Hi there,

I was born in Shanghai – the biggest city in China. It takes you 2 hours to fly between Shanghai and Beijing (Beijing is the Capital City of China).

Weather: Both Shanghai and Beijing has four seasons. But during the fall and winter Beijing has a very dry situation, please make sure to put on lotions all over yourself throughout the day and night.

Language: Both Shanghai and Beijing’s primary language is Mandarin. If you have a chance to live in Shanghai then you probably have more choices. Such as, you can hear few people talking in Cantonese, too. (Many Hong Kong business men are living in Shanghai, they speak Cantonese; Taiwanese speaks Mandarin.)It really depends on which direction you are looking at. Ex: One of my Japanese friends learnt to speak Shanghai dialect while he was studying there. The other one is living in GuangZhou now so he speaks a little bit Cantonese.

Suggestion: Chinese is not an easy language to learn. We have 5000 years of history and believe me there are more than 4000 characters. You should just focus on one language, that should be Mandarin. Many young generations in Shanghai speak simple English, too. More people knows English in Shanghai than Beijing.

Tips: If you need a real person to help you through, find a local to exchange your language. Girls in pubs are really good at English in Shanghai. Don’t get yourself involve too much coz one day you gonna fall in love with them. If you are not ready for a relationship, please find someone else. One more thing, I think you should learn Chinese right from the beginning. I never been to those websites but there’s a feeling that they only provide you an instant teaching so that you may use it under certain circumstances. Yes, it is a fast way. But if you are willing to learn more about China then you should take it as a long term commitment.

If you need any help about anything in China, please let me know. I hope I can give you a better idea to push you to a right direction.