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Q: Anyone currently planning their escape from China?
I recently bought a house back in the states, so now I am saving up for a car when I finally arrive back home. I figure I will need to stay another year in order to save up enough to buy all the crap I need to start over in the U.S. again. I think this year will be the worst, the thought of returning home is constantly on my mind. I also began to hate teaching here even more than usual. So before I rant forever, is there anyone else out there currently planning their escape from this prison? Maybe someone here who has already made the great escape, and would like to reflect on how cool it is to be back home again? Thanks for your input.
I made the journey a few days ago.
Health is my main consideration in leaving China: the increased level of pollution has got to me - looking out my window every morning to fuzzy air just depressed me and i could feel it settle on my lungs: I now know what a smoker must experience.
Skin problems cleared up immediately on arrival home.
I am sorry to leave - i met fantastic locals and foreigners alike.
The food was by turns tasty, surprising, vile, outstanding, memorable.
I kept my cool in the face of awesome illogical behaviour, I learnt a lot, traveled, challenged my perceptions and those of locals.
I wouldn't have missed this experience for anything.
Will i return? Of course, some time in the future. 
timjames:
I know what you mean. I was sick for 2 months this winter and back home I go years without being sick. I hope you enjoy being back home, I envy you, take care.
royceH:
Zai jian, Sorrel !
You must feel like Clint Eastwood did when he finally looked back at Alcatraz. 
Congratulations.
Btw.....you never did tell us what your little home country is....
Good luck.
frvioque:
I think chinese food is tasty but its really shit, dirty difficult to find quaility and clean chinesefood. SOmetimes in the restaurants i go to restrooms and i find the cook but never washing their hands after peeing or even worse.
The health and safety issues caused us a lot of problems, but so did Chinese culture. The ever-increasing hostility towards foreigners is only increasing, and it's also one of the reasons we left.
We're glad we did. It's getting worse and worse. Food safety, health issues, etc. It's not worth bothering with.
We planned our escape, or rather, I did. I didn't want our family stuck in China, so I did everything to get us out. Fortunately, certain individuals made it easier for us to leave with their profoundly savage behavior.
We still miss China, but neither of us really want to go back.
To everyone who has gotten out: good on you. To those working on it: God bless you.
I'm in the same situation, i'm planning to escape from here next year. As you said, this will be the worst knowing that I'm getting out anyway but I need to save up before going back the civilized world. I'm starting to hate everything even stuff that I liked at first.
I'm preparing our departure to greener pastures. We would settle down not in China, not in France, but in a place new for both of us. This way, it's fair... Hopefully, we would leave this autumn or winter, we will apply for a residency permit soon. Crossing my fingers to be accepted, that would be such a downer to be refused.
Why leaving China ? We want kids, but the educational system is really not good, compared to what I know. An international school would eat half of our revenue. A mortgage would eat the other half... A mortgage for a shitty flat in a boring area where nobody give a damn about anything. For the same money, I can buy an individual home, with insulation and with a garden, in many other places in the world. So we would do those sacrifices while living in a polluted air, risking eating tainted food, bring bored with no friends, and having to face the petty frustration of never being integrated because I'm not looking like an Asian. My hopes for less censorship and more progressive social reforms are gone, not gonna happen this decade.
DrMonkey:
Yeah... Nah. North Island, New-Plymouth or Hamilton ^^ Well, if all things go exactly as hoped, which might be a long shot. They have to accept my wife and me :p Maybe we will end-up in the South Island, who knows...
royceH:
Either island would be great.
Kiwis are good people and the country is so clean!
Do you know how much the visa applications will cost?
My wife and step daughter's visa app to Australia cost RMB 45,000. And as it still hasn't been approved (9 months) we've outlayed another cpl thou on a tourist visa for our holiday next month.
DrMonkey:
1) You submit an Expression of Interest, I haven't done it yet. Pay 510 NZD.
2) If you can claim 140 points or more, your application is picked asap, from the latest batch of applications. Normally I can claim those 140 points *without* a job offer.
3) Wait, I would say 3 months at most, to get an answer.
4) If it's accepted, you have to give various documents, to justify for the points you claimed, health check, police records, IELTS test, those kind of things. Pay for translating your papers or just to have them. IELTS is ain't cheap either.
5) You wait some more, and you might get a visa or not. Pay 310 NZD per head.
We are at the "pass the IELTS" step and "prepare translations of papers" step. We already spent more 20000 RMB for those thing, and there will be more...
I plan to leave China next year, before coming in this country I lived for a year in Japan and another year in South Korea, I now plan to move to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines, certainly not to go back home. In 5 or 10 years I could be anywhere, I enjoy moving every few years to a new country.
Hulk:
Thailand is a very bad place for foreigners right now. They're getting outright stabbed, etc. My aunt's sister's son got rage-slashed in Thailand.
sam239:
Hulk, where did they go in TH where they ended up getting rage-slashed? There's some anti-foreign sentiment there (no surprise given the low bar they have set in place for immigration) but methinks you would have to go out of your way to get involved in violence.
Eorthisio:
Yeah I am aware about that, I don't blame Thai people for having some anti-foreign sentiment, look at the expat scene over there, all the losers who could never make it back in their home country end up in Thailand (and some in China). BTW they hate the Chinese much more than they hate White or Black people over there, Chinese tourists are banned from most hotels and clubs in Thailand. I won't stay with other expats if I ever go there, just like I never stay with other expats in China (and talk as little as possible with my foreign coworkers), only locals, and mostly women.
