Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

Finally, A Short (and Partial) Guide to Living in Beijing

Quite a few visitors read this blog on a regular basis.  I usually don't do any audience targeting or segmentation, at least not intentional.  When I write, I write for everyone.  That's not true of course.  I write for myself, with the hope that someone out of my immediate family and circle of friends will find it interesting and keep reading.  However, this post is indeed directed.  I can't measure the target audience by numbers, but I can define it quite easily.  People who have been offered positions in China, Beijing in particular, and are contemplating whether to take the position and move, or skip it and stay in their country of origin.  Others who may find this post interesting are those who already moved here, and are struggling with some aspects of life in Beijing, to the point that they're ready to call it quits.  And if you're not one of those, you're still welcome to stay and get a glimpse of what life in Beijing means for a foreigner.  At least to one foreigner, me.

Let me start by saying that my family and I have been living here for over 18 months, and we love (almost) every minute of it.  If we were faced with the decision again, we would not hesitate for a second, and we'd come here again, in a hurry.

Let me try and cover a few topics that caused some, how to say, tension in our lives in Beijing.  This is by no means comprehensive, and as I said, it's one viewpoint.  I'm confident that you'd find as many viewpoints on this topic as there are foreigners in Beijing...

• General
• My observation is that foreigners coming to live in China tend to go through phases.  At first, the desire to assimilate takes over.  Chinese food, chopsticks, Chinese classes.  At first you feel nothing but glorification of this great country, this great people, this Great Wall, and a very long history.  But then you start missing your food, your friends, your standards.  And you start to see some things that aren't so great like the driving style, the pollution, the unfair bargaining methods practiced for foreigners...  The bottom line is that China is indeed a great opportunity for exploration and for exposure to a new culture and experiences.  As every other place in the world does, China has the good and the bad.  Once you realize that, you'd do just fine.
  
• Language
• Chinese is not a very difficult language.  There are no differences in addressing male/female, tenses are easy, singular and plural are a piece of cake.  Tones are torture.  If you have the time and the will, attend a class at a good language school.  And practice.  A lot.  My wife, Dorit can get by in Chinese.  My children Shiri and Guy can really hold conversations.  Me, I have a reasonable vocabulary, but I can't hold a conversation.
  
• Communication
• At work
• If you work for a large multinational like I do, expect to be able to communicate in English.  Most professionals write and read English very well, and speak it reasonably well.  I have had no trouble at all communicating in English.
  
• Service people - taxi drivers, waiters, delivery guys, house management office
• Challenge.  You may quickly realize that even the simplest task of telling a taxi driver your address or ordering lunch is not simple at all.  You may pronounce the right words, but in the wrong tone, and you are simply not getting home tonight, or alternatively staying hungry while great dishes are served all around you.  In all honesty, I found myself going to McDonald's just to avoid the embarrassment of leaving my table at the restaurant, unable to order for myself.  If you can read pictures, prefer restaurants with pictorial menus... As for me, I put together my own menu in Chinese, and it's been working out very well.  Let me add though, that as much as we tried, we really couldn't convince our children to eat Chinese food.  So we have a short list of restaurants that we attend with the family.  Annie's, Peter's Tex Mex Grill, One Thousand and One Nights, Rumi's and a couple of others.
  
• With other foreigners
• Foreigners tend to congregate.  While we have many Chinese friends, through work and through the children's school, we found many friends through the embassy.  In short, no shortage of friends...
• Television, cable, internet
• Most places have basic cable included in the rent.  ESPN (snooker 24 hours a day), CNN (bad news), CNBC, Discovery, CCTV9 are the only English language stations.  Satellite dishes are not allowed, but if you look out you will see that many the buildings are peppered with dishes... ADSL is available and the service is continuous and good.  Some web sites are blocked (Wikipedia is one example), but in general - web access is satisfactory.
  
• Education
• Coming from Israel to China we found that our children receive education an order of magnitude better than they have received at home.  They attend Beanstalk International Bilingual School of Beijing.  In the 18 months that they are here, they both mastered English and Chinese to different degrees.  I strongly believe that the stay in Beijing is giving them a head start.  If you wish that your children are well adjusted, open-minded, experienced world traveling, don't hesitate, come to China.
  
• Residence
• Be very careful when selecting a place to live.  There are many places available depending of course on location and budget.  Some residences are populated with foreigners only.  We couldn't afford them if we wanted to, and we didn't want to even if we could afford them.  Mixed communities are the best of all worlds.  But you have to verify a few things, and set your expectations accordingly.  I selected the "Upper East Side" (阳光上东) complex in the northeast part of town right off the 4th Ring Road.  Stay away.  Here are a few points to consider:
• Don't get impressed with lakes, rivers, and any other body of water.  I'm sure that the content includes water as well, but waste is the first ingredient, water comes second.  Mosquitoes are common, and depending on the wind direction, you may be hit with a stench that is neither pleasant nor healthy.  Upper East Side (阳 光上东) has a "river" flowing just outside the complex.  It's not a river, and the flow, if you are following my drift, is well, very slow.  Don't even dream of fishing.  No life can exist here.
  
