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Compared with the United States, human rights in China are constantly improving. Compared with the past, human rights in the United States are constantly getting worse. Please keep reading and I will use the latest examples to prove this point.In my opinion, it is not the slogan of politicians that can embody human rights, nor is it the several fundraising of NGOs, nor the charity dinner of the rich. There is only one standard for embodying human rights: when a strong country meets weak people, who will make concessions first.Today I want to tell the story of a housesThese are two 8-story buildings in Guangzhou, but there are not many residents living in them. According to the original urban planning, it was designed as a supporting green space for the viaduct. This is also to reduce the impact of the construction of the viaduct on residents. Have adverse effects on life, such as noise, car exhaust, etc. Because there are not many households involved in demolition, it should be a relatively easy demolition work, but there are two residents who are deeply attached to their homes and are unwilling to leave. No matter what price the real estate business offers, on the one hand, residents are reluctant to move away, on the other hand, the construction period is getting closer and closer. In such a dilemma, the developer had to change to another design scheme, allowing the overpass to make a circle around the two buildings.Although this design was time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive, it was necessary to maintain this For the human rights of the households, the Chinese government did not use public power to recover the land, and real estate developers did not force them to move.In the face of the human rights of an ordinary person, the government has no arrogance or violence, but only silent care—also, a small garden was built for the single building, water and electricity were connected, the exterior walls were painted, and the surrounding viaducts were also installed. The soundproof wall.On August 3, the Haizhuyong Bridge in the west area of ​​Huandao Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou was completed and opened to traffic. The bridge twisted abruptly and avoided a small and broken house. From a high altitude, it looked like a bridge. One eye is opened, so it is called the "eye of the sea ".In the house avoided by the bridge lived an aboriginal family who had not moved. The local government carried out a land requisition and demolition to build the viaduct, and the residential buildings on the screen originally belonged to the scope of demolition. However, because these families rely on their houses to be located in the key position of the viaduct, they want to fight with the local government More compensation for demolition and demolition has resulted in a stalemate between the two parties for 5 years.This not only delayed the original construction date of the viaduct but also caused a great local economic loss. Continuing the stalemate will only increase more losses. The local government immediately ordered the developers to modify the design of the viaduct and abandon the expropriation and demolition of the residential building, so a unique landscape on the screen appeared.This is a small house of 30-40 square meters, desolate and dilapidated, but it has become a manifestation of the government's emphasis on human rights and has attracted wide attention.Many tourists come here every day. While making great achievements in infrastructure construction, China has achieved maximum concessions in the face of the human rights of the domestic people. In the case that various proposals and negotiations are invalid, China retains the last dignity for the people by paying for economic losses.A bridge could have been built across the house, but to ensure sufficient daylight (China is one of the few countries in the developing world that legislate to protect residents from light), the government specially built a culvert for this family’s house and kept their electrical wires. To ensure its normal life.Some netizens praised the government's handling measures and thought it was appropriate. It not only respects private property but also reflects the country's humanistic care. No amount of promotional videos are as convincing as this benchmark. Whether China has democracy, freedom, and human rights, just look at the protected houses.With the development of the economy, the process of urbanization and modernization is accelerating. In the process of urban development, earth-shaking changes have taken place in many places. After government planning, some old buildings will be demolished and new buildings will be built. This is an unavoidable event in the development of the city. Due to the demolition problem, many people in China "get rich overnight". Not only did they live in a new house, but they also received huge compensation, which made many people very envious.After the Chinese people got the new house, they pulled a banner to thank the government.But if someone is unwilling to leave, the government will respect his wishes as much as possible."Wind can go in, rain