Welcome to The Worker’s Paradise.

Just about everyone I know asks me, at some point or another, "So, what's China really like? I mean, I see the news, but what's it really like to live there?" Everyone seems to be caught up in this idea that there is a "real China" that they're not getting on the news. NEWS FLASH: there are hundreds of millions of different "Chinas" the most common (in terms of shear numbers) is the Chinese dirt farmer. Second most common is the factory laborer. Most foreigners really don't want either of these versions of China unless they are in an air conditioned car with a telephoto lens."My China" is much different than these two versions, being a foreigner here, it's probably completely different than most Chinese people. But there are some things that affect everyone--foreign or local.1. Interest rates dropping in the US means that foreign investment is going to keep rolling into China and keep the hot economy going strong! Since the US is trying to jump start their economy Dollars are practically free (for people with already good credit) and that means that companies are going to be spending more in China—where everything is made.2. Interest rates are rising in China and this means the people who own homes/factories or are producing goods are paying more for the same things. The continually rising Yuan (almost 10% in the last 15 months) is drawing in even more cash in an economy that already has too much. And, it’s going to go up again—the rumor is a rise to 6.5 (from the current 7.14) to the Dollar before the Olympics.3. Rising inflation in China means that the price of everything, from my favorite Y10 noodles (now Y12) to labor, is jumping up fast—7-9% a month for the last 4 months. And, because of #’s 1 and 2 above inflation will continue.4. Just because I own my own apartment in China (only for the next 75 years) doesn’t mean that I get to choose what happens outside of it. The local government just announced—to the dismay of hundreds of landlords in our complex—that it is going to put a subway line in the street in front of our complex, a very large and ugly exhaust fan where our community fish pond now sits and build a new 30 story government office building between my house and the golf course—right in the very spot, they said when we bought the house for the view, they were going to keep as a park.5. Attempted hijackings mean that planes have unscheduled stopovers but eventually continue on to their scheduled destinations with not much more than a delay and a brief comment about nasty Muslim separatists.6. Instead of getting better access to news as the Olympics draw nearer more and more online outlets are being blocked or censored. Losing Fox News and BCC feeds is one thing, but blocking some ESPN and Ask a Ninja pod casts?! Come on. Enough is enough. Think I'm being petty? Not really. China is now, according to Image Thief, the worlds #1 internet user with over 220 million people using regularly. And, some of them are paying up to 10x US rates for bandwidth services that, as I can attest, really, well, um...suck. Not to mention a severe lack of quality content!7. We’re in a mad scramble to not deliver late on multitudinous projects this year since more than 2 million workers went home for Chinese New Year and never came back. Some of that is due to more factories offering jobs in the provinces. Some of it’s due to the winter storms that forced workers into taking a late holiday. And some of it’s just the new economics of China—the east coast cities are just getting too expensive for low-end laborers to live in.  Don't believe me?  Here's a snapshot of "my" China: in the three blocks surrounding my apartment there are 4 completed and 2 under-construction Starbucks, 3 KFC's, 2 Pappa John's, 3 McDonald's and a Subway Sandwich shop.  And I don't even live in the "foreigner areas" of town!Yep, workers of the world unite, and pass the cream and sugar.