Every now and then I’ve contemplated that it’d be neat to live in China for a couple of years to get some experience on what a truly different country and culture would feel like up close & personal.
But then I regularly run into the following kind of articles. As things like general cleanliness, openness, easy ability to get to a place that’s uncrowded and good-quality food are important to me, I’m now thinking riiight, maybe I don’t want to live there after all..
Economist: Environmental protection in China: Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air
Last year officials reportedly asked the World Bank to remove estimates of pollution-related deaths in China from a report published jointly with SEPA. But SEPA’s website still shows a little-reported speech by Mr Pan in 2006 in which he said cancer experts believed that 70% of China’s more than 2m annual deaths from the disease were pollution-related. The World Bank had been planning to blame pollution for just 750,000 deaths from various causes.
NY Times: Wary U.S. Olympians Will Bring Food to China
When a caterer working for the United States Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken — half of a breast — that measured 14 inches. “Enough to feed a family of eight,” said Frank Puleo, a caterer from Staten Island who has traveled to China to handle food-related issues.
“We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes. They all would have tested positive.”
Economist: The internet in China: Alternative reality
The internet itself is also tightly controlled. Access to many foreign websites (such as Wikipedia) is restricted, and Google’s Chinese site filters its results to exclude politically sensitive material.
I think the worse thing is curb on freedom of speech and expression in China. Yeah, the internet is severly censored and most big internet companies – Google, Yahoo, comply with them.
I China you would be living nice expatriate bubble. Internet control or human rights wouldn’t be a problem in daily life.
But pollution is a real problem. I lived in Beijing for 3 years and I’m visiting the city once or twice per a year, but I must say that I’m not interested move back. It’s an interesting market, I like the culture, people, but quality of life is bad because of pollution. Air pollution is bad, about food you really don’t know.
Jouni, thanks for the comment. It’s good (well, sort of) to hear that at least some of the problems above aren’t imaginary..