Which city do you recommend?

[liuzhou]

 

most non-Chinese websites are banned here.

 

That is, quite simply, untrue.

 

A few high-profile sites are banned. The vast majority are not. Including this one.

[Simon_CH]

 

That is, quite simply, untrue.

 

A few high-profile sites are banned. The vast majority are not. Including this one

 

And that, I'm afraid, is also quite simply untrue. There are long lists of sites blocked in China, and it includes many websites which aren't even on our radar as we are not affected by the ban of a Japanese ecommerce website for example. All major social media websites are banned, many foreign news websites have been banned at time or are still banned, all video portals are banned, all search sites are banned (now with bing.cn redirect exception) and so forth... 

At times even French and German newspapers couldn't be reached without a VPN, some US Universities, some European political parties (non-radical), some music labels, restaurant websites, scientific sites, motorbike clubs... you name it, it's all been blocked, though few of them permanently. 

 

To say that only a few high-profile sites are banned is the understatement of the century. Just a partial list of major websites, though there are tens of thousands more.  

 

https://www.techinasia.com/list-of-websites-blocked-in-china-by-great-firewall/

[anonymoose]

Well, practically any foreign blog is banned, or any site that is located on a blog surver. This makes searching for completely innocuous and apolitical things very frustrating, because often it is inaccessible for no good reason.

 

Having said that, has anyone noticed that Google isn't 100% blocked? If you are persistent enough, you may be able to gain access briefly (say 1 in 10 times). I wonder if this is just a weakness of the firewall (unlikely) or a deliberate ploy to severely inconvenience and dissuade the use of Google, but leave an opening in case there is no alternative?

 

[gato]

Deliberate policy啦！

[grawrt]

Speaking of bans, I noticed lately yahoo has been banned on and off.

 

I would recommend Harbin~! The food is cheap, people are nice, and the pollution isn't so bad because of them being so up far North (and also the forests that surround them). You could even go hiking at several of their different forests, experience bitter cold and brag that yes, you did in fact survive Everyone will think you're a total badass for doing it. Plus many people on this forum seem to be moving to Harbin. You could always hang out with them if you get lonely.

[Chris Two Times]

My friend is moving to Beijing for now, but he said he would like a place that has these things [...]

 

If your friend is moving to Beijing, then why the interest in looking at other places at the moment? That doesn't make sense to me. If one is moving to a new city, shouldn't the focus simply be on the new city and not hypothetical possibilities about other cities?

 

Since your friend is already on his way, I would say give Beijing a go first for at least a year and then decide.

 

Subjectively speaking, I am a becoming a fan of this city and would recommend it, despite it not meeting the criteria of less pollution and lower prices. This city really does have so much to offer--that's the lens I am looking through regarding this.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[AllOtherNamesWereTaken]

He's going to be in Beijing for a few months. I think it's like 5 or 6. But he was looking at other places because of the pollution in Beijing. But he basically said the same thing as you, that he was going to give it a go anyway and see how things turn out in Beijing, and if it isn't that great then he will look for other places. That's why all these suggestions are great,  it gives him a lot of options.

[Chris Two Times]

Ah, I see now.

 

Sure, why not have a Plan B then? As you can see, lots of great cities in China. I would say wherever your friend ends up, he can't really go wrong (well, yes he could, there are a FEW places, but I guess that's for another post  ).

 

I like this thread. Good topic. Thanks for starting it, AllOtherNamesWereTaken.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[anonymoose]

Still odd though. Your friend is already in Beijing, in China, where presumably he has unlimited resources to research other cities and get information first hand, yet here you are asking a bunch of strangers on the internet.

[AllOtherNamesWereTaken]

He's not in China yet. He's moving there in about a month. And he's not really one for the internet, so that's why I'm doing this for him and passing on the information to him, it's also why it doesn't really matter if there are banned sites because it wont bother him because he barely uses the internet anyway.  

[Lu]

Lots of cities already mentioned. I'd add Xiamen (never been there, but the air is cleaner because it's on the sea) and Chengdu (spent about a week there in total, but don't remember any bad air and the atmosphere is nice).

