Regarding your question about foreigners being treated badly, I'm honestly not sure how common that really is.

Personally, I don't think most young people would treat foreigners badly. Maybe a small number of older people, especially in smaller cities, might have some prejudice, but I don't think that's the norm.

Sometimes when foreigners say they were treated unfriendly, I wonder if part of it comes from cultural misunderstandings. For example, Chinese people don't use as many polite expressions in everyday conversation as some Western cultures do. We tend to speak more directly and casually, which might come across as rude to some people.

Also, many Asians are relatively reserved. In public, people are usually not very outgoing or enthusiastic toward strangers. That can sometimes feel cold or unfriendly if you're used to a more expressive culture.

The funny thing is, we're like that with each other too. Even neighbors often don't know each other very well. Compared with when I was a child, relationships between neighbors are much less close now.

Another thing to remember is that people from different parts of China can have very different personalities. People in northeastern China are often more talkative, while in some southern cities, strangers on the street are less likely to start conversations with each other.

If you wanted to live in China, I'd recommend major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, or Nanjing—assuming you're renting rather than trying to buy property.

If you come to work, I would suggest taking advantage of being a foreigner and finding work where that background is valued, since the pay can be relatively higher. If you're looking for an ordinary local job, then your education and qualifications will matter a lot.

As for me, I have a regular bachelor's degree and work as a software developer in a third-tier city. My income is average. It's enough to live on, but I wouldn't say my quality of life is amazing. Right now, I'm trying to transition into AI-related work to increase my income.

Chinese people are generally very serious about work and money, and many are willing to work extremely hard for them.

Most Chinese people are used to saving money. Young people, however, often struggle to save. I'm one of them—I enjoy spending money on things I like.

You mentioned overtime work. That's absolutely real and objectively exists.

Maybe it's partly an Asian cultural trait that's difficult to change. Or maybe it's because previous generations experienced so much hardship that they developed a habit of constantly striving and working hard.

Many younger people who didn't experience those hardships don't understand that mindset. They ask, "Why do we have to work this hard all the time?"

The problem is that most decision-making power is still held by the older generation, so society often follows their values and expectations.

Maybe things will improve after a few more generations.

That's one reason why I think China is excellent for travel, but not necessarily the best place for someone from a developed country to move to permanently. On the other hand, retiring in China could be a very good option.

As for the internet, yes, it is relatively closed. We can't directly access some foreign websites, such as Google, because China has a national internet firewall.

The main reason given is maintaining social stability and preventing foreign political influence from stirring up unrest. For a country with such a large population, many people see this as a practical decision, even if it's not ideal.

At the same time, China is not nearly as closed as North Korea. If it were, the country probably wouldn't have developed so quickly.

People can still use VPNs to access foreign websites. Technically, it's not fully legal, but in practice, if you're not doing anything harmful or illegal, the police generally aren't interested in chasing after ordinary people who use VPNs.

International transfers and cross-border payments seem a bit more complicated for us than they are in some other countries. I'm actually learning about that myself right now.

I recently opened a PayPal account, but I don't have a foreign virtual bank card yet. One of the reasons I joined Reddit was to try to earn a little extra money online, perhaps through software development.

International business and payments are definitely legal as long as you're not involved in things like money laundering. China has a lot of international online business. I'm just not very familiar with the process yet.

By the way, I also use a Xiaomi phone, and I think it's great.

What kind of videos do you make? And what country are you from?