OPINION: A World Within a World | My Personal Experience in China

By Cory Wayland

There are places you hear about, places you dream of visiting, and then there are places that completely change the way you see the world. China did that to me, and, apparently, it intended to leave nothing out. Not even the toilet.

Yes, the toilet. But let me get there.

Travelling thousands of miles from my small Caribbean home of Antigua and Barbuda, I expected a different culture, unfamiliar food and a few impressive sights. I knew there would be plenty to learn. What I had not prepared myself for was how often I would find myself looking around, shaking my head and thinking, “Well, look at this.”

From Beijing to Kashi in Xinjiang, and onward to Shandong, including Linyi City, the journey kept giving me another reason to be amazed.

The infrastructure was top tier. The technology felt out of this world. The customer service came close to perfect. There was more history than my mind could comfortably remember, hotels that made me feel as though someone had mistaken me for a celebrity, and food that deserves considerably more space than I can reasonably give it here.

Just when I thought I had seen the thing I would talk about most when I returned home, we would arrive somewhere else.

Before this visit, much of what I knew about China came from international news reports, social media, documentaries and conversations. I had expectations, as most people do when travelling somewhere unfamiliar.

But there is a difference between seeing a country on a screen and standing in it. A photograph gives you a view. Being there gives you the sounds, the movement, the temperature, and occasionally a moment so unexpected that you forget whatever sensible observation you were about to make.

China gave me plenty of those moments.

One of the first things that caught my attention was the infrastructure. The buildings, the facilities and the scale of the places we visited were impressive. I kept thinking about what it must have taken to plan, build and maintain them.

Coming from Antigua and Barbuda, I could hardly avoid making comparisons. Not because I expected our small island nation to reproduce everything before me, but because seeing something work well naturally makes you wonder what could work at home.

We have different resources, different circumstances and our own priorities. Still, I found myself asking whether we give enough thought to what we want our country to look like years from now, and what we are prepared to do today to get there.

Those were the serious thoughts.

Then I would return to the hotel and be distracted by the fact that even the bathroom seemed more technologically prepared for my arrival than I was.

Imagine approaching a toilet and watching its lid rise without you touching it.

Excuse me? You knew I was coming?

I had travelled all that way expecting to learn about innovation, and there it was, waiting in the bathroom. I could appreciate the impressive buildings and modern facilities, but something about that little encounter made the technology feel especially real. It had reached into an ordinary part of the day and given me a story to carry home.

The hotels themselves were another experience. The comfort, the presentation, the attention to detail, I felt as though I was getting a small taste of a celebrity stay. There were moments when simply returning to the room felt like an event.

And the service matched.

As someone who works in customer service, I notice how people are treated. I notice the welcome, the response to a request, the patience and the willingness to help. Those details matter because they can shape someone's impression of an entire visit.

The hospitality I experienced added so much to the journey. Being far from home, in unfamiliar surroundings, a helpful person can make a greater difference than they probably realise.

I returned with an even stronger appreciation for that part of my own work. At home, I am often helping to shape someone else's arrival. In China, I was reminded how it feels to be the person hoping for a warm welcome and a little guidance.

Of course, no amount of good service could entirely prepare me to sit in a vehicle and allow it to drive without someone at the wheel.

Now, I have heard about driverless vehicles. I had seen videos. I understood the idea.

But understanding the idea and settling yourself into the seat are two different things.

You sit down, look around and realise that you are about to place your confidence in technology in a very direct way. Suddenly, you are paying close attention to the journey. Every movement becomes interesting.

And there I was, being carried along.

I joked that I had trusted a bus with no driver more than I had ever trusted myself. Honestly, the experience earned that joke.

It also made me think. Technologies that can seem distant when we discuss them at home were things I could experience during this visit. They raised practical questions about what our young people need to learn and how we prepare them for a changing world.

Then we visited the primary school, and some of those questions became even more pressing.

Music. Art. Agriculture. Robotics.

Yes, children learning to make robots in primary school.

I had to pause on that one.

What impressed me was the opportunity those children had to discover different abilities early. They could explore, create and gain practical experience alongside their academic work.

And then a third-grade pupil could lead a tour.

Third grade, and already helping guide visitors with a confidence that left me impressed.

Watching that child, I thought about the opportunities we give children to speak, explain and take responsibility. Confidence needs somewhere to grow. So does curiosity.

That school visit stayed with me because I could picture children at home benefiting from similar opportunities. We have bright, creative, capable young people in Antigua and Barbuda. I want them to have the chance to discover just how capable they are.

Let them try the instrument. Let them grow something. Let them build the robot and work out why it will not move.

Somewhere in those experiences, a child may find an interest that changes the course of their life.

I know one school cannot represent every classroom in China. But I can speak about what I saw and the impression it left on me. I left wanting more practical and creative opportunities for our own children.

Education should prepare them for examinations, certainly. It should also give them the confidence and skills to do something with what they know.

And while I am speaking about creativity, I have to get to that performing arts theatre.

Oh boy.

I went in expecting to watch a performance. I did not expect to spend so much time trying to work out what the stage was doing.

The performers were captivating, but so was everything happening around them. Props appeared, disappeared and fell into place. Trees moved aside. Sections of the stage rose and lowered.

I would be following the performance and then catch myself thinking, “Wait. Where did that come from?”

Then something else would move.

“Hold on. Where is that going?”

Everything seemed to have its cue. The stage itself had a role to play, and it was taking that role very seriously.

Mhm. I was amazed.