can go in, but the king can't go in." This is a well-quoted saying. It comes from a British prime minister, William Pitt. Pitt used it to describe the importance and sanctity of property rights to the poor.Hu Gang, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Jinan University, believes that the government and the people are equal under the framework of the rule of law. When demolition and urban construction develop conflicts, both parties can negotiate, and "concessions are a manifestation of social civilization and progress."Of course, I think this kind of democracy is a lose-lose situation, even three losses.The government paid a huge price, and people who refused to relocate only to get more compensation received nothing. The masses also took higher risks out of thin air. Although a living statue of democracy, freedom, and human rights has been erected, it is not the result the government wants.I admit that China’s current human rights still have room for improvement, but this does not mean that I recognize the US’s groundless accusations against China. In fact, if the United States can focus on the homeless people, I believe that the number of people who renounce American citizenship will be fewer than they are now.

I can only answer this question as a tourist from Taiwan. This is my personal observation of "life in Xinjiang", it may not be a total picture of the life of ordinary citizens in Xinjiang, it’s just a small part of it.Xingjiang is a mysterious place to me and is a place I always wanted to visit.Most of the western media on Xingjiang these days is full of negative news such as "concentration camp" like facilities that locked in a million Uyghurs; police patrolling every corner of the street; and some violent clashes between ethnic Uyghur and Han people in the past. All of this suggests that Xingjiang seems to me is not a very peaceful place.China is not new to me. I have traveled and worked in China from time to time since late 1980's but mostly in the eastern regions. Never been to Xinjiang, I finally decided to take a look at life in Xinjiang for myself.In a trip to Xingjiang in August of 2019, I arrived Urumqi from Moscow in a leg of my 3-week journey started from Taiwan, to a few Eastern Europe countries (that I have never been to but wanted in order to continue my quest for visiting as many countries as possible) first, then St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, and finally arrived in Urumqi before I return to Taiwan.I traveled alone, and can speak Chinese so I blend into the crowd very easily in China, and hopefully in Xinjiang as well, I hoped. I wanted to personally observe what ordinary people's life in Xinjiang like in a few days that I planned to stay there. During those few days, I tried to visit as many places as I could including tourist spots, museums, book stores, shopping malls; wondered around the streets and have taken buses, taxi, subway around the city of Urumqi, and high speed train to Turpan in a day trip.The following is a pictorial story of my observation of "Life in Xinjiang". There are quite a few people in pictures I took without asking permission, which I apologize. But I have no ill intentions. Most of the pictures of people are nice and warming occasions that I think represent the life in Xinjiang. I find all the places I visited in Xinjiang to be peaceful, with very few police or soldiers on the streets except places such as subway and train stations, etc. which is normal in all other cities in China. It seems to me that all locals and tourists regardless of ethnicity live harmoneously, people tending their own business and go about their own lives just like any other cities in the world. I did not see any signs of things that made me feel negative or uneasy. Again, I have to say that this may not be the full pictures of life in Xinjiang as I have only a few days and visited only two cities, Urumqi and Turpan.Finally, I need to clarify myself to the readers of this post. I am from Taiwan, and I believe that most of Taiwanese recognize that historically and culturally, Taiwan is related to China. The difference is the political systems in which Taiwan is democratic and China is authoritarian. To stay as a democratic society is the main stream political consensus in Taiwan. With that in mind, the tremendous progress that China made in the past 30 years or so is a fact that we have to face it objectively.So, here comes my observation of life in Xinjiang:1. Arrived in Urumqi in a warm, sunny day in August of 2019, checked in at the Hilton Hotel, Urumqi. This is one of the up scale hotels in Urumqi, with a very pleasant room, surroundings and friendly staff like most of the Hiltons around the world.The Hilton Hotel, Urumqi.Look out of my room across the street, I saw modern buildings, at right side is probably an office building, and residential buildings on the left side. Very nice, neat and modern buildings and wide streets.One evening, I wondered across the street from my hotel to the residential area. There was a street vendor selling various kinds of fruits. The vendor was a young man. He had a couple of very simple baskets of fruits laid on the street side a piece