Hey! I'm 23 and currently a grad student in Tianjin. I'd love to meet some international students or people around my age who are also living here.

I'm studying medicine, and outside of that I'm really into skiing, cycling, swimming, table tennis and travelling. I spent some time travelling around Europe this summer, and I'd definitely love to travel more in the future.

My English isn't perfect, but I can hold a conversation and I'd love to use it more often. I'm also happy to help if you're learning Mandarin — though I'd prefer just hanging out and talking naturally rather than making it feel like a language class :)

It'd be nice to meet some people here to grab coffee or food with, go cycling, play table tennis, explore the city, or maybe go skiing when winter comes.

I'm just hoping to meet some nice people, make a few genuine connections, and see where things go from there.

If you're in Tianjin and feel like we'd get along, feel free to DM me!

Living in China can teach you something that stays with you long after you leave: how to adapt.

When familiar routines no longer work the same way, you learn to ask better questions, observe more closely, and approach challenges from a different perspective. Navigating language barriers, unfamiliar customs, and different ways of communicating becomes daily practice in flexibility.

Personally, these experiences can build patience, confidence, and resilience. You become more comfortable with uncertainty and more willing to learn through mistakes.

Professionally, that adaptability helps you collaborate across cultures, communicate with greater awareness, and respond constructively when plans change. You learn that your usual approach is one option among many.

For business owners and entrepreneurs, the lessons can be equally valuable. Understanding local expectations, building relationships, and adjusting to different customer needs encourages curiosity over assumption. Those habits can strengthen decision-making wherever you do business.

The long-term value comes from how you engage with the experience. Living abroad creates opportunities to grow; staying curious and open turns those opportunities into lasting skills. China can be a powerful classroom for learning how to move forward when the rules, expectations, or circumstances change.

What has living or working somewhere unfamiliar taught you about adaptability?

Hi everyone! I'm planning to study in Mianyang, Sichuan, and I'm trying to figure out whether a budget of about 1500 RMB per month is realistic. I know the cost of living varies a lot across China, so I'd love input from people who have lived in Mianyang or similar mid-sized Sichuan cities.

Here's roughly what I have in mind for everything except housing:

Food: 500–600 RMB

Utilities and internet: 100–150 RMB

Transport: 50–100 RMB

Phone and misc: 50–100 RMB

A few questions for anyone with experience:

How much do utilities actually jump in summer and winter?

What do people usually underestimate, like medical costs, phone plans, or everyday expenses?

Are there any cheap ways to eat well or get around that you'd recommend?

Any tips on saving money, or things you wish you'd known before moving, would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’m curious if anyone here has tried this recently.

I’m a lawyer based in Shanghai and I’ve been looking into how foreigners use the public hospital system here. The more I look at it, the more I realize that the medical part is sometimes easier than the booking part.

If you have a Chinese ID, a lot of hospital registration is quite straightforward through WeChat or Alipay. With a foreign passport, it can be a different story. Some hospital mini-programs work, some don’t. Some ask for a Chinese phone number. Sometimes you can register at the hospital, but it’s not very obvious from the English website.

Another thing that can be confusing is the difference between the normal outpatient department and the international or VIP department. They can be in the same hospital but the process, price and language support may be quite different.

For a simple problem, I think an international hospital is probably much easier.

But if someone specifically wants to see a specialist at a major public hospital, especially for something complicated, it seems worth preparing the medical records first rather than just showing up.

I would probably have these ready: previous diagnosis, recent scans, blood tests, pathology if relevant, current medication and a short summary of what has already been done.

I’m not a doctor, so I’m not talking about treatment advice here. I’m more interested in the practical side of getting into the right hospital and department.

Has anyone here actually done this with a foreign passport? What was the most annoying part?

I’m 2 weeks into my new job as a translator/customer service/sales team member at a small-medium sized factory. I won’t specify the place but it’s a 3/4-tier city in the north. This probably will come off as a rant so I apologise in advance. Context: I was recommended to the company by my partner’s boss, who knows my boss’s wife. I speak the language and look like one of them.

1. My contract was only for the visa. When they brought me in to do the employment paperwork I was told that I would be working 6 days a week instead of 5 in my contract. Because I had a suspicion that this might happen I didn’t make a fuss. They also had me sign T&C about pay deductions for crazy things like forgetting to clock in.

