With the 2008 Olympics approaching, more and more foreigners are coming to China.

Cole and his family flew from London, England to China's capital early on, planning to visit the ancient and mysterious country before the 2008 Olympics.

In the minds of Cole and his family, China is a country with a large population, vast territory, abundant resources, and an extremely long history.

In Marco Polo's Travels, China was described as an incredibly rich and powerful Eastern country, so rich that it exceeded even the limits of what Westerners could imagine at the time.

By the 19th century, however, China had become a country that could be trampled upon at will by Western powers.

However, Napoleon, the King of France, once said: "China is a sleeping lion. When it awakens, the whole world will tremble!"

Today, China has done it. Since the reform and opening up, China has only taken 30 years to stand at the top of the world and become the world's largest economy!

Cole Maggiore was curious about how China had done it, and also about China's culture and history.

When the plane landed at the capital airport, Cole and his family were shocked.

The modern, large airport that comes into view resembles a phoenix spreading its wings in shape, and its interior is like a giant white tennis racket, exuding a high-end and sophisticated feel. Inside, the airport is packed with people and extremely busy.

Compared to the airport in China's capital, London Airport feels so outdated!

After collecting their luggage, Cole and his family checked the signs and found that they could leave the airport via the subway, airport bus, airport express, and other means of transportation, making it very convenient.

After discussing it, Cole and his family decided to take the subway to downtown the capital.

However, when they were about to buy subway tickets, they suddenly felt a little lost.

Because they couldn't find a ticket seller...

However, many people walked straight to the subway entrance turnstiles, scanned their smartphones, and the turnstiles opened.

What's going on?

How did the turnstile open?

Cole Maggiore and his family didn't understand and found it very strange...

Soon, a subway worker seemed to notice the plight of Cole Maggiore and his family.

"Hello, do you need any help? I am a subway staff member."

During the Olympics, a large number of foreign tourists flocked to China, and the subway department specially recruited many employees who were fluent in English.

At that moment, the staff member's fluent English made Cole and his family feel very welcome.

“Hello, we don’t know where to buy subway tickets? We’ve been looking for ages but haven’t found a ticket seller…” Cole Maggiore asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry sir, we don't have ticket sellers here, but we have automatic ticket machines. You can buy subway tickets with cash!" After saying that, the staff member said that he could take them to the automatic ticket machines.

The Cole-Majorie family expressed their gratitude. While the UK does have automated ticket machines, they are fewer in number, and manual ticketing remains the norm. Subconsciously, the Cole-Majorie family believes that China is not as developed as the UK, and ticket sales still rely on manual labor.

In fact, China is much more advanced.

That's a bit of a slap in the face.

Soon, Cole Maggiore and his group arrived at the automatic ticket machines. They had passed by here before, but hadn't really noticed it.

While waiting in line, Cole Maggiore glanced at the screen and noticed that the text was in both Chinese and English, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

During his observation, he discovered that while some people used cash to buy tickets, many others took out their smartphones and scanned the QR code on the screen, and were actually able to buy subway tickets!

Cole Magiori, from a developed country, was completely dumbfounded.

He had no idea why there was no mobile payment or QR code payment in the UK.

Of course, he could roughly tell that scanning a QR code on a payment page with a smartphone was a new payment method, and he would ask the subway staff about it later.

Soon it was Cole Maggiore's turn to buy a ticket, and following the instructions of the automatic ticket machine, he quickly purchased a subway ticket.

The subway ticket is a coin-shaped magnetic card, which he saw others using at the subway entrance turnstiles.

After buying his ticket, Cole Maggiore approached the staff, thanked them again, and then asked the question that had been bothering him.

"It's so strange, why can some people buy subway tickets without cash, just by taking out their phones and scanning the QR code on the payment page?"

Upon hearing this, the subway staff couldn't help but laugh, feeling a surge of pride. They thought to themselves, "Britain is so backward! They don't even have mobile payment yet..."

He then explained, "That's a mobile payment method. You can scan the QR code on the page with your phone to make a payment. In our country, mobile payment has become very common. Now, when we go out, including eating out, taking a taxi, shopping, seeing a doctor, etc., we basically don't use cash anymore. It's extremely convenient! For example, I haven't used cash for more than half a year!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Cole and his family were all dumbfounded and felt incredulous.

Oh my God!! Has China really become this developed?!

They don't use cash anymore!

Cole Marjorie's original sense of superiority as a member of the British Empire seemed to vanish instantly at this moment, replaced by a sense of inferiority.

“By the way, sir, I noticed that some people can pass through the turnstiles at the subway entrance without buying tickets. Why is that?” Cole Maggiore asked again.

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