Davy Ling
Lives in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China 1y
Did you regret leaving the USA to live in China?
Not at all. The completely opposite. I’m 14 and a Chinese-American, but two years ago when I was 12, I moved to China with my parents, as my mom was sent here as an expat. I can speak near-native Mandarin, but I’m a little bit slow at reading.
Nevertheless, living in China was some of the happiest times in my very short life. As of April 2020 I’ve moved back to the US, and I regret moving back to the US. Genuinely.

Here are some reasons:

Convenience. China is just an INCREDIBLY convenient place to live. I lived in the city of Suzhou, bordering Shanghai to the east, but I’ve been all across China and have spent multiple weeks at my parents’ hometowns, which are in significantly poorer
areas. But everything is just so convenient. To start, literally almost everyone has a smartphone. Even in the poorest areas. My dad’s hometown is a small farming village, yet everyone there at least has a smartphone (apart from my illiterate
grandparents, but they’re like the only two people in the village that don’t have a smartphone, only because they’re illiterate). That leads into the fact that the smartphone can do anything in China. China has pretty much completely transitioned
into a mobile-first society. This means we pay for everything on our phones, make reservations at hotels and buy tickets to attractions on our phones, order food on our phones, take subway and bus from our phones, order taxi from our phones, etc. Mainly
through two platforms called WeChat (微信 Weixin) and Alipay (支付宝 Zhifubao). Both of them have mobile wallets, chatting, and support for what we call Mini Programs (小程序 Xiaochengxu). So by scanning a single QR code, we can make payments,
open programs/apps that aren’t even installed on our phones, which then can let us do more things. I mentioned my dad’s hometown, a farming village, earlier. The small convenience store/market there prefers to take mobile payments over cash. I don’
t think I’ve had to use cash ever in my two years in China other than in dire situations where I forgot my phone (forgetting your phone while out is a scary thing!!!!) Our most popular e-commerce platform, Taobao (淘宝), is a million times better
than Amazon. Placing orders is much easier, contacting sellers is much easier, tracking your order is much easier, and finding products is much easier. Our most popular food delivery platform, Meituan Takeout (没团外卖 Meituanwaimai), I find is
better than anything DoorDash or Uber Eats can offer. The interface is much easier to use, delivery fees are minimal and close to none, NO TAXES, and you can literally buy “membership red packets” that is basically like getting free money. That leads
into my next point:
Food. Omgomgomg food in China is just great. There are so many varieties to choose from. Even fast food tastes better here. It’s easy to get food from anywhere via Meituan Takeout, finding what you want to eat is a nice experience, and food is very
inexpensive. I haven’t been able to eat something as good as what I had in China for a while now, since I moved back to the US in April. ;(
Inexpensive prices everywhere. Taobao’s prices can undermine Amazon’s for the same products significantly. I was looking at a mini amplifier for my hifi headphones earlier today, and it was about $50 on Amazon, and it was only 89 CNY on Taobao. 1 USD
= 7 CNY. INSANE price difference. I picked up a lil’ habit of spending my parents’ money a lot on e-commerce in China :3 which is terrible now because everything here on Amazon and eBay are multiple times more expensive. I checked AliExpress, which
is made by the same company as Taobao and is supposed to be a sort of English-language international Taobao, but the prices there were still higher than Taobao’s prices, albeit still much cheaper than the Amazon/eBay prices.
Public transportation. I’m 14, so I can’t drive yet, so I rely on public transportation a lot. The public transportation system in China is incredibly developed. First, a lot of cities around China have similar metro systems, that are constantly
expanding. As a big metrophile (call me weird if you want) these systems are really amazing. There’s also China’s high-speed bullet train network, which allows you to go across the country in mere hours. Bus fees were literally only 1 CNY in the
winter and 2 CNY in the summer, and I could go across the entire city. I could pay for the bus & metro with NFC on my watch or I could just scan a QR code on my phone. I truly felt like I had freedom when I was living in China. I could go anywhere by
myself just using public transportation, and it was pretty much impossible to get lost as long as I had my phone, so my parents could rest easy as well.
Architecture, cities, buildings, nightscape. The architecture of modern Chinese cities are just stunning. In the city center, glass buildings everywhere, cool shapes, large malls, and during the nighttime, everything lights up and it’s a sight to
behold. You really feel like you’re living in the future. Large shopping malls everywhere, with b u b b l e t e a shops on each floor, literally everywhere is an Instagram worthy photo spot. Basically what I’m trying to say is I love it, lmao.
And as a bonus, NO COVID-19. By the time I left (April), my school had already reopened and the city and the malls were as populated as ever. Great disinfection procedures meant that it was safe. Whenever I read some sort of sensationalist content or
watch a YouTube video about “cHiNa iS hIdInG thE nUmBeRs” I physically cringe. I know I’m just an easily impressionable kid, and I shouldn’t be talking about politics, but these are just my experiences firsthand.

I’d like to go back to China to live and work after I graduate college. I miss China and all the savings and convenience and good food there. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it :D

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