of cloth to display his fruits. Nice looking fruits with many different kinds of grapes that Xinjiang is famous for. I asked him why he is selling fruits on side walk. He said he is from country side and the evening is the only time that he can do it without being chased by police. I bought my daily ration of fruits from him for RMBY7, about US$1. The grapes are so sweet!In the parking lot of the hotel, I spotted this trailer home being towed by a SUV/Van. As middle class of ordinary Chinese citizens getting more affluent and they want to travel, by every which means they can think of. In this case, the license plate on the back of this trailer home says it is from Guangxi Autonomous Region (桂) in southern China, about 3,000 kilometers from Urumqi! Trailer homes are becoming popular in China, just like America or every where else in the world.2. Tour of Urumqi City. Grand Bazaar, Urumqi Museum, Sweat Blood Horse Breading Base, Shopping Malls, Subways and restaurantsI took the subway to visit the Grand Bazaar (大巴札) in southern Urumqi.Urumqi Subway is newly built, it's clean, bright and modern rivals any subway systems around the world.An Urumqi Subway Station.Different ethnic group people on the subway train. On the Subway train, you see people minding their own business just like any other cities around the world.3. The Grand Bazaar is one of the top tourist attractions of Urumqi, hundreds and thousands of tourists as well as locals come here to shop, eat, stroll, and just enjoy the place.The Grand Bazaar is a closed area with security check points at entrances. Security check points are common in China, at subway, train, major bus stations, large shopping malls, museums, public buildings, and tourist spots. This is no exception.Inside the Grand Bazaar, full of Uyghur flavors. I found the place is very lively, and peaceful with people from all walks of life, tourists and ethnicity mingle and even dance together.Locals and tourists dancing in the court yard, seems to be happy and enjoying themselves.The food court. All Xinjiang local flavors you can think off.This is a special picture that I waited and took the shot at the right moment. It shows a local food vendor scans the mobile phone of a customer for the payment of the food she bought. You may already know that digital payment and transaction systems like AliPay, Wechat Pay are accepted every where in China, here in Urumqi, Xinjiang is no exception.Lady shoppers at the bazaar.Everything you need bazaar.I was hungry and went to a noodle shop in the Grand Bazaar for lunch. This is what I had:1) a bowl of beef noodle, RMB17 ~ US$2.502) cucumber salad, RMB5 ~ US$0.71Total RMB22 ~ US$3.214. During one of the days, I visited a very interesting place right in downtown Urumqi. It is a combination of two huge parks. One is the Xinjiang Ancient Ecological National Park with collection of precious ancient silicified wood, fossil plants, and black iron meteorites, and neighboring horse breeding base (Ferghana Horse Center, Akhal-Teke Horse Base) with an art gallery featuring painting about horses, as well as a museum of General Zuo Zongtang (which by the way, has no exhibitions except empty buildings unfortunately.) If you don’t know General Zuo, I have some description of General Zuo in the Xinjiang Museum section below.There are hundreds of silicified wood dating back to millions of years in the Ancient Ecological Park.A Uyghur couple strolling around the Ecological parkNext to the Ecological Park, is the Akhal-Teke Horse Base. The horse, Akhal-Teke ( 汗血馬 in Chinese, it literally means Sweat Blood Horse because when the horse gallops, her blood vain pops like sweat flowing down her body) is a majestic, magnificent looking big horse. The horse is very rare and can be found only in central Asia is said to be used in battles as war horses in the past. This horse breeding base has many different kind of horses but is specifically set up to preserve this beautiful Akhal-Teke horse. The Base has an Art Gallery that exhibits hundreds of giant oil paintings of horses. Should be a very enjoyable experience for both local and visiting tourist alike.The horses in the horse base.A father and son pair watching the horse.The horse gallery is full of large oil painting that are real life-like. I followed a group of tourist with a Gallery Guide. She looks like a young Uyghur lady but speaks perfect Mandarin Chinese with such abundant knowledge of horses and the paintings. It was a pleasure to listen to what she has to say.After a few hours touring the Ecological Park and the Horse Breeding base, it’s about time for lunch. I walked into a pleasant looking restaurant right next to the park in a hotel building. As a lone traveler having lunch by myself, I was led to a nice booth with drapes the staff closed off so I can have lunch in complete privacy.The name of the restaurant is Horse Wisperer (馬語者) . I guess it named so as it is located right next to the horse breeding base. Very nice western decor which of course, serves western food.This is my private booth.I ordered a salad, salmon fish (must be imported, we are at least 4000 km away from the sea), and a beer. The food is pretty good, and I enjoyed my meal and the