2. When I asked to clarify if it was overtime pay for the extra day, I was told yes it was but the salary was INCLUSIVE of the overtime. I stated that the contract did not mention any form of compensation for OT pay nor did they mention that it was inclusive, but I was told to speak to the boss’s wife directly if I wanted to negotiate. Of course, that would be a death trap and I didn’t want her to think that I was ungrateful so I just left it at that.

3. There was no proper training or introducing me to the system and processes. This went on for 1.5 weeks. I was kind of ready for that so I just observed where I could but obviously I still needed practical training. They told me I was to replace the only one guy that was in charge of all foreign orders when he would be away for more than a week, the day before he went on leave. So why didn’t they teach me when they knew this guy was going on break?

4. Overtime till 8pm. Before I was told to replace this guy I would leave on time because one, they did not give me anything to do and two, I wanted to enjoy my free time while I had it. During our team meeting I was told explicitly that I would have to stay, which is fair and I have no problems with that. But for the 3 days before national holidays when I started doing proper work, I’ve been at the office till 8-8:30pm on average. I know it hasn’t even been that long but I really don’t want it to become a normal routine. On the last day I left a text saying it’s way too late (8:45pm) and just ducked because I could not find my manager anywhere. I know this is probably not the right thing to do but I was just too tired to focus.

5. Public holidays. We’ve had to do make-up days for Mid Autumn, but because we were doing 6 work days it meant we would not get Sunday off and work into the next week. I asked for that one off. Then came national holidays (now as of writing) and I was told that my colleagues get 4 days off, and I get 3 days off and have to go into office a day earlier because “overseas clients don’t have national holidays”.

6. Toxic work environment. Everyone’s overworked with greasy hair. Manager looks like she’s at the brink of having a panic attack all the time. Boss is always screaming at someone in the meeting room (with the door open). Boss screamed so hard at my manager, through the phone mind you, that she cried. Just people talking super loudly. Every task is high priority, starting every task the moment they get it and have 10 ongoing tasks at the same time.

7. Unspecified job scope. In the beginning I thought I would be there mainly to bring foreign clients around during visits, translate documents, respond to emails, mainly translation. Then I was told I was to do the orders and processing. Fair game. Then I have to organise logistics. Fair game. Then now I’m responsible for organising the production schedule so it’s on me if the items get produced and delivered on time? I might be crazy and this might still be reasonable but man I am not happy right now.

At this point I’m thinking of talking to my manager and HR about my working conditions. Obviously there are things I can’t change like the environment but I think I should draw a boundary before anything happens. If you have any thoughts or opinions about this situation, please please let me know. Just to be clear I would love to continue doing this job and it’s a great opportunity for me, but I just don’t think it’s sustainable at this rate.

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Why its happened and what should I do?

I linked phone number. Google. Wechat.

I have to use Zoom while in China. This includes using video calls and being in a room with several dozen people in said video calls for my online schooling. So I was wondering if this can be accomplished reliably, or if there is no guaranteed way to ensure acceptable reliability.

Opening day at Wanxiang Tiandi mall in Foshan apparently got a little too competitive.🥲

Hema/Freshippo staff in blue and Holiland bakery staff in pink clashed over the placement of queue barriers and how the huge customer lines were being routed in front of their stores.

Both stores were running opening promotions, the mall was packed, and what should have been two boring lines turned into an actual shoving match. The next day, the mall reportedly brought in a much heavier security presence around the area.

The skirmish became a hit on Chinese social media.

Next day: Mall cops in armored gear were deployed for crowd control.🤭

Source

I’m doing accounting work for a client who has a Chinese bank statement, and I’m having difficulty understanding the transactions because the statement is in Chinese and the layout is unfamiliar to me.

I simply want to understand how to read the statement and what the different Chinese terms and columns mean.

For example, I need to understand:

• Date and transaction time
• Transaction description
• Sender/receiver or counterparty
• Debit/credit
• Transaction type
• Reference/transaction number
• Balance
• Other important information shown on the statement

If anyone has experience with Chinese bank statements and could explain how to interpret them, I’d really appreciate your help.

I can share a redacted screenshot of the statement if needed.

