Having now spent almost four years in China now, I’m starting to forget how awkward the transition was to begin with. You settle into a groove – eventually! But as soon as I think about it, the gates open and a wave of difficulties, problems, discords and nuisances come flooding back. Naively, I purposely didn’t prepare too much before first coming out, thinking I would simply take it as I found it. But after all the teething problems associated with settling into a new society and culture, here are ten of the things I wish I had known beforehand.

1) Food

Like most British people, I love Indian and Thai food. So, China being far closer to these nations, I assumed that supermarkets would be filled with spices and ingredients from their respective cuisines, and that they would be in the convenient tubes and pastes we have. Wrong! I was sorely disappointed to trundle round the supermarkets and find only Chinese Five Spice, cumin and black pepper – no Madras, no Balti, no Korma, no red or green Thai paste! One can find the individual spices in supermarkets, if you’re prepared to make a curry from scratch, or buy them in pricy import stores in the largest cities. But my assumption that cooking Indian-style would be easy turned out to be a gross misassumption!

2) Opportunities

China’s rocketing economic development is well-known, but I had no idea that job opportunities would be so abundant. Being a writer, it’s been relatively easy to find writing work for some of the major media outlets – they even advertise. Can you imagine the New York Times or the Guardian newspaper advertising for writers? Me neither. It’s the same with teaching, engineering, IT and so on. Skills are at a premium here, and you have the chance to make the most of what you’ve got.

3) Hospitals

Perhaps my most embarrassing moment when I first arrived in China involved the medical system. I had arrived to be a university English teacher, and as everyone will know, the standard procedure for first arriving is to have a medical check to make sure you are healthy and disease-free, even of plague (an option on the checklist). The Foreign Teacher’s Office sent me over with one of their staff, William, and once we’d checked in, he asked me to pay for the service. I hadn’t brought any money with me – weren’t hospitals free? Wasn’t this the People’s Republic of China? William laughed in disbelief and lent me the money, as I blushed ruby-red at my naivety.

4) Variety

Having now lived in a first, second and third tier city, the contrasts and differences in China now seem self-evident. Who would have known that Chinese cities can be so overwhelmingly different? Not me, at that time. I’m glad to have experienced these different sides of life in China, but had I known quite what life in the different tiered cities was like, I would probably have avoided third tier cities and missed out on a vital part of my Chinese experience.

5) Get Your Health Seen To

My most dispiriting moment in China came through my bad teeth. After a period of toothache, I eventually summoned the courage to get them seen to at the hospital. Several had to be removed, and I insisted on a general anaesthetic, being a real coward when it comes to dentistry. When I came to, my mouth was filled with blood; but without any facilities, I had to swig from a bottle of saline and spit it out into a bucket, while wishing I’d had my teeth seen to before coming to China.

6) Take Your Passport!

I first lived in northern Jiangsu Province, so Shanghai was a great attraction from the beginning. The first time I went, I booked a hostel near the Bund and jotted down the addresses of some places that sounded interesting. But when I arrived, the hostel staff asked for my passport; to my surprise and utter disbelief, they wouldn’t let me stay there without it. I had had no idea that you could not stay in a hotel without one. One hotel after another turned me away, until I tried a pricier-looking one, surmising that they wouldn’t care about the passport; they would only be interested in the money. I was correct.

7) Internet blocks

It was genuinely a great surprise to find the BBC website, Wikipedia and others blocked when I arrived in 2007. I’ve learned a lot since then.

8) Being a mini-celebrity

Like most writers, I oscillate between self-promotion and shyness. In person, I’m happiest blending into a crowd. So when teaching at a university in a city with only about two dozen other foreigners, it was a surprise to be the subject of great curiosity and the demands that ensued. I had never before been in a position where strangers actively sought my company, asked to take my photo or just gazed at me, and it was rather discomfiting. Had I known this, I might have had second thoughts about my choice of destination!

9) Property prices

If only I had bought a 2-bedroom apartment in Beijing when I first arrived in 2007; I could sell it and buy a 4-bedroom house in Scotland with a few acres of land. Oh well.

10) Privacy

Any time I’ve been in hospital, the next person to see the doctor checking me over will not just stand at the doorway, they’ll come into the consulting room and put their patient booklet on the desk. Privacy standards are just different here. I probably would still find this kind of behaviour infuriating, but foreknowledge might have taken the edge off – a little!
 

Related links
Don’t Be an Outsider in China: Six Tips to Help You Fit In
Crucial China Travel Tips: Don’t Leave Home without Them
Packing for China: Things to Bring From Home

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