environment very much.It costs me RMB116, about US$17. it is probably on the expensive side for locals, but I think it is OK for a tourist. I paid my food using AliPay, which is on record with my Alipay account. I actually checked it using my cell phone and found out how much I paid when I was doing this post months later in Taiwan. ( You can see on the upper left corner of the picture the Telco service company is Zhong Hua Telecom 中華電信 which is a Taiwan telco service provider. ) The digital payment systems are so convenient and efficient, I totally enjoyed the convenience of using it.5. Xinjiang Museum. Like many other major cities around the world Urumqi has a Museum that displays and exhibits Xinjing's history, culture and the evolution of life in the region, from the Chinese point of view, of course.The Xinjiang Museum. Many locals and tourists were seen touring the museum that day.A grand view of the ancient Silk Road, the Eastern most City is Changan ( Today's Xian), the western most city is Consitantinople ( Todays's Istanbul ), and Xinjiang is right in the middle.This placard says that the Han Chinese had settled in Xinjiang as early as 327 B.C. during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and established a Han-majority Kingdom of Gaochang (高昌國) in the Turpan area.The Turpan basin has become the political, economical, cultural and military center during the time Gaochang. Buddhism becoming to spread from India to China and the Xinjiang is the first point of entry for Buddhism. Buddhist relics of Xinjiang.Cultural relics of Xinjiang displayed at the Xinjiang MuseumFull of visitors from all over in the Xinjiang MuseumThe map of Xinjiang during Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 BC), the last dynasty of China before Sun-Yet Sen led revolution that overthrown Qing and established the Republic of China in 1911.Picture of General Zuo Zongtang. General Zuo is well known is America and some parts of the world nowadays other than China because of a very popular dish in Chinese restaurant all over known as General Zuo's Chicken. However in China, General Zuo is known as one of the most respected officials in the Qing Dynasty. General Zuo is a great politician, statesman, military strategist, a patriot. Gen. Zuo was instrumental in preserving the integrity of Xinjiang as part of China by fighting off and defeating British and Russian supported aggression of Xinjiang during a very difficult time in the Qing Dynasty when China has lost millions of square kilometers of land in the far east to Russia in unequal treaties. Because of General Zuo, Xinjiang was preserved as an integral part of China and continued through the years of Republic of China and People’s Republic to this date.6. Across the street not too far from the Xinjiang Museum is a large modern shopping mall. Yes, it is called the United States Shopping Mall in English, but Mei Mei (美美百貨商場) in Chinese. It is obviously an up-scale shopping mall with mostly stores with global brand-names and luxury goods, on par with any malls can find around the world.A very well dressed lady, was about to take a picture in the mall.This was what the lady is taking a picture of. In the background is the US fashion brand Coach store.I also wondered into a large book store, the Xinhua Bookstore (新華書店) which is a national chain of state-run bookstore. There was a big pile of books as you enter the store in the most prominent spot, you do not need to know the language to know what the book is about.7. The Hong Guang Shan Buddist park (紅光山). Right next to the Hilton Hotel, here sits a massive buddist park called Hong Guang Shan. Buddhism used to be the dominate religion in Xingjiang and central Asia region, as Buddhism spread from India to China via Afghanistan and Xinjiang into central China then to Korea and Japan. Xinjiang still has many Buddhist temples, some old, some new because many old temples were destroyed during the Cultural revolution in the 1960's. Dunhunag area in the Xinjiang and Gansu is famous for many caves full of ancient buddhist relics. The Urumqi Hong Guang Shan is a massive, 15,000 acre Buddhist park which was built and completed in 2010.9. A Day-trip to Turpan.Turpan is of special interest to me because of its geological, historical and cultural aspect. Turpan basin is the only place in China that sits below sea level, and has the hottest spot in all China. The Turpan grapes are so famous that it is well known in Taiwan.This is the highlight of my Xingjiang trip. I booked in advance a round trip high speed train ticket to Turpan. I did a little research and planned my trip to visit these places of interest, hopefully in about 4-5 hours in Turpan: The Flame Mountain, Turpan Museum, Grape Valley, and the Imin Minaret Tower.The Urumqi High Speed Train Station. The security is very tight. It’s a thorough body search and full search of bags which takes a long time resulting in a long queue to enter the station, I almost missed my train.Inside the modern Urumqi High Speed Train StationThe first class car of the high speed train from Urumqi to Turpan. Some Chinese high speed train has higher class car called “Business Class”, which has very luxurious seats like