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Q: In your experience, do different Chinese cities attract different kinds of expats?
Sort of.
For example, in Guilin we had mostly teachers, retired westerners married to Chinese women, aspiring musicians and maybe a business person or two.
Beijing, in addition to the above, we also have a fairly large number of embassy personnel, people who work in different capacities for large corporations, full fledged professors, etc. all of which I never saw in Guilin.
TedDBayer:
I never saw no others in Guilin. Are you sure they didn't all go when you did?
GuilinRaf:
They tend to hang out at Rosemary's cafe during the evenings, especially weekends.
There is also the "Irish Bar" (not its real name, but I cannot remember it, it was near Paulaners (the german bar).
Along the Li River, near walking street, there is a series of small coffee shops, and restaurants and a couple of Chinese bookstores. They would gather there too.
And, of course, the massage parlors. But all of this is in the area either inside or surrounding the Walking street near the city center.
Yes, Guangdong is full of businessmen (everyone to some degree).
Central China, the parts still in development have alot of engineers.
Chengdu is full of teachers.
I am not sure about the "attraction" but I am sure that there are a lot more jobs and opportunities in the bigger cities ...... more international companies, more international business so more folks from different countries.
My #1 attraction was and is my wife........ and I am happy not to be in an international business environment......... Guanzhou was fun for a while, but I much prefer my "little" city now.
I do believe so. I think older expats go for the countryside of China where it is cleaner. The younger expats or business types will come to Shanghai or Beijing to live.
Hulk:
Uhm, no... I've been to more countrysides across the country than anyone on this forum, except maybe Happy (we're talking hundreds)... it's definitely NOT cleaner in the countryside.
Other than pollution, which definitely affects the countryside as well, even the worst cities are much cleaner.
GuilinRaf:
I have gone to dozens of small towns, and they can actually be quite disgusting.
In many of them, people spit and blow snot, on the floor, inside!
Not all, mind you, but many.
I used to live in Chengdu, and most of the foreigners there seemed to be pricks; hippy-types who tried too hard to be different. Shenyang is okay but there was a lot of Russians and they always seem to be angry, while Shenzhen is pretty good apart from some of the older ones who seem a bit pervy.
woody:
I spend a fair amount of time in Shenyang. Will be back there next week. I see a few expats wandering around but not that many. I guess I don't go to the bars etc that they frequent but there does not seem to be very many in relative terms.
