When we finally touched down in Beijing, I was surprised at how state-of-the-art it was with its tall skyscrapers and wide avenues, as well as the strong presence of Western establishments such as KFC, McDonald’s, Starbucks, and the like. It was so different from how I imagined it to be. Had it not been for the bicycle lanes with hundreds of cyclists doing their daily commute and the huge bicycle parking lots dotting the cityscape, it could have been any other modern Western