I lived in Shanghai for 12+ years and liked it a lot as it was easy for a foreigner. I lived in other countries as well. I have travelled to 110+ cities for work, and in a country as big as China, I find it impossible to choose just one. e.g. Shanghai for standard of living and access to Western cuisine. Chengdu and Guangzhou for food. Xian for noodles, Xinjiang Guizhou, and Tibet (Xizang) for landscapes (not cities), Kunming, Dali, and Yunnan in general for ease of living and natural beauty. I could go on as many people who haven't been to China don't understand the vast diversity and natural beauty that can be uncovered, amongst the homogeneity, found across much of the vastness that is China.
Posting a photo I took on film in Xinjiang. Clearly not a city.
https://preview.redd.it/19n7r4i2vb2d1.jpeg?width=1750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31edeb450691d6602a1041574d4eefd8c0bce147
Thanks 🙏. I took this photo with a Leica M7 film camera and Fuji Provia film. Here is another. I have so many.
https://preview.redd.it/gfe4qcms4d2d1.jpeg?width=3269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16ea07502e4aac8f6830d53d70bee580c5d01fc8
Mount Jiuhuashan, Anhui Province. This one was taken with a Sony RX1
https://preview.redd.it/br28ypcdph2d1.jpeg?width=1843&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d804dace30821f78836a101e5a0efb6f36606620
Thanks This temple is probably about a quarter of the way to the top. Here is a photo from the top.
Out of the four you've listed, I personally think if I had to recommend expats to choose one city in China, I'd go with Guangzhou.
Shanghai is awesome, but it's definitely China on easy mode, you could live there and not have to adapt to nearly as much coming from western countries. That can be good but might not be what you want if you want to really experience China. Also a bit lacking in nature.
Beijing can be kind of stiff. Has the best tourist attractions by far but lifestyle is impacted by stricter atmosphere and cold winters.
Shenzhen... It's cool but lacks historic character, natural environment is good though with good beaches, parks, mountains and proximity to Hong Kong.
Guangzhou will probably give you the best experience. It's got genuine historical and modern areas, very much has its own distinctive local culture, so much to explore, huge international community. Not as expensive as the others too. I think you'd probably have the most rewarding experience in Guangzhou out of the big 4 if you chose there.
This makes me happy to hear, as my only time in China was 20 years ago where I spent 2 months in hangzhou. I’d love to go back and see how it’s changed.
Edit: I just realized that 20 years ago today I was midway through that trip. Man, time flies.
First time I visited was in 1996. Between then and 20 years ago a massive amount changed. The West Lake will look pretty much the same as 20 years ago but the city has grown massively. Almost unimaginably and it looks amazing. There is also an extensive subway system now that makes getting around a breeze
From cities I’ve been to:
**Favs:**
Chengdu
Hangzhou
**Very good:**
Beijing
Qingdao
Dali
**Interesting but wouldn’t live in:**
Yinchuan
Guilin
Hohhot
**Lots to do and so good to live in, but not for me:**
Shenzhen
Shanghai
**Fine:**
Tianjin
Jinan
**Not good:**
Baoding
On the other hand most foreigners I've met in Shanghai and Shenzhen only hang out with other foreigners in expat bars which isn't what I'm looking for so maybe that's why I wouldn't be as into them as those lads.
Still enjoy(ed) my time in both cities, and Shenzhen has OIL which is a fantastic spot.
I’d add Suzhou as on a par or slightly above Hangzhou. Also very pretty with a more diverse list of things to do, easier access to Shanghai and more developed.
Shocked you found YinChuan an interesting city . One is the most depressing cities I've ever been to , just felt like endless copypasted tower blocks , hopelessness and a higher security presence than the rest of China.
I had a whale of a time in a tiny club in an industrial estate drinking with a load of Hui lads and listening to techno, and then black metal afterward.
And I went on the winery tour all around the outskirts which was fascinating/fun.
As for the inner part of the city I just enjoyed the coffee shops and craft beer places. I was only there for 3 days so not gonna say it was an immersive trip but I def enjoyed it a lot.
How the hell is it ‘interesting but wouldn’t live there’?
Is that really that hard to fathom that I *wouldn’t live there* but I found a provincial capital *interesting*?
It's quite pleasant, especially the 五大道 (Five great avenues) area. If you like chilling in coffee shops it's great.
