Can I live in China?

[Ves]

Wow.
I am really looking forward to being there.
Should be in Beijing soon. But I will be in Qing Dao first.
That is interesting. I just hope things get better with pollution.
I will also be there in March for shopping.

 

[A.V.R.]

Hiraneo
You could see a few hundred metres, that is a good day, wait until you cannot see the other end of a basketball court, pollution recently has been a mixed bag, no wind days mean heavy pollution
.
It is cold here at the moment, nights maybe 6 to 10 below and days just above zero - a milder winter than usual.
teltel

 

[Pompal 09.]

I still hate politicians. Even providing entertainment or bringing them to do dinner annoyes me.

As for air pollution. Its really bad. Really really bad. I was there in summer passed by 3 days ago and I will be there again on saturday. Really I have never seen such bad pollution. When I get home in March I might post some pics somewhere. people can then see what the pollution was like in summer and winter. And how you could only see a few hundered meters ahead of you.

As for net. I tried it. Didnt work. I had wifi on my laptop I got hooked up to Nova tel hotel internet and also I went to a net massageplanete. I am not sure about porn sites I dont care. But if my bit torrent sites dont work either, especial fileporn.org the only site I use for porn I would be really upset

 

[Neo Patrick Harris]

I have been in china now since 2001 - some comments:

1. foreigners can start businesses on their own account, no payola to politicians but the odd dinner or two (and visits to 'entertainment') to build relationships is helpful. There are rules for foreign owned businesses especially repatriating funds back overseas so read up on the rules - try the china government website and beijing government website. Also read up on the visa categories and rules. and get a reputable lawyer here in china.

2. I have no problem accessing websites (some porn is filtered) but there are not many restrictions, BBC news is available in beijing online.

3. Pollution - it is a big problem, this autumn/winter is the worst I have seen it for many years and the high sulphur content coal used for heating and cooking doesn't help. You learn to live with it.

4. Health / medical insurance - check and make sure you are fully covered especially for medi-vac to your home country

teltel

 

[Carl]

I thought about moving to China also. Still thinking about it. I would like to start a business there.
My main problem is I used internet there and couldnt get access to BBC website and other things. I am hooked to using certain news sites and I dont think I will be able to access them there.
Second point is I heard from a friend of mine that if you wanted to start a business you need to pay or make a partnership with the local polititian.
It seems that nothing is done without party approvement and approvement is easy with paying regular tributs. Something I dont like
Thridly Pollution is awful. Really I was there two weeks and Never saw a clear sky once. I just changed planes there and air was thick with pollution

On the plus said plenty of people speak english in Beijing or Shanghai. Language not a problem as even those that dont speak english try to make an effort in understanding you unlike other parts of the world.
Shopping is great.
Pussy is cheap and good quality.
And doing setting up a business would be great in the fastest growing economy in the world.
Very modern place.
And apart from pollution very clean place.

 

[Hi..]

Dude, I went to check out tickets to Olympic events, maybe see my first olympics and get some sideways pussy too. Their website is so fucked up. You have to be a resident of China to buy tickets, ha ha. So they're asking for your resident number and visa number. I"m like mother fucker, I just want to know how much decathalon tickets are, you slanty eyed bitches@!

 

[diamondflower]

Asiatraveller
What you wrote is too true, I have been resident in China for many years, the guidelines for foreigners is 'mind your own busness'. Remember that China is a developing country and remember the history of western countries with the captains of industry and rich 'nobility' and the huge number of poor people, it is only in the latter half of the 20th century that western countries have evolved into the welfare state system that we know today. Modern China started in 1949 after decades of war, civil war and colonial occupation.
teltel

 

[The Questioner]

XP, I tend to agree with you!

It is difficult to look at China from a logical, Western perspective. There's a completely different system of right and wrong here. Rules (traffic rules/ ways of doing business / contract law & intellectual property rights etc) seem flexible to the point where people tend to grab what they can just struggling to make ends meet. Connections and corruption are seen as a way of getting what one wants.

Pirated DVDs are illegal yet I often see police buying them. Prostitution is illegal, yet it's not uncommon to see shops in the same street as a police station. Selling clothes/food on the street is illegal (the government receives no tax from it) yet millions of people earn a living from it each day. The problem: a huge, largely unskilled workforce. A government that knows if it shuts-down these industries it will need to provide millions of more pointless cleaning/security jobs which often pay around Y1,000 a month to avoid having a large idle, dissatisfied, hungry group of people wanting change.

My point is that criticism of corruption, inefficiency in government, government inaction regarding pollution, traffic etc is ok. Criticism of the system of government is not ok. It's just the way it is in China. Not right or wrong. As a foreigner you will be largely immune to it. Nobody will tap your phone (I hope!) or follow you around. The government largely doesn't care what foreigners do or talk about amongst themselves. Provided you're not a do-gooder looking to force your preferred system of government onto China, your mongering, jaywalking, tax avoidence while teaching English etc will be ignored. Involve yourself in Chinese politics / public discussions on Xianjiang Province / freedom of the press / religions issues and you're likely to run into trouble. For 99.9% of Chinese people and foreigners if you mind your own business government involvement in your life won't be problem.

Do I like communism? Nope. I reckon it's inefficient and doesn't work. But it's not my place to tell the Chinese what system of government to have.

