My very superficial impressions of America

From a tourist’s perspective, America is the most unmysterious country in the world with all its brands spreading aggressively to every obscure corner of the world. Maybe you can’t live for one day without using a made-in-China product; I can’t live for one day without using an American brand. For example, right now I’m typing in Microsoft word.

Traveling in America is a journey of verifying what you have seen or heard from the media. So what’s it really like?

McDonald’s – where have all the KFCs gone? To China I guess.

Highways – no wonder road movie has become a specific genre.

Over-weighted people – ah.. seeing is believing!

Made-in-China – 99% of the products in souvenir stores are made in China.

Speaking of shopping, an old lady in our tour group said contemptuously, with a strong feeling of superiority, which was typical of Shanghainese, that they had more boutiques in Shanghai, why bother buying from the US? She was right. In Shanghai, people have more options with brands from Japan to Korea, from America to Europe. It’s more international in a certain way.

Back home, the first thing I did was to order some Sichuan dishes which I’d been hankering after during the trip. The restaurant was noisy and boisterous; the food was hot and spicy. At that moment I realized it was my stomach that decided where I chose to live; nothing else mattered.