This isn't meant to disparage Harbin, but rather to highlight the differences between a modern, relatively developed major Chinese city and a city on a continent many Westerners view as being backward and only worth visiting as a tourist, not living in. If you're looking at a variety of work options outside the West it may help you recast your decision from simply being about the development level of the regions or countries you're looking at to considering the local cultures and societal norms involved.
By way of disclaimer, the African city I spent the Lunar New
Year holidays in was never colonized and therefore isn’t winning because of
some residual European colonial influence. (Some Westerners still seem to think
everything good in Africa came from their colonizer homelands, nevermind the incredible
oppression, economic exploitation, and illogical political divisions caused by colonialism. That’s a topic to explore on another blog,
however!) This is very much unlike Harbin, which was founded and built by citizens
of the Russian Empire and was run by
White Russians or mixed Russian/Chinese administrations until the 1930s. That being said, here
are the five things that really stood out to me after my trip:
1) Friendliness: Despite being a city roughly the same size
as Harbin, people were friendly. And I don’t mean the fake nod-and-smile
friendly people in the American South are, I mean ask-how-you’re-doing, take-three-hours-out-of-their-afternoon-to-make-sure-you-find-where-you’re-going
friendly.
2) Service in English: The staff at any non-hole-in-the-wall
restaurant spoke enough English to figure out my order. (Because, shockingly
enough, since they get a fair number of foreign businessmen and tourists – just
like Harbin – they figured they ought to speak some English so that they could get more business!) Contrast this
with Harbin, where if you find a waiter or waitress who can say more than hello
you’ve really hit the jackpot! (I exaggerate a little, but not by much. On the plus side, service is so discouraging here that it can put one off going out at all, which is probably for the best!)
3) Queuing: Since moving to Harbin I’ve seen two queues for
buses in the city (and taken pictures both times ‘cause it was so shocking!).
The only other places I’ve seen queues have been a couple of larger grocery store chains and Starbucks (which I have grown to love because
their staff will tell people to get in line when they start forming the standard cantankerous mob in front of the registers). Where I holidayed there were queues everywhere
– for buses, ticket counters, services! I wanted to go around shaking people’s
hands for their civility and sense! Here this third world (if you’ll pardon the expression) city has figured
out what the
PRC with all its money and supposed civilization has yet to figure
out. It was glorious.
4) Smoking: In the two and a half weeks I was on holiday I
could count on one hand the number of smokers I saw out and about! The only time
I saw smoking in a restaurant (and I ate out a lot!) it was in a designated,
standing-only area away from the tables and it was a bunch of foreigners, not locals.
Contrast this with Harbin, where even in the airport and the nicest malls the
bathrooms reek of cigarette smoke and indoor smoking is common in most
restaurants and even high-end cafes.
5) Hacking: You literally cannot go outdoors in Harbin without hearing someone (excuse me, half of the people around you at any given
time) making the most wretched sounds before they spit giant gobs of nastiness
on the sidewalk in front of you. This is no doubt due in great part to the
incredibly bad air pollution during the winter, something most Chinese cities
seem to have in common. Where I holidayed, by contrast, I occasionally saw
someone spit, but it was by no means an every-other-moment event, nor was it
accompanied by the disgusting sounds it’s always accompanied with in Harbin.
Needless to say, there were contrasts the other way - periodic electricity and water outages every couple of days that only rarely happen in Harbin, internet access issues due to the national telecom monopoly there, et cetera - that made Harbin look good, but it amazed me how the five things above made leaving the house so much less stressful. It was such a pleasant break, and in many ways I dreaded returning to China at the end of it. I thought I would post this for those who might not have had the above in mind when considering moving to a Chinese city. Weirdly enough, even something as small and random as how people spit can make a big difference in your quality of life!