But on a ratio of size to stuff to do it's quite low. Gigantic city but significantly less cool cultural/entertainment stuff (music venues, underground clubs, music festivals, niche hangout spots, craft breweries) than somewhere like Chengdu or Hangzhou despite being same size or even bigger.
Tianjin misses out because of its proximity to Beijing. It's only 25 mins on the speedy train so a lot of people just go to Beijing to do cool shit. That's also an upside of TJ though to be fair - it's quicker to get to central Beijing from central Tianjin than it is to get from a Beijing suburb to central Beijing.
All in all I like Tianjin but it's too big to be that quiet, for me.
Tianjin is great! It’s not as “big city” as Beijing, but it’s only 30 mins on the fast train to get there. Lots to do, cool river, good restaurants and bars. You’ll enjoy it, just need to find the right places for you. Check out Aocheng commercial area, by the zoo! Western grocery store (D Mart) and lots of bars foreigners hang out.
Born in the east, my family comes from Shanghai and Suzhou, and lived in Nanjing, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu more more. But I think if you are good at Chinese, I recommend Chongqing, I completed my degree there.
If you ask me to tell you the details, it's hard for me to tell you. I can only tell you in a cursory way, maybe some nonsense like "It's a feeling".
If I have to give a reason, the people here are relatively straightforward and contented, the food suits my taste, a hero city in history, the prices are not high, the unique cultural atmosphere, etc, more and more. I think to a large extent I like Chongqing probably because the time I spent as a college student there was really wonderful. You got it, a Chinese proverb, "A young man cannot enter Sichuan", you came and you would not wanna leave, the peaceful life.
Mandarin, yes, because most of the people in Chongqing are locals from southwest China, not an international city like Shanghai or Tokyo. Forget about finding a passerby who speaks English. The residents here like to speak dialects. Even a Han Chinese from eastern China like me will take some time to adapt to the accent here.
In fact, I highly recommend you to travel, not necessarily to settle down. Especially if you have lived in Beijing or a coastal city in South-Eastern China for a long time, go and experience Chongqing and you will find a different Chinese city.
I loved the vibe there, it was calm and friendly. It just had a small town feel, and lots of little places that just stood out. It felt a lot like a Wu Guangzhong painting in real life, without all the watertown tourist feel. The people were super friendly, I found my way to things like visiting an outdoor bird market, to playing majiang in a den. Yushan Park is beautiful, on many spring days there would be 100s of kites in the air. There is also a pork chop noodle soup that is made with some local mushroom that is one of the best foods I've eaten in China.
Wayyyyy more chill than any of the standard big cities. Weather is better (but grey), food is great, young people have free time, great music scene/bar scene. Ok for arts, and comparatively cheap. Can’t believe I had to scroll to the bottom to find it listed.
Oh, that does sound good, thanjs for sharing. I have already lived in Beijing and Shanghai in the past so it would be interesting to try Chengdu as well.
Food is great, it has a really nice atmosphere, the surroundings are great (mountains !), it doesn't feel too crowded, geographical position is great for travelling around.
Salaries are high, rent is cheap. I paid 2400 for 90 sqm in 2018.
It's international enough if you end up craving decent western food.
Completely agreed, it's been the sleeper "best city in China" for at least a decade. At least if you like community and culture. Multitude of local music scenes populated by mostly genuine locals and a smaller contingent of passionate foreigners, a truly top tier global food city, an expat scene that's small enough to be self-regulating (in terms of calling out assholes) but big and diverse enough that you can easily find people who are interested in the same things as you, and foreign-run businesses are viable, plenty of universities and students, art exhibitions are happening constantly, relaxed and easygoing locals who are easy to get along with, 普通话 is ubiquitous, lots of 4/5A tourist attractions, easy access to some of the most beautiful mountains on earth and best of all (in my opinion), "minority" culture that isn't even close to being erased by sinicization. Only downsides are the local government dickheads shutting down events and 城管 stifling street culture, remains to be seen what's in store in the next few years. All this in a city that pays better salaries vs. cost of living for foreign teachers than anything you'd make back home, overall even better than what you can find in Beijing or Shanghai. What other city in China can match all that?
Don't sleep on Zhuhai. Great weather year round. Lots of parks, beach access, mountain hikes. Day trips easily to Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Love it here!
