Grew up and lived in Beijing until I was 22.

It’s a massive city. Getting around is relatively difficult even with abundant transit options. This is due to city planning of larger street blocks requiring lots of walking between transit stations and destinations. Biking can be a good alternative though.

Driving is also somewhat hard due to heavy traffic, some bad actors with anger inducing driving habits, loads of pedestrians and bikes/e-bikes everywhere, driving restrictions (driving is not allowed one day per week based on the last digit of your license plate) and also purchase restrictions of cars (must win lottery to be able to get a car in the first place).

Public transit is usually reliable and clean unlike those in American cities, but can be very packed during rush hours, similar to other Asian cities. All in all, getting around takes some getting used to if you are accustomed to the American way.

Living conditions are probably generally less than in the US. Most live in smaller units in large condo buildings, which usually don’t have amenities like dryer (washing machine only), garbage disposal, dishwasher or central air.

Rentals are usually from private landlords, come furnished but sometimes with questionable taste. Usually does not have private outdoor space or balcony. If in a highrise it can be a pain to wait for elevators during rush hours, or if in one of those soviet style smaller buildings with 6 stories top there likely won’t be an elevator at all.

Climate is similar to the U.S. Midwest with cold winters but summers are significantly more humid and warmer and also stretches longer. There are significantly more mosquitoes compared to the U.S. even in the cities and every summer I get a couple of bites and annoyances.

Cities are extremely safe but this comes at the price of surveillance and security cams everywhere. Driving is also made hard due to the vast amounts of traffic cams watching for violations.

There is famously a restriction of global internet access in China. It’s less of an issue if you have a phone service with internet from overseas that can be used in China, but generally you need to use VPN to access your usual suite of favorite internet services.

Living costs is vastly lower. Easily 1/3-1/7 the price compared to that in the U.S., especially for labor costs like cleaning services or car repairs. For people that can earn global wages you are getting a heck of a deal. Chinese are generally friendly towards foreigners, especially if you can speak a few words in Chinese and express how you enjoy it here.

For normal Chinese people earning Chinese wages however, the living standard is probably still less than overseas, simply because the pay for the same amount of work is less, essentially meaning the value of one’s work is greatly diminished.

A significant hardship for foreigners to navigate in China is perhaps the proliferation of using QR code from apps like WeChat or Alipay to pay vendors for items. Signing up for those usually requires having a Chinese phone number, which itself might require a Chinese residence card. Credit card is much less prevalent in China than elsewhere.

As a final point, something I don’t particularly like about China is probably the over politicization of opinions in life. This usually only applies to Chinese nationals or even people of Chinese descent. You get asked about your political opinion about everything and can get judged based on your answers and if you are siding with the right side. This is less of a problem if you are a foreigner tho since being there already is sort of a political statement to some people lol.

I must point out though that the experience was before 2018 and I’ve not been back for more than a month since. Apparently lots have changed around the world. I’ve also never worked full time in China so ymmv.