Sweden is a country in Europe with 9 millions inhabitants and an area of 449 964 km2.
China is a country in Asia on the other side of the globe with 1.2 billions of people and
an area of 9.6 billion km2.
China is the most populated country in the whole world, and a home for one fifth of all the people in the world. Sweden is very sparsely populated. You could compare China with a whole continent, in size China is as big as the whole of Europe.
Because of its large size and troubled history of communism and civil war you can understand that they are after in the development.
Many years ago Sweden went from an agriculture country to an industrial country, that change is happening in China right now.

The Chinese government are atheists and until quite recently it was forbidden to practise any religion in China, now the most popular religion is Buddhism. The government also encourage that all dead bodies shall be cremated, despite that many hold on to the old funeral ceremonies and burials. In Sweden burials are the most common and the majority of the people are Christians.

The population in China has risen drastically since 1950 so in 1980 the government decided that to stop it from rising even more and you are now only allowed to have one child
In Sweden you can have as many children as you want, but the most ordinary is to have two or three.
More and more Swedish couples separates from each other. It’s no longer something hard and unusual. In China divorces are very difficult and not so ordinary.

The ordinary Swedish workers work five days a week and are free Saturday and Sunday. The Chinese people are only free one day every week, which day varies, so the production doesn’t stop.
E-mail, which nowadays is very popular in the western world, is not so usual in China, they still use letters. In the Chinese alphabet there are over 5000 characters, the Swedish alphabet includes only 28 characters.
The traffic in China is chaotic, cars, buses and cyclists want to come forward everywhere, and because of that you are almost always excused if you are late for a meeting or something like that.

The table manner is not as important in China as in Sweden, almost everything is allowed, with some exceptions. You are not allowed to lick your fingers and blow your nose.
We Swedish people are used to always have access to clean water through our taps, the Chinese people can’t drink their water without boiling it first.
Chinese alcohol is in most cases a lot stronger than Swedish, and it’s not rarely they
make foreign guests very drunk.
Body contact is very important in China so you should not be surprised if someone takes your hand or puts his hand in your lap during a dinner, it’s all about friendship. Eye contact with the one you speak to is as important in China as in Sweden.
You may think all Chinese people are like one big happy family but the truth is that they are individualists and not so good when it comes to cooperation with people outside the family.
The most usual pets in Chinese towns are birds and goldfish, who are supposed to bring luck. The most usual pets in Sweden are cats and dogs.

China is moving forward every minute, and it’s possible that in the future China can become one of the most powerful countries in the world. Sweden is slowly leaving the industrial society and are moving forward to a “know how” society.