Anyone around here ever lived in China?

[hifiguy]

I have an opportunity to take a position with a High End audio company that is headquartered in Germany and whose manufacturing and marketing is based in Hangzhou, China, a city of about 7 million about 125 miles southwest of Shanghai The company is owned by a German citizen of Spanish/Portuguese descent who has lived in China for 15-20 years. The guy is a brilliant engineer with a well-developed and implemented business plan, and the components the company makes are spectacular. This is not a startup, and I have a great relationship with the owner.

He wants a native English speaker with extensive professional writing experience (I've written for the most prominent high-end audio magazines and websites in North America for the last 15 years and was trained as an attorney) to handle marketing materials and someone who can do developmental/evaluative listening and represent the company at audio shows, primarily in Western nations. Salary would be Western scale and moving expenses will be covered by the company.

I am 50-something with no close relatives, no girlfriend, and few friends. My cat passed away last month, so there's nothing to keep me here, My sole experience with international travel is a couple weeks each in New Zealand and in France. The logistics will necessarily be involved, but I've never been able to get and keep a decent job in the legal profession despite an Ivy League law degree. I am a geek - audio, music, cartoons, etc, and geeks are not welcome in any part of the legal profession where you can make real money save for patent law. and I am no engineer. I don't see myself having a lot to lose.

So, any DUer out there got any thoughts about what it's like to move half way round the world?

[Locrian]

1. Sounds like an interesting opportunity

Sounds like an interesting opportunity... traveled there a bit, but never lived there. It's pretty shocking though, at least for me. You might want to read a little, this was an "interesting" take: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Planet-China-Understand-Mystifying/dp/0767922018

[olddots]

2. Do you know high end audio guys ? meet some --read the magazines -research the people

I was in high end audio for 40 years -love the product -don't like the people.

Is there a way to see the operation in person? Be careful be prepared it could be a wonderful job and move but research stereophile s first

There is a certain dogmatic part of high end audio that borders on cult like .If you can read Stereophile mag and not feel strange you may be handle the job.

[hifiguy]

4. I wrote for The Absolute Sound and Stereophile

from 1995 to 2009, and since 2009, for The Audio Beat.com.

I know the industry inside and out. David Wilson even let me drive one of his Ferraris when I visited the Wilson Audio Specialties factory a few years ago. I can hear and describe the differences between power cords. It ain't my first rodeo.

[olddots]

10. you answered my question take the job .

[IdaBriggs]

3. Check out these sources of information:

The "Culture Shock" series was useful for us when we traveled, but apparently each one can be different. This one seems to be "Shanghai" specific -

http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Shock-Shanghai-Survival-Etiquette/dp/B00A17CC80/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366133143&sr=8-1&keywords=culture+shock+shanghai

While this one is "China" -

http://www.amazon.com/CultureShock-China-Cultureshock-Survival-Etiquette/dp/0761460527/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366133259&sr=1-1&keywords=culture+shock+china

Someone else wrote a very nice review about "Passport Shanghai" but I couldn't find it on Amazon.

Sounds like you will have a great adventure - I say "go for it!"

[MineralMan]

5. I'd jump at it, in your situation.

There's nothing like living in another country to broaden your entire perspective on life. If moving expenses are covered, and you think it would be a stable position, I say go for it.

[Paulie]

6. Do you like Chinese food?

And not the Americanized version but chickens still having the feet attached. Won't do ya any good if the job is awesome but ya starve.

I have a coworker who taught English for a couple years in china and she is pretty positive about the whole experience.

If I had no attachments I would go for it. Just have enough money in savings to move back.

[hifiguy]

9. I've been cooking out of real Hunan and Sichuan

cookbooks for thirty years. My favorite cuisine in the world together with French.

[MineralMan]

7. Looks like a beautiful part of China, too, based

on the photos I saw on Google.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. I traveled to China several times in the 1990s when I was an immigration lawyer

in a Chinese law office near Los Angeles, spending time in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shandong. It was a great experience. I met several non-Chinese Americans who spoke Mandarin. Just for the opportunity to learn the language and experience the culture I think I would accept this chance. If you have nothing to hold you here and a great adventure as a stranger in a strange land just across the Pacific waiting to be had, I don't see why not.

[Duer 157099]

11. I just have one question for you:

Can I go with????

[cliffordu]

12. I'd jump on this with both feet.

How many times has this kind of opportunity come along??

[whistler162]

13. If you go to the Facebook page linked below....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/M-and-MXcom/55049962589?hc_location=stream he could give you some insight into life in the Shanghai area. I don't have his email address. Ge taught English in the Shanghai area and his wife is from there. Nice guy, he is my cousins brother-in-law. Sounds like it could be a interesting experience.

[trof]

14. Go for it.

I was in a similar situation many years ago at about your age.
I figured I had nothing to lose and quite a bit ($$$) to gain.
It was a Japanese corporation.
I've never regretted it.

[harmonicon]

15. I haven't lived in China, but I say do it.

I have moved about 1/3 the way around the world before. I got my PhD in the UK and thought I'd stay there, but the new, xenophobic Tory government got rid of that option.

Now I live in Switzerland, but the money and residency permit run out in a few months. After this ... ? Anyway... I digress. I suppose my point has been that I've busted ass to do what I love (I'm a musician), and I would go anywhere where they'd pay me to do the work I want to do. Being in Switzerland is lonely. Some things about it suck, but there's no question that it's a lot better than working 45 hours a week in a warehouse in rural Michigan like I was doing the few months before I moved here.

I have a relative who's also a musician, and he played some gigs in China last year. He said it was really nice, and there wasn't nearly as much culture shock as he'd expected.