An e-mail to a friend this morning got me thinking about what it’s like to live in China.

By “live”, I don’t mean in the common temporary sense, as a short-term contract teacher or business person might, but rather as someone who has no firm plans on the if and when of their eventual departure.

Moreover, it got me thinking not just about living in China, but the quality of that living.

The big sales pitch that is always thrown around to lure folks here on a lower-than-home salary is that the “standard of living in China is much lower”.…