Ask me about China - a Chinese-born Foreigner's Impression

[hanster]

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How popular is soccer there? Aren't they really bad, how would I go about playing professional soccer in China?


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It's very popular among the rural areas. In the city not so much because of the limited space. Basketball is more popular nowadays but I bet the # of players overall the soccer players will dominate. There is a Chinese league that is rather competitive: http://www.sinosoc.com/ I don't know how you would go about to be a pro :/

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I want to live in China at some point in the future (so far I went there for 2 weeks on a kung fu trip with my school from MA, and also studied intensive Chinese at college for 1 year). What advice do you have on this? I guess my plan right now is to go to Beijing, find a langauge school and hang out there for a few weeks, then do the same in Shanghai, and then take it from there.

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What will be your purpose of living in China? If you want to actually learn Chinese I'd suggest you stay away from Shanghai and probably Beijing as well since they are big cities with a huge number of foreigners. Yes it makes things convenient but you probably won't see the best results. From what I've read from imitation Guanzhou seems like a great place for you. Language schools are fairly useless; I'd say just go and find a local girlfriend at every city you're staying at, especially when you already have a foundation.

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Why is it that Chinese people are so cool? I hate making sweeping statemnets about a people or place that are illogical, but I really have to say I like Chinese people the most. They seem straight forward and down to earth to me. I think it might have something to do with the fact that a lot of Chinese have lived in poverty and went through hard times with Mao and stuff. It's my not well thought out theory that people that have suffered come out as people I like. As opposed to spoiled brats.

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Because we eat a lot of MSG? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I wouldn't exactly say they're straightforward since I have encountered a lot of foreigners that depict us as cunning and deceptive; you probably just got lucky and met some nice ones.