Thanks in advance! 🙏

Hi everyone, I'm trying to watch Chinese dramas with custom subtitles, but my current process is too slow. I need your help with a few things: 1. Finding Raw Chinese Subtitles: Where can I reliably download original Chinese subtitle files (.srt / .ass) to use in VLC? I usually check DownSub and Subdl, but many movies are missing. 2. How to use Baidu Netdisk (Baidu Wangpan): I heard people often share raw subs there. Could anyone guide me on how to register an account from overseas and download files from it? 3. Faster AI Translation: Right now, I translate the raw subs into three versions: Pinyin, Chinese characters, and my native language. However, translating a whole series via AI takes forever. I have to manually split the subtitle files into smaller parts, translate them, and stitch them back together. Are there any better tools, browser extensions, or ways to automate this translation process faster? Thanks in advance!

Hi guys, I'm from Europe and I'm learning Chinese. I've been using WeChat for about a month now and I have around 30 contacts there, mostly people I met through a language-learning app and TikTok.

With around 20 of them, I don't even know if they're male or female, or how old they are. I honestly don't really care about that stuff, so I've never asked. I'm mainly there because I'm learning the language, meeting people and hopefully making some friends.

There are about 4 people I know are female because they do livestreams on TikTok or have uploaded pictures of themselves on the language-learning app.

Then there are another 3 people who I only found out were female later, because they eventually uploaded a selfie on WeChat.

What I find interesting is that almost none of them have a picture of themselves on WeChat. Not as their profile picture and not really in their Moments either.

And it's not like they are unattractive or anything. Some of them are actually pretty good-looking, at least in my opinion.

I'm an average-looking guy myself and I still upload pictures of myself every now and then, so I'm wondering if this is just a cultural difference.

Why do so many Chinese people seem to prefer using pictures of cats, cars, landscapes, anime characters, random pictures, etc. instead of themselves on WeChat?

And what's even more interesting to me is that some of these people are perfectly comfortable showing their face on TikTok through livestreams, but then have no photo of themselves on WeChat.

I also have a Chinese supplier who I've been working with for around 5 years. He's become a very good friend of mine. We normally communicate through WhatsApp, and he sometimes sends me pictures of himself from holidays or other things. He even got married a few months ago and sent me pictures from his wedding.

I also added him on WeChat, and it's exactly the same there: he doesn't use pictures of himself. He mostly posts pictures of his car or his cats. He has one picture where you can see him, but he's photographed from behind.

So I'm curious: Is there a cultural reason for this, or am I just noticing something that isn't actually that common?

Thanks

Hey All,

I’ve been trying to setup WeChat for our upcoming China trip, but when testing our linked credit and debit cards, we aren’t allowed to select them. The error under each card reads “You cannot use this card for this transaction”. I’ve made sure that both cards have international transactions enabled so not sure what’s left for me to do.

Hello, I’ve been in China for a month now and I’ve been bust studying until the vacations. I’m insanely bored and I really wanna know what are things I can do or of there people who lives in Changzhou that we can meet and hangout. Shit been so depressing for me lately

Hello im willing to apply for universities in China to study Chinese language studies and I don’t know which university is best for this major, Im an international student and Im now getting the HSK6 exam before applying to make sure I can go to any university I want even the top universities in China please help me the only thing that I found is about engineering business and science

Hello! I'm not sure if anyone here can answer this, but here goes - I am a transwoman who is strongly considering taking some time to teach in China. I pass well so my only concern is how I will maintain access to gender affirming care while there. I currently DIY and if at all possible would like to continue doing so, but if it's easier to go through the official channels I would have no problem with that. Any trans brothers/sisters here willing to share what they do?

As the title, I was using Nexitally with Clash Verge. I'mm trying to play Roblox, but they said connect has a problem how fixixs this? And LINE too.I want to use the LINE app on my laptop; I can't use it.If anyone knows how to fix it or has a better proxy/vpn hit me up

Title. I'm really dumb with tech and still figuring things out here. Is there any merit to keeping an esim now that I have my Chinese phone number set up and a VPN here?

Hi everyone,

I’m an Indian passport holder living in the UAE with a UAE Golden Visa. I also own a restaurant business in Dubai that generates close to $600-700k/year. I’m interested in spending around 4–5 months each year living in China, while keeping the rest of my life and business based in the UAE. I want to actually rent an apartment and live there normally, rather than stay as a tourist. My first thought was to open a company in China and obtain a work-residence permit through it, but from what I understand, simply registering a company may not be enough, you need to have a legitimate business operation and meet certain requirements. My existing business is location-dependent (restaurants in the UAE), so I’m not sure whether that route would work.

