written in Chinese characters only, B: only available on paper, and C: never seemed to match the actual bus arrival times. The metro? Forget about it. There was none.3. Before: When it came to getting your daily dose of English language news, you had two options: a) wait a week for the International Herald Tribune to arrive, or b) log onto your VPN and hope the connection held long enough to load the BBC News website.4. Before: China was a cash-only society. Credit cards? Ha! You might as well have been asking for a unicorn to appear. If you wanted to buy something, you had to have the cash on hand.5. Before: If you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to the cinema. There was no streaming services like Netflix, no Amazon Prime Video, and no online movie ticketing.6. Before: The only food delivery option was Pizza Hut.7. Before: The pollution in Beijing was so bad that people would wear masks outside just to protect themselves. And honestly, it was a good idea.
