All this would have been unthinkable in the old China.

这在旧中国简直是无法想象的。

youdao

In the old China, we can't even make a nail, let alone machines.

在旧中国，我们连一个钉子都造不了，更不用说制造机器了。

youdao

In the old China there were many people who were completely illiterate.

旧中国很多人目不识丁。

youdao

Within a generation, the domestic economy is expected to be more important to investors, both local and foreign, than the old China manufacturing story was in the 1980s, 1990s, and the early half of the 2000s.

FORBES: Why Are American Businesses In China?

Mr Thubron spent eight months travelling the 11, 300 kilometres (7, 000 miles) of the old Silk Road from Xian in the heart of China to Antioch (Antakya) in Turkey and, although he scrupulously admits in a note that his trip was broken by fighting in northern Afghanistan and that he was obliged to continue the following year, this interruption does not disrupt the flow of his narrative.

ECONOMIST: Travel writing

"In China in the old days, people looked down on acrobats, " she says.

NPR: The Acrobats of China's Wuqiao County