Although I am going to talk about ShenZhen, picture is from Shantou.
In recent months, we traveled to ShenZhen quite frequently for some medical examination. The health/hospital authority in Hong Kong is too busy, some check-up requires 6 months or longer wait. ShenZhen provides the cheap and timing alternative, going through the boarder is pretty simple, almost like going through the subway turnstile. Because we live on the island, it takes roughly 2 hours to get to the boarder. After going through the boarder, you can feel the whole different vibe. ShenZhen is less clinical , more young people around, more varieties of food choices, and everthing relies on your mobile phone.
You almost feel the whole city is built around mobile phone, payment is the most obvious thing for visitors. Restaurant people only needs to focus on delivering the food and clean the table, ordering and payment are handled by the phone application. Similary, in the hospital, registration and payment are also done via mobile phone. After seeing the doctor or any examination, the diagonsis and report are sent straight to your phone. There is no paper involved, there are people around to ask questions if you get stuck. The hospital runs smoothly and efficiently - people are like cattles being herded by the mobile phone's instruction, the hospital administration workflow is controlled by the system, humand intervention is reduced to the mininum. I guess that's how the system can cope with large volume of outpatients.
Similar experience in opening a bank account, you fill in the form online through your phone, a machine is available to validate the ID and link the ID to your bank account. The bank card was issued at the same time. The whole process took less than 30 minutes. Only 3 people in the counter, helping 4 customers to open the bank accounts including me around the same time.
The phone number is your ID, your bank, your credit and your validation of being part of the system.