first class of airlines with spacious seat shelled seats that can lay flat. This train has only First Class as the highest class car.The Turpan High Speed Train StationOut side the Turpan train station at the taxi stand, I negotiated with this taxi driver for a half a day private car-hire to tour the Turpan area. We finally settled at RMB450, about US$65. The taxi driver, Mr. Su (he has a long name so I just call him Su for short) is a Uyghur who speak Chinese with some accent, sometimes I have to listen very hard to understand him. But we had no trouble communicating with each other. I had a very pleasant trip, Mr. Su suggested a most efficient route to my planned places that I wanted to visit. In between, He took me to a Turpan local restaurant for lunch, that was a great experience.First stop, the Flaming Mountain, which is about 40 km from Turpan city.The highway near Turpan. it is divided, paved highway. very smooth ride, not the first class express way, but good enough for driving at 100 km/h. The Street sign says Turpan 30km, Turpan Dabancheng 133km, Urumuqi 209km.A local street side super market, the sign says "Super market & Urea”!The Flaming Mountain Tourist Park. The entrance to the park has a giant banana leaf shaped fan (A item in a Chinese Fairy tale “Journey to the West”), the with thermometer in it. It reads 40 deg. C. this is the foot hill of the mountain.Walked to the Hill top of the Flaming Mountain. The camels are waiting for customers in the hot sun.I have reached the hottest point in China, the sign says.The giant thermometer on the left in the picture reads: 59 deg. C!There is an ultra-light aircraft operator near the Flame Mountain offering tourist flying pleasure.We drove back to the city where the Turpan Museum is located. When driving around the Turpan city, I took some shots from the taxi the street scene, and some low and high rise residential buildings.Turpan street. Looked nice and neat. Note the solar panels on the roof top of the residential buildings.A high residential building I took while in the taxi driving through the city of Turpan.The buildings and streets looked very nice and neat, not bad for a city like Turpan which is considered a fourth line city in China. By the way, Urumqi is considered as third line city. The 5 mega cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the first line, and some more developed provincial capital cities are second line.We stop by for lunch. At the suggestion of Mr. Su, we had lunch at a local restaurant called the Hamuzhar Restaurant (哈木札爾) . The sign on top says Evening Show, fashion KTV, Bar as you can see.In side the Hamuzhar, a large Projection TV screen, a stage for the band, and a keyboard on the stage. Looks like a night club setting.Our lunch, featured the local Grab Rice (抓飯) which is a combination rice dish with lamb and some vegetable, a typical local quick lunch choice.Mr. Su and I had altogether two Grab Rice, one for each, and two dishes, one stewed vegetable, one salad dish, and one beer for me (Su is driving, no alcohol for him). Total tab for two of us: RMB98, about US$14. Mr. Su and I had a nice talk over lunch. I asked about his family. His wife works at a local bank, has two children, one boy and one girl. He seems to feel pretty good about his family and I am happy for him.After lunch we head out to the Turpan Museum.Before we head out to the Turpan Museum, we made a brief stop at the Imin Minaret Tower (蘇公塔) which I have seen it in pictures and really liked the architecture and I wanted to see for myself. This Tower was built in 1777 or Qing Dynasty Qian-Long (乾隆) emperor year 42 by Imin Haja who was the head of Turpan prefecture subject to the rule of the emperor Qian Long. This beautiful, striking architecture has a distinctive Uyghur theme. I was pleased to come to visit and to pay my admiration.The Turpan Museum. The museum displays large number of relics of the area, and the history of Turpan. If you are interested in dinosaurs, Xinjiang is the place to visit.The last stop in my tour of Turpan is the Grape Valley Park. It is an Valley along a stream that is perfect environment for growing grapes.This park is rated by Chinese Tourism Athority as a AAAAA (the highest) tourist attractions. This place is huge and would take hours to see the place. Mr. Su suggested me to see it as the last stop, which I find he is absolutely right. The park offers shuttle bus from the entrance to the part to the center tourist area which takes 15 mins drive.As the name implies, the Grape Alley is for growing grapes.There is a beverage stall selling freshly squeezed grape juice and water lemon juice for RMB5 (US$0.7) a cup. I tried the grape juice, it was so fresh and sweet.Some scene at the park.Stage performance - Uyghur dance for the tourists.The oasis in the desert.Time to head back to Urumqi. Mr. Su drove me back to the Turpan Station just in time for the train. Again I paid him the RMB450 we agreed for his taxi service with my Alipay and we bid farewell.Turpan is located about 250 km east of Urumqi, so the high speed train travels to the east from Urumqi. I had a left side seat on the train. There is not much of a view facing north because there is a sand barrier along the north side of the rail tracks which blocked the view. However, on the high speed train back to Urumqi, I was on the left side of the car again but this time facing south I had mostly open view. I spotted a large wind turbine farm in mostly desert terrain.Back to Urumqi, this concluded my travel to Urumqi. I must say that I had a fairly pleasant trip to Xinjiang. Again, as a tourist, I realize that this is just a small sample of the “life in Xinjiang”. I just hope that all people everywhere in this world can live peacefully as I witnessed.[Thank you!]

