I lived there for two years. It’s very easy to make friends at your workplace, especially because everyone will want to practice their English. However like others have said I would 100% not recommend getting involved politically. Your average expat will probably be libby at best or actively racist at worst (in my city it was maybe 50/50; I met only one other leftist during those two years). In any case, your political conversations with expats will be about the US or Xi anyway.
In terms of language, I didn’t learn much (I learned a lot my first year but not my second as I had found a job in another country, so I started learning that language instead). You basically need to know how to give directions home and to the train station and how to order in a restaurant (wo yao X is usually sufficient). Plus other daily pleasantries.
Chinese people are super friendly and welcoming, and if you make friends you’ll have a friend for life. Make sure to take some time to travel and try everything. Basically every village has its own dialect/cuisine so there’s no lack of things to do. When you want a taste of home even most T3 cities will have at least one import shop plus your usual fast food places like McDonald’s. Sometimes you can find the weirdest things from back home. I found a British pickle I love at the family convenience store next to my apartment.
They’ve been cracking down on work outside of your contract but it’s very easy to make extra money teaching English.
If you like beer there are a lot of microbreweries popping up, so make sure to try some. Your generic chinese beer is pretty terrible.
Bring some masks that filter out the smallest particles, especially if you’ll live in the north where the pollution has been the worst, especially during the winters.
Enjoy it and let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks for the contribution! I've had many of my questioned answered in other comment threads, but if anything comes up I'll be sure to let you know. I submitted the application today, so as the process evolves I'm sure I'll have more questions.
I lived there for two years. It’s very easy to make friends at your workplace, especially because everyone will want to practice their English. However like others have said I would 100% not recommend getting involved politically. Your average expat will probably be libby at best or actively racist at worst (in my city it was maybe 50/50; I met only one other leftist during those two years). In any case, your political conversations with expats will be about the US or Xi anyway.
In terms of language, I didn’t learn much (I learned a lot my first year but not my second as I had found a job in another country, so I started learning that language instead). You basically need to know how to give directions home and to the train station and how to order in a restaurant (wo yao X is usually sufficient). Plus other daily pleasantries.
Chinese people are super friendly and welcoming, and if you make friends you’ll have a friend for life. Make sure to take some time to travel and try everything. Basically every village has its own dialect/cuisine so there’s no lack of things to do. When you want a taste of home even most T3 cities will have at least one import shop plus your usual fast food places like McDonald’s. Sometimes you can find the weirdest things from back home. I found a British pickle I love at the family convenience store next to my apartment.
They’ve been cracking down on work outside of your contract but it’s very easy to make extra money teaching English.
If you like beer there are a lot of microbreweries popping up, so make sure to try some. Your generic chinese beer is pretty terrible.
Bring some masks that filter out the smallest particles, especially if you’ll live in the north where the pollution has been the worst, especially during the winters.
Enjoy it and let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks for the contribution! I've had many of my questioned answered in other comment threads, but if anything comes up I'll be sure to let you know. I submitted the application today, so as the process evolves I'm sure I'll have more questions.