Reid Evan Thompson
Studied Biomechanics & Primary Care Physicians (Graduated 1983)2y
What if I want to live in China? Is it possible?
I’m going to offer a different perspective. I lived in China for 8 years. I married a Chinese woman. We currently live in the US.

To clarify, I am assuming the question means to live a ‘normal’ life (as a westerner would understand that concept).

You can live in China and hang out if you marry a Chinese person, but you cannot work without a Z-visa (which actually converts to a residency permit upon entry). You cannot work on a marriage visa.

Foreigners have to register with the local PD after they find housing.

After the age of 65 you will not be able to find work. Most contracts for foreign workers limit age to 55–65. Some are as a low as 45. So you need to have some kind of outside income.

I have known people who worked in Asia for many years, but never worked 40 quarters (10 years) in the USA, making contributions to Social Security and Medicare. Then when their health turned or they were deemed too old to get a work visa, upon returning to the US they discovered that they were not vested in SS or Medicare….

Those people were deeply, permanently screwed.

The best way to live in China would be to get enough contributions to SS & Medicare first, then go to China on a work or Business visa, find someone you’d like to marry (and that person would marry you even if you told them you were planning to stay in China, NOT go back to the USA) - and once you qualified, start taking your Social Security income as a direct deposit into a US bank account, which you could then access while in China.

Even so, you would have to apply every year to renew your marriage visa.

The food is great and pretty healthy - and in the 2nd or 3rd tier cities, the COL is not so bad. In the countryside, your SS check might make you slightly “rich” - in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or other 1st tier cities, it won’t pay for your apartment rent.

There are certain ways to get around some of the restrictions you will find as a foreigner living in China, but it takes time to figure that out.

Medical & dental - quite good in 1st tier cities. In the countryside? 1950’s era dentisty - with the drills to prove it. Your Medicare will only work in a handful of 1st tier city hospitals. Otherwise, bring cash. You’ll pay in advance, even before surgery.

Socially, it would be different for most westerners. There are maybe 2 English-speaking cable TV stations, originating in Hong Kong. Increasingly, bookstores in 1st tier cities have books written by English-speaking authors - but the selection is limited. Other westerners you meet, fellow-travelers if you like - are not always that likable. Lots of alcoholics and social misfits working in China. In the countryside, you will always be a curiosity. Children will sometimes shrink from you, crying in fear. The bigger cities are better, but then again, that annoying COL problem returns.

Studying Mandarin (putonghua) before you go helps. But there are 680 dialects spoken in China, and unless your putonghua is spot-on for pronunciation, no one will understand a word you say. If you end up in Guangdong Pr., they mainly speak Cantonese (Guangdonghua) - so if you show up there, you’d better be a fast learner.

There are other things. Toilets rarely have any paper, so you learn to carry some at all times. In China it’s a little packet roughly 2″ x 3″ x 1/2″ of little Kleenex's - and the toilets may be the squat down type (the sitting type like westerns are used to mainly in the bigger cities). I could go on….

Like all places, China is changing quickly. The internet is more tightly restricted now than it was when I was there. On the other hand, trains are faster, buses cleaner, and some of the “Wild West” flavor of China as it transitioned to ‘authoritarian capitalism’ are gone. If your papers are bogus, today it is more likely someone will spot that. If you went a “looser” version of Asia, Thailand remains your best bet.

Can you live in China? Most westerners I have known washed out, barely hanging on to finish out a year’s contract for teaching. Others liked it more and stayed longer. Foreign business people getting paid by their company, living downtown in first tier cities saved a lot of money and became rich. A few people I knew tried to find ways to stay forever, but it is unclear whether they made it or not. A Chinese green card exists, but it is almost impossible to get one.

Now you know more, so… is it possible?

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Leo Zach
· September 21, 2019
Some very good points. Except “The food is great and pretty healthy”. I’m sure you’re aware of the barrage of news reports in China on food safety issues.

