Hey all!

Moving to Wuhan China to start my career as an educator. I will be working in an international school! I was wondering if any 老外‘s could offer some advice on China?

I've lived in Taiwan for 8 months and loved every moment of it (yes even the colourful sidewalks that read 人行道)!

Please share your expertise, love, hate, and tips for living in China!

Thanks
勇氣

It's a love and hate relation for me;-) The total lack of service mindset, traffic, horrible pollution, weird rules, Internet censorship etc makes it hard to live here. On the other hand you have lots of very friendly people, beautiful places once you left the cities, Chinese immersion etc.

Few tips:

- Residence permit is a time consuming process. Should take 10 business days but in reality often a month for first time application. During this time you can not not travel abroad. When applying for it, make sure that you do get to the stamp line to get your receipt and photo stamped. This enabled you to travel within China during this time.

- Do get a taobao account. You can buy practically everything there. You can refill it in many ways and one easy way is to buy a money card at the post office for any amount. Mostly you have your goods the day after. I so much love this.

- Get We chat for your phone. 100% of Chinese people are using it and when ever you meet anyone it is an easy way to keep in touch and practice your Chinese.

- Travel a lot. High speed trains are perfect but you can get good priced air tickets or even bus tickets. South of China is fantastic.

- Engage your self in the local community e.g. sports.

- If you like to keep an eye on air pollution, get the application "Air quality". I look at that every day to decide if I should run outside or at the gym. yesterday we had the lowest number I have ever seen, 4, in Shanghai (we had heavy rain). Today we have 165 again. Do get some sort of mask. You will need it most of the winter time if you are outside.

- Just be aware that food quality usually is really low. Last week Mc Donalds and KFC reported that one of their suppliers had used 1 year old meat, remember the Sanlun scandale etc. etc. This is really a hot topic.

Just a start, i let others add to it. Btw, I love the life in China but truly hate Shanghai. I will never be used to living in this city. I compare this with Tokyo where I live 50% of time and love every second of it.

I work in Wuhan too. Make sure you find the only bowling alley in the city and participate in "tree planting" day. Oh and the bars called Helens.

本杰明 what do you think about Wuhan? I am often there in work and hate that place. I guess that is since I am in the wrong parts of the city though. We work at the Dong Feng HQ where all roads are under construction/renovation. Is there any nice places/areas in the city?

Hey Mandarinboy! What do you hate so much about Wuhan? Thanks for your tips btw! I heard the pollution is pree bad in Wuhan.....

I had a mate who lived in Wuhan. He didn't mind it, but because there is a lot of construction (...among other things!) he did mention that it could quite polluted! Not a whole lot of people know but construction, along with coal and oil combustion, is one of the contributing factors to high PM2.5 counts. (Once you get to China you will KNOW ALL ABOUT PM2.5!! ;-) )

I am more of a nature person, I need to have parks, trees etc. I know that there should be very nice places in the city but where we are things looks like a war zone. I takes an hour from the airport to my office and there are more pot holes than asphalt on the road. Pollution is the other issue. It is frequently over 200 and we had some 400 days this winter. This means that there is no outdoor running for me. I have on the other hand meet fantastic people there and have had many very nice dinners. Hate and love. This is just my personal preferences, I have been in Asia for soon 20 years and some things you do love and other you do hate. I did recently run the great wall marathon near Beijing and that where pure love. Beautiful, well organized, happy people, good air quality in the mountains. Will do the same next year.

It is dirty... but it doesn't bother me too much. I didn't choose China for scenery, to be honest.

Great tips all! 本： I'll see ya at that bowling gig! =)

Mandarinboy, I have been to Dongfeng many times. The area is simply ugly around there. If this is all you have seen of Wuhan, you have been seriously shortchanged. I did a little tour of Wuhan University during cherry blossom time, and it is really beautiful. Lots of nice lakes in Wuhan, too. I know, it sounds unbelievable, for the better part of four years I only knew the airport, DFM, and the crappy Xiulan hotel myself.

Klooste, staying in a foreign country has serious downsides, and very nice upsides. I am sure you will enjoy your time in Wuhan (if it's downtown, not in the automotive area :-)), but there will be times when China will seriously get on your nerves. Make sure you have something positive to hang on to during these times. I have lived in Shanghai for more than four years, and happen to really like it, and I know people who have lived here for fifteen years or more. Make the best out of it, learn the language, interact with locals, have some good foreign friends as well to tide you over, but stay away from the disillusioned foreigners... Oh, and assuming you're not on a corporate package, ensure that your health insurance, social insurance and housing budget are all settled well. These are things you tend to take more easy when you are young, but they become very important later.

So you are telling him to stay away from me;-) Just joking but yes, I do not hold China very high compared to the many other countries I have lived in. I have lived in China for many years during the past 20 years but also in other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan and compared to that I find China to be less fun and nice. I might have a record in number of fines given to any foreigner in China. I am especially found of my speeding tickets on cycle and the one for wearing an helmet!

But advises it where so here we go:

-When you move in you should go to the police the same day and register for an temporary residence permit. If you are studying, the school will do that for you.

- If you do not use Skype or any other IP phones you can buy cards in any newspaper stand at the streets to use IP services for international and even domestic calls.

- You need your passport for any domestic travel except buses. This means that you often can not use internet purchases of tickets since they often only support Chinese ID.

- Learn to negotiate the price. Plenty of markets around and you can always get the price down by 50% or more.

- Learn social etiquette. It is very fun to go out and party/dine with Chinese since they are so social and really open up when out.

- If you are there to learn the language, stay away from campus living and find a local apartment. Cheaper and you learn tons of language in your contacts with neighbors, handymen s landlord etc.,

- Get an bank account with bank of China for international bank transfers. For many currencies such as my Swedish, other banks convert RMB to Euro or Dollar and then to your home country currency. At least check that up and note that costs for larger money transfer is rather high.

- Get a local bank card. The largest bank note is still 100 so if you need to pay anything larger you need a thick valet. Cards is accepted in most places except for street vendors.

- Test local food! I love street food even though I am aware of the poor food quality and lack of hygiene. Street breakfast or a night snack on the way home is always nice.

- Take care in the traffic. Beijing is getting better but in almost all other places is the traffic really dangerous for everyone, cars, bikes, pedestrians. I see accidents every single day.

- If you are driving many cities now prohibits cars with plates from other cities to enter or they limit on what days you can drive there based on the numbers.

- Just accept that you will be asked about how much you earn frequently.

- Get a local SIM card. GPS, Internet etc.

- Register at your local embassy. They usually have events for fellow country men but mostly it is good if anything happens.

- Get an SPN. My allow 5 devices on the same account and useful for families. I can stream Netflix with acceptable quality but also use uncensored sites and searches.

- Find some nice Local TV channels if you are there for the language. Really good way to passively train your language.

- Never drink tap water! 98% of the groundwater is polluted and tap water is almost always really bad for you. You can buy purifying equipment to filter the water to drink quality but mostly you will buy bottled water. Home delivery is available.