Post: #351

I've been following Serpentza for years and owe him a debt for all of the information he has passed on but does anyone else get the impression his life is going down hill? He rushed straight into another marriage after his divorce, lost his job while he was off filming a documentary and now he is working full time vlogging on a platform that's illegal in China.

Post: #352

Yep. He said his contract was not being renewed.

Post: #353

(08-14-2016 04:30 AM)Laserspewpew Wrote:  I've been following Serpentza for years and owe him a debt for all of the information he has passed on but does anyone else get the impression his life is going down hill? He rushed straight into another marriage after his divorce, lost his job while he was off filming a documentary and now he is working full time vlogging on a platform that's illegal in China.

I've been following his channel for years. I don't know the man, and I'm not a fanboy, but what makes you believe that his life is going downhill?

My impression is that he's taking a big risk.

Worst case scenario, his series fails and he goes back to being an English teacher.

Post: #354

Question for you guys based in China: how is internet over there? How do you go about ensuring you have a good reliable internet connection for your apartment/hotel or office if you have one?

Post: #355

(08-14-2016 09:53 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  Question for you guys based in China: how is internet over there? How do you go about ensuring you have a good reliable internet connection for your apartment/hotel or office if you have one?

I sign up for the fastest connection available in your area and hope for the best.

For best results, you get yourself a VPN. Not only will it allow you to access blocked site addresses, but it will also speed up connections with distant servers.

Internet in China ranges from acceptable to downright cruddy.

Post: #356

(08-14-2016 06:21 PM)Suits Wrote:  Internet in China ranges from acceptable to downright cruddy.

How dare you insinuate .1 mb/s upload speeds are not sufficient! China is modern!

Post: #357

(08-14-2016 07:06 PM)Space Cowboy Wrote:  

(08-14-2016 06:21 PM)Suits Wrote:  Internet in China ranges from acceptable to downright cruddy.

How dare you insinuate .1 mb/s upload speeds are not sufficient! China is modern!

To be fair, $200USD will buy you a year of Internet access.

Post: #358

Rather than do a bunch of multi-quotes, suffice to say I agree with pretty much everything you all said in response to Mr Scumbag's post.

Shenzhen, IMO, is about as all around livable and acceptable of a place as you will find in China. Positives and negatives abound, but they balance each other out. Rent is really location dependent. If you want to live next to a subway line, or in a hot spot, sure you're gonna pay through the nose for a shitty apartment. Likewise, if you move away from the lines a bit into more suburban-type areas, rent is cheaper, and you get much more bang for your buck. Hell, even moving just a couple blocks away from a subway line will drop your rent up to 1000RMB in some places.

I just moved into a top floor, two bedroom apartment with an amazing, almost full 180 view of east Shenzhen, Shenzhen Bay, PingAn Tower, and even Hong Kong on a clear day. I still live in the same neighborhood I moved into when I first came here 5 years ago. Great location, clean air, mountain breeze, trees all around. I'm a 10 minute walk from the subway, and another 10 minute subway ride to a major interchange station. My rent is just over 4000RMB. Sure, my rent has increased yearly since I've been here, but that's just a simple fact of life in China. If you can find another city here where that is not the case, I'll give you dollar you can put towards your rent.

As for business, I used to teach, but got sick of it for a host of reasons, but the biggest reason was because I just didn't enjoy it anymore. Since moving, I've converted my second bedroom into a gym and am putting together a plan to start offering, by the end of the year, personal training and diet planning to adults and busy professionals. It took me a while to get my gears tweaked and running smoothly, and there's still a bit of work to be done with partners and contacts, but better late than never. There are tons of opportunities in this city, and as long as you don't come here with teaching forever in mind, you can make something happen.

Everyone else said it best, so there's no need to repeat it all. Shenzhen is basically what you make of it. I can't think of a better, more centrally located, more affordable, modern Asian city to live in.

Post: #359

(08-15-2016 12:58 AM)Suits Wrote:  

(08-14-2016 07:06 PM)Space Cowboy Wrote:  

(08-14-2016 06:21 PM)Suits Wrote:  Internet in China ranges from acceptable to downright cruddy.

How dare you insinuate .1 mb/s upload speeds are not sufficient! China is modern!

To be fair, $200USD will buy you a year of Internet access.

And as long as you buy the proper router and switch it to 5ghz mode so you're not fighting everyone else in the building on 2.4ghz for channels and frequency air space, your internet will fly.

