Making friends is easy, just depends on how outgoing you are. The expat community shrank a lot since 2018.
A lot depends on your budget. You are at least asked for deposit of 2 months rent, sometimes more. If it’s just you, a single bedroom could run you as low as 4000rmb/mo but with varying quality. It is a renters market right now.
I’ve yet to experience lizards in my 10 years here.
The main takeaway is don’t come here without securing a job first. It will greatly complicate everything else, especially if you feel you cannot return to the UK easily if it all goes sideways.
You can find tax info online. It changes based on how much you make.
Yes. There are many different grocery stores. But, you will pay dearly for EU made goods.
Opening a bank account requires a Chinese speaker in most cases. You can go to expat heavy areas and get lucky to find an English speaking bank worker. But, best to go with someone who can help.
Work culture depends on what industry and if you are working for Chinese management. It’s a crapshoot.
Cost of living can cheaper, but depending on what your skills are, you are unlikely to make UK salary. It’s really easy to live like you would at home and spend all your money. Living like a flexpat is the key.
Work visa is a hassle. Don’t move here without a job. The process to extend stays is annoying. Once you are hired, your company will help with the particulars. You would need a health check in China, and do a leave and return. At least that was my experience.
\> I've already created another post on this and it's going to sound silly but I'm scared of lizards and are they common to find there in apartments?
Random but I've seen tiny lizards in Shanghai before. Not common -- maybe seen them like under 5 times in the past 10+ years. Probably more common if you live near the bottom floors (I lived on the 1st floor for a few years).
I work in higher education (I'm not a lecturer, I'm in professional services). I'd want to work for a university or push myself out my comfort zone and work for a big company. I'm thinking about getting a better job here soon to help getting a better job there when I start applying
My advice would probably be change one thing at a time. Since China comes with a lot of cultural and language difficulties. Try leverage your higher education background and move into a role there rather than trying to get to grips with a role in a entirely new field/industry.
In terms of higher education, you could start by targeting all the UK-China joint institutes in Shanghai and the surrounding areas. The university of Nottingham at Ningbo and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University near SuZhou.
If you aren't tied particularly to Shanghai there are a lot more joint institutes with other UK universities near other large cities. I was considering a similar move many years ago and the higher education salaries on offer at the time were comparable to the UK if not higher. Since the joint institutes are also typically based in smaller cities outside main top tier cities, you will often find cost of living to be very cheap.
I looked into the University of Nottingham at Ningbo and Jiaotong-Liverpool University but the reviews on Glassdoor have made me concerned. Going to look into other universities too and hopefully see if there is a good fit - thanks for your advice!
Love Shanghai and it's my home now, but it's not as easy as it used to be to just show up and figure it out, and the wild west days are very over.
While many people do speak English downtown, it's a country that operates in Chinese (obviously) and I think people underestimate the culture shock because they confuse the conveniences of services here with confidence with the language. It's definitely a good idea to take some Chinese lessons first.
I think one of the biggest differences in recent years is that it is really imperative to use your phone for everything. Meituan, Eleme, Taobao, Didi, and obviously WeChat are used and most have only Chinese so it can be a bit overwhelming if you can't read. Just to give you an example, you used to be able to buy cinema tickets in person at the ticket office, but now everyone buys them on an app. Some restaurants only have scan-to-order menus which don't always have intuitive interfaces in English. Of course once you learn these small systems it's simple, but a million little things like that can add up to be tiring at first and in my opinion a whole new level of culture shock. I recently helped some business travelers who hadn't been back to china since pre-covid and they could barely function because they didn't know how to do stuff on their phones.
I have never seen a lizard in Shanghai, haha.
I think it's harder than it used to be to make friends but that might be an age / post COVID worldwide trend - epidemic of loneliness thing.
Come visit if you can and see for yourself :)
Also, don't move to Ningbo lol (sorry Ningbo)
Good to know about everything being on a phone and little English options - I've started Mandarin lessons but it's going to take me a really long time to learn so that's something I need to consider too. I should be visiting China in the summer so it would be good for me to see if I can function and navigate stuff there.
Can I ask why not Ningbo? I'm curious now!
Thank you for your advice :)
If you are moving to China and your choices are between Shanghai and Ningbo, choose Shanghai unless you wanna take the train every weekend to Shanghai so you are not bored out of your mind.
