Job Discussion Forums

[dakelei]

Anyone here in Yangzhou? I'd like to know what you think of it. PM me if you'd rather.

[jimpellow]

Been there several times. Pretty nice second-tier city. Very pretty local ladies, good local cuisine, not too pricey, cool party zone, well situated to trains and other cities. My best Chinese friend who lives there has said that pollution has skyrocketed there(like elsewhere) since I left. As you probably already know, weather in the lower Yangtze river valley brings cold grey winters and hot as hell grey summers.

[theoriginalprankster]

Will be there tomorrow. Hope it's livable.

[hz88]

I would echo what jimpellow on his comments. I don't live there but have been there frequently and know Yangzhou fairly well.

Some of the schools that employ foreigners tend to be out in the suburbs so you will have to consider that. There is a fairly reasonable sized expat community. The weather tends to be freezing in winter and scorching humidity in the summer. As for the pollution, that is part and parcel of being in China, it is hard to avoid. Just invest in a mask.

[kev20]

I’m there most winters and summers as my wife is from there. The local lifestyle is a lot more relaxed than other Chinese cities I’ve been to. They really care about food, and particularly breakfast. I think the overall air quality was better this year than last, but there are certain parts of town that are very grim looking due to the ongoing construction of a flyover, which as I understand will eventually make it a lot faster going to Nanjing. This is unlikely to affect you though. A few new shopping malls have opened and the huamao mall is quite nice. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me.

[theoriginalprankster]

[dakelei]

I'm mostly interested in the air quality. I've been monitoring it for a few weeks now. For more than a week and a half the PM 2.5 was between 100 and 150 ("unhealthy") and then, very suddenly, dropped to as low as the 30's but has generally been between 40 and 70. I'm guessing maybe the heat was turned off now that it's March. Any other theories?

[jimpellow]

A bit of research reveals that Yangzhou currently ranks 30th worst air pollution in China. They are a laid back but industrious lot.

Been five years for me, but I remember the Metro, Starbucks etc back then. In addition, it is a short hop to Nanjing. Nanjing has it all. Pop over and hit Skyways Bakery. Also, down the street was an import store that had all kinds of hard to find goodies. I would literally bring a suitcase and fill it. I forget the name of it, and can't vouch if it is still there.

[dakelei]

I saw that about YZ being 30th worst in air pollution. It's a tad unnerving.

[Blistering Zanazilz]

Lots of other cities and countries to choose from. Keep looking.

[Modernist]

It's right down the road from where I am, in Wuxi. The air quality during this winter has been pretty terrible. We've had days where you could hardly see across the street. It's seemed to improve just recently; I think Jan/Feb are the worst.

Like here, it's a totally unremarkable sprawl of the standard block towers and lots of little industrial clusters that make lots of money for the locals but offer nothing in the way of quality of life. Wuxi is very affluent by statistics but you would never know it from looking around.

Comparing it to Shanghai is really not even relevant. Shanghai is the top of Tier 1 and a place like Yangzhou, only a couple million people...come on. Even to Xiamen is also ridiculous. That's one of the premier vacation cities in the east, like Qingdao or Haikou. You can't expect to compare a pretty standard industrial city like Yangzhou to that. If you do, you'll be greatly disappointed.

Being in rich southern Jiangsu, of course it will have places like Decathalon and Metro. No metro system though. Too small for that. Buses are the same as every other city, you should know that by now.

Don't expect too much, and you won't be disappointed. Being fairly near Nanjing will help a lot, though.

[LarssonCrew]

As someone who lived next door to YZ, absolutely no way is it a tier 2 city.

It's more like tier 4 or 5.

[theoriginalprankster]

That's some fairly depressing reading right there. I thought it might have some charm, in some way or another.

I used to love Xiamen before it was overrun by tourists and cars, and even enjoyed Shanghai for its big city feel. Liked Huidong in Guangdong for it's country vibe, but haven't been impressed by Hangzhou.

I will give Yangzhou a try, but if the air is hitting my lungs hard I'll have to leave.

[jimpellow]

Yeah, it's a hellhole. But every city I ever visited in China was a hellhole, save the older part of Qingdao.

I actually believe a fair share of the pollution comes from Nanjing. Nanjing was the first industrialized city per Party plans as the city is thought of as the capital for the ROC. A lot of Chinese still talk a lot of unfair s*** about it as they were taught to. As time passed, I believe they were fairly successful in concentrating a lot of the heavy industry to the north and east. Sparing the city some of the toxic smog, but pushing it more on cities like Yangzhou.

If you go there with reasonable expectations, you will likely find it a nicer hellhole in a good location to a lot of other nicer hellholes like Nanjing, Jiangyin, Wuxi and Suzhou.

[theoriginalprankster]