 China, a land of rich history, culture, and now roaring economic success. Arguably the most people moving into higher standards of living. I just came back from doing interviews in China and my mind was blown. The hospitality was incredible. The geography was gorgeous. The technology was cutting edge. People carrying a deep meaning and purpose in life. The spirit of China has a profound connection to Confucianism and Taoism which feels like it permeates all man society, ethics, nature, and the universe. Nighttime dancing was common in plazas and outside train stations. Exercise equipment was built into parks. Five, six, okay. So this is very good. This is very good that you have these lists because this is one of the most... I surrounded myself mostly with leadership and students of Peking University in Beijing and Westlake University in Hangzhou. Have you ever noticed how Harvard and MIT are a couple kilometers from each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts? Peking and Tsinghua University are just like that as they are top-tier schools in China and geographically close in Beijing. I'm keeping a close eye on funnels like these for the world's most brilliant young minds. I was impressed by how focused these schools are on fundamental science. Many are trying to push the edges of fields like physics, math, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, computer science, and translate their work to real-world applications that benefit society at large. These schools have a very rigorous entrance testing system called the Gao-Kao. Many are the only child in their families representing two parents and four grandparents. Many following the global trend of moving from rural to metro areas for opportunities. The hierarchical pressure to succeed on behalf of the family is crucial, similarly with finding a great career, spouse, and housing continuing the cycle of life. This was a big change in pace from the more laid-back entrepreneurial spirit of California. At times it felt like the Chinese socioeconomic machinery was just picking up steam while the USA was getting overly comfortable. The USA is a melting pot of diverse cultures from around the world while China is quite homogenous. Other big differences are how old China is. The center of Beijing has the Forbidden City which for almost 500 years served as the home of emperors and the political center of the Chinese government. Given China's massive population, their focus on frictionless transportation has been one of their biggest payoffs. The high-speed rail reaches speeds over 300 kilometers an hour, almost 190 miles per hour, transiting people efficiently between major cities. Another major technology difference was their adaptation of quick response QR codes which people used to scan for adding each other as contacts, paying vendors. Basically QR codes are everywhere. Their focus on facial recognition technology was fascinating. Students at Beijing University were using their faces to enter the campus. One of the most interesting takeaways from this entire video is the great firewall of China. Set up over 20 years ago, by blocking domestic access to foreign information sources, China experienced a forcing function which nurtured their domestic internet economy. This created some of the most important internet companies that every person should be aware of. Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, Sina, ByteDance, Billy Billy, NetEase, Didi, Xiaomi, Huawei, BYD, DJI, Juhu, and many more. If you haven't heard of these companies, take the time to research each of them. It would be like if someone had never heard of Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Netflix, Uber, Tesla, etc. This roaring economic success is helping China clean up their air pollution, electrify their transit, modernize their city centers, care more for recycling and composting, and just build a ridiculous amount of infrastructure. But nothing in the world right now compares to the Belt and Road Initiative, which has been called the greatest economic development project of the 21st century. Over the next 30 years, China is planning to make massive investments in infrastructure development in over 150 countries in the world. Again, this is something you absolutely must familiarize yourself with. China's focus on running these interesting experiments seems unparalleled. The last one I will list is Westlake University in Hangzhou, where we did our second round of partnership interviews. They are founded with the vision of becoming a world-class research institution that is tackling immense challenges like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They are conducting some of the most cutting-edge science I've ever seen in my life and attracting some of the world's most brilliant minds to China. To me, it looks like the blueprint of public-private partnerships that can hopefully be replicated around the world to refocus civilization on advancing science, technology, and philosophy to the next levels. But my biggest takeaway is, I urge you to travel to China. Experience their rich history, culture, and roaring economic success. Make friends there and urge them to travel to the United States. Travel eradicates xenophobia, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Plus, there is a lot that the two countries can do to learn from each other.