Lived in China
I spent a few years in China as an expat university dean on a French contract. In that capacity, I worked mostly with French students and colleagues, but we did interface with Chinese academics and students as part of our work.
And of course, I lived in an apartment building, in Shanghai, ate in restaurants, rode in taxis, used the metro, went shopping, saw a doctor, met people.
I would summarize the good and the bad as follows.
Good:
- nice apartments. These modern, Chinese apartment blocks are spacious, comfortable, and even fancy. You can build yourself a nice home.
- wonderful food and restaurants. Forget about the stuff you may have eaten in Chinese restaurants outside China. That’s not Chinese food. Not really. Real Chinese food is heavy on oil, garlic, and chilis, and much more varied.
- fun people. I find the Chinese very energetic, direct, resourceful, and clever. They laugh easily and often and tend to be great company. If you like your people straight up, you will like the Chinese.
Bad:
- if high microparticle counts scare you, better don’t breathe unnecessarily in China. Paris closes down for the protection of the public at 50 ppm. Beijing and Shanghai quite routinely operate at 200 to 500 every day.
- water contamination is a problem in China. You’d never know it from opening a tap and brushing your teeth, because it looks and smells fine, but the heavy metals it may contain are an issue.
- if you don’t read and speak Mandarin, you are isolated. China is where you speak Chinese, and it may take you seven years to do so in a convincing manner.
China is only one of ten countries where I’ve lived and worked, and one of forty I have visited. It is still one of my favourites. I’m always happy to be in China.
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