One Beijing expat shares what he most enjoys about life in the
Chinese capital on the forum www.thebeijinger.com. The contributor,
a British man who has lived here for more than two years, posted
his observations under the title, "Living in Beijing as a foreigner
is awesome".
"Let's not forget that," he writes. "It is. If it's not for you
then you need to try harder." Here is his list of highlights for a
Beijing expat:
I get paid about the same as I did at home, but the cost of
living is 10 times cheaper, so I'm never skint anymore. I eat out
all the time, my apartment is great and I can waste money on things
like Playstations.
The restaurants are amazing and cheap. Even the expensive ones
are cheap by Western standards. Such variety, quality and plenty of
people to go eat with. Takeaway food services mean I can eat
anything I want by just clicking a few buttons on a website.
Women. Love it or hate it, the fact is I'm 40 percent more
attractive here. My girlfriend is lovely and one of the new
generation of Chinese women who want to work for themselves, are
ambitious, confident, independent and have the ability to make good
money for themselves. Not every Chinese girl is a helpless,
desperate Hello Kitty emotional minefield.
Opportunity. There is so much money pouring into Beijing that
new businesses are starting up every day. Get a Chinese partner you
can trust and the only thing holding you back is your own ambition.
You can feel the energy in Beijing, the feeling here of opportunity
and change is amazing.
Personal freedom. I can do pretty much anything I want here
without anyone forcing their ideas down my throat. I can ride my
bike home from the pub with no lights, big glass bottle of Yanjing
in one hand, and no one will care, if I fall it's my fault for
being an idiot. Try that in the UK and you'll get arrested on about
four or five charges.
Watching the changes first-hand. No one can deny that the way
China is changing will affect the world, we are very lucky to be
here at this time to see the changes first-hand. Even though I moan
about the Olympics a bit, it's going to be an amazing experience to
see first-hand how that changes the city and people.
The people. From day one my colleagues treated me like family -
a genuine affection and willingness to be close that was totally
different from any other place I worked. I've had some bad
experiences, but landlords everywhere are idiots and the ratio of
good to bad experiences with Chinese people is very high. I've
generally found Chinese people in Beijing to be very open, helpful
and friendly.
Compared to all the good things the little irritations are
nothing. In 2.5 years I can count the number of really bad days on
one hand. This place rocks, I love it.
?(China Daily January 25, 2008)