Post: #360

(08-14-2016 04:30 AM)Laserspewpew Wrote:  I've been following Serpentza for years and owe him a debt for all of the information he has passed on but does anyone else get the impression his life is going down hill? He rushed straight into another marriage after his divorce, lost his job while he was off filming a documentary and now he is working full time vlogging on a platform that's illegal in China.

He dual-posts all of his content on both YouTube and YouKu.

Post: #361

I think that there was a bit too much hyping-up of Shenzhen as a sort of China paradise. I'm sure that some readers visiting SZ expecting it to be as livable as Hong Kong or Taiwan ended up disappointed when they discovered it was simply a newer Chinese city with a bit less pollution.

It's still China. I still get stared at walking around Futian, even more so if I am with some colleagues or friends. The quality of the offerings are the same as any major Chinese city. Some like that, some don't.

3000 RMB for rent is a good deal, anywhere in the world. I am paying 6 times that for rent in the U.S.

Post: #362

^ I didn't mean to overhype the city or anything. I legitimately like living here. You have to understand, though, that I don't really give a shit about having nightlife comparable to HK or NYC. I was never a nightlife guy to begin with, so that was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make. I'm a pretty simple guy. My idea of a good night is hitting the gym, cooking dinner and then hitting up a plate to hang out and watch a movie or something.

I have found a system that works well for me, but I know nightlife is very important to many men on the forum, so it is what it is.

My verdict on SZ nightlife is that you have to be creative and hit up spots that aren't totally swarming with Laowai. I find that the girl quality in places like coco and seaworld is pretty low. I mostly see guys bringing hot girls to coco and seaworld, but I rarely see dudes pulling hot chicks from the bars and clubs. Of course, take that with a grain of salt since I don't like night gaming to begin with.

China is probably one of the few places on this earth where hot girls stay home on the weekend instead of partying it up like they do in many other places.


I do disagree with you on one thing: I find SZ VERY livable compared to HK. HK seems like an awesome place to visit, but living in HK sounds like it would be a cluster fuck unless you're really connected and can throw a lot of cash into a ballin, centrally-located apartment.

That said, I have heard good things about living in HK from Atlant and I readily admit that I haven't spent more than a week in HK.

Elcid, I didn't realize you were living in SZ. How long you been here?

Post: #363

3000 rmb is less than 500 usd that's cheaper than Bangkok and almost similar to Chiangmai. Very cheap rent.

Post: #364

(08-15-2016 02:30 AM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  I think that there was a bit too much hyping-up of Shenzhen as a sort of China paradise. I'm sure that some readers visiting SZ expecting it to be as livable as Hong Kong or Taiwan ended up disappointed when they discovered it was simply a newer Chinese city with a bit less pollution.

It's still China. I still get stared at walking around Futian, even more so if I am with some colleagues or friends. The quality of the offerings are the same as any major Chinese city. Some like that, some don't.

3000 RMB for rent is a good deal, anywhere in the world. I am paying 6 times that for rent in the U.S.

Try paying 20kHKD per month for a 30sqm flat in HK with a barely usable bathroom and little to no actual living space, then tell me that living in SZ isn't as comfortable as HK.

You're going to get stared at, regardless. It's China. At least in SZ, the only stares you really have to worry about are from the nongy migrant workers and the occasional old fart. Nongs are nongs, and old farts stare, that's just a simple fact of life anywhere you live.

Anything under 10kRMB for rent, especially considering the space available for the price range, is better than just about anywhere else I've been, or even heard of in the rest of the world. Just don't go trying to buy property here. That's when you get raped, no lube, no reach around.

All that said, a tier 1 Chinese city is a tier 1 Chinese city. You've been to one, you've been to them all. At least Shenzhen is unique enough in its atmosphere, air quality, flora/fauna, and accessibilty to the outside world that it easily distracts from the normal grey lifelessness of the typical tier 1.

Like I said, the place has it's negatives, for sure. Livability definitely isn't one of them.

Post: #365

Unless you're filthy rich or getting your place paid by your employer, SZ really is more livable than Hong Kong at this point. The air in SZ often seems slightly better too, perhaps thanks to wide and open roads, less congestion and less old vehicles on the roads. There is also a surprising amount of green space.

What makes SZ unique compared to other Chinese cities is that there is no entrenched class of locals - everyone's from a different place, all in the same boat trying to make it. That also means a lot of girls live on their own away from their family, and are more independent and adventurous as a result. And girls aside I like the entrepreneurial, frontier vibe, and I suspect it won't last more than another 10 years before things start becoming more settled and mundane.

