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Beijing, China

Lived here for about 3 years, before than in a different city in china

The Five Criteria

Cost of Living 8
Your money will go pretty far here. The cheapest end on a one bedroom livable place with internet and everything is about 300 USD a month. A very good two bedroom wont be more than 800 USD a month. Buying real clothes/electronics/whatever here is expensive but buying fake stuff is cheap. Goods are cheap.

Recreation 9
Beijing is a very fun city. Very close to the culture of China. Its really really fun getting drunk on the great wall, or taking that cab ride home at night and passing by tianamen square. Nightlife is huge on the weekends and decent other times. The expat nightlife is concentrated in 2/3 areas while the non-expat is more spread out. Beautiful scenery, not very much hiking

How Scary? 7
Beijing is one of the safest cities on the planet, for a city so large its amazing how little violent crime there is. I rate it a 7 because nobody here speaks English outside of large tourist attractions and foreigner areas (which are about 1% of beijing). Police are fine and wont bother you, Chinese guys wont bother you unless you bother them. When you buy stuff people where you need to negotiate the price people will most certianly rip you off, but taxi cabs will never do so.

Poker: 2
B&M scene here is virtually non-existent for foreigners. there are underground scenes but they are very hard to get into if you are white and very dangerous. All forms of gambling here are illegal.

How Easy to Get There and Stay There? 3
Really easy to get a multi entry visa, but you have to leave the country every 60-90 days. You can make visa runs to inner mongolia which at the cheapest will cost you about 100 USD. It is not easy to become a permanent resident, you need some lawyers to work some magic. I guess it is doable on your own, but i know a total of zero people who have. I got a lawyer moonlighting for me and he did it for 6000 RNB (little less thank 1k USD)