in the digital and mobile software space and how they can transform society, i am seeing China a year and a half ahead of US and Japan (and quite a bit ahead of Europe). Same in infrastructure where it's decade ahead of the US. No one I know in the cities in China actually carries cash any more. Often I the foreigner am the only one carrying cash. Living without WeChat is pretty much impossible to the extent i have it on my phone explicitly to talk to my Chinese colleagues. If you have a reasonable Alibaba credit score, you don't need any financial paperwork to get visas etc.