opportunityinchina.com/10bestcitiesinchina/
Looking at this article earlier made me question how I feel about Kunming, am I wrong thinking this place is pretty decent lol. To not even make it in an articles top twenty cities for expats could be called a slur ;o)
Can anyone back up the article or are they just misinformed?
It's very subjective. "For the purpose of this article, the best cities in China will be determined by the author’s bias and experience as a recruiter of foreign talent..."
One person's opinion based on these criteria:
Suitability to the needs of foreigners
Climate and other natural factors
Overall environmental quality
Income to cost of living ratio
Future prospects and trends
Travel convenience
Social environment
Amenities
Uniqueness
My own experience from living and working in China for 12 years is different. I've lived in Xiamen, Guangzhou and LiJiang. I've visited Hong Kong, Taipei, Tai Zhong, Guilin, Yang Suo, Shanghai, Sanya, Lhasa, Dali, Kunming, Beijing, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, in addition to smaller places and bigger places like the Great Wall and Mt. Everest.
Kunming has struck me as ma ma hu hu. My best paying jobs teaching at international schools have been in Guangzhou. Hong Kong has most of everything. For natural beauty and culture, I love it here in LiJiang!
Thinking that even on somebody's own subjective basis Kunming might of been somewhere in a top twenty cities in a country for expats. A few of the cities mentioned I've visited and wouldn't fancy living but haven't lived in them so must be not seeing something that living there would show.
Being so so would've of made you top twenty in most countries lol
An article where Nanjing ranks 1 means rest of rankings are just random trash. Been to all those cities on the list, except batou, which I heard is a crap mining and steel town.
Kunming actually has a good number of foreigners living in it for a backwater tier2, more so if you count the Koreans, Thai, Laotians, Indians, Cambodians that escape all 'expat' surveys, and most expats are pretty happy here. However, because salaries are low and expat manufacturing corps nonexistent outside of coke and pepsi, Kunming will never rank top 15 in any traditional china expat survey. Top 20 maybe. Kunming has a better quality of life than Nanning or Nanjing if your a musician or missionary, but not if your an automotive plant engineer.
Redjon, if the article says so, and two or three can back it up, you can rest assured, then it must be so.
Being from England, anywhere outside England must be good though. However, it appears, the English cant cast away their englishness curse even abroad, but a good place can function as a sedative of some kind, that cuts the edges of the English exstence.
If your new home sedates the "englishness" then it is good. Thats how you can ask yourself: do I feel less English here? If answer is "yes", then its fine, nevermind the article.
Nothing to do with my 'Englishness', just asking what people thought relevant to what seemed a stupid article.
I just assumed in my thinking I'd see Kunming on a list like this. This a forum isn't it? I can ask a question even if it's not the most important one going...
To round off the reply, Peter, get off my back ;o) If you've got a problem with the English then that's your problem! Go cry in a corner but leave the chat a bit more Kunming like for now eh.
Just out of interest though lol what is your problem with the English and what's your nationality ;o) Too many possibilities to guess...
No, its not about you or me, Redjon,... you see the english allover the world, escaping England. Some almost like refugees. Nothing wrong with that though.
While the americans, or say French, can cast off the yoke, the english are forever damned. This is in historical context too, you had French walking barefoot in, say, Laos in 19th Century while english were importing silver spoons and tea bags. Orwell portrayed it quite well in his Asian essays too.
We need to see an expat environment from the perspective whether one is English or not. :)
Just kidding, sorry.
Looking at your downvotes on the English issue I guess we're never too far from the 'Englishness' lol
@redjon, if you like the place, who cares what the article says?
Description of other cities is interesting, though. I might rank them a bit differently, according to me own interests.
@alien I like the place and agree with you. Just because of liking the place I was a little surprised as I was reading it that I didn't see a mention.