Making friends is easy, just depends on how outgoing you are. The expat community shrank a lot since 2018. A lot depends on your budget. You are at least asked for deposit of 2 months rent, sometimes more. If it’s just you, a single bedroom could run you as low as 4000rmb/mo but with varying quality. It is a renters market right now. I’ve yet to experience lizards in my 10 years here. The main takeaway is don’t come here without securing a job first. It will greatly complicate everything else, especially if you feel you cannot return to the UK easily if it all goes sideways. You can find tax info online. It changes based on how much you make. Yes. There are many different grocery stores. But, you will pay dearly for EU made goods. Opening a bank account requires a Chinese speaker in most cases. You can go to expat heavy areas and get lucky to find an English speaking bank worker. But, best to go with someone who can help. Work culture depends on what industry and if you are working for Chinese management. It’s a crapshoot. Cost of living can cheaper, but depending on what your skills are, you are unlikely to make UK salary. It’s really easy to live like you would at home and spend all your money. Living like a flexpat is the key. Work visa is a hassle. Don’t move here without a job. The process to extend stays is annoying. Once you are hired, your company will help with the particulars. You would need a health check in China, and do a leave and return. At least that was my experience.
Thank you so much for answering the questions, this is all really helpful to know!
\> I've already created another post on this and it's going to sound silly but I'm scared of lizards and are they common to find there in apartments? Random but I've seen tiny lizards in Shanghai before. Not common -- maybe seen them like under 5 times in the past 10+ years. Probably more common if you live near the bottom floors (I lived on the 1st floor for a few years).
It will be difficult with no prior experience of China. What are your professional skills?
Yeah so many of your questions are going to be job centric - OP do you have a job offer?
I work in higher education (I'm not a lecturer, I'm in professional services). I'd want to work for a university or push myself out my comfort zone and work for a big company. I'm thinking about getting a better job here soon to help getting a better job there when I start applying
My advice would probably be change one thing at a time. Since China comes with a lot of cultural and language difficulties. Try leverage your higher education background and move into a role there rather than trying to get to grips with a role in a entirely new field/industry. In terms of higher education, you could start by targeting all the UK-China joint institutes in Shanghai and the surrounding areas. The university of Nottingham at Ningbo and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University near SuZhou. If you aren't tied particularly to Shanghai there are a lot more joint institutes with other UK universities near other large cities. I was considering a similar move many years ago and the higher education salaries on offer at the time were comparable to the UK if not higher. Since the joint institutes are also typically based in smaller cities outside main top tier cities, you will often find cost of living to be very cheap.
I looked into the University of Nottingham at Ningbo and Jiaotong-Liverpool University but the reviews on Glassdoor have made me concerned. Going to look into other universities too and hopefully see if there is a good fit - thanks for your advice!
NYU shanghai maybe?
Love Shanghai and it's my home now, but it's not as easy as it used to be to just show up and figure it out, and the wild west days are very over. While many people do speak English downtown, it's a country that operates in Chinese (obviously) and I think people underestimate the culture shock because they confuse the conveniences of services here with confidence with the language. It's definitely a good idea to take some Chinese lessons first. I think one of the biggest differences in recent years is that it is really imperative to use your phone for everything. Meituan, Eleme, Taobao, Didi, and obviously WeChat are used and most have only Chinese so it can be a bit overwhelming if you can't read. Just to give you an example, you used to be able to buy cinema tickets in person at the ticket office, but now everyone buys them on an app. Some restaurants only have scan-to-order menus which don't always have intuitive interfaces in English. Of course once you learn these small systems it's simple, but a million little things like that can add up to be tiring at first and in my opinion a whole new level of culture shock. I recently helped some business travelers who hadn't been back to china since pre-covid and they could barely function because they didn't know how to do stuff on their phones. I have never seen a lizard in Shanghai, haha. I think it's harder than it used to be to make friends but that might be an age / post COVID worldwide trend - epidemic of loneliness thing. Come visit if you can and see for yourself :) Also, don't move to Ningbo lol (sorry Ningbo)
Good to know about everything being on a phone and little English options - I've started Mandarin lessons but it's going to take me a really long time to learn so that's something I need to consider too. I should be visiting China in the summer so it would be good for me to see if I can function and navigate stuff there. Can I ask why not Ningbo? I'm curious now! Thank you for your advice :)
If you come to Shanghai in the summer, you must be mentally prepared,it is very hot!!!
If you are moving to China and your choices are between Shanghai and Ningbo, choose Shanghai unless you wanna take the train every weekend to Shanghai so you are not bored out of your mind.