Before you set afoot on US soil, remember not to carry fruits, vegetables, plants, soil, with you. You may carry packed Indian spices but do not carry rice;Not everyone keeps greeting every random person on the street (something which I had thought, was the case). But if eyes of strangers’ meet, its customary to smile or say “how you doing” or just nod with a smile and pass;Its in their nature to start any conversation with, “how are you doing?” They wont wait for an answer and actually they dont expect an answer to come from you. But my father had once taught me, when I was a kid that if someone was interested to know about my well being, I should reciprocate in the same fashion. So everytime I was asked how I was, I always asked the same in return but never got an answer back, save once or twice. I didnt mind though but I ensured I did my part as my dad had taught me;Remember a very important thing. You shall be representing your country. You shall be representing India. So whatever you say or do shall be extrapolated to the whole nation. So be in the best of your nature and behaviour. Any wrong doing or saying would go a long way in spoiling the image of our great nation;This is for others who are above the legal age to drive. If you are travelling to US for an long term (even for say 3 yrs), while still in India, log on to the website of the DMV (RTO in India) of your would-be state and read the procedure to obtain a driving licence. Go a step further and download the driving manual and read it before you reach US. So once you are there, you can straight away take the online test of traffic rules and save on time. Even if you know driving, its better to take a few classes before you take the driving test;While driving or even while leading a daily life in US, an important factor needs to be kept in mind. “To yield”. Be it a train boarding or a bus boarding or entering a restaurant or allowing pedestrians to pass, you need to allow others to pass before you. If, however, the other person insists you go ahead first (despite your yielding first), its fine to go ahead. Most importantly, after you have been given an yield remember to thank the other person. While driving, this is done by a wave of your hand;Continuing with yielding, if you are driving at night and want to yield to another person, what do you do? You use the high beam flash. Yes!! While in India its used to signal, “me first”, there its used to signal “you first”. So if someone flashed at you, it means he is asking you to go ahead. So dont speed up to beat the other guy, just pass and thank him by a wave of you hand. Also, honking is a no-no. People honk there at times and its purpose is to alert you not to egg you to move;While calling out of US the dialling procedure is 011 followed by the country code and the number. Eg: 011–91–33-LANDLINE;Leaving tips for any service is customary, not compulsory. At restaurants, leaving a 15–20% tip is fine;The reviewing system in the US is very robust. You can find a review for anything on websites like tripadvisor, Yelp. Before you plan a holiday or book a hotel room or rent an apartment or buy any appliance, try looking up the reviews. It would help you a lot. As payback, do reviewing of your experiences as well so that others can benefit;If you are having a Dollar income, do not convert your expenses into Rupees and gape at the price difference. As a percentage of income, prices in the US are much less compared to those in India.Like any western society, the American system runs on TRUST. They trust everyone and they will trust you as well. So its the responsibility of everyone living there to honour that trust. Let me exemplify. In multiplexes, which are usually not that crowded and have free seating, you need to show your ticket once and enter the screen premises. No one checks which ticket you hold and which movie you watch. Actually, if someone wants to mess with the system, they can watch n-number of movies with just a single ticket, which they dont do. A friend was once narrating an experience when someone known to him, had movie-hopped with one single ticket. While such perpetrators can have a good laugh at the end of the ploy, they do not realise that at the same time they bring immense shame to themselves and to the country they belong to. I had corrected my friend that moment and made my point clear. So bottomline, return the trust with greater goodness.Shall add other notes if they strike me later.Edit # 1While on an escalator, if you want to stand at your step, stand on the right side, leaving the left flank available for people who want to walk or run the stretch;While