Also, agreed on the COL problem, Tier 1 cities are overpriced, but even a $900 SS check is enough to pay for a 1-br apartment in Beijing or Shanghai, within 3rd ring rd and middle ring rd respectively (btw, thanks to the PBOC for the yuan current and future devaluations).

Lastly, I believe one is just fine in Guangdong speaking putong hua.

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Reid Evan Thompson
· September 21, 2019
Everywhere we go one must be aware of food safety. That being said, I will stick with my original point.

The trouble with living in first tier cities is that after you are in an apartment for a year, they jack the rent. This is the result of rentals being taken over by real estate agencies. If you’re lucky enough to have a private landlord, it is much better. Over time, the agencies are taking most of that market. The average Social Security check seems to be ~$1461, and the max is $2814. Paying $900 equivalent in rmb would be a big bite.

Putonghua “works” in parts of Guangdong - but there are places where people do not understand it - I should know, I lived and traveled there for 2 years. YMMV. btw, Guangdong ppl speak putonghua with a ‘southern accent.’ I’ll stand by what I said before - unless your putonghua is spot-on for pronunciation, no one will understand a word you say.

I got to the point where I could pick out accents from Guangdong, Beijing, Hainan Dao & Shanxi. It is said that the purest Putonghua accent is spoken in Heilongjiang Prov (Harbin) but I never made it there. Always wanted to see the ice festival, maybe I’ll still get there (?).

Thank you for the comment.

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Leo Zach
· September 21, 2019
Thank you for the clarifications. In Shanghai, where I’m most familiar with, most rentals are still from private landlords. And absolutely, pronunciation has to be “spot on” to be understood. About the food safety issue, it actually ranks #3 in the top reasons for Chinese emigration out of China.

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Beizhou Wang
· September 25, 2019
Well, I would like to correct the fact that “the purest Putonghua accent is spoken in Harbin”. From a native perspective, it is funny to learn that someone told you that it’s in Herbin. While the Heilongjiang Prov. or Northeastern China area is famous for its humorous “Dongbei” accent, the authentic Putonghua should originate from a small town in Hebei Prov.

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Reid Evan Thompson
· September 25, 2019
Thank you for the correction.

One thing I believe is true about China - each person is quite sentimental about their home town and the food there; and quite willing to stand up for their regional differences!

My own pronunciation experience started out in frustration. I learned Putonghua (some basics) but no one seemed to understand me. Then I had a very patient tutor and we worked for several months just on pronunciation & the 4 tones.

Even though my vocabulary was limited, suddenly I was able to get people to understand what I was saying.

Interestingly, I became more adept at listening to a speaker and hear the (sometimes) small differences in pronunciation from the language spoken in Beijing, which is famous for that pirate-like “rrr” at the end of certain words. To my way of thinking, that was humorous, but also the local pronunciation for Beijingers.

It is interesting b/c as a foreign teacher, I had to be able to figure out what my students were trying to say. Some of the pronunciations were not even close, but with time I got better and better at deciphering what they were trying to say. On the other hand, many times to my ear, my pronunciations were very close - yet - Chinese listeners seemed unable to make the leap to analyzing context and figuring out what I wanted to say.

Anyway, I don’t take it so seriously anymore, and am retired. I hope to return to China and do some additional travel. In that case, I’ll try to brush up on my putonghua but have already learned to live with what I got - which was immersion - 6 years in Beijing & 2 years in Guangdong.

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Adrian Lacno
· November 27
Foods are clean and healthy. The news that you saw on news are street vendors and little stores(mom&pop stores). Dont be cheap, spend a little, they arent that expensive even in high class restaurants, still 1/3–1/5 cheaper than in big cities like NYC.

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Claire Wang
· October 30, 2019
I appreciate your honest opinions, though the information you gave is misleading

“I have known people who worked in Asia for many years, …, making contributions to Social Security and Medicare. Then when their health turned or they were deemed too old to get a work visa, upon returning to the US they discovered that they were not vested in SS or Medicare”