For the record, most online "news" sites are actually registered as "entertainment" venues - hence the general absence of journalistic integrity. They may carry allegedly reputed sources such as Reuters, AP etc - but the sites themselves are "entertainment", so shouldn't be construed as actual news.

@vetimo
Thanks for the video compilation link. Nice. Colossal waste of finance though.

Metro used to be a regular bulk buying stop for us until we gradually replaced it with Taobao, Tmall, and jd (pinduoduo et al).

You can buy international cheese, steak, beef, burger patties, tortilla chips, salsa, cereals, etc ad infinitum. For Italian goods (wine, cheese etc) there's a company which advertises and is listed on gokm.

We used Metro's online service a couple of times - but for regular groceries and liquids (from detergents to beverages) - Hema (alibaba's online and brick & mortar grocery store) et al and skip the parking and crowds.

Wet markets for fresh vegetables, meat, fish, poultry...

Also - if you like the ingredients etc at Salvadors, you can ask to buy their cheese, tortilla chips, etc and they can usually facilitate, so I don't really see the value of Metro for our family's paltry needs.

Plus - deliveries are to our door - so no need to stuff everything into the car, taxi, e-bike then haul it up the stairs (old apartment).

Wicker Baskets (they have several locations) also have cheese, tobasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bread, canned soup, canned tuna/fish, and my favorites - sausages, beef and chicken pot pies, coffee, apple pies, sliced bacon, and sliced ham...in addition to their restaurant at competitive prices and we've always found their service outstanding (better than excellent). If only Wicker Basket had a delivery service and an online store...

The USA is a great country, with great people - however its politicians and political allies have a rather bad habit of finger pointing and scape goating for political gain, and then end up spastically poking themselves in the eye. China responds to finger pointing in kind, for which it is globally and grandly condemned and criticized. Expats are merely collateral damage from the pervading nationalistic sentiment and international power plays for hegemony or supremacy.

That said - China continues to be the industrial capital of the world with a focus on the belt and road revival with a goal to be a competitive financial center and influencer.

While many may bemoan the current state - please remember Chinese businesses (such as the cram schools) are also suffering as the country realigns itself. Also bear in mind that despite the western rhetoric - China sustainably eliminated poverty for over 600 million rural residents over the last 20 years. That's twice the population of the USA, with half the GDP.

The western model of IPO and finance is steeped in corporate greed, corruption and an inestimable lack of social responsibility. The current trend of reigning in the rampant profiteering of tech giants, to encourage them to balance rampant profiteering with social responsibility to both it's employees and the communities they serve is a debatably welcome and long overdue act of sustainable social engineering.

Expats have been and will always be guests in whichever country they choose to live. That's the price one pays. I suspect in the distant future, China will slowly open up it's immigration rules to also allow citizenship, beyond the debatably difficult to get green card (perhaps that's just a Yunnan thing, due to lack of training or motivation).

You mean that country that invested over USD 80 billion in taxpayer monies and countless military and civilian lives for over 20 years to force create a middle eastern democracy, then abruptly left a few days ago (a la Vietnam style), leaving behind millions to billions of dollars of ...blah blah blah...and they still can't effectively control the rolling nationwide COVID pandemics at home.

Meanwhile, California is on fire...again...literally...