China has killed the authentic China 40 years ago. There is nothing ancient left except for nostalgia in the form of films, music and its renovated ancient towns. Rapid gentrification of China replacing the old with the new, thereby transforming its culture into a modern monoculture. That resulted almost of all Chinese cities from east to west to look alike: the city in the desert will look structurally similar to the city in the tropics or in mountain region. The same thing is actively happening in Xinjiang’s Hotan in Western China, where it is injecting Han Chinese people with their traditions. So if authenticity is the reason for your travel to China, perhaps you should consider India instead, as it is still a long way from such standardisation development.
