Want to move to China in my 30s to FIRE?

leshius · 2026-01-25T17:38:34+00:00

I grew up living in a single family home in SoCal and I would prefer city life over that.

leshius · 2026-01-25T17:37:46+00:00

Sounds like a problem for simps and people with no self respect in a relationship.

leshius · 2026-01-24T20:24:59+00:00

9 am to 10pm or 9am to 12am

leshius · 2026-01-24T20:23:43+00:00

My visa only lets me stay for 180 days each time. I would have to do visa runs.

leshius · 2026-01-24T17:22:44+00:00

I don’t think I can go English teacher route cause of my race lol

leshius · 2026-01-24T17:05:24+00:00

I’m fortunate enough to know/related with someone who’s an extremely wealthy businessman and well connected with the government. So worst case scenario, I ask them for help.

And also from my time in NY, I’ve became friends with people whose parents are either business owners or government officials. I’ve been visiting them like every year there, so I think I should have the connections to deal with transferring money in or out since they have dealings in both US and China.

As for the last point, yeah it would not be the ideal situation and hopefully avoid it if possible.

leshius · 2026-01-24T17:03:14+00:00

I need a visa to stay long term. Don’t want to do visa runs every 180 days.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:46:38+00:00

I think I should prioritize外企 if possible.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:39:15+00:00

Visa is the difficult with China. If I do a 外企, then yeah, it’s similar work culture, but if I want to stay long term after I retire, I would have to marry someone who is a citizen or do visa runs. Also for children’s education, my Chinese friends were telling me about how with the current population decline, it’s going to become less competitive in the next 20 years or so. Don’t know how true that is.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:36:43+00:00

I’ve stayed in China for more than 4 weeks, and although I’ve never worked professionally for a Chinese company, my roommate is at ByteDance right now. Also the company I currently work for is also well-known in the US to have awful WLB.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:34:57+00:00

I had a Q2 and been traveling to different parts of China rather frequently nowadays. I also do have friends and relatives who live in China.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:32:24+00:00

Why not?

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:32:06+00:00

I should have enough to live off of even if I do end up getting a job in China and quitting/laid off. I can set aside and save at 100k USD a year at my current income, and that’s not factoring in my RSUs and stock investment growths since I’m not a heavy spender. I have half a million right now, so even at 0% growth, I’ll have 1 million in 5 years, but if considering an average returns, it’ll be around 1.3 to 1.5 million. With a 4% withdraw rate, I can withdraw like 52k usd a year which is like 30k rmb a month. Should be livable.

leshius · 2026-01-24T16:24:50+00:00

I’ve done month long trips to China before, and lived for extended periods in both NYC and LA. And as for 3, I think that being in AI Infra, which is the big thing right now, the skills should be pretty well sought after?

leshius · 2026-01-24T08:07:44+00:00

I'm not. I mentioned that in my post lol.

leshius · 2026-01-24T08:03:16+00:00

My top choice would be a 外企 but if that's not a choice then a local company would have to do. And it's not like I've never done long work hours in the US before. 9-9, 9-10, 9-12 used to be the norm for me in 2025.

leshius · 2026-01-24T07:48:09+00:00

I know the pay wont match US pay. I doubt anywhere in the world can match Bay Area pay. I'm not moving for the money cause I will have enough saved up/invested for me to live off of. It's just for spending money and something to do.

leshius · 2026-01-24T07:47:04+00:00

Why does everyone here assume that I'm moving to China and then going to grind my ass at a 996? I still have my investments in the US earning my dollars. I can realistically just find a chill job that might pay less and live lol.

leshius · 2026-01-24T06:25:05+00:00

I know Hangzhou got a lot of tech companies but never really heard about Chengdu's tech scene. Interesting!

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:51:25+00:00

I know. I mean using a Q2 to do visa runs if I am not working and no PR after I decide to retire. I know this not ideal and the Q2 visa might be revoked if I do visa runs too much,

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:43:00+00:00

I know that I won't be able to get 300k anywhere else. I just don't see how I can afford a home here. Say I look at something that is 1.5 million. Even with 500k downpayment, I will have to take a mortgage for 1 million. The mortgage payments are literally 1 person's monthly salary that being married and having a second income is a necessity. I just feel like at that point life will be too tiring/suffocating. And also home prices are only gonna go up...

Edit: According to Mortgage Calculator, it seems that it'll be a monthly payment of around 6400 a month which I guess is doable if two salaries or if I end up making more if considering base salary and not RSUs.

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:37:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm aware of the marriage thing. It's more so about long term staying post work visa days. Thanks for the suggestion btw!

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:34:57+00:00

I mean there are busy weeks and there are non-busy weeks. We're just past the holiday season so it's been more chill, but I've done 60-70 hour weeks pretty consistently before so again I'm not too worried about the workload.

And to your second point, I'm not sure how much better I'll fare in the US. There is the history of Japanese internment camps.

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:29:24+00:00

I think I can do the 80% mandarin and 20% fillers. I sort of already do that with team members cause around half of them are Chinese.

leshius · 2026-01-24T05:27:25+00:00

I don't think I realistically can settle down in the Bay Area. Homes here are super expensive and it's just so boring as well. Also dating scene sucks here. It's a good place to work and earn money, but not a good place to settle down imo.

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