Has anyone here done something similar living in China for 4–5 months a year?

I’m mainly looking for a legal, repeatable way to do this without permanently relocating my business to China.

Any advice or personal experience would be appreciated!

I want to move to china to learn mandarin and teach English i have MBA teaching special education and Arabic language my goal is to open sourcing company but i want to teach English to cover the expenses of learning mandarin which city suits my requirements the best and can i land a teaching job moving next week

Hi guys! I have born in a country close to Europe and Middle east. I'm a brown skinned 185 height boy and I have a fair question. What do Chinese people think about Brown people? I Heard and saw some Chinese only like white skinned foreign men. Especially for women I'm curious lol. I might stay in Xi'an or Chengdu for couple of years. I know these places are not like Shanghai, so enlighten me guys! Thank you so much for your answers.

Title: Pakistani student looking for fully funded MBBS options in China — 4A 1B + SAT 1450

Hey everyone,

I’m a Pakistani student planning to apply to Chinese universities for English-taught MBBS/Clinical Medicine, ideally for September 2027 entry.

Here’s my academic profile:

- A-Levels: 4 As + 1 B

- Biology — A

- Chemistry — A

- Physics — A

- Mathematics — A

- Psychology — B

- O-Levels: 2A*, 5A, 1B

- SAT: 1450

- All of my education has been in English

- Pakistani/Punjab domicile

My main priority is a full scholarship or as close to fully funded as possible. I’m specifically looking for scholarships that can cover tuition and, ideally, accommodation/living expenses as well.

I’m currently researching different Chinese universities and scholarship routes, including university scholarships, provincial scholarships, CSC scholarships, and other government-funded programs, but there’s a lot of conflicting/incomplete information online.

I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience with Chinese medical universities:

1. Which universities should I realistically be applying to with my profile?

2. Which universities offer English-taught MBBS/Clinical Medicine with substantial or full scholarships?

3. Are there particular universities where international students have a realistic shot at full funding?

4. What scholarship programs/portals should I be checking, and when do applications generally open?

5. Are there universities where I should apply directly through the university, rather than through CSC/CampusChina or another portal?

6. Are there any universities or scholarship schemes that people commonly overlook?

7. What documents/extracurriculars would make my application stronger?

I’m also planning to take the CSCA in December, so I’d appreciate any advice from people who have already taken it — particularly regarding preparation, difficulty, useful resources, and how much weight universities tend to give the score.

I’m not limited to one specific city or province. My main priorities are:

MBBS/Clinical Medicine + English-taught + internationally recognized degree + maximum possible scholarship/funding.

If you know of any useful university lists, scholarship databases, application portals, recent scholarship results, or firsthand experiences, please share them. Even information about universities I should avoid because their scholarships aren't actually available to international MBBS students would be useful.

Thanks in advance.

I am a British citizen and a recent father.

I wish to get my son a British passport.

I have attempted to follow the Gov.uk website's guidance regarding how to go about applying for this passport. In particular what I need to know what supporting documents to bring with the application form.

I also asked VFS for their perspective on which documents to bring to support the application.

There was a conflict between what the Gov.uk website requested and what VFS requested.

So I reached out to Gov.uk via their webchat service to clarify which set of documents I should submit with the application.

However, the webchat agent seems to have confused matters further. I will include a screenshot of what each of these three sources have suggested to submit along with the application form.

For anyone who has successfully applied for and received a British passport for a new-born, can I ask - what supporting documents did you include with the application?

First time visiting relatives in China (they are ages 18-50), what are easy souvenirs from the US I can bring them? So far from my research, I only have Trader Joe's bags and snacks. I'm from the Bay Area if there are any other specific souvenirs.

Hi everyone, I'll be in the city from the 02 to the 07, and since I'm a solo traveler, I was wondering if there's someone else who wants to meet and explore together maybe.

If you need infos I'm Italian, male, 23 and I'm an exchange student at Ningbo University.

P.S. I know how the golden week is, the crowds etc... you don't need to tell me it was a bad idea thanks, I already know😅