I realize that Cuba's current situation is equivalent to our country's in the early 1980s, but life is better than ours then. Cuba is a developing country, the development speed is very slow, the annual economic growth rate is also about 2%. If you stay in Cuba for a short period of time, you will not be able to realize the development of Cuba. Only by living in Cuba for a long time can one realize that Cuba is indeed developing, but at a very, very slow pace. There are changes, but not as fast as in China, and it seems that big cities change after a few months of absence. This is especially true for Cuba's infrastructure, such as the street next to the University of Havana, which was like that 50 years ago and is still basically like that today. Life is slowly getting better, but very slowly. If you have money, you can live well, you can buy meat, eggs and milk, especially in the capital, Havana. But it can be very expensive. Transportation in Cuba is very slow, because of the U.S. embargo, there is very little oil that can be imported, mainly supplied by Venezuela. So transportation in Cuba is a big problem, as when our country was just reformed and opened up, bus and train tickets are hard to buy, and one of the main ways to get around is hitchhiking. Cubans also have a lot of procedures to leave the country, and passport fees are very expensive, but not particularly restrictive, as long as the procedures are complete, and can afford to pay the fees (generally Cubans can not afford to pay, are foreign relatives to get the money), is allowed to go out. But some aspects of Cuba is not very backward, for example, in the car rental agencies there can rent a very good car, Hyundai Elantra and Accent (I forget the Chinese trade name, is the domestic just came out) I've been in Cuba for three years, it should basically belong to the out of the model. I drove both the Peugeot 307 and 206 in Cuba before they came to the country, and the Peugeot 807, which is not available in the country, is also available there, but they are imported directly from France, and are much more expensive than the ones we produce ourselves. One thing that makes Cuba different from our country in the first place is the attitude towards Cuban expats. Cuba also restricts the smuggling of people to the United States, caught will also be sent back, but not like North Korea as a punishment, but registered, in the public security department to prepare a case, there is a record that is, there is no punishment (of course, their relatives, etc. can not be in the government agencies and other important departments to hold important positions). If you really run over to the United States, after a few years of work and developed, Cuba is welcome to these people to send remittances to relatives at home, but also welcome these people to return to visit their relatives, travel, investment, regardless of their political views, even if they are anti-Castro (of course, return to the country to carry out anti-Castro activities can not), after all, they are to bring money to Cuba. Cubans are also proud to have relatives abroad, unlike us when we would still be afraid of having overseas connections. There are quite a few families in Cuba that have relatives abroad as well. I once saw a Cuban who had settled in the U.S. visiting his family back home, and he was so rich, richer than any foreigner working in Cuba, that he rented a business car, with all the bells and whistles, and bought TVs and DVD players (which the average Cuban on a dead wage can hardly afford) for his relatives in Cuba. Tourism in Cuba is relatively well developed and is the number one foreign exchange earner. I feel that certain aspects of their tourism industry are more sophisticated than ours and are doing very well (I've been a tour guide in Havana before). But overall, Cuba is still relatively backward and still has a predominantly planned economy that is very restrictive of the private economy. There are some self-employed people, but they are limited to a few industries, and they can't expand their scale of operation, and the taxes are very high. There is no private economy in Cuba, and private individuals cannot open factories or companies. Business with Cuba can only be done with state-run companies, and there are no private companies that can import or export on their own.
Also, we can't talk about Cuba's development without mentioning China. China has given a lot of aid to Cuba, and now does a lot of trade with Cuba (although Cuba will renege). In Cuba's large and small roads, you can see running our Yutong buses; in the Cuban railroads, there are our Erqi Locomotive Manufacturing Plant production of 12 sets of brand-new DF7G-type internal combustion locomotives; a lot of Cuban bicycles, home appliances and so on is China's technology or even simply is imported from China. Many of Cuba's telecommunication equipments are Chinese, and the entire telecommunication platform of the Isla de la Juventud Special Zone was made by China's Jurong Company and accepted by ZTE Company. China has also provided a lot of assistance to Cuba in areas such as rice, egg production, and hydroelectric power plants. I faithfully hope that Cuba will develop well and become rich and strong. Although I have encountered a lot of trouble in this country and there are a lot of things that give me a headache, after all, I have lived there for so many years, I still have feelings for it.
Also welcome to the Cuban bar!