Australia to China visa

[vellocet]

If you're not working for a Chinese company, then you're not paying tax on your income, because as far as China is concerned you're not earning in China.  A business visa F/M assumes you're working for a foreign company so no problem there.  

 

"PCs set up at his families house" where is this family home?  In China?  Is your boyfriend Chinese?  If so that changes everything and you should disregard most of what's been said in this thread.

 

You gotta realize, if you have some romantic view of China then you might be set up for a fall.  China is gritty and mean.  Especially Shenzhen, it is the one place in China with almost zero culture.  That entire built-up city didn't exist 30 years ago.  It also has to be the one place in China that is a car city, besides Beijing.  Here where I am it's definitely a bike city.  The urban area is ten miles wide by five miles deep and that's it.  Shenzhen is 30 miles by 20 and hot, hot, hot in the summer.  The good side is you're right next to Hong Kong so visa runs will be a breeze, plus you won't have to be deprived of Western necessities like quinoa, artisanal beets and craft beer.  

 

Honestly I'd recommend a third-tier city or lower for what you want out of China.  Places like Kunming, Dali, Yantai, Haikou or Lanzhou.  Hell, just throw a dart at a map and go there.  BUT and this is a big but, you'll be living Chinese style.  It sounds exciting until you realize that an occasion like spotting cheese in the supermarket will be an event, you'll excitedly call all your friends and tell them about it assuming you don't just buy the entire lot of merchandise yourself.  A lot of foreigners arrive in China thinking things will be just like back home and get really angry when they find out otherwise.  And this is in developed cities like Beijing and Shanghai!  

 

Really I think visa issues will be the least of what you'll go through.  It's just you said permanently and that's a bit different from "we're going to get our feet wet in Shenzhen for 6-12 months and then figure out what we're going to do."  Shenzhen should be good training though, if you can stand living there then you'll be well equipped to go to a less developed, more cultured city.  Make sure to do lots of traveling, get out and see different parts of the country. This will involve airplanes because Shenzhen isn't near anywhere but Guangzhou and Hong Kong.  You can sample what is out there and then move to where suits your needs.  Who knows, maybe Urumqi or Ningxia was what you were looking for all along.  

[Demonic_Duck]

In defense of Shenzhen, I wouldn't describe it as "gritty and mean" at all. Built up from next-to nothing in 30 years? Check. Zero culture? An exaggeration, but there's some truth to it. Hot and humid? Check.

But if you can stand the heat and humidity, it's actually a lot more bikable than Beijing. Its newness also comes with some plus sides - a mean age of barely over thirty (whether that's an upside or downside depends on your perspective), more private business-friendly government than elsewhere in China a thriving tech scene, good city planning, and everywhere is so green! The heat also comes with upsides - lots of swimming pools, not to mention it's right next to the coast. It's also within spitting distance of Hong Kong if you need your fix of "real culture" (or just to buy some expensive clothes).

[889]

I'd agree that post's unfair to Shenzhen. It's got some decent residential areas, and with the opening and expansion of the Metro getting around is now pretty easy. Even the weather isn't as bad as pictured: it's surprisingly quite a bit less humid than Hong Kong, for example, probably because it's set back from the sea. Finally, Shenzhen is a relatively wealthy area, and for a great many reasons that makes the living there easier for foreigners.