Workers are escaping first-tier Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou) because they are faced with ever mounting pressures with living in the metropolises.

Recent online surveys have shown that 76.2% of the so-called “white collar” workers in first-tier Chinese cities are seriously contemplating about escaping back home because they just can't stand the mounting pressure of holding out until they finally succeed in the big cities any longer. In recent years, first-tier Chinese cities have developed exponentially along with the fast-growing burgeoning economy in China, and this phenomenon has attracted many that are young and ambitious to come and seek out their dreams in the big metropolises. These fresh graduates experienced the grueling task of “Gaokao” (Chinese college placement examination) and had the luck of getting accepted into colleges in the big city; and after four years of college and more grueling tests and interviews to secure themselves a place of employment in the metropolis, they felt sure that they were climbing social ladders to become “white collars” with huge salaries, lucrative careers, and better status in society than everyone else back home.

The truth of the matter is, they had to commute in overcrowded buses and trains each day, to and from work; they live in dingy, small, rented apartments that have no view of the skyscrapers and bustling city life that they had toiled to help build. One of the biggest problems for these once ambitious youngsters that were determined to secure a place for themselves in the big city is perhaps the fact that they can never dream to afford a place they can call home here. They earn an average of 50,000 – 100,000 RMB a year and yet a home in the big city would cost a little more than 10 times over what they earn annually.

These once hopeful youngsters then started to feel tired, stressed out, isolated, and reminiscing about the small tucked-away home they left behind – a home where things are not so complicated and competition not so fierce. And finally they've come to realize that perhaps the overcrowded and fiercely competitive big city life isn't what they wanted for themselves after all.

The second and third-tier Chinese cities are also growing fast recently, matching up to speed with the development of the big metropolises, things look ripe for the distraught dreamers to return home and begin anew. It is perhaps true that they were ousted by the fierce competition and skyrocketing home property prices in the big cities, but it is also true that it takes courage to reset priorities and start all over – because happiness, after all, is what one makes of it.

Source: gcpnews.com
 

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