anthonyleecook

China may have a middle class, but that middle class is still making a low $1000/month, even if that middle class is slightly bigger than 100M

Also, lots of Chinese local governments have confessed to faking data.

https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/id...

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/18/news/economy/china-province-...

In addition, if you check out Anne Stevenson yang, a China expert living in China, she said the real gdp growth is only 1-2%

yup, I've heard many stories of expats turning around and leave the second they found the internet frustrating, which is strange that they didn't do their homework before coming.

Also, the food I found ok; lack of variety (hot pot, shaokao, dumpling, repeat), and no good international cuisines. You can also get safer Chinese food in Taiwan or Los Angeles. As for weather, it's usually made worse by pollution. And recently, foreigners have been treated with disdain by locals because of nationalism.

It's pretty true, speaking from experience. China is a pretty harsh place to live. But since this is hacker news, here are some links:

- Viral footage shows bystanders doing nothing as Chinese woman is attacked in hotel https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/06...

- Preschools across China to be inspected after ‘series of child abuse cases’ http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2121495/presc...

- Air pollution suspected for sharp rise in China lung cancer rate http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2106410/air-p...

- In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals...

- Man in China sentenced to five years' jail for running VPN https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/man-in-china-s...

- Steam Community allegedly banned in China https://dotesports.com/general/news/steam-banned-china-19631

- The disappeared: Accounts from inside China's secret prisons http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/asia/china-lawyers-disappeared...

I would say from who I meet at expat bars/events in China, 80% of them are English teachers. They're there because there's no other skillsets for them to utilize in their home country, or they're just seeking new experiences before going back home. the rest 20% are there because their companies sent them there (but they'll go back sooner or later)

What I got out of this article was be thankful where we all are today, and let's all work towards a better future solving hard problems. and fight for things which are good, and against things which are bad.

Pudong, 2013.

Excuse me, I've seen many dead bodies in shanghai, lying out on the streets for everyone to see. One of the most memorable one is there was a guy laying face down lifeless, his legs covered in gangrene, about a block away from a busy metro station construction. He must have been there for days.

I think pictures are worth a thousand words: http://designhotpot.com/infographic-four-perspectives-to-und...

Also from the article: "while life in the hutongs might sound exciting to some hipsters in town, most of the residents are facing living conditions which resemble those of slums in less developed countries."

The qualities will vary, of course, but the bad hutongs can mean 1.) shared outhouse (no indoor toilet) 2.) dilapidated building 3.) communal politics from what I've heard (hutong grudges and fights for example) 4.) poor immigrant families stuffed into a small room

I don't know much about Beijing, but I found a good article on it: http://designhotpot.com/infographic-four-perspectives-to-und...

China is still a relatively poor country (1). I lived in Shanghai for a few years back, and even if you just go into the side streets a few blocks from the richest area in Shanghai (Pudong, Huangpu), you can see slums and sometimes dead people lying in the streets with no assistance. And if you go 10 minutes out of the richest areas, you have people living in hutongs and communist-style buildings with low level life qualities.

The problem is that these immigrants will never be able to become a first-tier city citizen, due to hukou. The government is trying to move these people into empty buildings in second tiered cities, but there are no jobs there. (thus alot of these migrants actually moved back to the farms last I heard)

1.) Statistica says that in 2016, China rural households only made about $1000/year. and urban households only made about $3000/year. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/259451/annual-per-capita...)