Travel Guides & Tips in this video
Max Chernov travels into Tongwa district and explores a village that he finds clean, organized and technologically connected. He sees QR-code payments, visits a self-built home with a natural spring and speaks with an engineer who prefers village life for its cleaner environment and closeness to family. Locals invite Max for tea and discuss international relations, America, Russia and a preference for peace. He eats roasted chicken and notes that Chinese food varies by region, sees electric vehicles and smart glasses, visits a Mazu temple, and later picks grapes. The residents he meets focus more on family and community than international news, and the trip changes Max's view of rural China.
Next travel video:
More about the current video:()
A village home and daily life
Max Chernov drives into Tongwa district to see rural life for himself. The villages he visits are clean and organized, and he encounters technology such as QR-code payments for services. In one place, he notices that payments can be made without a visible staff member. A local resident who works as an engineer invites him into his self-built home. The house took ten years to construct, with materials shipped from afar, and includes a natural spring. It is carefully organized and gives Max a view of a kind of rural living that differs from his expectations.
The homeowner says he values village life, especially staying close to family and living in a cleaner environment, rather than moving to a large city such as Guangzhou. He works in construction and explains his perspective on choosing where to live. Max observes that people prioritize family ties and the local environment over city life and high salaries.
Tea, food and conversations with residents
During a walk, a local invites Max to have tea. The interaction becomes a conversation about daily life and international relations. The resident says he views China's relationship with Russia positively and the relationship with America as strained because of tariffs, attributing the tension to American actions. He prefers peace and says he has limited knowledge of America, associating it mainly with cars, gun violence and movies. Other locals express little interest in international news and focus on their own lives, family and community. These are the views of people Max meets, not a statement about all residents.
Max eats roasted chicken at a village restaurant and finds the meal delicious and not spicy. He notes that Chinese food differs by region. Digital payments via WeChat are used even in a rural restaurant, and the meal costs more than he expected for a village, though he considers the ingredients organic. He sees electric vehicles and high-tech glasses alongside traditional practices such as drying cabbage.
The trip also includes a Mazu temple and a grape plantation, where Max picks fresh, sweet grapes. At a gas station shop, he finds international brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Magnum ice cream. One chapter concerns what happens when an EV runs out of power in a rural area, and another includes a visit to a village home described as fancy. The combination of everyday modern conveniences, local hospitality and community life changes Max's view of the countryside.
Max also visits a rural restaurant and considers how the setting affects the price. The meal costs more than he expected for a village, but he believes the ingredients are organic. He sees roasted chicken as a regional dish that differs from assumptions that all Chinese food is spicy. QR payments continue to appear in rural settings, showing how digital payment can be part of daily errands away from a major city. The presence of electric vehicles and smart glasses alongside dried cabbage illustrates how new technology and older routines coexist.
The homeowner's property includes a basement, which Max explores during his visit. The chapter sequence also includes an interaction with an older woman that raises a question of politeness, without changing his overall description of the community. At the gas station shop, he is surprised to find Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Magnum ice cream, brands he associates with international markets. Later, picking grapes at the plantation gives him a simple experience of rural life and local produce. He also considers what happens when an electric vehicle runs out of power in the countryside, a practical issue raised during the journey.
The trip ends with Max returning toward the city after visiting homes, a restaurant, temple and plantation. He says the people he meets focus on family and peace rather than international news, and he is surprised by how normal and organized the villages feel. His conclusions are based on his conversations and observations during this particular visit, but they lead him to reconsider the way media portray rural China.
FAQs (From the traveler's perspective)
- Q: What surprised Max about the villages?
- A: He finds the villages clean and organized, with QR-code payments and other technology in use. These details differ from the image of rural poverty he had expected.
- Q: What did the local engineer say about village life?
- A: The engineer says he prefers village life because of the cleaner environment and the chance to stay close to family, despite working in construction.
- Q: How did the locals Max met view America and international relations?
- A: The people he speaks with discuss tariffs and tensions with America, while expressing a preference for peace. Max also says many residents he meets focus on family and daily life rather than global news.
- Q: What was the roasted chicken meal like?
- A: Max enjoys the roasted chicken and says it is not spicy. He notes that regional Chinese cuisines vary and that WeChat payment is used even in the village restaurant.
- Q: What international brands did Max find in rural China?
- A: He sees Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Magnum ice cream at a remote gas station shop, which surprises him during the village trip. He finds the range of familiar products surprising because the shop is in a rural area rather than a large city, and mentions all three brands as examples of what is available.
- Q: How did the trip change Max's view of rural China?
- A: Max says the visit was eye-opening. He meets friendly people who seem content with their lives and focused on their communities, challenging the negative stereotypes he had seen in Western media.