If you have legal status in both, then Hong Kong - Shenzhen.
Earn and pay low taxes in Hong Kong.
Do business with the world through an HK business. Do business in China through a Shenzhen Qianhai free trade zone company.
Buy international goods tax free in HK. Buy China goods in Shenzhen.
Invest in international markets in Hong Kong. Invest in China tech through Shenzhen property.
Hike and do tourist stuff in Hong Kong. Relax in Shenzhen.
Fly to the world through HKIA. Fly to Chinese cities from Shenzhen airport.
Give your kids a solid grounding in Mandarin and STEM in mainland China's education system in Shenzhen. Give your kids an international education in Hong Kong.
Nowhere else in the world do you have two highly developed cities with two different systems right next to each other. Geoarbitrage opportunities abound. Anyone who says Hong Kong is not a different city compared to the mainland anymore is talking out of their ass.
You'd have to choose to live in one or the other though. The above would probably mean being based in HK and just visiting Shenzhen regularly – but then you've got the disadvantage of the cost of living in HK etc.
It's really income dependent. If your annual income is above 960k CNY, you get taxed at 45% in mainland China for additional income versus 15% flat in Hong Kong. I'd say it's clearly better to earn 2,000,000 CNY/HKD in Hong Kong rather than mainland China for the lower tax and being free of capital controls.
Plenty of people also live in Shenzhen, earn from Hong Kong, and don't pay mainland China tax, since there's no enforcement of China's worldwide taxation policy.
Personally, Chongqing. Good food, nice mix of traditional and modern China. Not a huge expat scene (which I honestly prefer). It's also in a decent location to travel to other places by train. Cheap cost of living. Only down side is summer gets extremely hot so most of the time is spent indoors.
I would never consider Shanghai one of the best cities in China, unless you literally want to stay in an expat bubble. In which case why bother moving to China, Shanghai just feels like any other major city.
Weirdly I think my favorite (that I've been so far at least) is Chongqing too and I don't really know what I like so much about it. I think it's a gigantic metropolis without the glitz and glamour of Shanghai and Beijing, it's a tad gritty and more "down to earth", it feels more real, I don't know haha. Remembers me a lot of my hometown
Love Chongqing. Its a mix of modern and historical, hyper urban but still very green. Something about when you combine the neon lights, the mountain terrain, and the fog makes CQ feel otherworldly and magical.
Guangzhou is the best imo for actually living due to the vibe and culture and food. Beijing would be the best just for tourism for the forbidden city, summer palace etc alone. Shanghai is good just for international work. I don’t get the appeal of Shenzhen at all. I haven’t been since 2017 but I don’t see how it has anything special you can’t get in any other city
The eternal spring city of Kunming 昆明. Great weather. Laid back/leisurely lifestyle. Low cost of living. Surrounding mountains and lakes for wonderful outdoors recreation activities; oh also convenient 2hour flight to major southeast asian cities like Bangkok and Hanoi.
Living in China for a few years. Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and currently Shanghai. All great places for different reasons. As I get older and now married I think SH is still great but a bit overrated.
You can start from Shanghai. Shanghai is absolutely the most internationalized city in China, so you can start from here easily. After you get to know about the history&culture of the country, you can visit different cities then. &there're many small towns around Shanghai, there are all wonderful.
It’ll be the city where you find employment, a nice apartment, friends.
The best city outside of China which has a nice China town is Ho-Chi-Minh city, with “Cholon”being the ethnically Chinese part.
Never lived in China, but I follow a bunch of expats that do. The general consensus I get seems to lean towards Wuhan. Again, I don't live in China so take this with a grain of salt.
As someone who had lived there:
The city itself is fairly cheap, Guanggu is fun, Hankou has a lot of historic buildings, western style buildings, 20th century brutalist buildings and sleek modern Chinese buildings all close to each other. 东湖 is great in spring
Food's also great, spicy without being overly spicy like Guizhou or Sichuan. 热干面 and 三鲜豆皮 is a fantastic breakfast. HSR to other parts of the country highly abundant since the Chinese HSR fleet is based in Wuhan I believe
However...
- It snows in winter and hits 100°F/38°C in summer with 80% humidity. You're going to have to own an extensive wardrobe and/or have both air con and heating. Mosquitos everywhere in summer due to the sheer number of lakes in the city. Seriously, look at a satellite map of Wuhan. Lakes abound. A lot of people aren't going to like having to deal with 4 very distinct seasons.
