Best City to Live In China

Thanks 外国人 (wai guo ren)!

I would regard Tianjin as just basically being in Beijing. I haven't been to either Dalian or Harbin, but I hear they're nice places...although a little to 'cool' for my liking...

even to rent?

Too cold. Too Dry. Or to quote Lonely Planets' Beijing Guide, "Confident of their pre-eminence, they feel superior (gāorényīděng) to those unfortunate to live outside town" (p.19).

why didn't you like Beijing?

sound like you are enjoying HK!

yes, housing is but if you are careful with other things you can get along fine. The MTR is so nice and cheap.

I love HK but HK is very expensive!

true..

我明白；你想要一个真正的中国经验，对吧

很多人感觉一样的

I think I know what you mean :-). Best advice then is go to the "famous" sites and walk away from them! Not sure if I can be much of a help here, but I really enjoy going to 金桥 market and 夫子庙大市场。This is daily life in China if you ask me. You will walk through a maze of small stalls and you are the only foreigner for sure. You will have many opportunities to talk with locals (and you are being stared at), just be aware of the local accent, this can be tricky :-).

Another site is close to 夫子庙，a little more south you will find part of the city wall and a gate which is called 长干门. Just before this gate on your left and right you have "hutongs". No foreigners there, just daily life, they already destroyed parts, so I guess in a few years, not much is left....

For 1912, having this on your right side just head north east, you will find a typical Nanjing neighbourhood with life on the street and beds in stores (people working and living in the same room). I enjoy wandering around pointlessly...Now I will keep my big mouth shut, I'm sure you will be able to find your way and let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy!

Those are all great suggestions but let me just make one thing really clear.. I don't like tourist sites. :) I don't like walking around museums and art galleries really.. :) Having said that, 鸡鸣寺 place sounds like a good balance between seeing "something" and experiencing the "daily life" stuff that I go to China for. :) I'd much rather go to a park and watch the world go past while sipping a cup of tea or coffee. :)

For me, travelling is about experiencing the real, current-day culture of a place not what was in the past or seeing "sites".. So while these museums and galleries may contain great things, like the Terracotta Warriors 兵马俑.. great stuff and all, they don't "do it" for me.. Yes, I did go there.. hehe.. but the most enjoyable part of the whole experience was making my way there.. finding the right bus to catch, chatting with the nice private, and official government sanctioned, tour guide (100rmb) and then enjoying tea served in traditional style.. The site itself was much like any other tourist site in my view: something I could have seen on the discovery channel. Now that may seem like I don't care about the history of a place but it's not that so much as I enjoy the other things about "being in China".. :)

Another example would be attending a small Environmental discussion forum in Beijing and finding out how the locals think about such topics as well as how they reconcile and discuss these topics in a real-life situation. Might sound boring, and in a way it was.. but it opened my eyes to a few things about Chinese culture and perception in the modern day. :) Another thing I did was attend a conference (again only a small thing with maybe 12 people in attendance) on the Chinese Translation Industry.. again.. more eye opening stuff.. :)

So, while I do want to see a few sites and few interesting cultural places.. that's not my main priority :)

:-) Jason gave some good info I think! Additionally you can check out Fuzimiao, Brocate Museum, Nanjing Memorial, Nanjing Museum, ChaoTianGong (dirt market) and there is a big watch tower / palace on the west side of town (close to the famous bridge), of which I forgot the name, but had nice view and was interesting to see ... If I remember more, will post it...

I'm not the perfect tour guide, but if you need to know something about shopping :-)... Not sure if you are interested, but maybe you want to join a Chinese class（or 2) at 南京大学? Think it is ok, but will check...I recommend my reading & writing class (taught by the author of the book Stories of the Chinese ). This class has a lot of cultural info and in general is very interesting and useful.

ps. If you are interested in Chinese books / study material, there are a few good bookstores in town. For the same thing I pay 10* the prices back home. One for example is the Foreign Language Bookstore on the corner of 太平南路 and 中山东路 (and across the library and within a few minutes of the Palace and 1912).

Haha.. ok so not a lot to do then... :P hehhehehe

There's a bunch of things to do in Nanjing but here's what I'd recommend for half-day/day trips:

Go to 鸡鸣寺 jīmíng sì, or Rooster Crowing Temple (Buddhist) in the north side of the city. After exploring the temple you can exit it through the bridge which connects it to the city wall and check that out. From the wall, you can see a lot of the city, and also 玄武湖 xuánwǔ hú. Afterwards, you can head down and stroll around the lake, or across the bridges to the islands in the middle. 3 pretty cool places all right by each other!

Another idea would be to go to the Nanjing Library, which is pretty cool architecturally, and then go across the street from there to the Presidential Palace. (The 总统府 zǒngtǒng fǔ) It's historically significant and is somewhat of a museum now, with a nice garden. Finally, next to the Palace is 1912 (yī jiǔ yī ér), a Xintiandi type development area with a bunch of restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

I'd also recommend 南京大学. It's an old and beautiful campus. Definitely worth checking out.

