Living · Expat City Guides
Where to live in China
Detailed practical guides to the nine cities where most foreign residents in China concentrate. Cost of living, neighbourhoods, schools, healthcare, and community — honestly assessed.
These guides cover the cities where expatriates in China most commonly live: from Shanghai and Beijing's established international infrastructure to Chengdu's lower costs and Qingdao's coastal character. Cost figures use [VERIFY: source needed — May 2026] tags where specific data was unavailable at verification. Treat all ranges as indicative; market conditions change.
Shanghai
上海
Shanghai is the default landing pad for newly arrived expatriates in China. The city's scale — roughly 25 million people across a metropolitan area the size of…
Beijing
北京
Beijing is China's capital and second-largest expatriate posting. It has a different character from Shanghai: more government-adjacent, more culturally dense, m…
Shenzhen
深圳
Shenzhen is China's technology capital — a city that simply did not exist 45 years ago and now rivals Silicon Valley as a hub for hardware development, electron…
Guangzhou
广州
Guangzhou is South China's commercial capital and the gateway city for the Pearl River Delta manufacturing ecosystem. It has hosted one of China's oldest and la…
Chengdu
成都
Chengdu is Southwest China's dominant city and a posting that regularly surprises expatriates who arrive expecting provincial limitations. The city has a large,…
Suzhou
苏州
Suzhou sits 30 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed rail and hosts one of China's largest concentrations of foreign-invested manufacturing, in particular the Suz…
Hangzhou
杭州
Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang Province and home to Alibaba, one of China's largest technology companies. The city's tech-sector prominence has grown sharp…
Qingdao
青岛
Qingdao is a coastal city in Shandong Province with a distinctive character shaped by its history as a German colonial concession. The old town — Tsingtau as it…
Hong Kong
香港
Hong Kong operates under a different legal, immigration, and administrative framework from mainland China under the "One Country, Two Systems" arrangement. For…