Can I live in China?

[Katy]

From my observations on the couple of China threads, it seems that there is always a dispute that slowly escalates. HKasiaphile is way too negative and from many of your responses it seems you have a personal vendetta with the country. Its ok to share your bad experiences but just because you had one or two misfortunes doesn't mean it will surely happen to everyone else. Be more positive, its better for your health or at least appease yourself, you'll definitely feel much better.

 

[Ayameko]

Sorry to butt in, but there are a lot of poor Chinese that are only struggling to eke out a living or put food on the table. A strong middle class has yet to develop. Those Chinese chasing westerners around to sell things have no other way to make it (at least they're not committing a crime). At least I'm not afraid like if I were to be walking around New York or DC at night. I know it is annoying to be bothered. It's funny because I am Chinese-American and I do get bothered once they hear me speak English to my mainland Chinese SO. There is no free medical care or welfare for non-government workers. So if a commoner has to go to the hospital for surgery, he/she has to have the cash to pay or no surgery. So we should some compassion or understanding. The superior attitude of westerners is what helps fuel Chinese fear of the west and nationalism (recall the Opium trade and the encroachment of western countries).

China is a country in transition and if I were doing business in HK, I'd be thinking about how Shanghai and Shenzen are overtaking HK in terms of shipping and as the possible future financial centers. Would businesses prefer to locate in Shanghai rather than HK? It may mean embracing, or at least working with mainland China sooner than later.

 

[jeansgirl40]

I've explained the beached thing on the other thread.

I was in beijing in March, and yes there were soldiers on every street corner, I'm not lying about that although you were of course lying about people not following you about trying to sell you shit as you've just admitted.

Regarding the other stuff - yes once again you can accuse me of being of topic but I'm not the only one in that boat. And yes I do think religious people can also be mongers, I know some people like that, and just because you might not even follow that religion devoutly if you are registered as being part of that religion (a requirement for Chinese residents is to register which religion they belong to I believe, at least it was about 6 months ago when I spoke to my 'foreigner living in China' friend) if the religion itself is seen as suspicious in the future because of whatever reason do you really think the police will be setting up tests to see who actually practices the religion seriously and who doesn't?

I may be an American but I don't see the American media because I have lived in HK for a number of years, so I have not been brainwashed by the 'american media with an agenda' as the other poster suggests, I just see what is going on and comment on it, the OP asked about living in China and this is my take on it, I wouldn't live in China for a bit of cheap pussy because the other things far outweigh that, but each to his own

 

[snowlilly23]

Sorry to rant but I agree with you totally XP

The biggest problem with foreigners comong to China is their heads are so full of propaganda - yes, propaganda ! - as what to expect or 'what China is like'. Western media reporting of China HAS an agenda - witness todays report of the HK 10yrs since handover.
Most Americans still unfortunately have this 'we're better than everyone' and 'we're richer than everyone' attitude and everyone who doesn't speak English is stupid and uneducated. Thinking of prices in dollars (or other foreign currencies) distorts perceptions of reality because loal costs are different.

There is tremendous wealth in China's big cities, thats not to say that there's not still rich foreigners, but the really big money is local - who else is every luxury brand in the world salivating over?

But this is a mpnet thread so back on topic - you get what you pay for, and everything is available in China.

 

[Eva S]

HKAsiaphile,

Once again, you assume stuff about me without knowing anything about me. I am NOT an expat. China is NOT my adopted country. I come here several weeks of the year on business. Every country in the world has it's problems, but you say things about China that are simply not true. You keep saying stuff like, "they leave you alone as long as you do as you're told." That's just not the way it is. When I'm in China, nobody comes up to me to tell me what to do. No guy from the army with guns comes to my hotel room to give me some work assignment for the day.

If you have a problem with Freedom of Speech in China, that's fine. I'm telling you though, that for any potential expats, that's not going to be a concern. Unless you're a celebrity of some sort, nobody here cares. And for anybody thinking about living here, I strongly doubt their primary concern is freedom of speech for the Chinese. Their concerns are going to be about living standard and since this is a sex board, available sex. I strongly doubt guys hanging on this board are thinking to "set up a little pro-democracy newsletter, or maybe even just try writing a blog that criticises the government."

