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[interpreter]

Does anyone have experience living and working in a small town in rural China? I'm talking about somewhere off the beaten path, where the dominate language is not Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu or any of the major Chinese languages.

[xi.gua]

I lived in a small small town, Tongzi, Guizhou where most people couldn't even understand mandarin. I even had a Chinese friend from Hebei with me who spoke exceptionally clear Mandarin, and most people couldn't understand her.
Things were annoying there, shop keepers and food sellers ALWAYS overcharged me and anyone I was with. People were very rude, students cared even less because most of them were never going to get out of that town anyway, so why bother with English? Anytime I went to a restaurant, basic ordering of food was hard because even if I said basic food like "tu dou" they wouldn't understand.

I eventually left because I became so unhappy there. But the other FT I was with really liked it. Every town and person is different and that was MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. There are small towns out there that i'm sure i'd have the complete opposite experience. I will say that my experience there would not prevent me from going back to another small remote town.

[MisterButtkins]

I lived in a fairly small, remote town, although the language was Mandarin. My opinion on the experience can basically be summed up as, there's a reason almost know one wants to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and that reason is those towns tend to be boring. More detail:

For ten months, I lived in a small, fairly remote town that was about five hours from the nearest major city. There were 2 other westerners in the town (the two other teachers at my school) and around ten Filipinos/as, and that was all the foreigners in the town. There were no bars or nightlife of any sort, and pretty much everything closed at like 8 o'oclock. They turned off the streetlights at 10pm, 9pm in the winter. It was not in a mountainous area and lacked any scenery or interesting sights. I distinctly remember, Friday night after Friday night, getting done with work and not being all that happy, because there was nothing to do but go sit in my friend's apartment and drink beer with the same boring people I drank with every weekend. It might seem like 12 other foreigners in the town isn't that bad, but realistically, I only liked 1 or 2 of them, and even then, they weren't people I would have hung out with in the US.

I speak decent Mandarin now, but it was not as good when I first started living there, and my hobbies are mainly reading classic novels, studying Chinese, and lifting weights (and my school did have a good gym), so I was able to keep myself busy better than I think most people would. I'm kind of a loner and am not a person who needs constant social interaction to be happy; in fact, on many days, I don't really talk to anyone at all. In other words, I feel like I would have an ideal disposition to live in a remote town, and I still felt like it was a horrible experience. Not only did I feel bored, but increasingly I felt paranoid and painfully alienated due to a lack of enjoyable social interaction. Moving to a remote area where you can't speak the language (which seems to be what you're going for) is, IMO, a recipe to live, at best a very boring and lonely, and at worst a crazy and horrifying, life.

I will say that, unlike the previous poster, the people were extremely friendly and did not overcharge me, or if they did it was only by a few yuan. The food was also insanely good and really cheap. I could eat out like three times a day if I wanted and still be saving 3/4 of my salary, although that's also due to the fact that there was nothing in the town to spend money on.

[Zero]

[interpreter]

Thank you, xi.gua, MisterButtkins, and Zero. At this point I have no plans to move to rural China. I just thought I'd begin a discussion on this topic in order to hear some stories. Your thorough responses are fascinating.
I wish you all the best in China or wherever you may be.

[mat chen]

Being in the boondocks is the best. You will learn basic Chinese. You will live cheaply and eat well. Seeing the barefoot doctor when you are sick is a pittance and the local people are beautiful.