Not everyone can feasibly do this, you need to speak mandarin + read/write chinese, legally be able to work, and have some way to deal with the gfw. Also tap water may not be drinkable but thats more of a nuisance since you can filter/boil it.
Also idk what the article is talking about with flying delivery drones and self driving cars in shenzhen, if you order meituan delivery its probably gonna be delivered by a gig worker on a scooter cuz thats all young people can get employed as these days. Delivery is insanely cheap and can’t possibly pay much, but also cost of living is relatively low, but still shenzhen is on the expensive end as far as living in china goes.
Finally paying for everything via alipay/wechat and visiting everywhere with biometrics is yet another convenience/privacy tradeoff. Visit china on a 10 year tourist visa, everywhere you go by train, every tourist attraction or national park you visit, every digital payment, is all linked to your passport. Equivalent for chinese citizens would be the national id card/number. China more or less skipped the credit card adoption phase afaik. Not that places won’t take cash but it’s less common especially in cities.
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. It is affordable from the perspective of a tourist who earns USD/Euro etc.
Source: I spent a month there in 2025
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.
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.
The water in the US is drinkable almost everywhere. Only very small outliers would exist. So you don’t inspire confidence with your take there.
Tap water is just dependent on the area you live in. You’re use to the tap water where you live and in similar regions. Whether you drink it or not you’re exposed to it every day. It’s normal.
When you travel. You’ll always have this reaction if you’re not use to it. It’s not unique the US and the tap water here is perfectly fine.
People in the US say the same thing about Europe. But I traveled all over Europe and the tap water is fine. It’s “weird” definitely but for the same reasons you think American tap is weird.
Having said that. Lake Tahoe in California is the top tier of tap water in America.
Rome and it’s public water fountains were my favorite in Europe. Really refreshing and cool water on ancient water infrastructure. Top tier for Europe.
What don’t you like about Sweden, if you don’t mind me asking?
Where in MA? Around Boston it’s all high quality, but outside the metro area it varies.
Except Cambridge. Despite being right there with everything else, they refuse to use the same system and instead use the local pond which is all highway runoff.
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.
What else did you think about your visit to Florida?
Honestly that can apply to a majority of cities in America.
Don’t forget Texas
996 is illegal and companies who do this are prosecuted, from my understanding.
deleted by creator
We’re taking about China.
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 person 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.
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.
They could afford to go live in French Polynesia, this family is privileged from the get go, they could afford any place in the world
There are tons of options for other countries to go to.
I got my rent to $300 for an entire house.
Yes, my salary is way lower than it was in the US, but as a percentage of income it’s not even close.
Where did you end up at if you don’t mind me asking? What was your process?
I’d prefer not to say it because the situation gets unique enough where I might start to become identifiable, but the process was long. It took 10 years to get a permanent residency, and I won’t lie - until that point, work visas linked to employers were in many ways humiliating and exploitative. But on the other side of it was freedom, good societal benefits, and a culture with respect for community and connection. I’d say the trade was worth it.
My advice in my case, and it might be relevant to anybody else looking to do the same, is that it’s a mistake to try to find a position overseas that matches your career in the US dollar for dollar. Unless you are EXTREMELY lucky, that just isn’t going to happen. The US pays higher salaries because the costs of living are higher, and going to another country, in many ways you’re going to be under-performing compared to natives, just because you’re unaware of cultural cues and language subtleties. Basically, the best thing you can do is be ready to accept a few steps down the ladder. Most career professionals just aren’t willing to do this. I was, and it made all the difference. I’ll put it directly - I took a 75% pay cut to get out, and I’ll absolutely never reach that same income level again. But compared to back then, I’m not constantly surrounded by vile business practices, I’m not constantly compromising my integrity to deploy bad, rushed code to make money that gets taxed to bomb poor countries while I fight my insurance company to cover a tooth extraction… I wake up in a quiet town of nice people and do work that makes me feel fulfilled on my own terms. I eat good food at reasonable prices. My happiness isn’t linked to how well I can satisfy some rich jackass - my destiny is mine.
It’s not a path for everyone. It was tough and there were times where I second guessed my choices so hard it crushed me. But I’m now doing pretty well for where I live, with potential for more down the line, and I’m doing it all on my terms. To me, that’s worth everything I sacrificed.
Kinda reminds me of that dude that moved his family to Russia to escape wokeness and then got shipped off to the frontlines in Ukraine 🤭
Or the Brits in Dubai that were on here the other day.
Mmmmm hmmmm…
Why is there so much propaganda praising fascist China on here today
Yeah I’m sure that xenophobic nation is a place where average Walmart white Americans can move for cheap rent /s
Yeah I’m sure that xenophobic nation is a place where average Walmart white Americans can move for cheap rent
You don’t need to describe America, we’re talking about China.
I mean… You can
Don’t need to defend the CCP to acknowledge that, shit is complicated and not entirely black and white
Why is there so much propaganda praising fascist China on here today.
because China is the duke!
China…A-number one!
Surely this won’t come back to bite him or his family…
I’m curious as to how this would bite him ?
He’s not criticising China so they’re not going to be upset, quite the contrary.
I don’t think the US govt carea even a little bit.
Who is going to “bite” him ?
