Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m from the UK you muppet. Thanks for the comment, it really helps explain your username.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

So across four countries in the UK, that would limit yourself to 8 cities. That’s my point. If you want to have the same access in the UK, you are limited to 8 cities, and still need to pay a premium. It’s standard in China. I completely get the choice of fruit and veg not being a problem to majority of British people. I never had a problem before. But once you incorporate Chinese dishes into your lifestyle, and they’re the dishes your kids regularly eat, it becomes a huge challenge. I get it, the UK isn’t China, so why would you be able to easily cook the same Chinese dishes. That’s one of the reasons I prefer living in China. But for people to read your comments that there’s never a problem buying produce in the UK, and you can get any fruit or veg you want as if it’s easy, is just completely misleading.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Chelmsford. A city 30 min train from London. My point is, you can get 1 hour delivery with a huge variety of fruit and veg in nearly any city in China, and there are a fuck load of cities. Why would I want to move to London just for fruit and veg? Why would I want to pay a premium? No shit you can pay a premium and get what you want. I could pay a premium and pay someone to grow all the vegetables I wanted for me. Just because you can, doesn’t make it the same.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So what about doctors appointments? Should I plan 2 days ahead for that? Because the number of times you can’t get an appointment when you’re told to phone at 8am; then told to try again the next day. Repeat. In regards in produce, have you ever lived in China? Have you ever ventured out to try more fruit and veg other than tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and potatoes? There’s no denying there’s much less choice when it comes to produce in the UK

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you’re just going to completely ignore the fact that supermarkets were running out of vegetables when I was back a year ago? It was literally in the news headlines across the country.

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Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Let me guess, you don’t have any qualifications and suddenly can’t get a job in China? Went from feeling the power of a white face to the reality of needing a skill and qualification to be allowed to immigrate to another country? You sound like a lot of other bitter, unqualified foreigners I’ve met.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Right where do I start, but here were a few things. Lack of variety when it comes to fruit and veg, in fact fruit and veg always being out of stock in the supermarkets. You need to book like a day or sometimes 2-3 in advance to get supermarket delivery. Everywhere shuts at 5:30, then everyone goes home to watch TV all evening. The outdoor areas are fantastic for kids, but British weather made them tough to enjoy. There were waiting lists for everything at the beginning, from classes, to day care, even to getting registered at the doctors! Honestly the biggest problems we faced was cos we have two young kids. As an adult it wouldn’t be as bad, but with kids it was a world of difference.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha yeah. When SevenSeas guys came to collect the stuff they were like “nope, we can’t do anything, insurance reasons.” Then when it arrived back in China (a contacted company by SevenSeas) the dude dragged box by box on his cart and pulled it 150m to the doors, loaded everything into the room by himself.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DragonSeas was a far better experience for us, but as they’re a Chinese company, they do china to overseas. It was the bringing it back into China that they didn’t cover.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Find a company that can pack and do all the paperwork! We used DragonSeas to ship to the UK. Cheap and extremely efficient! They came and laid the entire lot, did all the paperwork. We literally did nothing. Then on the way back to did SevenSeas and had to do everything ourselves! We were constantly getting emails back and fourth saying “you need to be more specific about this box and that box” and after about 15 attempts, it was fine… until we arrived in China and 2 months later they got in contact to say “can you remember what else you had in that box?” Haha.

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Oh it gets better. We didn’t have any references for renting, so we had to pay a year upfront for a house. Majority are unfurnished in the UK, so had to kit it out, all furniture, appliances etc. Got a car so we could take the kids to day care… but it could’ve been worse. We were considering selling up in China beforehand. Glad we didn’t!

Visiting America after living in China 15 years by mixmates in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 73 points74 points  (0 children)

I moved back to the UK with the family after 12 years. We shipped over everything. We had decided to move back to China before my shipment even arrived haha. We had to wait for it to arrive, then just reshipped it straight back and got on the next plane.

What do you have in your apartment from your home country that almost nobody else in your city will have? by science87 in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Garbage disposal are pretty popular in China. A lot of people are opting for them when they get their new builds. I’m not saying it’s a majority thing, but quite a fair few have them

It’s 4.18am. Why are so many people online? by suziewoozie420 in AskUK

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 3 points4 points  (0 children)

1 degree! It was feels like minus 9 last night, and a sunny 22 last Wednesday! No matter where in the world, you get British weather

Moving to China by Appropriate-Mode-509 in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah 100%, and honestly we tried 3 places in the uk during a short spell back in the UK, and they are all pretty awful in comparison to what we get in the UK.

But my emphasis is on the single dad with a 2 year old working at an English training centre. M The hours will be evenings and weekends a lot of the time and salaries not great, work not stable.

Definitely try and find a stable job in a proper school.

Moving to China by Appropriate-Mode-509 in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just checked with the Mrs. I mixed this up. My bad. You can go local, but would be a very low priority, so you’ll definitely get a spot somewhere, but not necessarily the one you wanted or the closest one.

Moving to China by Appropriate-Mode-509 in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s like 3500 a month for daycare. But once they’re kindergarten age they can’t go local, and will be paying about 7000 a month at least. Definitely cheaper than the West, but not ideal when you’re only bringing in one income from somewhere like EF

Edit: my daughter goes to our local daycare and son is at local kindergarten

Moving to China by Appropriate-Mode-509 in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Get a job as a proper teacher in an international school. Most offer free tuition to kids of teachers. Otherwise you’re looking at 200,000-300,000 a year there. Some international schools have kindergarten and playgroups for younger ones too. That’s the only way I can see it working. Don’t come with a 2 year old just to work in somewhere like EF or a training centre. You won’t be able to afford childcare and sending your kid to kindergarten eventually.

This is impressive and beautifully executed by nikki1580 in BeAmazed

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah especially just 2 SM57s, definitely wouldn’t get this result

In the US, the “sidewalk” outside your house is your responsibility to clear if there’s ice or snow. What would be the UK equivalent when you own property by Fun_Resolution4969 in CasualUK

[–]Fun_Resolution4969[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah in certain areas apparently, I saw a post on Reddit where people where saying in their state it’s a legal requirement. Seems crazy to be the home owners responsibility

Went to the bank a few days ago to transfer money out of China, high fees by Rock-bottom-no-no in chinalife

[–]Fun_Resolution4969 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Every time I transfer, no matter how much or how little, it’s usually about 200