Moving to China

Go if you would like it to be a COMPLETE change. The food, people, traffic everything. And its best if you like spicy foods..or unusual food like pigs ears and chicken claws :)
 
Be careful what you drive, having a rev counter is considered aspirational and god help you if you have a head light washer that eliteism. Youve been warned.
:D
 
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Any reason why? Work? Or some other reason? I moved out of the country when I was very little, so I don't have a lot of experience other than be prepared to eat out A LOT. Almost nobody cooks in the city. Plus, eating out is very cheap, and the food is good. Find a place to live with a good clean bathroom (very easy these days), and be prepared for a few weeks of diarrhea at first. Also, it should be pretty easy for you to pickup local girls, they all like foreign guys. The language itself may take a while to learn though. Other than that, ENJOY!
 
I kind of like China, mainly because everything is unbelievably cheap.
 
I have not been there, but I have several friends who have been and they all came back saying that is was much less civilized than they expected. I am very curious what is motivating this move though!

My father also taught English there (in a VERY small village)for just over a year, and he had a good time, but he has a rather strange set of tastes, so I cannot really use that as a positive experience... LOL

ESL teachers get paid quite a bit more in Korea and other places if that is what you are looking at.
 
I know I wouldn't swap Italy for China or have any plausible reason to. Just apologise to Chrissy and Paulie for scratching their Cadillac and I'm sure you won't have to move.

To back up your idea, though, here are some breakdancing communists.
[YOUTUBE]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQb8vb4blA[/YOUTUBE]
 
Interesting...I always figured you were going to come to the States first and indulge your love of big ol' pickup trucks. :think:

I haven't lived in China, but I have most of my family there and have been a bunch of times. I couldn't tell you about getting an apartment or transferring paperwork, but there's a few things to know about day-to-day living:

In big cities, especially ones filled with tourists like Beijing, everybody will speak a basic amount of English.

China's slowly becoming more Westernized, as you've probably read in the media that's still astonished that we gave up the whole Great Leap Forward thing. :roll: It's essentially a capitalist state, and the evil specter of Communism fails to make an impact on anybody's lives unless you're actively searching for it. There's a middle class being rapidly carved out of yuppies in BMWs (Audis are ridiculously popular there) so it's not as different as you may think. You can still go into a mall and buy Gucci, Armani Exchange, Sony, etc., but expect to pay the same prices as you do now. THAT shit isn't cheap.

Chinese people LOVE scooters. There's far less of Beijing's famous bicycles than from even 10 years ago; most people ride Chinese-built LPG scooters that are dirt cheap and festooned in stickers. I think gas prices are at European standards, I'm not sure.

Local food is dirt cheap. You can stuff yourself in beef noodles for about 6RMB. Imported beer is expensive, but other than that you'll be able to find any cuisine you want to (you just gotta know where to look). Local markets do carry the occasional weird stuff, and Chinese people tell Westerners that they eat this stuff every day of their lives. ;) The Subways there deliver. :woot:

Don't forget to check out the Beijing Penis Restaurant.

Koenig is right, Chinese girls love foreign dudes. :wicked:

If you have any more questions there's a bunch of Chinese people including me on this forum, so feel free to ask!
 
Having spent a month in China to teach in a University, I have to say my vision of China changed quite a bit.

The people really are some of the most friendly people I've met in all the countries I've been in. All is very, very, very, very, very, very, very cheap, so much cheaper than you might imagine ! You can have a complete meal in a restaurant with beer and all for as little as one Euro, and you eat very well !

One thing you need to know though is that Chinese people (not all of them but a large amount of them anyway) are not very keen on hygiene... Everything is kind of dirty... And as we saw with the Chine car industry, everything is very low quality.

But apart from these few things, I really liked my time in China and it is definitely on my list of places I may like to live someday :)

Beijing especially was a really beautiful city, much more "Chinese" in its style than Shanghai or the place I was living (in the Shandong province).
 
If you plan to live there, you should know their traffic laws. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPxinqO3f8o[/YOUTUBE]
I've lived there for many years, that's how they drive in most cities (including Beijing)
 
killpanda said:
All is very, very, very, very, very, very, very cheap, so much cheaper than you might imagine ! You can have a complete meal in a restaurant with beer and all for as little as one Euro, and you eat very well !
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Hows about 40cents for teh bestest mutton kebab.

An expensive meal at a restaurant will set you back around 8~10 US dollars, everyday normal food is normally lower than 2 USD.

That's why I love China so much.
 
China? I'm from there, and had been back there very often. Beijing's good, generally. Moving there means a total change. Go have a visit there for a taster before really moving. Regarding cheap-ness, it's no totally true.

In Beijing, there's no such thing as middle-class. You either pay peanuts, or you pay an arm and a leg.

