Well, yesterday we said goodbye to our roommates the cockroaches at our sweet little Charleston townhouse to crash at my parents’ place in East Tennessee, huddling down for the end of the Chinese work visa process. Now that I’m not working, packing, or surrounding myself with lovely Charleston people (miss you already), I finally have some time to do what I really wanted: create visualizations of Chinese characters for my memory palace! In the meantime, I can write some blog posts.

We’ve gotten all these questions, so here they are laid out with their answers. Enjoy.

1. Where are you going, again? We are headed to Shenzhen (shen-JEN), China – right across the border from Hong Kong. Not an Asian geography expert? Here’s a very detailed, expert map I created for you with my phone. As you can see, we will be at the bottom of China. Last time we lived in Asia, we were essentially at the top of China, except in a different country.

Just a brief overview of Shenzhen for you: In 1979, the Chinese government dubbed the area a “special economic zone,” which was a huge change for what was a small fishing village at the time. This meant that capitalism was basically allowed to prevail in Shenzhen, so the town went from about 30,000 people to almost 20 million today. Originally, mainland Chinese residents needed a passport to enter Shenzhen as if it was a different country, but that has since changed. Now, it’s considered a “first-tier” city, meaning the standards of living are comparable to what you would find in a “first world” country. Shenzhen is also in Southeastern China so when we want to hop a flight to Bangkok for the weekend or a ferry to Hong Kong for the afternoon, that won’t be completely out of the question. The city is within an hour or two of 3 other major airports (Guangzhou, Macao, and Hong Kong), so we’re in a great spot for traveling, which is what we want.

2. How long will you be there? There’s no concrete answer to this question, but we hope to stay for somewhere around 5 years. If we hate it, we’ll leave earlier, and if we decide we love it so much we can’t leave, we’ll leave later. Short answer: as long as we want, or until we’re kicked out.
3. Are you worried that it will be dangerous? Not at all!!! Seth and I have both lived abroad before, and visited much more dangerous places. Out of all the feelings I have about living in Asia again, fear of danger isn’t really on the list. Yes, we almost were crushed in a Nepalese festival crowd, ran out of gas in a Philippine taxi, and a deer ate our map in Japan (several times) so we came close to getting lost. But that’s pretty much the worst that has happened, and those are all just fun stories.
4. What about foreign hospitals? Foreign hospitals definitely don’t scare me. I’ve been to them in 5 different countries outside of the US, so you could call me a bit of a hospital connoisseur. In my vast experience as an international medical patient then, my observations on the main differences you get outside the states are as follows: (1) I didn’t walk out the door with a prescription for a month’s worth of Vicodin, (2) sometimes I had to communicate in a foreign language, but not always, and (3) I was informed up front about how much treatment would cost. What did I not experience? Waiting too long to get treatment, being charged astronomical prices for simple procedures, or incompetent professionals.
5. How will you survive in a place where you don’t know the language? I’ve also done this before. While I’ve started studying Mandarin, experience tells me that I won’t learn what I really need to until I’m there. The overall strategy is this: try your best, be polite, don’t be proud of being ignorant, and take as many tips from other foreigners as possible. Most importantly, don’t take yourself too seriously – as with all things! Make mistakes and move on – that’s how you grow. And that’s it!
6. Why China? I kind of addressed the reason for moving abroad in general in my previous post, “Grab the Cats, We’re Going to China” but the reason for China specifically is a bit more straightforward: the recruiter who helped us go to Korea introduced us to the idea of going to Shenzhen. The 2 years of experience in Korea put us in a great position for opportunities there, so we said yes.
7. Aren’t you afraid of Chinese jail? I’m about afraid of Chinese jail as much as I am of American jail. It would really suck to go there, but odds are generally good that I won’t be going to jail in China. Simply due to my non-illegal nature.
8. What about North Korea? What about earthquakes, spontaneous combustion, being hit by a bus, cancer, or food poisoning? These are all threats, but they can’t stop you from walking out of the house in the morning and doing what you want.
9. When are you coming back? Regularly to visit! Long-term, we don’t have plans of returning to the US.

Well I think that pretty much answers everything! If you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment.