâs images preternaturally beautiful.)</p> 597<p>Itâs all very, very convenient, and fun. But the downsides are evident. Stay in the good books of the algorithms, and nobody on the planet in history ever had their consumption as frictionless as the Chinese consumer does right now. However, there is very little space for cultural, social, or political expressionâeven less than there was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/world/asia/a-party-girl-leads-chinas-online-revolution.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">two decades ago</a> when China only had around 100 million internet users. In 2026, you need a mobile phone to do just about anything; if you do something very naughty, your WeChat or Alipay accounts could get suspended and you will become an unperson in Chinaâs online garden of delights. The other major downside of the constant digital connection is that youâre a slave to the algorithms if you run any kind of business. This is perhaps a glimpse of Americaâs near future.</p> 598<p align="center">* * *</p> 599<p class="dropcap">From Yangzhou, we went to Hebei province and spent some time in the countryside, hiking on wild parts of the Great Wall and seeing some friends who run a small tourism business in a once-secluded valley about an hour and halfâs drive from Beijing. They seemed to be doing fine economicallyâthey had a massive new Red Flag SUVâbut, like all our friends in China, complained of involution and the slowing economy, how much more difficult it had become to earn a yuan. During the COVID pandemic, the only road into their valley was sealed off, and villagers were prohibited from leaving for nearly three years. Our friends had to hike 10 miles over a mountain, up and down several thousand feet, to buy supplies. They did it at night to avoid being caught. Thatâs long over, but their business has not recovered to pre-COVID levels. Nor has their 30-something sonâs optimism. Last time I saw him in 2014, he was raving about Jack Ma and startup culture, and he had big ideas for a tech company. Now he is working in corporate gift sales, and his entrepreneurial energy is going into his kidsâ education. âCould they get into a university overseas?â his wife asked.</p> 600<p>
600The end of Chinaâs boom years is sadly on display right in their village every day: In 2016, a real estate company in cahoots with the local government succeeded in taking over a large part of their valley. They started building an enormous apartment complex with more than a hundred high-rise buildings, a dense urban living environment in a place without public transit and no chance of ever being fully occupied. A handful of the buildings are now complete and partially occupied, but most of the project is unfinished, cranes still in place more than five years after construction stopped. We saw such ârotten buildingsâ ç尾楼, partially-built projects, everywhere in China, sad monuments to easy credit.</p> 601<p>The outskirts of the big cities we visited are also dotted with rotten buildings, but not so much in the city centers. In fact, while China felt so different in so many ways, the built environments of the cities have not changed much in the last decade. After Hebei, we spent several days in Beijing, and I walked around my old haunts in Dongcheng District (the area east of the Forbidden City) for several hours every day. My old joke used to be that if I didnât visit a part of the city for two months, there would be a new building. No longer: I can still easily navigate my way around on my 2015 mental map, no GPS required.</p> 602<p>The new boom isnât buildings: itâs advertising for AI, and a really noticeable health and exercise kick. People are working out everywhere. Thereâs a lot less smoking, and many men have started smoking slim cigarettes, what we used to call âcocktail cigarettes.â People no longer smoke in restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai, although the menâs toilets usually still smell of smoke, and smaller cities donât enforce the non-smoking rules. High-end athleisure gear is now the uniform of all my rich Chinese buddies, and everyone is dressed better all over the country, often in stylish and high-quality local brands. (The standard summer outfit for men who work for state and Communist Party organizations and for banks is still black pants, black shoes, and a short-sleeved, collared white shirt.) Local brand cosmetics and skin care products have also taken over the ground floors of department stores, and the ecommerce sites. Chinese sunscreens are widely available, and women have taken to wearing spooky-looking UV-protecting âfacekinisâ when outdoors. These have been common on <a href="https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BD%91%E7%BA%A2%E6%89%93%E5%8D%A1%E7%82%B9/63989710" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Chinese beaches</a> for more than a decade; theyâre now urban accessories.</p> 603<p>Bikes are back in Beijing and other Chinese cities. The bike-share companies have gotten their act together after years of chaos marked by disorderly streets and bicycle graveyards I <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/documentary-channel/inside-one-of-china-s-hidden-bike-sharing-bicycle-graveyards-1.6325287" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">read about from afar</a>. Colored rental bicycles are everywhere. You can pick them up wherever you find them and leave them wherever you like, and they are cheap. In Beijing especially, the bike lanes have been reinforced, and the surveillance cameras have mostly stopped cars from driving and parking in them.</p> 604<p>The digital panopticon is augmented with police officers making the rounds with their lights flashing slowly around central Beijing. My wife and daughterâs rideshare driver was stopped one afternoon for a quick document checkâa smiling cop asked to see their passports and the driverâs ID card 身份è¯. This has never happened to me previously in Beijing. One night, I sat at a bar in the restaurant and entertainment area around the Drum Tower with a friend who used to run a venue there; we counted patrolling police cars as he told me about the way the authorities had snuffed out much of the live music from the area, especially targeting foreigners. Despite the growing restrictions on cultural life of the Xi Jinping era, and the nightlife-destroying pandemic, Beijing had continued to host a small but lively rock and jazz music scene. No longer: A number of amateur foreign musicians were arrested and deported for not having the correct visas; live music venues have been persistently targeted for permit violations. The owners, my friend said, were slowly being ground down by bureaucracy.</p> 605<p>âItâs Kafka, not Orwell?â I asked.</p> 606<p>âExactly.â</p> 607<p align="center">* * *</p> 608<p align="center"></p><div class="view view-photo-embed view-id-photo_embed view-display-id-panel_pane_2 visual-box view-dom-id-e2e8b96bc2fd23c74f31124b83e6feaf grid-8 photo-object"> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-photo"> <div class="field-content"><a href="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/sinicization_of_religion_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" title="Sinicization of Religion" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="gallery-node-56721-6cRdLD8JTgU" data-cbox-img-attrs="{"title": "", "alt": ""}"><img src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/photo/system/sinicization_of_religion_jeremy_goldkorn_app_life_in_china_2026.jpg" width="5712" height="4284" alt="" title="" /></a></div> </div> <div class="views-field views-field-field-common-system-credit"> <div class="field-content photo-credit img-credit">Jeremy Goldkorn</div> </div> <div> <div class="photo-caption img-caption"><p>A propaganda slogan reads âUphold our countryâs direction of Sinicizing religions,â in Shizhongshan, Yunnan province, June 2026.</p></div> </div> </div> 609<p class="dropcap">From Beijing we flew to Lijiang, Yunnan province, and drove to a guesthouse near Shaxi, a charming market town that has been overrun by tourists, like every interesting town in that province. The mountains are quieter and we spent a few days walking around Shizhongshan, perhaps one of the loveliest temple complexes in China. Some of the stone Buddhas and depictions of royal families there are more than a millennium old, created during the Nanzhao and Dali kingdom periods. There is a large statue of a vagina that local women visit when they are pregnant and want a smooth delivery. They used to rub sesame oil on it, but that was banned because it was damaging the statue. Also banned, according to one tour guide we spoke to, was any discu
609ssion of religion or politics when introducing the shrines to tourists. That makes it rather difficult to explain anything about Shizhongshan, built by Buddhist kingdoms that were ruled independently from the Tang Dynasty.</p> 610<p>The temples at Shizhongshan displayed conspicuous signage reminding visitors to persist in the âSinicization of religionâ åææå½å®æä¸å½åæ¹å, a reference to Xi Jinpingâs <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3158590/china-tightens-control-religion-emphasis-national-security" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">policy</a> intended to ensure all religions toe the Communist Party line. There was similar propaganda at other religious sites we visited, and it was noticeable that all Arabic signage had been removed from mosques and Uyghur restaurants. One old-age home we toured in Jiangsu had a Buddhist mediation room. There used to be Christian and Muslim prayer rooms, the sales lady informed us, but those are not allowed any more. âYou can pray any way you want here,â she said, unsure why I was curious, âyou just canât have a special room for Jesus.â</p> 611<p align="center">* * *</p> 612<p class="dropcap">From Shaxi, we drove south to Dali and boarded a plane to Shanghai. The last few days of our trip. My family was exhausted after a month of travel, and Chinese hotel rooms are really comfortable now and the robots bring great food. So I spent much of the time wandering around by myself, mostly around the leafy, steamy streets of Xuhui District. Shanghai is quieter now, aside from passerby conversations and the whirr of electric cars and couriersâ e-bikes.</p> 613<p>One evening, I stopped by the Jiaotong University bookstore, which looks like a fashionable café. There was a book by Jiang Zemin that I wanted to buy, but it had no price label, and the cashier explained to me that she could not sell it because the store did not have a bar c
613ode reader. At last, in the heart of Xuhui District in Shanghai, I had found a business that had not gone completely digital.<span class="cube"></span></p> 614 </div> </div> 615 616 617 618</article> 619 620 621 </div> 622 </div> 623 </div> 624 625 <div class="l-middle l-twocol-wrapper container container-fluid"> 626 <div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-common-topic" > 627 628 629 630 <div class="field field-name-field-common-topic field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline"> 631 <div class="field-label">Topics: </div> 632 633 634 <a href="/topic/economy">Economy</a>, <a href="/topic/society">Society</a>, <a href="/topic/technology">Technology</a>, <a href="/topic/urban-life">Urban Life</a> 635 </div> 636 637 638 </div> 639<div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-common-tags" > 640 641 642 643 <div class="field field-name-field-common-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline"> 644 <div class="field-label">Keywords: </div> 645 646 647 <a href="/keyword/lifestyle">Lifestyle</a>, <a href="/keyword/quality-life">Quality of Life</a>, <a href="/keyword/chinese-economy">Chinese Economy</a>, <a href="/keyword/electric-vehicles">Electric Vehicles</a>, <a href="/keyword/public-bikes">Public Bikes</a>, <a href="/keyword/e-commerce">E-Commerce</a>, <a href="/keyword/coronavirus">Coronavirus</a> 648 </div> 649 650 651 </div> 652 </div> 653 654 <div class="l-lower-wrapper l-twocol-wrapper container"> 655 <div class="col-md-8 l-twocol-left"> 656 </div> 657 <aside class="col-md-4 l-twocol-right"> 658 </aside> 659 </div> 660</div> 661 </div> 662 663 </div> <!-- /.main-inner --> 664 </div> <!-- /#main --> 665 666 <footer id="footer" class="footer" role="footer"> 667 <div class="container"> 668 <div class="row clearfix"> 669 <div class="col-sm-4 col-md-3"> 670 <ul class="links"><li class="menu-511 first"><a href="/reporting-opinion" title="">Reporting & Opinion</a></li> 671<li class="menu-1729"><a href="/conversation" title="">Conversation</a></li> 672<li class="menu-513"><a href="/library" title="">Library</a></li> 673<li class="menu-514 last"><a href="/multimedia" title="">Multimedia</a></li> 674</ul> </div> 675 <div class="col-sm-4 col-md-3 col-sm-push-4 col-md-push-6"> 676 <ul class="social-nav"> 677 <li><a href="/about"><span class="footer-link">About</a></li> 678 <li><a href="/contact"><span class="footer-link">Contact</a></li> 679 <li><a href="/donate"><span class="footer-link">Donate</a></li> 680 </ul> 681 </div> 682 <div class="col-sm-4 col-md-6 col-sm-pull-4 col-md-pull-3"> 683 <!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form --> 684 <div id="mc_embed_signup"> 685 <form action="//chinafile.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=dd858a5b6e74ef23767d565ae&id=de2675ff34" method="post" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" class="validate" target="_blank" novalidate> 686 <div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll"> 687 <label for="mce-EMAIL">Sign up for our newsletter.</label> 688 <input type="email" value="" name="EMAIL" class="email" id="mce-EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required> 689 <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups--> 690 <div style="position: absolute; left: -5000px;"><input type="text" name="b_dd858a5b6e74ef23767d565ae_de2675ff34" tabindex="-1" value=""></div> 691 <div class="clear"><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" name="subscribe" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" class="button"></div> 692 </div> 693 </form> 694 </div> 695 <!--End mc_embed_signup--> 696 </div> 697 </div> 698 699 <div class="row footer-bar clearfix"> 700 <div class="col-md-4 col-md-push-4"> 701 <p class="footer-links"> 702 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/chinafilemagazine/" title="LinkedIn" target="_blank"><span class="icon-linkedin"></span></a> | 703 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chinafile" title="Facebook" target="_blank"><span class="icon-facebook-rect"></span></a> | 704 <a href="https://www.twitter.com/chinafile" title="Twitter" target="_blank"><span class="icon-twitter-bird"></span></a> | 705 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chinafile" title="Instagram" target="_blank"><span class="icon-instagram-filled"></span></a> | 706 <a href="https://e.weibo.com/chinafile" title="Weibo" target="_blank"><span class="icon-weibo"></span></a> | 707 <a href="https://newsie.social/@chinafile" title="Mastodon" rel="me" target="_blank"><span class="icon-mastodon"></span></a> | 708 <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/chinafile/All" title="RSS" target="_blank"><span class="icon-rss"></span></a> 709 </p> 710 </div> 711 <div class="col-md-4 col-md-pull-4"> 712 <p class="footer-logo"><a href="http://chinafile.com" class="logo-sub">ChinaFile</a></p> 713 </div> 714 <div class="col-md-4"> 715 <p class="footer-text">ChinaFile is a project of the <a title="The Asia Society homepage" href="http://www.asiasociety.org" target="_blank">Asia Society</a>.</p> 716 </div> 717 </div> 718 719 </div> 720 </footer> 721 722 <small><a href="#">Back to Top</a></small> 723</div> <!-- /#page-wrapper --> 724
724<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.chinafile.com/sites/all/modules/custom/cbox/includes/cbox.js?tlj5bb"></script>
724 725</body> 726</html>
Line numbers count LF bytes from the start of the resource, as the search results do. Vendor segments are library code the classifier recognised; they are stored but not indexed. Bytes are shown as Latin1 characters, one per byte.