DA

I live in Shanghai and travel across remote parts of China. It’s been 14 years. Let me say this clearly! You do NOT need to hitchhike in China like @lexfridman did. China is not some 1990s “eat, pray, backpack for survival” fantasy movie people project onto it. Travel in China is incredibly affordable. You take a high-speed train for the price of a dinner in many Western countries and suddenly you’re sitting next to farmers, workers, students, grandparents, entrepreneurs, people from every corner of the country. Or you hail a taxi or order a car from your app and that IS the real experience. You do not need to stand on roads pretending suffering is cultural depth. People glorifying “broke hitchhiker backpacker culture” in China seriously need to update their mental image of the country. China has one of the most advanced transportation systems on Earth. You can go from megacities to remote mountains faster than some people commute to work in the West. And no, hitchhiking is not even a thing in China. I tried it once years ago because I got off the bus in the middle of no where with no proper signal and ended up hitch-hiking where I had to pay at the end of the ride anyway lol. Chinese people are genuinely polite. But watching people on X glorify foreigner interaction as if a random backpacker discovering noodles in a county town is a historic diplomatic achievement is strange. China does not need validation from every wandering foreign guy with a camera and a podcast voice. It is 2026. China is a global economic power, not a gap-year or taking time off kinda personality test for pretending to be broke backpackers trying to “find themselves” while sleeping around, getting drunk, and acting like basic human interaction is some spiritual awakening. Someone like Lex hitchhiking in China doesn’t even look adventurous. It looks performative and uneducated. If you want the chaotic backpacker-hitchhiking aesthetic, Southeast Asia already exists for that culture. China is different. Respect the difference. Chinese people, please stop putting every foreigner on a pedestal just because they can say “ni hao” or use translation apps. You’re better than this. China is not desperate for outsider approval anymore whether they are famous or not, and acting starstruck over every foreign traveler only reinforces an old stereotype that should have died decades ago.