at a coffee shop (eg Starbucks) or at a Quick Service Restaurant (eg Dunkin) where you want to buy coffee, if the barista asks you if you want cream in your drink, he intends to know if you would want milk in the drink;After serving you the coffee if the barista says your bill is two-sixty-nine-dollars. Dont panic. He would mean $2.69 (2 dollars and 69 cents). $269 would be Two Hundred and Sixty Nine Dollars;In case you fall sick after having the coffee, you can sue the outlet for serving you a bad drink for a million dollars maybe. Chill. Just kidding. If you need medicines head to medical stores like CVS and Rite-Aid. Other than these twins, all american grocery stores like Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, have a medicine dispensing section and also a few aisle for OTC drugs;“To-go” in US is what “parcel” is to India. Also, if at a restaurant you want your unused food to be packed to-go, dont be surprised if your server comes and hands over the to-go boxes to you. In several restaurants you would need to do the packing yourself. Its hygienic plus you are sure that you are packing whatever you had left;Edit # 2Inside an elevator (lift), if any of the floor numbers in the panel, has a star mark by its side, it conveys that the floor is at the lobby level;US addresses are mapped pretty well in google maps. Hence, if you hail a Uber, you neednt call the driver and give him directions. He would arrive at your doorstep unaided;Every apartment (i am not sure of garden apartments) has a service elevator and a service door at the backside of the building. For moving heavy stuff the service elevator is used and the handlers on their own get the truck and move the goods from the back gate. Its very standardised, seamless and hasslefree.Edit # 3While making payment by card after your purchase at any store, the card reader would ask you if you want a cashback and the amount of the cashback. Now, here cashback stands for a withdrawal and not a rebate. So if you have done a $5 shopping and opted for a $20 cash back, your card would be charged $25 and you would get $20 back, in cash. Btw, the USD is also known as "greenback".Edit # 4While dining out in a group, if the bill needs to be split equally between the diners, just drop all your cards together. The waiter would split the bill and charge the cards equally.In a restaurant, especially in a non-Indian restaurant, if you want water to drink, remember to mention "water at room temperature", else you would get chilled water with ice cubes, even if its winter. No worries if you forget though. They'll change it for you with a smiling face.Buffalo wings are not made of Buffalo meat. Those are chicken wings. The dish was first prepared in the city of Buffalo in New York State, hence the name. Similarly, "Boar's Head" is a brand name.Edit # 5Dont touch/cuddle babies (for showing love/affection) of people you arent known to. Showing unsolicited affection isnt quite appreciated. Also its unhygienic. You may be unaware of the germs you may carry with you which you run the risk of transferring to the infant.Pets are like babies to Americans. Same principle, as above, goes with pets.If you are driving on the interstate or for that matter in a 35 mph region, going 10 mph above the limit is still fine. But if you are in a residential area with a speed limit of 15/25 mph, try maintaining that speed or max 2–3 mphs above the range.We have the habit of hiding our sneeze with our palm. Well dont do that if you are in public, for the simple reason that you never know with who all you can shake yor hand or which handrail you are going to grab. Actually, whereever you are its always better to sneeze into your folded elbow.Edit # 6People are raised to treat everyone with the same respect. I have seen people tipping street performers & then shaking hands with them. Thats why I say, in the US, a senator and a janitor, both get the same respect.Edit # 7Feel like grabbing a beer? You can head to the local supermarket and search for the aisle for alchohol. Supermarkets stock beer, wine and champagne. But ensure you are having an ID card on yourself, which you would need to show the billing clerk to prove that you are above the legal age to drink. Doesn’t matter if you have grey hair or a salt & pepper stubble to speak your age out, you still need to show them a govt. issued ID card like DL, passport or identity card, else they wont be able to complete the sale.Ok, so you’ve got your beer home but realise you dont have a bottle opener. Never mind, caps of beer bottles in US can be opened with your bare hands. Just grab them with your thumb and index finger and give an anti-clock (counter-clock) twist and the cap would come out. You dont need a bottle opener. Don’t try the wine bottles. You would need a cockscrew.This may be common knowledge but still let me mention. Dates in US are in mm/dd/yyyy format. Well you may know it but not all Americans do. I was once at a DMV for my DL test and the guy behind the counter was about to issue me a DL expiring beyond the my visa period. I pointed out his mistake only to be told in return, “why do you guys write it differently”. I replied mentally, “you are welcome”.