China is honestly light years ahead of the US. I live in one of the most expensive cities in the US and am here on vacation for a month traveling through China and it is insane how far ahead of us they are. From the high speed rail system that I have been using to go from city to city, the absolute cleanliness everywhere, no crime, no worry about getting pick pocketed/mugged, nice friendly people, no homelessness, no tent cities, affordable/cheap prices for food and basic necessities. Every little town I pass I the high speed line had massive construction going on from high density apartments to infrastructure. Honestly the only complaints I have is that the entire country is hot as balls right now and the food situation is a bit rough as a person who's both vegan and a somewhat picky eater, they only seem to have mainly Chinese food everywhere and as good as it is I need some variety in my diet and it is hard finding all vegan places as well.
I honestly I have now come to realize that the reason we are so strongly propagandized against China in the US is that it would break the average Americans brain if you saw how well they are living here compared to the absolute under-devoloped shit we put up with in the US.
Ask me any questions you have and I can also post pics if interested!
{我只吃素菜 | Wǒ zhǐ chī sù cài} "I Only Eat Vegetarian Food" and { 你们有素菜吗 | Nǐ men yǒu sù cài ma?} "Do you have vegetarian food?" have been my go to phrases when my brain's too busted to speak the Mandarin I do know. If all else fails you can always hit them with the { 我不能吃肉 | Wǒ bù néng chī ròu} which is "I don't eat meat"
This sounds like you'll inevitably end up getting some butter and other misc animal products in you at some point, but hey, that's life in a carnist world sometimes
Yeah unfortunately, when I was a student I had a friend who was vegan but he had to go vegetarian while studying in China because unintentionally consuming carnist products due to language and cultural barriers was unavoidable