I'm assuming you're a non-Chinese speaking person. Make sure it's not an impulsive decision.
Last year I stayed in China for quite some time. I traveled across various provinces and cities and I found I was in love with Hangzhou. I wanted to settle down there. After all, it seemed perfect.
A month later, I flew back to my home. Days passed and I realized how much of a blunder I would've made if I had settled down there. Especially don't under-estimate the firewall, surveillance and safety issues. If these attributes don't matter, you'll be fine, but, if you're a developer, VPN isn't sustainable and will get frustrating after a while.
However, this is all my personal experience. Just my $0.02.
Can you explain what you mean by safety issues? Having traveled to China a lot I've always been under the impression that it's quite safe so I'm assuming since you've bundled it with the firewall and surveillance that you refer to something to do with the government making one unsafe.
Regarding air pollution, is it because of the smoke emitting from vehicles or the factories? You'd think, because China seems to be pushing their way into the top to becoming a tech-savvy country, that they will do something about it. I guess it's the price to pay for advanced technology, what do you think?
People shouldnt underestimate the basics we take for granted like safety in crossing the street. The OP mentioned Hangzhou - there are not that many pedestrian crosswalks there and many people simply walk across hoping cars give them the right of way.
Other things include food safety. Most Chinese people buy infant formula outside China because they dont trust what China has to offer.
well, it's only those who don't breastfeed, which is the better option anyways. but otherwise, everyone who can, will buy from outside. children are most valued in china, and parents and their families will do everything they can to get the best for their children.
i heard stories from some places that they had to ration the selling of formula lest a few chinese students would swoop in and buy up everything in order to send it home and sell it there at a profit.
but i agree, it's probably not most of them. most shops do stock formula, and they wouldn't if no-one would buy the stuff locally (which may also be imported).
don't use a VPN. as developers we have other tools available that work. of course if you are attached to youtube then maybe the experience can get frustrating, but everything else can be made to work.
as for surveillance, at this point i don't know a country on this planet where surveillance is not a concern.
for safety, you need to learn how to keep yourself safe. but that applies to china as well as eg. downtown los angeles. i have been warned not to go there as it would not be safe. but i never had any issues. china is very safe. yes, you hear horror stories. but you need to scale those in relation to the size of the country. for every horror story about china, you can find you 10 such stories about the US.
You can’t settle down there. You can live there for a time. The very fact that someone even thinks that this is a question that can be asked about China reveals a lot about how little those outside China know what it is. This viewing other countries though the lens of your own is not just a western thing. I once shared with a chinese collegue about my plans to travel to various cities throughout canada upon my return, living here and there, and they were very concerned. When I asked what they were concerned about they asked me if I had managed to get all my various permissions papers from work units, city councils, provincial authorities, etc. He was aghast when I told him none of that is needed in canada. He told me that they had been told other countries operated just like China does.
I've been here (Beijing) for 6y and currently have no plans to leave. But I also don't think I've ever really considered settling down here.
Life in general is still quite interesting, and I like the city, love the food and travelling around in China. But government and rule changes, the bad pollution days, crazy real state market, all contribute to not settling down per se.
I lived in Macau for 7 years, which was handed over to China in 1999, but doesn't get fully turned over to China for 49 years after that. There were no Great Firewall issues, but the biggest concern for me living over there was quite simply air pollution. My youngest child was born there, and we left when she was 8 months old to live in Indonesia. I was just looking at the air quality index for Asia before reading this [1]. China is in the high 100s to 300s, and even in rural areas it is not what you would expect. I am in Nyack, NY now where the index is 28 or thereabouts. The air quality in China is a deal breaker for me, even though I find China beautiful. I grew up in Brooklyn, and the air at its worst was no where near China's. I've heard anecdotal comparisons these levels of air quality being equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
quitting your job and selling your old home, potentially making it harder to go back.
and finding a way to stay in china permanently.
the latter is only easy if you get married to a chinese. the former is not a dealbreaker, as you can always find a new job and home in your native country.
i have been living in different countries across the planet, and in any one of them could have settled. but even if i had decided to settle, nothing would have prevented me from reversing that decision.
even now, although i am staying here with the vision that i might be here for a few decades or even the rest of my life, i am not prevented from changing my mind at any point of time. the only "difficulty" is making sure my kids can go to school somewhere, but other than that, i am settled on the planet earth, and the only reason i can't leave that is because we haven't developed the technology for space travel (as opposed to space exploration) yet.
what i am trying to say is: don't worry about the question. don't worry about making an impulsive decision.
go to china and see how you like it. find a job and stay there as long as you like it. nothing is permanent, and you can always go back or try somewhere else.
My foreign friends, especially older professionals are leaving in droves from Shanghai the last 12-18 months as foreign companies dis-invest. It's a sad trend to watch.
Last year I stayed in China for quite some time. I traveled across various provinces and cities and I found I was in love with Hangzhou. I wanted to settle down there. After all, it seemed perfect.
A month later, I flew back to my home. Days passed and I realized how much of a blunder I would've made if I had settled down there. Especially don't under-estimate the firewall, surveillance and safety issues. If these attributes don't matter, you'll be fine, but, if you're a developer, VPN isn't sustainable and will get frustrating after a while.
However, this is all my personal experience. Just my $0.02.