Anyone lived or worked in China,Tianjin to be more accurate!

[creampuff]

These bathroom pics are in Tianjin prefecture.



This is me cycling on the frozen river in Tianjin one year when I went back for a holiday; I borrowed the bike from that Chinese dude ice-fishing. That really was the most fun I had all year, it was brilliant

[SpeedEight]

creampuff said:

I actually left China (2.5 years in Tianjin + 0.5 years in Beijing) not because of anything which affected me personally, but I would read in the free (usually Hong Kong) press constant stories of state corruption or the state messing with peoples lives. Stories like people who have lived in the same house for generations, then get thrown out into some poorly built apartment in the middle of nowhere when a state-sponsored developer wants the land. Or people who have been jailed when they have protested for a real investigation in to the death of one of their family members in an industrial accident in some state-owned factory. Nobody wanted any investigation, because of corruption. None affected me personally, but it wore me down.

Or you can google up "China Red Cross scandal" or the stories of Sichuan local government officials suddenly finding the cash to buy new Mercedes after the donations started coming in following the Sichuan earthquake.

OTOH I've been away 8 years now and I'm looking for a job in that general direction again now! I've had enough of cold British winters (not that north China is warm either) and I can't afford a maid here!

Totally get where you're coming from. The weather is much nicer here and we have a cleaner too, no way we could have that in the UK. There are benefits to living here for sure, but the prospect of living here forever has never entered our heads.

There are some funny stories that come out of the corruption sometimes, like an official that was photographed at different times wearing a series of swiss watches. This was picked up by eagle eyes Weibo users (like Twitter) and it went viral. Named 'Brother Watch' on Weibo he was soon investigated and now behind bars, they are trying to clamp down on this stuff (at least publicly, if they are rumbled) but most people think it's just the tip of the iceberg.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/09/05/chin...

[creampuff]

I also like the English names that Chinese give themselves:

[maser_spyder]

SpeedEight said:

I'm going to be in this boat in six weeks or so, we're going to visit my wife's parents

Hire a car! Still painful, but much easier than public transport.