Hello world,
I'm writing to you because I heard you want to teach in China, or were thinking of moving to China to do business or simply want to come here on vacation. I'm absolutely thrilled to have you in my new country and would like to share some important information with you.
I myself arrived in China 3 years ago and mostly enjoy my stay. Mostly. You see, my dear friend, if you come to China you will experience something called culture shock (and the most explosive diarrhea) and you may feel depressed and may want to leave. I'm here to say I wholeheartedly understand this feeling you will experience and that everyone goes through this. Don't feel bad about yourself if you can't stay in China and have to go back home, as far as I know about half of the foreigners coming to work in China do not finish their first yearly contract and the vast majority won't renew or extend beyond their first year.
I'm not going to get into much details about the reasons explaining why most people can't stay in China for long periods of time, but for now I'll just state it this way: the Earth is made of two worlds - China and the rest of the world. When you come to China, you will quickly realize that the rules you took for granted about the world in general will not apply here or will be twisted. Here's an example: as a traveler, you are told not to drink tap water when you travel abroad. This is a sensible advice and it makes sense: your body is not used to the organisms floating in the tap water of foreign countries. Still, you would think that after a while living in China you would be drinking water from the tap, right? Nope: Tap water is not safe for consumption in Mainland China, not even by the population. If you want to drink tap water or cook with it, you have to boil the water. Everyone has to (should) do this here.
It's not all grim though. Generally speaking, and especially if you live outside major cities like Beijing, you will find that you will be making less money than you would back home, but save much more after all your expenses than you ever could at home. This is mainly because your salary makes you upper-middle class in China, but still poor in your home country. I'll get into more details another time.
As far as food goes, there is plenty here, although the quality is often questionable, and it is also quite cheap. If I want, I can buy a meal for a dollar or cook one for under 50 cents.
Obviously, you may think that being in a Communist country run by a single party is the biggest disadvantage of living in China. While this is true to some extent, most of the disappointments you will experience on a daily basis will be on a much more local level. Of course, there is no denying that there is a trickling down effect in motion coming from the rulers in Beijing, but I feel the biggest issues are mostly generated by the people, not the government itself.
The 3 biggest disadvantages for foreigners living in China you could directly link to the central government are the following:
1)The Internet: Needless censorship of the internet, poor speed when trying to access websites outside China, services like Skype, hotmail,gmail,google and so on being randomly inaccessible or unreliable. Thankfully, for a little money you can pay for a VPN with a foreign company that will help you jump over the Chinese internet regulations and have access to the real internet 90% of the time.
2)Electronics and imported goods: Even if most electronic goods are made in China, they have to be brought to Hong Kong, then re-imported into Mainland China with a very high tax added to the price. An Iphone can cost 40% more than it would in Hong Kong or the rest of the world just because of taxes alone.
3)Banking: The Yuan (RMB/Kuai) is a controlled currency. This means you cannot exchange or sell (buying is easy though) your Chinese money without a lot of red tape. In practice, this means that if you have a student loan you're trying to pay back, be ready to spend up to 5 hours at the bank filling papers every time you want to transfer your money using Western Union.
I'll write more tomorrow.
-ChinaSchoolTeacher
