Society

Big city lights lose appeal as hectic lifestyle takes its toll

By Yi Ling (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-01 07:02

Disconnected

A cyclist passes through narrow alleys in Yangji village, one of the old residential areas in downtown Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. It is one of the major cities where white collars from China's provinces are seeking opportunity. At the same time, the high living costs in big cities are leading many of those young talents to second- and third-tier cities. [Lu Hanxin / Xinhua]

With an invitation from a Beijing game company, Cheng Ding rushed to the city in 2003, convinced that the country's capital would become its gaming center. His family also believed that Beijing boasted the best resources in every sector, and it's a place where only the best - including their son - could survive.

The company Cheng worked for was based in the residential compound of a northern Beijing suburb and had about 15 employees. Only a quarter of them were locals.

Cheng advanced quickly, from programmer to chief technology officer to, eventually, boss of his own company. He realized his "millionaire dream" when he sold the company to a Spanish investor in 2007.

But the happiness brought by career success subsided, while his feelings of not belonging anywhere mounted and living costs soared. Cheng moved six times, changed jobs four times and started three companies.

Family support seemed out of reach. Like many, Cheng had wedged some distance between himself and his parents. "Reunions were always sweet," he said, "but I never told my family about my sufferings. It would fall short of their expectations and make them worry about me."

Leaving Beijing became an instinctive response to the homesickness that struck Cheng, especially after his wife, who had been with him in Beijing for nearly four years, moved back to Sichuan in 2009 to take care of her aging father.

In the fall of 2010, when the market turned down the new game developed by his third company, Cheng realized the time to say goodbye had come.

"I'm no longer 24. I've opened the magic box and have enough experiences. There's no more curiosity left about the city and all my passion has been consumed in the past seven years," he said. "It's time for me to live for real now."

Is smaller better?

Will a "real" life be a better life? Ding Xingzhou has found his hometown is not necessarily the Promised Land.

The 31-year-old magazine editor spent more than six years after he graduated working in Guangzhou, Beijing and Lanzhou before he moved last year to Xi'an, the capital of his native Shaanxi province. He went home, he said, like an "injured soldier fleeing from the battlefield".

Xi'an, capital of 13 dynasties in ancient China, is the largest and most developed city in the less-populated northwestern province. Despite the economic boom, it has barely changed in Ding's eyes.

Going back home relieved some of the pressure on living costs, but not on his designs for a job. "People here may be too risk-averse. The clash of mindsets is usually vicious," he said. "My colleagues show wordless contempt for what they called 'advanced experiences,' which I would like to introduce to the magazine."

Then there's what Ding described as a reliance on guanxi (contacts) over capabilities in career development. "We always say there is fierce competition in big cities, but at least you are given an opportunity to compete. Here, no way," Ding said. "What's more, the city is growing crowded, indifferent and snobbish. They are being transformed into another Beijing."

Ding plans to leave again, but he hasn't figured out where his next stop will be.