Not sure if I completely agree with that characterization, it could be you ended up in a dirty area.
On China’s behalf, I would say the country is very crowded, and very ancient. Thousands of years, of a huge number of people all packed together, look different than a relatively young country with a rich background.
What I am most concerned about is, that businesses in China don’t build or support America. All the businesses which go to China become minority players there.
Everything gets taken over, by China. All of it.
We need to bring back businesses, and compete from here.
IMO.
Had a friend that went over there for a month. Was really excited to go. Came back completely grossed out because of hygiene issues. He said he saw restaurants take bowls used by customers dump the contents and reuse the bowls for new customers without washing them.
See my response to cringing cat.
My husband and I went to China in 1981. It was a great tour and I enjoyed it. Our guide was a "Mr. Chu." He had a few too many on one of the days of the tour and danced...so, NATURALLY, we called him "Cha-cha-CHU" fron that day on.
Anyway, we got to Shanghai, the "best" city in China at the time. We got to the YELLOW RIVER, its name at the time, and I asked the guide, quite innocently: What is that smell?
He answered: "Madame, that is the smell of 12.5 million people going to the bathroom twice a day."
So, I know about China's problem with cleanliness. The problem is that cleanliness COSTS. The Chinese will spend OODLES of money on education, real estate and cars. Maintaining "face" is VERY important to them.
CLEANILESS gives them NOTHING tangible. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is a Judeo-Christian ethic, not a Chinese one.
[Simplified Chinese: 黄浦江; traditional Chinese: 黃浦江; pinyin: Huángpǔ Jiāng, formerly Whampoa and Whangpoo,[citation needed] lit "Yellow Bank River") is a 113 kilometres (70 mi)-long river in China flowing through Shanghai.]
China IS changing but I SERIOUSLY doubt that it will change its attitude about cleanliness. As per what the Chinese say about themselves, they believe in TWO things and TWO things only: LUCK and MONEY.
Finally, a good way to measure a country is how it treats its women. Lol. For the Chinese baby-girl infanticide is NORMAL. Girls are worthless; boys are keepers. THAT is why the 2-baby doctrine may become a reality.
Does the Chinese government REALLY believe that a family would KEEP TWO baby girls? Hah.
My husband and I had five years of travel all over the world. He worked for ARAMCO and their pay was obscene.
I came to a conclusion.
I lived in Mexico City for two years (1971-73), following my "roots." See Alex Haley. After living there two years I came home, NOT being able to tolerate Mexcio's FOUR root problems, the four "p's": politics, police, poverty, pollution. I thought Mexico was the filthiest country in the world.
THEN my husband and I went to live in Saudi Arabia ((1980). THEN I thought that Saudi Arabia and the middle east, where we traveled on our copious vacation time, were the FILTIEST places on the planet.
THEN, husband and I traveled to India. We KNEW we would NEVER, EVER get back to those places again. After a three-week tour of India, I thought that INDIA was the filthiest place in the world.
THEN we went to China. We both thought that CHINA was the filthiest place in the world. To this day CHINA wins the award of the filthiest country on the planet.
THEN I read about all the naysayers who say that China has changed!!! It's wonderful!!! They never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever say: WHAT a clean country.
You want pristine? Go to Switzerland. In China you will still discover what is most important to China: luck and money. When CLEAN is free, you will see CLEAN in China...and not a day sooner.