Culture's also very different. We celebrate lots of weird festivals. Mostly regarding the "Divine", such as Hungry Ghost Festival etc.

Personally, even me, who's educated in both English and Chinese, find the way the Chinese there talk is very irritating and confusing. Oh, and they aren't as friendly as you Caucasians either. I myself (and a lot of Chinese) wouldn't want to move there, but instead want to escape Asia and go somewhere in Europe.

Oh, COFFEE. Their coffee might as well be some random brown powder mixed with hot water. It's tasteless and bland. Really awful, even in Starbucks.
 
Homer_Bart said:
Oh, COFFEE. Their coffee might as well be some random brown powder mixed with hot water. It's tasteless and bland. Really awful, even in Starbucks.
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So it tastes like regular starbucks then? :p
 
^ At least starbucks offer the option of having cream with your brown cup of something :D

And oh, cars are relatively cheap, but crime can still be moderately high. And if you're into car modding, you're in the wrong place. There's also NO official importer of Subaru in China. I've only seen ONE Impreza with fart cannon once. Nothing else. No Legacy, Forester etc...

Only go there if you know how to speak Chinese or have a friend who'd been living there.
 
I don't know why you're trading Italy for China. I would understand wanting to visit, tour around a bit, but live there? Kind of a downgrade (no offense to the Chinese on here). The food may be cheap, but it is absolutely horrible. Typical products you would buy for day to day life, again is cheap, but quality is terrible and there's no QC anywhere in China. EVERYTHING is dirty, including the air. If you want to live well there, you've gotta be loaded.
 
^ Agreed. 100%. Quality is real bad. To have a lifestyle like what you probably had in Italy in China, it'll cost you a whole lot more than now, since most of the stuff you're using are imported. The public transport system isn't great either.

Oh, if you're living in the city, be prepared to have your life shortened by some amount. The air is awful. Full of pollution. You can't see far away.
 
For godsakes, it's not as bad as some of these exaggerations here.

The Olympics have improved and modernized the city by leaps and bounds (I would know, I was there), but I'm sure they've gone back to their old ways a bit by now, such as a lack of air pollution control. Yes, the air can get bad, but really, the spring is as nice of a time to visit as any, it isn't crazy hot and humid like in the dead of summer (which contributes to the pollution) or freezing like in winter.

Just be prepared for a new cultural and living perspective, and you'll be fine. Really, most of the "Westernized" places of Beijing is just like in any other big ass city, you'll be safe and sound in those areas.

And be prepared for a SHITLOAD of people everywhere. Not really a place for the clausterphobic (although, given you live in Milan, shouldn't be too bad). Just think of it as the Rome of Asia, without the free porn on hotel TVs (or maybe they do, haven't ever stayed in a hotel in Beijing). :blink:

Make sure to free up some time to take some trips to Shenyang and Inner Mongolia.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys! :thumbup:

I would be going there to work, it would not be "forever", but then again you never know. I have some very wealthy friends from Beijing that made me an offer I'm not sure I'll be able to refuse...

I have always been very fascinated by China, and my philosophy is that you only live once, so why the hell not!

BlaRo said:
Interesting...I always figured you were going to come to the States first and indulge your love of big ol' pickup trucks. :think:
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America is still nirvana in my book, but you make it so hard for us foreigners to get in...

BlaRo said:
Koenig is right, Chinese girls love foreign dudes. :wicked:
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I've had that confirmed straight from the horse's mouth, which makes the whole thing even more tempting since I love Chinese girls... :D
 
avanti said:
I would be going there to work, it would not be "forever", but then again you never know.
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I went to Hong Kong in 1994 to visit our engineering office there, and factory in Southern China........I only went back to Scotland to pack up my shit and move back.


avanti said:
I've had that confirmed straight from the horse's mouth, which makes the whole thing even more tempting since I love Chinese girls... :D
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When i ended up not leaving well, i just went the whole hog as it were.


I've not specifically been to Beijing but i've spent a long time through the years in Shenzhen, Xiamen, Shanghai and Dalian and i would certainly recommend that everybody at some point in life absorbs themselves in a completely different culture.

Whether it's coming from USA/Europe to the Middle East or China its something that has to be done.

From a business point of view, even though China like the rest of the world has taken a huge hit you have to see that China, India and the bulk of Asia is still the place where things happen. The lack of H&S and BS rules makes work and life so much easier even if a bit irritating sometimes. Red Tape annoys the hell out of me, like it taking three months to get a work permit in Malaysia but on the other side of the coin they ignored the fact i was even there.

You have to accept that things happen slower regardless of the manic driving, walking and talking, stuff still can take an age to get done.....pretty much like Italy ;)
 
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