Chinese returnees forcing expat workers from Shanghai and Beijing

Chinese high-skilled workers returning from jobs in the West are forcing expats to leave town and find employment in China’s secondary cities.

With large numbers of Chinese emigrants returning to the mother country after years of work experience in Western countries, expats planning on relocating to China are having to set their sights lower and head for the country’s second-tier cities. Beijing and Shanghai are fast becoming regarded as too competitive for the majority of expats to succeed.

The upside is that many smaller Chinese cities are hitting the headlines as important hubs for new business opportunities. Although many Westerners may not even be aware of their names, much less their locations in the vast country, destinations such as Chengdu, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Chongqing have over a million residents and are considered as up-and-coming in a major way.

Many smaller cities have focused on the development of pharmaceuticals, electronics, IT and other fast-growing sectors and are now offering better expat deals than Beijing and Shanghai. Shenzhen, located in Guangdong province, is now an electronics powerhouse, and China’s government has focused on vastly improving intercity infrastructure and local transport.

As a result, overseas companies are rushing to set up manufacturing units, with rapid expansion causing shortages of internationally experienced personnel. Hangzhu, Chengdu and Dalian now have well-established expat communities complete with international schools and excellent private medical facilities.

The only downside is the language, with Mandarin Chinese one of the world’s trickiest tongues to master, especially the reading and writing. Even so, fortune is favouring the bold, and the new opportunities in China are certainly favouring the adventurous.