As much as that might be true to some degree, I doubt most people are comparing China's best to their grandparent's collapsed barnhouse in the boonies. The best I've seen (NYC is the best I'll publicly mention, but also a few other east coast cities) basically look like Ravenholm compared to the photos/videos of what's coming out of China.
Is that a fair sample. Foreigners tend to visit the best bits of anywhere and China is a very big and varied country.
> The amount of tech and the level of integration are unbelievable.
Also dystopian as it enables government control and monitoring. In many ways China is ahead in things I do not want to happen.