Moving back to China after 5 years!

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durian_daun

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Joined: June 13, 2004
Posts: 1

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Posted: June 13, 2004 - 02:27 PM
Post subject: Moving back to China after 5 years!

I'm an American, living in California. I first went to China to study in Beijing back in 1993, then I moved back to work in Beijing from 1996-1999. I came back to the states at the end of 1999. So I'm pretty familiar with the way life was in Beijing back in the 90s.

My company has now offered to send me to Shanghai. It's kind of scary contemplating moving back. I have two questions that I was hoping some people who have lived in both cities could answer.

1) How well integrated are the local and expat social scenes? In Beijing in the late 90s there was very little integration. I found that most of my expatriate friends didn't have many Chinese friends and it was difficult for the two to scenes to get together. When I visited Beijing back in March it seemed as though things had changed, with many more locals going out to bars and intermingling with expats. It seemed like the gap had closed slightly between the expats and the locals. I know this is a really subjective question but have you noticed any changes? How does Shanghai compare?

2) Air pollution. How does Shanghai compare to Beijing? This really wasn't a concern to me 7 years ago, but now that I'm older...

Thanks,

Kiwi

Post Boaster

Joined: May 07, 2003
Posts: 4763

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Posted: June 13, 2004 - 03:32 PM

1 - Social scenes are fairly well integrated, in the sense that locals and foreigners do hang around in the same places. But then many locals that hang around with foreigners are not exactly representative of the local population, and many have some agenda for specifically seeking out foreigners.

Many people have commented that they think the Beijing social scene is more integrated. There may be a little in that, but it probably applies more for the numerous uni students than the older, higher earning expats.

2 - Air pollution is probably worse than in Beijing. Just my feeling. Of course it may just be the warmer air that makes you notice the fumes more (I've only been in Beijing in winter/spring by the way).

PhatAV8r

Raver

Joined: May 31, 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Qingpu District, SHANGHAI
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Posted: June 14, 2004 - 10:33 AM

I disagree. This time of year, Beijing seems cleaner in some respects for air quality because the wind blows so much. As the summer approaches, the temperature rises, and the smog sets in. Beijing has the worst SMOG problem in China in my opinion and if there was a air quality index, would probably be at RED most of July-Aug-Sept.

As to the social scene, can't answer that, I don't socialize big time since I am married and have other responsibilities (I have yet to find the group that think a good game of b-ball, and afternoon of golf, or a little flag/touch/tackle Smile

football is a good Saturday activity to bring up a thirst.

Seems to me that when your social life revolves around bars and eating that you don't have much of a life.