I often get comments asking me "Why do you live in China?" Oftentimes the implication
behind this question is "how could you live in a communist country?" The person usually
isn't looking for knowledge or insights, but looking to condemn my actions and life choices.
So, in this video, I will talk about why I moved to China and why I stayed for over a decade.
Hi, welcome to Trip Bitten, my name is Miguel and I've been living in China for 12 years.
Two years ago, after being in China for 10 years, Yvonne did a "10 years in China" series
and many people liked her videos, but a lot has happened in two years and Yvonne is from the
Netherlands. So I thought it would be interesting to do a similar series on this channel to talk
about living in China for 12 years, as an American from the US. The easiest place to start a story is
at the beginning, which for me was the decision to move to China. I actually had no intention to
move to China, but my father changed my mind and it ended up being the best decision of my life.
I graduated from Uni in 2010 and wanted to explore the world. I wasn't interested in getting a
corporate marketing job and working 60 hours a week on a thoughtless marketing campaign for a
random car company. I wanted to see the world and have an adventure. I told my father about this
plan and he was on board until I said I wanted to travel and work in Central or South America.
He said that was a bad idea, because there aren't many good paying jobs there. I'm not a trust fund
baby, and actually, I grew up lower middle class. I never starved, but I wouldn't consider my family
well off. My parents said they would help me buy my plane ticket, but that is all they could help
me with, which means I needed to make money if I wanted to travel. Luckily, my father had done a
summer teaching program in China. He traveled to china in 2008 and was blown away by the people,
development, and overwhelming optimism here. 2008 was an important year for China. He told me china
was the future and if I wanted to make a little money and travel, I should go to China. I thought
about it for a long time and after looking for jobs online China seemed like a good option. So,
I found a job and moved to China. My plan, like so many other foreigners that end up staying, was to
work for a year and then travel southeast Asia until my money ran out. It would be a great gap
year and allow me to have some cool stories about living and traveling overseas, before heading off
to corporate America. I think many people can relate to my desire for adventure and travel,
not everyone will agree with my decision to work in China, but at the time it was the easiest and
best paying option. That is why I moved to China, but why did I end up staying here for 12 years.
Well the short answer is love, not love for the country, but love for a person. I met Yvonne
after about two months of living in China. She was working at another school in Shaoxing and we
met at a birthday party. We started chatting and really hit it off, but she was only going to stay
in China for about five more months. She was also teaching and had the same plan to travel around
Asia when her contract was up. I really liked her, but because my contract was for one year,
she would be long gone by the time I finished working. So, my only hope was to convince her
to start dating me and to stay in China. Luckily, she also liked me and we decided to stay in China,
because we are both from different countries and visas can always be tricky, we decided to continue
to live in China. We loved traveling in and out of China and over time we got used to living here.
We were both employed in making good money, which is why we stayed. I got my corporate job working
for a few larger companies in China and life was pretty good. Because people know very little about
China, it might seem strange or even wrong to live here, but truth be told my life is very normal,
almost too normal. I could go to work in the US and be in an office all day or I could do
that here. The biggest difference is in China I can easily travel throughout Asia and have some
awesome holidays. I'm in japan! Hey, we're in Cambodia. Today, we're walking along the beach
this is Pantai Cenang Beach in Langkawi (Malaysia). Today is day three in Bangkok
or in Thailand, and now we're back in Bangkok after spending a day and a half in Koh Sichang.
Look at this behind us, it's amazing! Yvonne and I can make more money working here than back home
and our cost of living is cheaper. We have good health insurance from work and have fewer bills
like car repairs, car insurance, and gas, because we don't need a car in Beijing because of the
public transportation and ride sharing apps like Didi. So, when someone asks me "Why do you live in
China?" I usually say because currently my life is better here. I will admit the last two years have
been challenging and I may not stay in China for another 12 years, but for now I will continue to
live here. And since I've been here for 12 years, I thought it'd be interesting to make this series.
Over the next few months, I will make 12 videos about living in China for 12 years.
The next video will be 12 reasons I like living here and I have asked a few American friends to
help me with this video. We will give 12 different reasons we like living in china as Americans and
hopefully it will help people see a different side of things. If you want to see that video be sure
to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell, so that you get notified when that video
comes out. I'm really excited to collab with some of these other creators and talk about the reasons
why we love and like living here in China, but if you want more content before then you can go ahead
and click here. I have another video that I think you might like hope to see you over there. Bye!