Fifteen years ago, if anyone had predicted that I would one day spend my vacations exploring China, I would have labeled them completely out of touch. Shaped by years of one-sided external narratives, my mind had already settled on a rigid, unflattering stereotype: a place of endless overwork, smog-choked skies, and a culture so disconnected from my own experience that it would be impossible to understand. I was trapped, not by any external force, but by the limiting prejudices I had chosen to carry.