 

[Bunz]

The BBC website does not seem to be available in China, which is a pain if you are trying to find out about sports. I did manage to get it via my corporate proxy server though.

The Chinese people I know well seem prepared to say more about China and it's systems when they are outside it......

John.

 

[DuckyMcQuackers]

ojen,
your problem is , that you are Chinese but raised in the US.
You want to live in China ??
Ok, but with what an avarage chinese worker gets.
After that let`s see where you want to live.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

When I was in Schenzen a while back, I met an American who teaches English there. He kept his subscription to TIME magazine, only now it arrives with articles cut out of it!

 

[RAFEEQ - DOHA]

A 6-month Index Chart for Chinese companies listed in HK Stock Exchange (the so-called H shares)

 

[Purple Drank Forever]

Mao sucks xx xxxx? I hope you are not a faggie, hehe.

As to whether whites in China are "rich," I have to agree with you, XP. IMHO, they are most likely in China because they are the losers in their respective countries of origin. One thing surely shown even under this thread is that they are ignorant, and probably undereducated. These are signs that they are the clueless underclass.

With China's stock/housing markets reaching the stratosphere lately, I am afraid to say that many urban middleclass Chinese are much better off than those white hobo's. Yes, the expats might pay 5 times or 10 times the price for the same girl in China. That's only because they are ill-informed or plain stupid.

 

[hephaestus]

F visa's allow you to stay for 60 days, thats about more than I can handle!

 

[CRACKberry!<3]

Being Chinese-American does help as you fit in with the population. For me, I can't speak much Mandarin so as long as I don't speak English then I blend in. If I could speak, then I'd be in heaven with the variety of pretty women there (except my SO would not be happy).

If you are of European descent in China, that probably evokes a resentment with roots established at the time when China was exploited by every advanced nation in the world (mostly Western) and the Opium trade to make money at China's expense. Evidence of this period is still in Shanghai along the Bundt (which is a German word). In fact, why do western businesses and business people go to China today? To make money from any angle they can and to take advaneforum.xxxe of what China has to offer. So the Chinese perception is that westerners have money to invest, are making money off of China, and should be generous in spending money in China.

 

[Bench Bum]

But there are like 1.5 billion people in china. I rather live in china over thailand, vietnam... One because I am chinese to because there are so many more women in china compared to the countries you listed. As far as freedom I spent 6 months in beijing this year without working all I did all day is pretty much drink and get laid for 6 months never once did LE stop me and ask what I was doing. And trust I did some pretty stupid things and I can say that those things would have got me busted in los angeles where i live. After this 6 month stay I honestly would be happy to move to china if those fuckers would just stop pushing and cutting in line that is the only thing that I thought sucked about china. However after 6 months I just kind of got used to it.

 

[Season Rain]

I most definitely agree about spoiled kids. I've witnessed first hand how a couple of close female friends of my SO (who's from the PRC) pamper each of their only children. And, both have a son. Chinese culture tends to prefer that the family name be carried on which is one reason why sons are preferred if there is only to be one child that can be had. Another thing that was happening was that we observed a lot of Taiwanese men with PRC women in a marriage application office. My SO could tell by the dialect. So in addition to the declining birth ration of females, a good number of women would emigrate to live and marry in better conditions in other countries. Hey, who is married to Rupert Murdoch?

 

[Ho0tnehh]

China is heading for some issues...for the same reason as Western countries.....people are graduating in useless subjects and expecting jobs (apparently the people sleeping the Beijing underpasses are a recent thing). There is a big gap appearing between poor and rich. The roads will be hopelessly over run soon etc etc etc.....but a centrally controlled economy that shoots protesters will probably be fine at least for a bit.

The interesting issue is the restriction on children.....I am not going to get in to human rights issues......but the fall out is that there are many many more guys than girls (due to traditional chinese culture where the eldest son is responsible for looking after his parents, and a bunch of other things). Girls are aborted, of killed shortly after birth in large numbers. The ratio in the rural areas is like 83/117 from what I remember and even in Beijing 88/112 (G/B). The numbers might be wrong but the direction is correct.

I learnt a long time ago that faulting other peoples cultures just because they are different to yours is not necessarliy correct, but there are a couple of issues that need to be dealt with. My chinese friends tell me that there kids are growing up very selfish....and the girls are very very demanding about there boyfriends....as they can be as there are so few girls. so the Chinese government has two obvious things it can do to avert frustrated blokes and civil unrest.....import women from other countries (Korea, Vietnam etc) OR.....encourage large scale prostitution......which currently is illegal in China....the latter might make the place more interesting!

Anyway, I don't have a strong view, what does anyone else think as the thread has already got political??

J.

 

[ERR0R]

Agreed, but I come from the East side of London and tonal languages are a bastard for us as we speak so badly and kinda mumble a lot. I tried so hard to get the 4 vowel sounds, I though I had it...but no one in China understands a word. I spent some time in Japan and learnt some decent very bad Japanese....but its a phonetic language.

lol

J.

 

[michael c]

Dude this is the internet, it's not my life and I'm certainly not getting worked up and threatening my health with this simply because it's negative. Maybe you take every reply you get on a forum personally but I certainly don't, I have ever-so-slightly more important things to worry about

At least we're giving the China threads some traffic though and the OP can see both sides of the coin for living in China, usually there is hardly anything going on here