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Chris M

@ChrisinLiuzhou • 1,903 subscribers

Saying it how I see it. Coexistence. More love, less hate. 🇦🇺 born, 🇨🇳 is my second home. DM's open for a chat! 👋

Shorts

I went to a typical lower-income rural town in Guangxi, China... Here’s what I found. We go back to my girlfriend's hometown every year. We stay in a rural community on the outskirts of a town that I consider pretty big and busy, but is probably small in China terms 😅. Living there honestly didn't feel particularly different in terms of day to day comfort — fast internet, modern appliances, decent homes, cars and scooters everywhere, normal roads and all the everyday conveniences you'd expect. Many people here live at least partly off the land, growing crops both to eat and sell. Our family owns their home outright — no mortgage or any type of loan. Chinese people avoid bank loans wherever possible, almost allergic to the idea haha. Owning your house outright is very typical in these communities. This allows most of their income to go towards things like sending their kids to university, helping them buy apartments in bigger cities and funding retirement etc. And I actually love staying here though. Life is way more quieter and super chill. Beautiful scenery, friendly people who seem happier in general. Everyone seems to get by by helping and doing favours for each other. A family friend gave us a car to borrow for the week 🙏. We'd ride our scooters into town for food, late-night BBQ sticks or bubble tea, or head to the nearest larger town for bars, nightlife and karaoke. The town itself has everything you'd expect — multiple supermarkets, restaurants, schools and general stores. Although somehow much busier than plenty of Western towns 😂...Packed markets, really bustling and busy during the day The roads are perfectly decent too, nothing worse than you'd find a few hours outside a major Australian city. The closest big city with an airport is around two hours away and easy to reach with what seems like infinite buses haha. it's scruffier and less polished than China's major cities, to be expected obviously, same as anywhere. There's no railway station, DiDi or much food delivery — although some restaurants will deliver to your house for free, which was cool. Buses are frequent and the main form of public transport, connecting people to schools, larger towns and nearby cities. -- China haters will tell you how desperately impoverished and unliveable rural China is. But nah... It's just.. normal. 🤷‍♂️

I went to a typical lower-income rural town in Guangxi, China... Here’s what I found. We go back to my girlfriend's hometown every year. We stay in a rural community on the outskirts of a town that I consider pretty big and busy, but is probably small in China terms 😅. Living there honestly didn't feel particularly different in terms of day to day comfort — fast internet, modern appliances, decent homes, cars and scooters everywhere, normal roads and all the everyday conveniences you'd expect. Many people here live at least partly off the land, growing crops both to eat and sell. Our family owns their home outright — no mortgage or any type of loan. Chinese people avoid bank loans wherever possible, almost allergic to the idea haha. Owning your house outright is very typical in these communities. This allows most of their income to go towards things like sending their kids to university, helping them buy apartments in bigger cities and funding retirement etc. And I actually love staying here though. Life is way more quieter and super chill. Beautiful scenery, friendly people who seem happier in general. Everyone seems to get by by helping and doing favours for each other. A family friend gave us a car to borrow for the week 🙏. We'd ride our scooters into town for food, late-night BBQ sticks or bubble tea, or head to the nearest larger town for bars, nightlife and karaoke. The town itself has everything you'd expect — multiple supermarkets, restaurants, schools and general stores. Although somehow much busier than plenty of Western towns 😂...Packed markets, really bustling and busy during the day The roads are perfectly decent too, nothing worse than you'd find a few hours outside a major Australian city. The closest big city with an airport is around two hours away and easy to reach with what seems like infinite buses haha. it's scruffier and less polished than China's major cities, to be expected obviously, same as anywhere. There's no railway station, DiDi or much food delivery — although some restaurants will deliver to your house for free, which was cool. Buses are frequent and the main form of public transport, connecting people to schools, larger towns and nearby cities. -- China haters will tell you how desperately impoverished and unliveable rural China is. But nah... It's just.. normal. 🤷‍♂️

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I went to a rural Chinese province…so what’s it like?... My wife and I make the journey back to her hometown every year around spring festival time. It’s about 1 hour out from Liuzhou in Guangxi, it would be considered small by Chinese standards but it seems pretty busy for a westerner from Tasmania 😂. One thing is very clear - I don’t know the percentage but so many people seem to work for themselves, whether that’s their own business or living off the land. Mortgages seem basically non-existent in rural areas, which was a big shock to me the first time I found out haha. People have land, they build on it, the kids and extended family usually build on the same plot. Great concept 👌. This makes sense, as almost all parents fund their kids to study in other cities, pay a large downpayment for a house when they get married or whatever else. The best thing about being here is the sense of community (which I also think is very good in cities) - Everyone knows each other and helps each other out — For example, we had a family friend lend us their car for the whole time we were there ♥️. We spent most of our time on a scooter though, driving around the town, getting bubble tea, Luosifen noodles and just chilling out. The buildings are a bit more run down than you’d obviously get in bigger cities, but that's to be expected, they’ve been around much longer. The roads are quite smooth, no big pot holes or major issues and nothing worse than what you’d find in Europe. Supermarkets, restaurants and public services are everywhere!! You can't go 100 metres up the street without seeing 3 supermarkets and 10+ restaurants. The only real downside is there’s no trains linking to bigger cities or other areas, but hey the US hardly have this so whatever ... .There are what seems to be infinite buses though 👍 My wife’s family's house is just... normal, fast internet, modern appliances and whatever else you’d find in your country. Feels stupid writing this, but some may have thought otherwise haha. I still struggle with the hole in the ground toiles…that I’ll never get used to. Luckily there’s a sit down toilet upstairs, so I’m safe 😎. The squating skill is an inherited talent I swear. – Guess this blows the theory of “China is like the 19th world, can’t even eat or go outside." Until next year, Guangxi 🫶.

I went to a rural Chinese province…so what’s it like?... My wife and I make the journey back to her hometown every year around spring festival time. It’s about 1 hour out from Liuzhou in Guangxi, it would be considered small by Chinese standards but it seems pretty busy for a westerner from Tasmania 😂. One thing is very clear - I don’t know the percentage but so many people seem to work for themselves, whether that’s their own business or living off the land. Mortgages seem basically non-existent in rural areas, which was a big shock to me the first time I found out haha. People have land, they build on it, the kids and extended family usually build on the same plot. Great concept 👌. This makes sense, as almost all parents fund their kids to study in other cities, pay a large downpayment for a house when they get married or whatever else. The best thing about being here is the sense of community (which I also think is very good in cities) - Everyone knows each other and helps each other out — For example, we had a family friend lend us their car for the whole time we were there ♥️. We spent most of our time on a scooter though, driving around the town, getting bubble tea, Luosifen noodles and just chilling out. The buildings are a bit more run down than you’d obviously get in bigger cities, but that's to be expected, they’ve been around much longer. The roads are quite smooth, no big pot holes or major issues and nothing worse than what you’d find in Europe. Supermarkets, restaurants and public services are everywhere!! You can't go 100 metres up the street without seeing 3 supermarkets and 10+ restaurants. The only real downside is there’s no trains linking to bigger cities or other areas, but hey the US hardly have this so whatever ... .There are what seems to be infinite buses though 👍 My wife’s family's house is just... normal, fast internet, modern appliances and whatever else you’d find in your country. Feels stupid writing this, but some may have thought otherwise haha. I still struggle with the hole in the ground toiles…that I’ll never get used to. Luckily there’s a sit down toilet upstairs, so I’m safe 😎. The squating skill is an inherited talent I swear. – Guess this blows the theory of “China is like the 19th world, can’t even eat or go outside." Until next year, Guangxi 🫶.

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