The famous anti-government blog of course proves nothing except to say that thing like that exist even though you seem to think they don't. You mention the various religions. Once again, I strongly doubt anyone hanging on this board has very strong religious convictions. I strongly doubt anyone reading any of this is a devout Muslim or Catholic. I'm guessing that most readers aren't gonna care about the religion aspect. If they do, then shouldn't go there.

BTW, when you say you walk around Beijing and see soldiers on every street corner, you're just lying or you've never been there and you're just making that up. That's simply NOT true. And those guys following you around with the DVDs, yeah they follow me around too, but they all leave once you say, "wo bu yao." My suggestion? Don't go to those places. Pretty simple huh? In NYC, I don't hang out near the crack dealers because they bother me about buying crack. If you don't want DVDs, don't hang out near the DVD sellers.

You say you know a lot about China, but you live in HK and in the other thread you say China has no beaches when there's one about 30 minutes from the HK/Shenzhen border.... Makes me think maybe you don't know as much as you think.

What I know about China is that it's definitely NOT the best place in the world. It has tons of problems, everything from overcrowding, to inflation, to pollution, and a hundred other things. But you know what, every country has problems. There are however, lots of good about it. It's an exciting place, stuff is happening everywhere and all the time. Stuff is cheap. You can probably retire here on a million USD and live on that for the rest of your life and live pretty well. Out of the time I've spent in China, there's one thing I can never say, and that's I was bored.

 

[SystemFailure]

XXXXXXXXXX

 

[Artyom2000]

First of all, I'm not Chinese. I can barely speak 500 words of Mandarin. You can probably guess from my writing manner that I'm also American myself. grew up in Chicago as a matter of fact and I have the romantic fantasy that one day the Cubs are gonna win the World Series.



Wait a second... if you have problems with the Communism, why would you want to live there? That is what the thread is about. Somebody asked if he could live in China and the answer is, sure they can. It's not like some dude from the Communist government is gonna come up to you every morning and tell you what to do for the day like you imply. As for the blog thing about democracy, there's a very famous one out there right now and it's probably the number 1 blog in China right now. As for Falun Gong, what potential expat is going to even consider that? Are there foreigners out there thinking to come to China to join the Falun Gong????? The Great Firewall of China is also anything but that. Anybody with any inclination to get around it can do so in 2 minutes. And the whole organ harvesting thing.... if you're an old rich foreigner with kidney or liver disease, this might actually be a plus.



Let me ask you, WHO follows foreigners around and tries to charge double prices??? Do restaurant proprietors follow you around and try to charge you double? Do hotel managers do that?? Tell me who EXACTLY it is that follows you around??? Nobody follows me around except in certain areas where mommies try to find johns, but those women follow every male, especially the Hongkies.

It seems to my as a HK based person, you would know a bit more about South China.

 

[Shoot Your Leaders Down]

Sounds to me like you really really can't take any criticism of your country, that's a shame because it totally clouds your judgement and invalidates most of what you're saying. You can say America sucks ass for all I care and I won't let it cloud my judgement when I'm talking about, shame you can't get over your nationalistic views and see what is actually happening.

Trying setting up a protest against the communist party and see how long you last - that's what I mean by 'they' telling you what to do. Or maybe set up a little pro-democracy newsletter, or maybe even just try writing a blog that criticises the government. I can't believe you're actually even disputing that human rights are atrocious and you're not free to speak your mind there, fuck me over half the world's websites are blocked by the great chinese firewall because they don't want anyone seeing something 'immoral' (the height of hypocrisy considering some of the shit that government gets up to). Falun gong is a good example actually, people who simply wanted to follow something the government disagreed with, so they're now locked up and their organs are harvested, nice!

And as for mainland Chinese people not thinking whities are rich - I guess all those people who follow foreigners down the street, who try and charge foreigners double-prices for everything, who congregate at every known tourist place and follow whities whilst never bothering the mainland chinese tourists, well I guess they didn't see all those cheapskate white people that you did

 

[brwneyes]

First of all, nobody in China tells you what to do... I don't even understand what you mean by that. I mean, what do you think "they" tell you to do? Do you think they make you march down the streets along side a bunch of tanks or something? Like I said, as long as you're not Falun Gong, they're not gonna do anything to you. Unless you're a celebrity of some sort, they don't care what you say. I just stuck my head out the window and yelled that Mao sucks my dick. Nobody even looked up. Nobody cares, there's 1.3 billion people here.

