Living in China

I am not the first, and will not be the last to quote Mr. Whitman in the context of China, but it is so apt. For everything true you can say about China, it seems you can equally honestly say the opposite. It is the most confusing and frustrating place I have ever known. Yet I have been here for years. Through choice. It is the most fascinating and rewarding place too.

China is also one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented countries. Our aim is to try to explain the reality of life in China, so welcome to our new China Information pages.

There is a lot of information on the internet about living in China, but unfortunately much of the information is hopelessly out of date. China has changed enormously over the last few years and those changes are continuing. We will continually update these pages to reflect the current situation. We will also add pages from time to time, so please come back.

Much of the information here is aimed at English teachers considering coming to China. However, most equally applies to anyone else considering working and living in China

China is a massive country stretching 2,400 miles from the tropical island of Hainan, in the south, to the frozen wastes of Heilongjiang, on the border with Siberia in the far north. Even more vast is the distance from the prosperous cities like Shanghai on the east coast to the largely Muslim western oasis city of Kashgar - around 2,700 miles. Between these lie the flood plains of the Yellow River, the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and the Gobi desert.

This means that the question, "What is life like in China?" must be answered with another question. Where in China?

That said, for various reasons, mainly political, there is a certain degree of uniformity across China. The dominant Han Chinese have spread everywhere, taking their culture, ethics and politics with them.

So, here are a number of articles describing facets of life here in the Middle Kingdom. We believe they are representative, but as in all things, keep an open mind. Flexibility and a willingness to learn are key ingredients in living successfully in China.

The contents of these pages are meant to be as factual as possible. However, they are for guidance only and Liuzhou Overseas Ltd can take no responsibility for what you do with this information or for any inaccuracies. If you think anything presented as factual needs correcting, or if you would like to be notified when pages are updated or added, please contact us.