• Make sure that the management office has English speakers.  Try it out.  Ask for the number and make a phone call at different times of the day to verify.  English written brochures and English speaking sales people are not enough.
  
• Look around for signs of negligence: uncollected garbage, unattended bushes and lawn, nonoperational elevators, broken bricks, tiles, doors and windows.  The buildings are usually run by management companies that are in for the profit.  In Upper East Side we saw an overtime degradation of services.  They took one elevator off line permanently a few months ago, they don't fix broken things, and finally (and that was indeed the straw that broke the camel's back) they turn off the pump for the toilet water almost every night now.
• Find a place whose landlord lives in Beijing.  He may be able to help when you run into trouble with the management office.
• Air Conditioning
• Painful.  On November 15, the heat gets turned on.  It could snow in October, and there could be in-house frost in September, but the heat will only be turned on in November.  Beware.  Same thing at the end of the winter.  The heat gets turned off on March 15.  Cooling follows the same procedure.  Prepare.  Four times a year, your AC may not agree with the outside weather.  Not the end of the world, but not fun either.  If you can find a residence with individual window units, grab it.  You will have control over your own destiny.
• Appliances
• Appliances are supplied by the landlord, but may be small and insufficient.  If an adjustment is necessary, ask up front, most likely it will be taken care off.
  
• Transportation and traffic
  
• Some friends I know take the buses and the subway.  I haven't tried it yet.  One or two brave ones are actually driving.  I don't.  In general, I commute with a car service.  In all honesty, I have been driving around the world, particularly in America and Europe, Israel and South America. I'm too scared to drive in Beijing.  There you have it.  The drivers are not very skillful, and accidents are all around all the time.  A bicycle rider covered with blood is a terrible view that I have seen too many times.  If you have to commute, do what I do: I have a Mac with a couple of DVDs to watch, an iPod, the latest BusinessWeek, and a paperback.  I'm all set for the ride...
  
• Groceries
• We use Carrefour for supermarket.  Carrefour is a French supermarket chain that offers most items that we are used to, packed as we're used to.  We use Jenny Lou's for supplements like milk products, salami, and other deli items.  And we use Paris Baguette for great fresh bread.  Almost forgot.  For vegetables and fruits Dorit goes to the local market, and she brings home great, fresh fruits and vegetables.
  
• Soft cheese.  What we found was not even close (Israel has the best dairy products in the world), and what we like doesn't exist here.  We are making our own cheese at home...  It's simple: buy yogurt, and strain it through paper towels overnight, add a spoonful of sour cream and some salt, and you got yourself a great tasting soft cheese, close enough to what we have at home...
  
• Utility payments
• Everything is pre-paid.  You get a card for the electricity, a card for cooking gas, one for kitchen water, shower water and one for recycled water for toilet flushing.  You take the card to the bank (or to an ATM-like machine downstairs), you fill it up, and you load the meter.  You ran out of electricity, you're in the dark.  Ran out of gas, no cooking tonight.  A little different, but it works.
  
• Bargaining
• If you are weak-hearted, don't go to the markets.  It's not uncommon to be quoted ridiculously high American prices when picking merchandise.  The trick is to know what you're willing to spend on an item before being told the initial price.  If you feel good for bargaining a price that's 50% off the original price - you lose.  Pay what you think it's worth for you, and don't go up!
  
• Treats
• Foot massage - a great way to relax.  The first few times I went, I was embarrassed to be told that I fell asleep and snored.  I took it into consideration and completely changed.  I mean, I still sleep and snore, but I don't get embarrassed.
  
• Friends
• Not many, but the ones we have we love very much.
  
• Tourism
• If you are here, travel.  As much as you can.  China is beautiful, and the surrounding countries are as well. 
  

Bottom line.  We are very happy for having made the decision to come here.  We love living here, we love the people and the country.  Yes, we had to make some adjustments, but hey, it was well worth it.  My advice to you is simple.  When you get an offer to come here, take it.  You won't regret it.  Things are different here.  The pace is different, some standards are different as well.  Not better, not worse.  Just different.  If you know how to respect the differences, you'd be fine.  If you think that everything must be just like Main Street USA, reconsider...

And if you need more advice, don't hesitate to contact me directly. 

Posted at 09:02AM Nov 14, 2007 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[9]