I personally think the title “cultural shock” is not really applicable here as I am not “shocked” by the changes I see in China. However, there must be differences between two cultures and by understanding this cultural shock will just become mere cultural difference. So, here I will talk about several significant differences among Americans and local Chinese.

Most people know China is a developing country and people are getting richer and richer nowadays. However, you will be surprised by the purchasing power of middle-classed Chinese people. In New Mart, everything selling there is brand-name product and at a fairly high price. Considering you can make yourself completely full with Y6-Y10 at school cafeteria, people spend hundreds or even thousands on sneakers, perfumes, watches, and even umbrellas. This also reflects the desire of Chinese people to show off their wealth and social class. (Maybe this is the only part I get shocked.)

American students are fearless against the appreciation of Chinese Renminbi. Even though the exchange rate is climbing up quickly and quietly, we never doubt ourselves from spending money on food and ice cream and … and diet coke. However, the graduate students lead a less materialistic life. They usually eat in school cafeteria instead of going to restaurants almost everyday. Offering to pay for the bill may be a huge mental struggle. Maybe we should step back and forget about the exchange rate and spend like a local.

Most restaurants serve only family-styled dishes, so splitting up the bill can be a hassle. American students don’t have a lot of trouble about how to pay for the bill, usually just dividing it up. However, sometimes eating with graduate students in small group can be frustrating. They will offer to pay for your meal and prevent you from paying it. My solution is that you can gladly accept that if the bill is not big in Chinese standard and claim that you will pay for the bill next time. This works perfectly fine for me throughout the program.

As you may know, Dalian is considered as a mid size city, but the number of people there is definitely not small. The picture below explains everything. It is not easy to find a peaceful place with minimal people and noise in Dalian.

Most of the graduate students start their work from 8:30am and end at about 9pm. Their eating times are a lot earlier than ours. They will have lunch at 11:00am and dinner at 4:30pm. To us, it is the biggest difference that we almost never compromise. We usually dine at 12:00pm and 6/7pm for lunch and dinner. Moreover, they usually mix work and games and web-surfing. This provides quite a lot of distraction on at least one of the REU students.

Traffic is a really big problem in China, especially in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The road design is poor and drivers can’t prevent themselves from breaking rules like crossing lanes recklessly and occasionally running on opposite lanes. Bikes are used so extensively that they have to use the same road as the cars. Because of the crowdness and rush, pedestrians also disobey the traffic rule. They will cross the street whenever, wherever, and however they want. Being in China for a week will make you appreciate the American drivers.

The hygiene condition in China is of great variation. You can expect places ranging extremely clean to extremely dirty. The airports in China provide a good model for American airports on cleanliness. However, the fish market and some local food markets are not somewhere you want to stay there so too long unless you are very into the products there.

It is not the typical food you taste in U.S. There are so many varieties of food you can experience in Dalian. Sichuan food, meat sticks, Peking duck, Cantonese food, and so on. Not surprisingly, the western food served in Dalian is incredibly expensive compared to local food and the taste may not be as good as the ones you taste in U.S. (e.g. PizzaHut). The piece of advice is to try out more local Chinese food and so next time you can go to an American Chinese restaurant and say, “come on, this is not Chinese food!”