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Hey guys,
After being in Chengdu for quite a while I am considering option to move elsewhere. Would be more than happy to hear some of your suggestions taking into consideration overall development of the city, cost of living, work opportunities, level of pollution.
Thanks and regards 🙂
You hit me up on WeChat about this, but here are some more thoughts:
Kunming – Best weather in China, very low pollution for a capital city, friendly people, good food, cool local culture. The cost of living is much lower than Chengdu but there are also fewer job opportunities and less things happening in general. The city is years behind Chengdu in terms of international culture, but it’s getting there. Yunnan province is a great place to travel, too.
Xiamen – Very good weather, also low pollution, it’s a tropical city with great atmosphere. It’s very near Taiwan and will make it easy to get to other locations in East Asia, outside of China. It’s cheaper than most of the mega-cities on the east coast, but a lot more pleasant.
Suzhou & Hangzhou – Big cities with a lot going on, but not nearly as much of the hustle & bustle of Beijing. Famous for tea and gardens, these cities have nice atmosphere and are very near Shanghai in case you want to go to a burgeoning mega-city. There’s a famous saying in Chinese to describe these cities, 上有天堂, 下有苏杭, which means “Above there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou” and is a reference to the natural beauty of these cities.
Zhuhai – One of my favorite cities in China, just across the way from Hong Kong and Macau. It’s a spectacularly clean city in China that benefits from proximity to the HKSAR. It’s civilized, adorned with palm trees, and there is great weather for most of the year. It’s kind of always been a conduit between China and Hong Kong though, so it’s not nearly as active or as large a city as Chengdu, but it’s just a nice place.
Places I would avoid: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, and most other provincial capitals (Lanzhou, Guiyang, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, etc).
Might consider ‘nam….. it’d be high on my list of options, or even higher, Cuba.
Yeah, that’s a good point. I have friends who have recently left China for other countries in Asia, and I think that makes a lot of sense when you consider a few things:
- China’s economy is slowing, and it’s becoming probably a less desirable place to work for expats as time goes on
- The pollution, internet problems, etc are significant lifestyle inhibitors
- Nearby countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and even Cambodia are rapidly improving and becoming better places to live
- It seems like expats in China feel less welcome here than before. In a lot of cases, leaving makes sense if you aren’t here for specific reasons.
China’s economy is slowing, and it’s becoming probably a less desirable place to work for expats as time goes on
Yeah, the reason I mentioned Cuba is that there will be a rare opportunity for those in tech — immediately — as now that the embargo is lifted….oh man, such a great opportunity, I’m sure it’ll be enormously transformative and these next couple years in Cuba will be like China in the early 2000s, except with more style.
Having lived in Xiamen, Shanghai and Suzhou before ending up in Chengdu as my last city in China.
Xiamen is really nice when it comes to weather (real blue sky, getting tanned, quite warm winters, low humidity in the summer even if its really warm). Sea food is amazingly cheap and good if that’s your thing.
Suzhou, a nice mix of modern and traditional, much more than Chengdu. Big parts of the city center is old style houses with many cool alleyways. There is a big lake quite central that is a very good place to live by, lots of bars, bakeries and restaurants along with some refreshing lake views. Also, Shanghai is very close and there are high speed trains all the time going there.
Shanghai, I dont think so even if it was interesting to live there for two years…
Daniel
A good friend of mine recently made the jump from the mainland to Taiwan and raves about it. I’ve heard the economy there isn’t as robust, but it’s more “livable” than the mainland – less pollution, unrestricted internet, etc. Also, the preservation of a lot of old Chinese culture, great food, pretty girls. Gonna have to check it out myself someday for sure.
A good friend of mine recently made the jump from the mainland to Taiwan and raves about it. I’ve heard the economy there isn’t as robust, but it’s more “livable” than the mainland – less pollution, unrestricted internet, etc. Also, the preservation of a lot of old Chinese culture, great food, pretty girls. Gonna have to check it out myself someday for sure.
I’ve heard the same thing from people who’ve moved there. It’s a lot smaller than cities on the mainland (excepting Taiwan), but the quality of life is higher.
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