The precision made me appreciate how many skills were working together in front of us. Beyond the performers were people responsible for the design, the movement, the timing and all the technical details that allowed the production to unfold.

I thought about our own singers, dancers, actors, musicians and creative people. We have talent. Watching that production made me imagine what more of our artists could achieve with stronger facilities, technical support and opportunities to develop their craft.

I would love to see what they could do with a stage like that.

Technology and modern facilities gave me plenty to marvel at, but the history brought a different kind of wonder.

Visiting the Great Wall of China was one of the moments when the distance I had travelled really settled on me.

For years, I had seen it in photographs and on television. Then I was there, looking at it for myself, a young man from Antigua and Barbuda standing before something he had known about long before he ever imagined making the journey.

There are moments when you reach for your camera immediately. There are others when you need to look first and let yourself understand that you are actually there.

The Great Wall gave me that feeling.

Its scale, its history and the thought of the people whose labour helped create it were difficult to take in all at once. Across the journey, there were so many places and stories to learn about that I sometimes wondered how much more information my mind could hold.

I wanted to remember everything. My memory had its own ideas.

Still, even when the details were difficult to retain, the sense of wonder remained.

Xinjiang offered another experience altogether. The landscapes, architecture, cultural influences and communities gave that part of the journey a character of its own.

So did the cold.

Coming from Antigua and Barbuda and waking up to temperatures close to freezing will get your attention quickly. Seeing my breath in the air was a small but memorable reminder that I was a long way from Caribbean warmth.

Beyond the temperature, I appreciated the opportunity to encounter different traditions, clothing, foods and aspects of community life. Moving between destinations made it increasingly clear how little of a country this large could be understood through a single place.

Our visits to Islamic institutions offered opportunities to learn about aspects of the religious and cultural heritage of Muslim communities in the region. As someone who values faith, I found those experiences meaningful.

I also recognised the limits of my visit. A short, organised programme could not give me a complete understanding of religious or social life in Xinjiang. I could appreciate what I was shown while recognising that there were experiences and perspectives I had not encountered.

Our community visit and the welcome extended to us added another personal dimension to the trip. Those interactions mattered alongside the larger attractions.

Then there was the International Grand Bazaar, with its colours, clothing, goods and lively atmosphere.

Naturally, there was shopping to be done. I will not pretend I went there only to stand around making cultural observations.

But there was also pleasure in simply looking, noticing unfamiliar designs and taking in the surroundings. A marketplace can give you so much to absorb before you have purchased a single thing.

And then, sooner or later, the conversation would return to food.

Gosh, the food.

I could try to be restrained about it, but that would not accurately reflect my experience.

The variety, the flavours, the presentation, meals became something to look forward to in their own right. There was always the curiosity of what would come next and the enjoyment of discovering something unfamiliar.

I love our Caribbean food. That was never in question. But I thoroughly enjoyed having my appetite introduced to new possibilities.

Some parts of a trip are easy to describe. Others make you wish you could hand the reader a plate and say, “Here. Now you understand.”

The food was one of those parts.

Yet, alongside all that enjoyment, there were frustrations. The difficulty accessing familiar online platforms was among the biggest.

Imagine being in a country where you have an internet connection, but services you depend on for communication and work are suddenly difficult or impossible to access.

The connection is there. The usual routine is gone.

As someone working in journalism and social media, I felt that disruption keenly. Keeping in touch and getting things done required adjustments I would rather not have had to make.

It was especially striking after seeing so much advanced technology. The contrast gave me questions about access to information, communication and personal freedom that remain part of my reflection on the trip.

I enjoyed China enormously. I can also say that this aspect was challenging. Both belong in an honest account of my experience.

The Training Program for Self-Media Opinion Leaders from Caribbean Countries, organised by the China Public Diplomacy Association, gave us opportunities to learn, exchange ideas and experience different aspects of the country.

Sharing the journey with other Caribbean representatives made it even more meaningful. We had our own national experiences, but also familiar points of reference as we considered what we were seeing.

Media engagements, including China Today, were particularly interesting to me because of my work.

Journalism asks us to describe places and events to people who may never experience them firsthand. That carries a responsibility to observe carefully and to be clear about what we know.

An organised visit provides a particular window into a country. I was grateful for what that window allowed me to see, while remaining aware that there was much beyond it.

Two weeks did not make me an expert on China. It gave me experiences, questions and a much stronger desire to keep learning.

It also gave me plenty to consider about Antigua and Barbuda.

I thought about our schools while watching children explore practical skills. I thought about our artists while the theatre transformed before my eyes. I thought about our service standards while experiencing the care extended to us.

We cannot take another country's circumstances and simply make them our own. But we can pay attention to useful ideas and ask how they might serve us.

Our children deserve opportunities to discover their abilities. Our creative people deserve spaces in which to develop theirs. Our public facilities deserve careful planning and maintenance, and the people who use them deserve to be considered from the beginning.

Those thoughts followed me home.

So did the memories: standing before the Great Wall, sitting in a vehicle with no driver, watching a third-grade pupil lead a tour and trying to keep up with a stage that seemed determined to surprise me at every turn.

I returned with admiration, questions and considerably more to talk about than anyone probably expected.

China was impressive, complicated, fascinating and occasionally frustrating. It made me laugh, made me think and repeatedly left me amazed.

Travelling there reminded me how much exists beyond the places and routines I know. It also made me look at home with fresh eyes and imagine more of what could be possible here.

And yes, after all the history, the classrooms, the performances and the technology, I am still telling people about that toilet.

I went to China expecting to be welcomed. I simply did not expect the bathroom to join in.