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Also tap water may not be drinkable but thats more of a nuisance since you can filter/boil it.

When I visited the U.S. the tap water there wasn't really drinkable. People said it was fine, but my friend bought bottled water, which I paid for during my stay because the tap stuff smelled evil. Tried the tap water at a restaurant and I physically couldn't swallow it. Supposedly Massachusetts has pretty good water, too.

China is not a magical land where everything is perfect and futuristic. It's a big country with a lot of people in many, many big cities that operates on totally different cultural systems.

I like this take. You often hear places hyped up in media because that garners clicks, but everywhere has its pros and cons. Living in Sweden, I've heard absolutely bananas claims about my country. I'm comfortable here, but not everyone will be, and it's certainly not the utopia some people believe it to be.

China has some good things going for it. I'm not a fan of the lack of privacy there, but simultaneously Europe is taking a leaf out of that playbook. They seem to have decent healthcare, and the infrastructure is seeing some major work that a lot of places here in Europe sorely needs.

The working culture in China is off-putting to me, though I feel similarly for a lot of other places here in Europe as well. Germany for example has a really rough work culture, which always makes it funny when American immigrants sing its praises.

The world is complex.

Paying for everything with Visa/MasterCard is better? I feel like a lot of people's issues with "privacy" around China are correct. But for some reason are ok with the same exact things in the US/West.

In the West we share literally all of the privacy concerns you mentioned above but instead of them being clearly outlined and regulated by our government; they are instead entirely controlled by private companies that use and sell the information for profit.

I guess it's the illusion of privacy, or really the abstraction of it being violated, that makes people in the west feel like China is somehow doing something different. They aren't, they are just upfront about their tracking and data collection.

In China they have CCTV. In the US we have Ring. Like, people literally put Ring cameras INSIDE there house willingly. It blows my mind. And the idea that in the US that it's "decentralized" or "not available to the government" is a lie.

I guess my point is. You're not wrong about the payment processing or the privacy concerns in China. But, you live with the same exact thing in the west every single day. Arguably worse because your data is being controlled by a CEO for profit and they're selling that to anyone and everyone. On top of being given to your government.

Edit: I did agree with the concerns of the original comment over privacy in China. So, id really appreciate a response comment rather than a downvote only. My comment is meant to criticize the US/West (the system most people reading this live under). I wasn't trying to justify China. I am a huge fan of China and it's progress in many ways. At least in terms of learning from their success. But one major criticism I have of them is their level of surveillance and, what I see as now unnecessary, levels of control on speech related to government criticism. So, id ordinarily be a "look at their high speed rail" Andy on this topic. I am very critical of China when it comes to this specific issue; and see it as a major weakness for them that they need to address. But, since I live in the west. I want to make people aware that this issue also exists here. I am more critical of my own country because I live under it. And being distracted by China's problems instead of our own is a major failure.

Yeah. Anywhere would basically be like this if you have enough money to retire luxuriously in that country. And anywhere you do that, poorer people will be making that lifestyle possible with their labor.

While I don't doubt that the average urban Chinese citizen has a higher standard of living than the average urban US citizen, saying that moving to a poorer country where you are rich by comparison is "the american dream" is pretty wild when you're just taking advantage of economic disparities caused by capitalism.

It's irresponsible to move somewhere permanently when you don't plan on really trying to integrate & instead just want to live cheaply as an expat.

Such BS about privacy payoff. Do you know what your banks and venmo know about you? Your chip in your phone or credit card, allows companies to target ads in real time. That's the reality in the US but conveniently ignored because China has to be bastion of privacy violation. In reality China has privacy laws comparable to the European GDPR.

AliPay and wechat are fenomal. It's like in the western world, 1000 apps rolled into one. Paying, ordering food, ordering DiDi, trains, flights, insurance, sports, tickets all in the one app. Plus you can add mini apps within so when you go to a restaurant you can scan the QR code or just put your phone on the NFC tag, and the menu pops up so you can order and pay directly.

China is much better in regards to infrastructure like high speed trains, social security, health care, green energy but again because of the western propaganda this is ignored. Are there tradeoffs? Yes of course.

But from someone who lived and worked in the US for 2 years and now lives in China for over 7 years, I can 100% claim my life is much better here than in the US. And definitely much, much more affordable which is what the article is about.

I also lived in Shenzhen, except for years. All deliveries are guys on scooters. The drone shit is a fantasy that they make videos of but never actually happens (just like the Sea World water light show). All the tech is janky as fuck and the locals work around and despite the tech. The rich treat the locals like slaves, and some have slaves (usually Filipino). Every bathroom smells like piss and shit because they don’t use bleach or any cleaners. And finally the water is undrinkable and “neighbor smell” (look it up) makes you want to vomit every morning.

working at a chinese company would be fucking awful

I got floored when I was told they get 5 days of paid vacation (10 if you worked for 10-20 years and 15 days if you worked for 20+ years) , and no vacation for the first year in a new company, and they have like ~7 days of public holidays.

Oh, and no paid sick leave (for a flue etc - you will get it for operations and similar but they must be dona via public hospitals).

Meanwhile here in Poland we get 5 weeks + 13 public holidays, and if they happen to be during weekend you get an extra day free later, and it's considered rather low for the EU. And unlimited paid sick leave, including for fatigue etc.

Meanwhile, people working 3 jobs to feed a family of 4 in the US, if not then they are working minimum wage job to qualify for medical insurance and get some tax break while living at home.

Unless you are middle class or up you are fucked.

The issue here is how much you need to rent a place. There are absolutely 0 reasons for high rent and lack of affordable housing in North America yet here we are.

Finland is tricky to get into though, if you don't already have family or a similar connection. Haven't looked at China, any idea what would be involved with emigrating there? I'm curious how much they're paving the way for new talent to come in.

There's a lot of places that heavily lured digital nomads for a time that ended up pissing off tons of locals when rent went up across the board.

Or the Brits in Dubai that were on here the other day.

Facades.

This is Shenzhen one of the richest cities in China, so average salary in China does not apply here.

From a Google search:

Shenzhen monthly average is often reported around 12,400–13,000 RMB ($1,700–$1,800 USD

So more than twice what you claim for the area this is in.
As a teacher he is probably living on a pretty normal wage.

Couldn't the same be said of the west, except that rent and food are 3-4 times those amounts?