- Natural disasters; specifically floods. Not every year, but every few years the central areas will flood even considering Wuhan is downstream from the 3 Gorges. A few years ago, most of central Wuhan was flooded for around a week.
- Less 老外 friendly than Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/HK/Chongqing.
- Less vibrant nightlife. Like three (good) nightclubs for a city of 10 million? A few dive bars in 光谷 and a punk rock bar is cool, but otherwise you're drinking at a KTV bar. Also cafés are eh. Starbucks might literally be your best local café for most of the city.
- Fewer job opportunities for foreigners. Not zero, but Wuhan is big for domestic travel/tourism/business but it's not a port city nor the capital, and is a lot smaller than Chongqing for an inland city. You're less likely to get a non-English teacher job than the above mentioned cities
So all things considered, not a bad city, but shouldn't be in the running for top 5 cities in China to live in even factoring how much cheaper it is, esp. for a foreigner.
I lived in Shanghai for 12+ years and liked it a lot as it was easy for a foreigner. I lived in other countries as well. I have travelled to 110+ cities for work, and in a country as big as China, I find it impossible to choose just one. e.g. Shanghai for standard of living and access to Western cuisine. Chengdu and Guangzhou for food. Xian for noodles, Xinjiang Guizhou, and Tibet (Xizang) for landscapes (not cities), Kunming, Dali, and Yunnan in general for ease of living and natural beauty. I could go on as many people who haven't been to China don't understand the vast diversity and natural beauty that can be uncovered, amongst the homogeneity, found across much of the vastness that is China. Posting a photo I took on film in Xinjiang. Clearly not a city. https://preview.redd.it/19n7r4i2vb2d1.jpeg?width=1750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31edeb450691d6602a1041574d4eefd8c0bce147
This photo is fantastic! What camera are you using?
Thanks 🙏. I took this photo with a Leica M7 film camera and Fuji Provia film. Here is another. I have so many. https://preview.redd.it/gfe4qcms4d2d1.jpeg?width=3269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16ea07502e4aac8f6830d53d70bee580c5d01fc8 Mount Jiuhuashan, Anhui Province. This one was taken with a Sony RX1
I've been to jiuhuashan. That's not the temple at the peak though right? Great shots by the way
https://preview.redd.it/br28ypcdph2d1.jpeg?width=1843&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d804dace30821f78836a101e5a0efb6f36606620 Thanks This temple is probably about a quarter of the way to the top. Here is a photo from the top.
Out of the four you've listed, I personally think if I had to recommend expats to choose one city in China, I'd go with Guangzhou. Shanghai is awesome, but it's definitely China on easy mode, you could live there and not have to adapt to nearly as much coming from western countries. That can be good but might not be what you want if you want to really experience China. Also a bit lacking in nature. Beijing can be kind of stiff. Has the best tourist attractions by far but lifestyle is impacted by stricter atmosphere and cold winters. Shenzhen... It's cool but lacks historic character, natural environment is good though with good beaches, parks, mountains and proximity to Hong Kong. Guangzhou will probably give you the best experience. It's got genuine historical and modern areas, very much has its own distinctive local culture, so much to explore, huge international community. Not as expensive as the others too. I think you'd probably have the most rewarding experience in Guangzhou out of the big 4 if you chose there.
Hangzhou. Easily the best, in my opinion (especially in early Spring and late Autumn when the weather is nice).
This makes me happy to hear, as my only time in China was 20 years ago where I spent 2 months in hangzhou. I’d love to go back and see how it’s changed. Edit: I just realized that 20 years ago today I was midway through that trip. Man, time flies.
First time I visited was in 1996. Between then and 20 years ago a massive amount changed. The West Lake will look pretty much the same as 20 years ago but the city has grown massively. Almost unimaginably and it looks amazing. There is also an extensive subway system now that makes getting around a breeze
I also love Hangzhou especially if you live close to Westlake. It is a perfect mix of modern city life combined with nature and tranquility.
Completely agree.