JacobJohn:
Thailand it's dangerous as already stated by others, Philippines is slippery and shrewd. I don't see what other options you have, to be honest. Maybe Malaysia, but is it really a good idea? Why not Hong Kong or Singapore?
Eorthisio:
Why not indeed, maybe because I have already been to both and you can see/experience everything in 2 days as they are tiny countries. Also salaries are nice but the cost of life, especially in Singapore, is skyrocketing, let's not even talk about rents, even Tokyo is cheap compared to both places. And there are too many Mainlanders in both places, in HK obviously we all know that and in Singapore 1 millions Mainlanders who immigrated in the past 15 years, these people bring with them their superior habits and culture.
No quite the opposite, I am laying the foundations for an online working life, so I can live here but work back home. I have found a good part of China and would like to base myself here, but suspect the visa BS is going to get in the way of the plan. Oh well, there is always bouncing around between different countries based on the visa situation at the moment. Anyways good luck to you over the next year, hope it isn't too miserable and you can find some good memory to take home.
I am preparing to go to Vietnam next year...I finally had my China break a few months ago. Unfortunately, like you, I realized that it only makes financial sense for me to stick it out for one more year at my current place of employment before moving on. This year will be long, but I honestly will miss my friends and the local expat hangouts in Chengdu. It says a lot about China that I will not really miss anything to do with the local culture.p>
I am preparing to go to Vietnam next year. I would have left immediately, but it just made better financial sense to stay at.my current job on Chengdu for one more year. I will miss my friends...I will not miss china.
I'm not :(
Looking to do my dissertation for the masters, and then start the doctorate... all on either ESL in China, or IELTS in China (lots of material on both.. which could make me famous - and hated 
you know... proving their IELTS preparation school teachers know nothing 
:D:D)
DrMonkey:
For your PhD... Nah, you would do a great service to a whole nation, really. My wife was looking for an IELTS training class. She tried one of those local training center. In a large room with maybe 50 people, the teacher read a lot of PowerPoint slides with a (poor, saturating) voice amplifier. It's something 4h to 6h a week. A lot of cramming. All that as evening classes, when your brain is mostly fried.
For close to the same price, we found a UK teacher with 3 decades of experience (!) in teaching English to Chinese students. Week-end sessions, one-on-one, two hours a week. It's vastly more enjoyable, intellectually stimulating and there's very little cramming. My wife writing skills vastly improved in a couple of months. Add a healthy dose of Youtube for the listening part, and Bob's your uncle. If a lot more people here knew that...
Shining_brow:
Thanks Dr M... totally agree!
Technically, it'll be a Ed.D. - 3-4 x 15,000 research projects, instead of one big 60K one... which means, I can look at a few different angles :) (another one I'd like to do is how much a student perceives accent (and later, looks) when deciding if a person makes a good teacher or not!
Hmmm - maybe I should try the same thing with games and like-ability etc....!)
Yes. After staying a lot longer than I expected, the negatives have finally started to outweigh the positives for me. I need to stick around for another year, possibly two though for various reasons which I'd rather not do.. I don't want to leave hating the place.
I generally share Stiggs opinions above. Having spent almost 5 years in China now, I am starting to get tired of the same questions, the same environmental hazards and the same dodgy jobs and landlords. Will probably be returning to the Western world some time next year. Just as soon as I have found a job or course somewhere 
The plan? Three more years in China, finish a master's, then home or the Land of Smiles. I'm doing some online work on the side, but I don't want to do that full-time.
So, 3 more years + a master's.
You can do it! Count the days if you must.
I need to get out before my son is school age. My home countries Netherlands and Britain offer some perks, but I'd say Australia might be the safest bet. Get training in a field the country needs, then move the family over. For the moment, we're just keeping ahead of the bills.
royceH:
Good idea!
Check out the Govt website that details jobs that'll qualify you for a 457 (?) visa. There's lots of them.
masonk:
British nationals tend to find it quite easy finding work in Oz, good luck to you!
Id be open to moving anywhere but realistically i will be in China, long term.
In the south pollution is generally better and I dont feel anymore/less healthy then I was back home.
Sometimes I think about what I would do for work if I moved back home and I cant come up with anything that wouldnt involve " starting over" or taking a large step back. As I am unprepared to do that , I plan on staying here until situations change. Visas have never been a problem for me and all of the talk about chinas horrible future seems to be over blown. Ive been here for 8 years and it always seems to be the case.
Id certainly be open to taking a position in another country but I just dont realistically see what benifit I could offer a company for my expected salary with no understanding of their language , culture , or business practices.
I am set up quite nicely here and have found a balanced life so that is how it will remain. Have been discussions about when children reach school age, but then it will be a discussion on paying for an international school or sending them abroad. Not something im prepared to think about now.
I will continue my journey. I have already stayed past my first deadline because of the unexpected addition of a family. After the second baby is born, our family will sail around the world. So I am taking sailing lessons and watching "All is Lost" with my family, LOL. So we will remain here perhaps 4 more years and then off to the deep blue sea. In the meantime, China is still interesting to me. I will try to enjoy my experience here.