Also, has your friend considered Taiwan? Clean air (especially on the coast, but in Taipei it's still good enough that it never bothered me), friendly people, cost of living is pretty good. Tasty food, nice weather, all in all a good place to live.

[Chris Two Times]

Fuzhou, Fujian?

[Chris Two Times]

Holy Toledo!

 

The aqi for Harbin is at a staggering 817 right now!

 

Feelin' like Colonel Kurtz in Airpocalypse Now (see what I did there?).

 

The horror! The horror!

 

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[AllOtherNamesWereTaken]

Hey just a follow up question. My friend asked me yesterday what Hong Kong is like? He doesn't mean statistics or figures. But like personal experience, what your opinions are on the city and if you think it would be worth living there and teaching English there. He also asked the same thing about Guilin a few days ago but I forgot. Haha, my bad.

[GregO]

It is really a difficult question to answer even with some of the specifics you mentioned but I believe many places in China will suffice. I have really enjoyed living in Hohhot. The air is generally clean, not too expensive, nice people, etc. There are foreigners here if that is important but there aren't so many that your friend would get trapped into spending all his time with them - actually, you can go many weeks without seeing another foreigner. It is cool being close to Mongolia and I really enjoyed visiting there. The mandarin the older people tend to speak is not that clear - actually it is a dialect. That said, most younger people speak very standard mandarin.  Anyway, this is all  just based on my experience :-)

[Lu]

I don't really know, but I rather doubt Hong Kong has a shortage of English teachers. The place has a full-fledged English-language education system from what I know, all the way from primary school to university. There might be jobs there, but you probably need pretty good credentials.

[Simon_CH]

I think you needs lots of money to really enjoy Hong Kong, and Mandarin seems next to useless for foreigners. Colleagues from Beijing even switch to English if their Mandarin is not understood by a taxi driver for example.

 

Unless you make upwards of a 100k US I would not want to live in Hong Kong, though I love the city. Food prices are ok, but appartments and beer (don't laugh, it's a major expenditure on my budget) are really, really expensive.

[Takeshi]

Haha, well Hong Kong... It is very difficult to say everything about a city in a answer to a post in some forums; a lot of things depends on who you are, what you want etc. I'll try to be quick on what I think is an important point that practically nobody ever talks about.

 

I live in Hong Kong now myself and I love it. It is definitely a great city, but I'm not sure if everyone on chinese-forums would like it the same way.

I guess I can explain it like this. Lots of people on these forums have opinions of "first tier cities", and whether or not you should go to them first or not. First tier cities will be more developed, and have more western conveniences you are expecting etc, but everyone will be better at speaking English, there will be more foreigners, and it will be easier to get caught up in an "expat trap" where you end up living your life too comfortably and not exposing yourself to the Chinese life that you would have if you went to a lower tier city. For this reason, many people will recommend new Chinese learners to go to a lower tier city first. In a lower tier city you will be forced to use Chinese, you will be forced to meet Chinese people, you will be forced to adjust your living habits/expectations. (You can do all of these things in a first tier city too, it's just... you have to go out of your way to doing it, it won't be forced on you.) For many people in these forums, I think these experiences are considered worthwhile and desirable. Some people prefer to stay in lower tier cities forever, some people prefer to go to a higher tier city once they've gotten more used to China because business oppertunities and easier access to sitting toilets.

 

HK is like a first tier city on steroids, except HK has a significantly different language and culture than mainland China, and has no "lower tier cities" to go with it. HK is even more clean and developed, everyone will be even better at English, there will be even more foreigners, it will be even easier to get caught up in an "expat trap" etcetc, and having a long experience of living in Mainland China won't necessarily help you because HK is a different place.

 

So it depends on what your friend wants to do by "being an English teacher" in China. If he wants to seriously learn Chinese himself, experience a different way of life in a foreign country, dreams of making a bunch of Chinese friends/hanging out with them speaking in Chinese all day, Hong Kong will be very difficult for him. If he wants to make a lot of money, live in a highly developed and international city with lots of western conveniences, and have an exciting life at the crossroads of the west, China, and the world, Hong Kong will be great for him.

[Chris Two Times]

Haikou, Hainan?

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times