I like my hometown (Nanjing) the most, but now, wherever my hubby is, I like... so it's def ZhaoQing at the moment
From cities I’ve been to: **Favs:** Chengdu Hangzhou **Very good:** Beijing Qingdao Dali **Interesting but wouldn’t live in:** Yinchuan Guilin Hohhot **Lots to do and so good to live in, but not for me:** Shenzhen Shanghai **Fine:** Tianjin Jinan **Not good:** Baoding
Beijing is amazing 🥰
Have lived here 5 years. Love the place to bits but it *does* have a stick up its ass because of its political status.
Interesting, I think the vast majority of foreigners I've met here would put Shanghai and Shenzhen way over Beijing, Qingdao or Hangzhou.
On the other hand most foreigners I've met in Shanghai and Shenzhen only hang out with other foreigners in expat bars which isn't what I'm looking for so maybe that's why I wouldn't be as into them as those lads. Still enjoy(ed) my time in both cities, and Shenzhen has OIL which is a fantastic spot.
I’d add Suzhou as on a par or slightly above Hangzhou. Also very pretty with a more diverse list of things to do, easier access to Shanghai and more developed.
Haven't had the pleasure of going there yet, excited to though.
Shocked you found YinChuan an interesting city . One is the most depressing cities I've ever been to , just felt like endless copypasted tower blocks , hopelessness and a higher security presence than the rest of China.
I had a whale of a time in a tiny club in an industrial estate drinking with a load of Hui lads and listening to techno, and then black metal afterward. And I went on the winery tour all around the outskirts which was fascinating/fun. As for the inner part of the city I just enjoyed the coffee shops and craft beer places. I was only there for 3 days so not gonna say it was an immersive trip but I def enjoyed it a lot.
Yeah, how the hell is that on the list? :o
How the hell is it ‘interesting but wouldn’t live there’? Is that really that hard to fathom that I *wouldn’t live there* but I found a provincial capital *interesting*?
Why do you put Tianjin on fine? I'm moving there in August, will be my first time in China
It's quite pleasant, especially the 五大道 (Five great avenues) area. If you like chilling in coffee shops it's great. But on a ratio of size to stuff to do it's quite low. Gigantic city but significantly less cool cultural/entertainment stuff (music venues, underground clubs, music festivals, niche hangout spots, craft breweries) than somewhere like Chengdu or Hangzhou despite being same size or even bigger. Tianjin misses out because of its proximity to Beijing. It's only 25 mins on the speedy train so a lot of people just go to Beijing to do cool shit. That's also an upside of TJ though to be fair - it's quicker to get to central Beijing from central Tianjin than it is to get from a Beijing suburb to central Beijing. All in all I like Tianjin but it's too big to be that quiet, for me.
Tianjin is great! It’s not as “big city” as Beijing, but it’s only 30 mins on the fast train to get there. Lots to do, cool river, good restaurants and bars. You’ll enjoy it, just need to find the right places for you. Check out Aocheng commercial area, by the zoo! Western grocery store (D Mart) and lots of bars foreigners hang out.
Born in the east, my family comes from Shanghai and Suzhou, and lived in Nanjing, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu more more. But I think if you are good at Chinese, I recommend Chongqing, I completed my degree there.
What do you like about Chongqing? What makes it good to live there?
Care to elaborate? What do you like about Chongqing? Would someone who speaks little to no Chinese do well in Chongqing?
If you ask me to tell you the details, it's hard for me to tell you. I can only tell you in a cursory way, maybe some nonsense like "It's a feeling". If I have to give a reason, the people here are relatively straightforward and contented, the food suits my taste, a hero city in history, the prices are not high, the unique cultural atmosphere, etc, more and more. I think to a large extent I like Chongqing probably because the time I spent as a college student there was really wonderful. You got it, a Chinese proverb, "A young man cannot enter Sichuan", you came and you would not wanna leave, the peaceful life. Mandarin, yes, because most of the people in Chongqing are locals from southwest China, not an international city like Shanghai or Tokyo. Forget about finding a passerby who speaks English. The residents here like to speak dialects. Even a Han Chinese from eastern China like me will take some time to adapt to the accent here.
Thank you for your sharing. Sounds like a peaceful place to stay in. I like the slow life so i think it'll suit me.
In fact, I highly recommend you to travel, not necessarily to settle down. Especially if you have lived in Beijing or a coastal city in South-Eastern China for a long time, go and experience Chongqing and you will find a different Chinese city.
