I lived in Shanghai and worked at a startup for a year after college. The startup expat and startup local communities are surprisingly developed.

There are a lot of co-working spaces, hacker spaces, and start up events. For anyone interested in China, you can live in Shanghai without speaking Mandarin.

Western training in programing, design and product is highly valued. Salary offerings are lower by a factor of 10. Regardless, its easy to live and identify alternative income sources.

I'd love to answer any questions for people interested in the Chinese startup space.