{"id":780,"date":"2023-10-24T03:58:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/"},"modified":"2024-05-25T20:58:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T12:58:45","slug":"5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Types of Foreigners in China- Which One Are You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s almost impossible to live in China and not run into at least 1 other expat during your <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"inside_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/tag\/travel\/\" title=\"View all posts in travel\" >travel<\/a>s. Often, we&#8217;ll catch a glimpse of a passing expat and wonder, &#8220;What&#8217;s their story?&#8221; While it would be impossible to encapsulate every expat&#8217;s story into a f<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><span style=\"color: #3e3e3e; font-size: 16px;\">It&#8217;s almost impossible to live in China and not run into at least one other expat during your travels. Often, we&#8217;ll catch a glimpse of a passing expat and wonder, &#8220;What&#8217;s their story?&#8221; While it would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/jobs?nationId=36\">impossible<\/a> to encapsulate every expat&#8217;s story into a few archetypes, there are some expats that are more common than others. Do any of these sounds familiar? Which one are you?<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_73 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/#1_Educators\" title=\"1.\u00a0 Educators\">1.\u00a0 Educators<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/#2_The_Businessmen\" title=\"2.\u00a0 The Businessmen\u00a0\">2.\u00a0 The Businessmen\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/#3_Party_Animals\" title=\"3.\u00a0 Party Animals\">3.\u00a0 Party Animals<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/#4_Oh_Wanderers\" title=\"4.\u00a0 Oh, Wanderers!\">4.\u00a0 Oh, Wanderers!<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you\/#5_World_Travelers\" title=\"5.\u00a0 World Travelers\">5.\u00a0 World Travelers<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Educators\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #e33737;\">1.\u00a0 Educators<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FrBGcGCAPFiH6YXpoESJAg2q3Fyt?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"1.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_The_Businessmen\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #e33737;\">2.\u00a0 The Businessmen\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FklNz3CNjZal_n1KchssUhLsamCu?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"2.jpg\" width=\"589\" height=\"580.7622377622378\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3e3e3e; font-size: 16px;\">While no one is quite sure what business these people are in, it almost always begins with &#8220;start&#8221; and ends with &#8220;up.&#8221; \u00a0Kidding, but there are a high number of foreigners here who dream of having a start-up based in <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"inside_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/tag\/shenzhen\/\" title=\"View all posts in Shenzhen\" >Shenzhen<\/a>. While they cannot quite explain to you the demand for their &#8220;cat hair dyeing business&#8221; their passion is undeniable. On the other side of the coin, there are a number of foreigners in Shenzhen who bring much needed business consulting skills to growing Chinese businesses. In many cases, business people will get transferred here to the Chinese branch of their company and end up liking it so much that they stay on for years and years. Many of them often come with their families and raise their children here. They tend to be a very stable and grounded people. Many of them long to return home, but fear that they wouldn&#8217;t be able to readjust to their country of origin after such extended stays in China. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Party_Animals\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #e33737;\">3.\u00a0 Party Animals<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/Fgc0XiaNXmeTXXwZRSA5NVn6ma00?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"3.jpg\" width=\"589\" height=\"748.728813559322\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The name says it all. They could be any one of the other foreigners or none of them at all. He could be the vacationing Australian who loves traveling or the English teacher who likes to cut loose a few times a week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You can find them at many of the trendy haunts around town with a mixed group of Chinese and foreign friends. They tend to be quite friendly and easy going. They\u2019re fun to talk to, but they can be famously rowdy after one too many shots of Baijiu.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Oh_Wanderers\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #e33737;\">4.\u00a0 Oh, Wanderers!<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FjCaFJGzrZyWz5Yut4M4ss-DIL4V?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"4.jpg\" width=\"589\" height=\"404.44666666666666\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is everyone&#8217;s personal favorite at some level. Perhaps, long ago, they came here with a purpose, but that purpose has long been forgotten amidst boozy nights best left unmentioned. Were they born 600 years ago, they may have been a sage or a wise man and been valued for their obviously high, albeit misdirected, intelligence. They often speak Mandarin and the local dialect quite well and knows many of the best spots to hang out and may even be able to help you out in a pinch, but they\u2019re also the person who might get you into a pinch late at night. At their best, they are helpful and friendly guides to newer foreigners in China and at their worst they are pragmatists who are only looking out for Number One. They may or may not have a military background\u2026 it&#8217;s all very confusing and unclear and they tend to prefer it this way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The waylaid traveler is someone we might hesitate to call a good person, but they\u2019re undeniably entertaining and interesting and can regale you with stories about all sorts of escapades across China. Perhaps that story about being on the run because they owes someone money is true&#8211;or maybe they\u2019re full of it. We&#8217;ll never know, but we sure love to hear the stories that pour forth from their mouths and we even may feel a bit sad when they suddenly uproot and move to another country to repeat the cycle once more.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_World_Travelers\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #e33737;\">5.\u00a0 World Travelers<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FqASgDhEjOItXtD95YZlScP7oueV?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"5.jpg\" width=\"589\" height=\"393.4813278008299\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>This person may be a combination of any number of the above foreigners, but the bottom line is that they love traveling. Sometimes we question just where they\u2019re from because they\u2019ve traveled so much that their accent is hard to place. They sounds British, but with a slight southern American twang. Maybe they\u2019re Chinese, but they\u2019ve lived abroad longer than in China and doesn&#8217;t fit in anymore. We don&#8217;t really know. They often grew up traveling; perhaps mom or dad was in the military, worked for the church or some other profession that required extensive travel. Either way, the <a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/traveling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">traveling<\/a> bug bit them early and they don&#8217;t seem interested in a cure. They\u2019ve probably been to at least 20 countries by the age of 30 and are looking to increase that number as much as possible over the next few years. Naturally, they&#8217;re a bit worldly and very curious.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #209361;\"><strong>Chicken Feet? No problem! <\/strong><strong>Baijiu? No problem either!<\/strong><strong> Sleep outside? Where else was I going to sleep? Ha.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>They are usually very interested in authentic cultural\u00a0experiences\u00a0and might shun places with too many foreigners and not enough locals.<\/p>\n<p>They may or may not come equipped with strong language skills, but they usually have the best translation technology around and a natural affinity for language along with amazing\u00a0pantomiming\u00a0and gesticulating skills to get their points across to the clerk at the store or restaurant.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FlXXlKXBxtykYAuKbjvAxKMwIbVH?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" alt=\"GIC QR.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"543.2937181663837\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s almost impossible to live in China and not run into at least 1 other expat during your travels. Often, we&#8217;ll catch a glimpse of a passing expat and wonder, &#8230;","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[524,60,306,29,230,214],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funny","tag-5-types-of-foreigners-in-china-which-one-are-you","tag-china","tag-hiredchina","tag-jobs","tag-shenzhen","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9139,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions\/9139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}