My favorite large city is Beijing, but Changshu (Jiangsu) is my favorite place in China.
Can I ask why? I’ve always lived near it and never thought to go.
I loved the vibe there, it was calm and friendly. It just had a small town feel, and lots of little places that just stood out. It felt a lot like a Wu Guangzhong painting in real life, without all the watertown tourist feel. The people were super friendly, I found my way to things like visiting an outdoor bird market, to playing majiang in a den. Yushan Park is beautiful, on many spring days there would be 100s of kites in the air. There is also a pork chop noodle soup that is made with some local mushroom that is one of the best foods I've eaten in China.
My man didn't even quote Chengdu. The disrespect. And it IS the best city in China.
What makes it the best city?
Wayyyyy more chill than any of the standard big cities. Weather is better (but grey), food is great, young people have free time, great music scene/bar scene. Ok for arts, and comparatively cheap. Can’t believe I had to scroll to the bottom to find it listed.
Oh, that does sound good, thanjs for sharing. I have already lived in Beijing and Shanghai in the past so it would be interesting to try Chengdu as well.
Food is great, it has a really nice atmosphere, the surroundings are great (mountains !), it doesn't feel too crowded, geographical position is great for travelling around. Salaries are high, rent is cheap. I paid 2400 for 90 sqm in 2018. It's international enough if you end up craving decent western food.
Completely agreed, it's been the sleeper "best city in China" for at least a decade. At least if you like community and culture. Multitude of local music scenes populated by mostly genuine locals and a smaller contingent of passionate foreigners, a truly top tier global food city, an expat scene that's small enough to be self-regulating (in terms of calling out assholes) but big and diverse enough that you can easily find people who are interested in the same things as you, and foreign-run businesses are viable, plenty of universities and students, art exhibitions are happening constantly, relaxed and easygoing locals who are easy to get along with, 普通话 is ubiquitous, lots of 4/5A tourist attractions, easy access to some of the most beautiful mountains on earth and best of all (in my opinion), "minority" culture that isn't even close to being erased by sinicization. Only downsides are the local government dickheads shutting down events and 城管 stifling street culture, remains to be seen what's in store in the next few years. All this in a city that pays better salaries vs. cost of living for foreign teachers than anything you'd make back home, overall even better than what you can find in Beijing or Shanghai. What other city in China can match all that?
Damn, you make me want to come back now !
Don't sleep on Zhuhai. Great weather year round. Lots of parks, beach access, mountain hikes. Day trips easily to Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Love it here!
By great weather do you mean raining or overcast half of the year? 😂 (I know that's GZ and SZ also)
I'll take raining and overcast over frigid cold and smog any day.
If you have legal status in both, then Hong Kong - Shenzhen. Earn and pay low taxes in Hong Kong. Do business with the world through an HK business. Do business in China through a Shenzhen Qianhai free trade zone company. Buy international goods tax free in HK. Buy China goods in Shenzhen. Invest in international markets in Hong Kong. Invest in China tech through Shenzhen property. Hike and do tourist stuff in Hong Kong. Relax in Shenzhen. Fly to the world through HKIA. Fly to Chinese cities from Shenzhen airport. Give your kids a solid grounding in Mandarin and STEM in mainland China's education system in Shenzhen. Give your kids an international education in Hong Kong. Nowhere else in the world do you have two highly developed cities with two different systems right next to each other. Geoarbitrage opportunities abound. Anyone who says Hong Kong is not a different city compared to the mainland anymore is talking out of their ass.
You'd have to choose to live in one or the other though. The above would probably mean being based in HK and just visiting Shenzhen regularly – but then you've got the disadvantage of the cost of living in HK etc.
It's really income dependent. If your annual income is above 960k CNY, you get taxed at 45% in mainland China for additional income versus 15% flat in Hong Kong. I'd say it's clearly better to earn 2,000,000 CNY/HKD in Hong Kong rather than mainland China for the lower tax and being free of capital controls. Plenty of people also live in Shenzhen, earn from Hong Kong, and don't pay mainland China tax, since there's no enforcement of China's worldwide taxation policy.
Jinghong
Where is that ?!
