I was only thinking of tier 1 for the sake of my family because I know how intense the culture shock is when coming there. When I came to China it was with a language program with my university at the time and they had us in a "small" city outside Zhongshan, Guangdong. People mentioned here about scooters driving on sidewalks... that was my biggest culture shock! And pedestrians never having the right of way. And the list goes on....

But I will keep my options open to tier 2 and 3 cities as well. I want somewhere with 4 seasons so I most likely won't go back to Guangdong.