As for Chinese thinking white people are rich.... don't make me laugh. Nobody thinks you're rich just because your white. They've seen enough cheapskate white people to know better.

 

[Chalise N]

I can get laid every night with a different girls in plenty of other countries too, Thailand, Philippines, HK, Vietnam etc... I don't really see that as criteria for living somewhere. They might leave you alone as long as you do what you're told and don't question anything but I like my freedom of speech plus I don't like walking around an invisible "I'm white therefore I must be rich, please attempt to rob or rip me off as many times as is humanly possible" sign on my head, so thanks but no thanks

 

[OLD MAN OF KNOWLEDGE]

Tons of guys. Especially guys who like getting laid by a different girl every day. I know a couple guys who live there for that exact reason. As for the freedom thing... it's not like they have secret police watching you or anything... only the Falun Gong guys. As long as you don't have some agenda to either topple or embarrass Beijing, they leave you alone.

 

[Young Guy]

Learning a new language is all about the effort you put in. I started going to China regularly for biz about 5 years ago. The first year, I didn't even try to learn the language thinking.... no way, it's too confusing and hard. After a year though, I started putting some real effort into it. Within 6 months, I could have simple conversations beyong "ni hao." It was also very good in the sense that I could get around on my own without a chaperone. Nowadays, I wouldn't say I'm fluent in Mandarin, but I can say pretty much everything I want to say.

 

[Mina]

Who in their right mind would want to live in China? Sorry, but I like my freedom way too much

 

[shaybaby]

Unless you have a special reason with supporting paperwork, the maximum length of each stay is 30 days. When I'm there for long periods, I have to leave and come back. Since I'm usually in South China, it's pretty easy for me, just cross over to HK and come right back.

 

[natera_miguel]

Look in the back of magazines such as Thats Beijing or other expat mags they have ads for visa extention/conversion services that claim for a price they can get you any kind of visa. I have heard they work well and most of them bribe people to get the visas who knows but worth a look.

 

[Xynephadyn]

After getting a few single entry visa's I now have a 2 year multi, with the letter of invitation arranged through my company. To take up permanent residence looks like you need a "D" visa, you can look at whether you might be elligable at this site;

http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/lsyw/chivisa/t281954.htm

This is the UK Chinese embassy site but if you are Indian it may be different.

It's not a place I would want to live permanently, my attempts to learn the language have failed horribly! But its ok for a few visits a year.

Good luck!

John

 

[ellie k]

I went to HK last month and I got a multi entry visa to China for 1 year .. This allows me to go in and out of China as many times as I wanted..I have no idea how long I can stay each time though..The longest I stayed was 10 days..I used it 3 times this trip and will use it again in November when I go to HK again

 

[jhEnny]

A lot of folks here in Guangdong live/work here on business "F" visas, which is sort of a six month multilple entry thing. You have to go out of China at least once every 30 days.

Need a "letter of invitation" and fill out the visa form before you come. Check on the internet, a lot of places doing visas for foreigners coming to China.

Now, the real question is, unless you have some grand plan for making a ton of money here, why would you want to live here? Most of the expats I know in China are planning to retire to the Phillipines. Try Angles City around the old Clark Air base!

Uncle John

 

[filmmaniac111]

Weird post but you can always live there legally after opening up a small business or something. If you're thinking of looking for a residence permit after you go there as a tourist, thats most probably illegal.

 

[Meaux]

It's quite simple if you think of it. Just go to the Chinese Consulate or ambassy and just ask ém if there is a possiblity to stay a longer period or if there is a possibility to stay there for years and how this goes by the according rules. Knowing from experience , asking such at a consulate can get you strange faces at the consulate or ambassy. They tend to let staff walk in civilian cloth between the people that come there for amongst visas . But then again if you are nice and do according to their rules it should be possible, it only takes time and depents on who you meet and how smart you are.