Of course, there's even more to do than that, but those are just off the top of my head. Ahh, Nanjing. :)

I'll be arriving in Nanjing on 5th May and staying till I leave on the 8th May. So effectively two days to look around and meet up with people. I have heard that there is a chair-lift thingy I can go up a mountain/large-hill near Nanjing to look over the city from.. but other than that I have no idea what I will be doing while I am there :)

Hey light, let me know when you are in town, we could practice our putonghua, go for a drink or something or some sight seeing. If you need any help, info etc feel free to contact me!

Deal! :-)

I'll be in Nanjing for 3 nights in May of this year.. Would love to meet some poddies if it's not too inconvenient. I'll re-confirm my dates and get back to you if either or all of you Nanjingers are interested :)

Sounds like a plan! I still have friends there, so I occasionally make my way back. If I do and I have the time, I'll look you up!

Yes, that is the one :-) ! I go to Nanda now, so I'm getting to know that area a little better...The guys who run the restaurant are very nice, and have great food for very reasonable prices. Your friends informed you well!

So, I'd say, come over I buy you a drink!

Is that the Spanish restaurant? I used to live on 汉口路 near 上海路 and a few friends told me about a small, but great, restaurant opening right after I left. Posts like these make me miss Nanjing!

I totally agree! For anyone who is interested: the smallest restaurant in Nanjing (with the world's smallest kitchen) is located near Nanjing University on 上海路120号, the name is Cosima and they serve a fabulous Temperanillo for only 15 RMB! :-) Cheers!

it is an insignificant price

。。也许邮票价格？

I was just in Taipei and went to the National Palace Museum. In addition to the museum the gardens around the museum are nice and there are other places of interest near by.

Taipei also has a post office museum. I found it very interesting. The day I went it was free but when they charge it is an insignificant price (very cheap). They have one section that has stamps from around the world. It is a great place to kill some time on a cold rainy day.

其实，我错了【我找了一个链接，你看看下面】，美国博物馆是大都会艺术博物馆在纽约：

http://www.taiwan.com.au/Envtra/Taipei/report02.html

Tvan好，

Also, I wonder what museums are rated above it?

不好意思我的朋友，我忘记哪里我看书了那个，不过我觉得他们认为它是在最好四 【未必第四】

我同意。。一个肯定是罗浮宫

而且我好像想起来一个是美国博物馆【想必Smithsonian]

也许另外是大英博物馆，不过我忘了

Hi @bababardwan, I didn't know it was one of the top four-rated museums in the world. Still, I wonder how many people outside of the museum circles know that? These days most Americans I meet seem to forget about Taiwan when it comes to Chinese culture.

Also, I wonder what museums are rated above it? I'm no connoisseur of museums and such, but other than the Louvre, none come to mind.

tvan,

I was surprised to see you write:

"IMO, it is the most underrated museum in the world and the best repository or Chinese art that I have ever seen"

..as I remember reading a few years ago that it was considered to be one of the 4 top museums in the world for the very reason that it had the best collection of Chinese artifacts in the world [yeah,because KMT and Chiang Kai-shek took it there].So I took it that that was pretty widely accepted.Who is underrating it? I also took it as a major bone of contention between Beijing and Taiwan,so I didn't get the impression they were underrating it either.Yeah, I saw some pretty amazing stuff when I was there [including the must see pork and cabbage].They say only a fraction of it is ever on display at one time...I think I heard it would take several years to see it all [the figure 15 years pops to mind but I'm not sure if I'm recalling it correctly]

You make an excellent point with:

如果国民党不带那些制造物去台湾怎么办？六十年代的工厂党要拆迁传统的中国文化，是吗？

@laselle, 你说得很有道理。六十年代我不知道怎么样。但，现在一定是。

"Smash the old world / Establish a new world."

从文物保护的角度来看，那些被带到taipei的宝贝的确是受到了很好的保存。但是我相信这些价值连城的宝贝是不会被那些crazy Maoists Smashed的。很有可能会被偷走然后流失到外国。

This is not correct. Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek just saved the precious cultural objects from being destroyed by the Maoists.

If they had not, then the objects would have been destroyed in the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". See this slogan: "Smash the old world / Establish a new world." (see this poster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Destroy_old_world.jpg ).

幸亏国民党没有把石鼓拿走，现在我们能在北京故宫看到先秦石鼓文！

Hi laselle, 我同意你，当时的国民党腐败头顶，它的动机一定不标准。我也觉得很可惜普遍的中国人不会看。但，如果国民党不带那些制造物去台湾怎么办？六十年代的工厂党要拆迁传统的中国文化，是吗？至少国民党保存中国的遗产，世界的遗产给未来的年代。

哈哈，你也讨厌那个金盾工程！谁喜欢?

that's because the kuomingtang army took all the most precious cultural relics from forbidden city when they retreated from mainland. that's why you cant see things like that in china(mainland)!! Totally stolen! BTW i hated the cyber-nazi and stpudi wall too.

@light487, this is off topic, but if for no other reason, you should go to Taipei to see the National Palace Museum. IMO, it is the most underrated museum in the world and the best repository or Chinese art that I have ever seen. (Mainland) China has nothing like it!

黄山 有两处世界自然文化遗产哦。。

台北是一个中国适合居住的城市。。。do you know huangshan...

how beautiful... 黄山。。huangshan...

對啊！

Taipei is the best place to live in China! Friendly people and nearly democratic!