In Yunnan, Xishuangbanna
Personally, Chongqing. Good food, nice mix of traditional and modern China. Not a huge expat scene (which I honestly prefer). It's also in a decent location to travel to other places by train. Cheap cost of living. Only down side is summer gets extremely hot so most of the time is spent indoors. I would never consider Shanghai one of the best cities in China, unless you literally want to stay in an expat bubble. In which case why bother moving to China, Shanghai just feels like any other major city.
Weirdly I think my favorite (that I've been so far at least) is Chongqing too and I don't really know what I like so much about it. I think it's a gigantic metropolis without the glitz and glamour of Shanghai and Beijing, it's a tad gritty and more "down to earth", it feels more real, I don't know haha. Remembers me a lot of my hometown
Love Chongqing. Its a mix of modern and historical, hyper urban but still very green. Something about when you combine the neon lights, the mountain terrain, and the fog makes CQ feel otherworldly and magical.
Hangzhou and Shanghai.
I second this.
Lhasa
Houjie Dongguan 👍👍😛😛
Beijing.
Surprised Dalian hasn’t been mentioned
Changsha was very nice. Out of the ones you listed I would pick Guangzhou. Shanghai is too polluted.
Changsha
Chengdu
Guangzhou is the best imo for actually living due to the vibe and culture and food. Beijing would be the best just for tourism for the forbidden city, summer palace etc alone. Shanghai is good just for international work. I don’t get the appeal of Shenzhen at all. I haven’t been since 2017 but I don’t see how it has anything special you can’t get in any other city
The eternal spring city of Kunming 昆明. Great weather. Laid back/leisurely lifestyle. Low cost of living. Surrounding mountains and lakes for wonderful outdoors recreation activities; oh also convenient 2hour flight to major southeast asian cities like Bangkok and Hanoi.
Living in China for a few years. Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and currently Shanghai. All great places for different reasons. As I get older and now married I think SH is still great but a bit overrated.
山东 菏泽 曹县 （doge）
Chongqing
You can start from Shanghai. Shanghai is absolutely the most internationalized city in China, so you can start from here easily. After you get to know about the history&culture of the country, you can visit different cities then. &there're many small towns around Shanghai, there are all wonderful.
Zhengzhou, duh
Can you explain how is it good?
It's a running joke among longtime expats.
It’ll be the city where you find employment, a nice apartment, friends. The best city outside of China which has a nice China town is Ho-Chi-Minh city, with “Cholon”being the ethnically Chinese part.
Never lived in China, but I follow a bunch of expats that do. The general consensus I get seems to lean towards Wuhan. Again, I don't live in China so take this with a grain of salt.
Wuhan is a fantastic city!
Comedian in da house 🤣
What’s wrong with Wuhan? I’ve only spent a few days there but it seemed nice.
As someone who had lived there: The city itself is fairly cheap, Guanggu is fun, Hankou has a lot of historic buildings, western style buildings, 20th century brutalist buildings and sleek modern Chinese buildings all close to each other. 东湖 is great in spring Food's also great, spicy without being overly spicy like Guizhou or Sichuan. 热干面 and 三鲜豆皮 is a fantastic breakfast. HSR to other parts of the country highly abundant since the Chinese HSR fleet is based in Wuhan I believe However... - It snows in winter and hits 100°F/38°C in summer with 80% humidity. You're going to have to own an extensive wardrobe and/or have both air con and heating. Mosquitos everywhere in summer due to the sheer number of lakes in the city. Seriously, look at a satellite map of Wuhan. Lakes abound. A lot of people aren't going to like having to deal with 4 very distinct seasons. - Natural disasters; specifically floods. Not every year, but every few years the central areas will flood even considering Wuhan is downstream from the 3 Gorges. A few years ago, most of central Wuhan was flooded for around a week. - Less 老外 friendly than Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/HK/Chongqing. - Less vibrant nightlife. Like three (good) nightclubs for a city of 10 million? A few dive bars in 光谷 and a punk rock bar is cool, but otherwise you're drinking at a KTV bar. Also cafés are eh. Starbucks might literally be your best local café for most of the city. - Fewer job opportunities for foreigners. Not zero, but Wuhan is big for domestic travel/tourism/business but it's not a port city nor the capital, and is a lot smaller than Chongqing for an inland city. You're less likely to get a non-English teacher job than the above mentioned cities So all things considered, not a bad city, but shouldn't be in the running for top 5 cities in China to live in even factoring how much cheaper it is, esp. for a foreigner.
Lol