Post: #366

Anyone been to the computer parts market in SZ yet? There is a nice one in Changsha that they are known for, but my wife swears the one in SZ is nicer and bigger. If you guys have been there and think it's worth the train ride, I'll go to it instead.

Post: #367

I don't think i could live in HK for as long as I've already lived in SZ. Cantonese, well, I find them impolite, and all the folks walking around on their phones, slowly prodding down the sidewalks would ultimately drive me mad. Kowloon and HK Island feel far more crowded to me than SZ, and they're definitely pricier. While they may be less sophisticated, I find mainland Chinese, in general, preferable to their HK brethren. (I'm sure I'll hear it for that statement from some of the HK boosters). I say all of this having three years in China and 100 visits to HK of varying lengths.

Kai, I can't speak to the one in Hunan, but I believe the electronics market, HuaXiangBei, is the biggest in China. Its not just computer parts, its all electronics, and its absolutely massive- both sides of several long blocks on the border of the Futian and Luohu districts. Its worth the ride down just to (meet me) see Shenzhen, in any event, so you might as well come down and check out HuaXiangBei as well.

Post: #368

Depends on what u want career/ business wise.
If you are going after top positions in corporates of internationally known companies they are located in Hong Kong. If you are looking to develop your career in a more Chinese market and be familiar with that then Shenzhen.
Living cost is higher in Hong Kong but so does salaries, and competition for good corporate jobs are much tougher. ( everyone speaks English and you got a lot of Asian Americans, Koreans, Australian Chinese etc all competing for the Higher end jobs, while locals will be taking the lower end jobs as well, most of these people are bilingual and has a masters, along with some experience US for example. I would say 50,000 hkd a month would be a good salary for Hong Kong.

Post: #369

(08-15-2016 08:46 AM)Global Entry Wrote:  I don't think i could live in HK for as long as I've already lived in SZ. Cantonese, well, I find them impolite, and all the folks walking around on their phones, slowly prodding down the sidewalks would ultimately drive me mad. Kowloon and HK Island feel far more crowded to me than SZ, and they're definitely pricier. While they may be less sophisticated, I find mainland Chinese, in general, preferable to their HK brethren. (I'm sure I'll hear it for that statement from some of the HK boosters). I say all of this having three years in China and 100 visits to HK of varying lengths.

Kai, I can't speak to the one in Hunan, but I believe the electronics market, HuaXiangBei, is the biggest in China. Its not just computer parts, its all electronics, and its absolutely massive- both sides of several long blocks on the border of the Futian and Luohu districts. Its worth the ride down just to (meet me) see Shenzhen, in any event, so you might as well come down and check out HuaXiangBei as well.

Well! If that is the case, I will have to come down there and see it after all. I currently do not need parts *knocks on wood*, but it sounds like a place I can geek out at. Oh yeah and hang out with you and the fellas of course.

Aside from the electronics, what else can you recommend to do in SZ? I plan to go to the Wong Fei Hong museum (it's on my bucket list) in Fujian, but other than that and shopping, I am still figuring out what things to see. I am thinking about 2-3 days there so far.

Post: #370

(08-14-2016 04:30 AM)Laserspewpew Wrote:  I've been following Serpentza for years and owe him a debt for all of the information he has passed on but does anyone else get the impression his life is going down hill? He rushed straight into another marriage after his divorce, lost his job while he was off filming a documentary and now he is working full time vlogging on a platform that's illegal in China.

I also feel like he's getting more negative, and pessimistic about living in China.

As for his marriage, I think it was too quick. But he seems like the kind of guy who prefers serious relationship over a series of ONS. And his new wife seems nice (beautiful, super feminine, and she's a doctor).

However, I'm sure he's doing fine financially. He makes around 1200 USD per month from Patreon, and around 2000 USD per month from Youtube. He also advertise some products on his channels, has a bike shop, and probably has other businesses we don't know about. In fact, I could feel he was ashamed of his teaching job.... He always said he "trained doctor" instead of saying he was an English teacher.

He will now have more time for vlogging, and he's getting better and better at it. So it's a good thing for us, his viewers.

Post: #371

I honestly never knew he was an English teacher and I thought he actually did train doctors.

Post: #372

Serpentza mentioned that he was an IT consultant at a hospital. He used the 'training doctors' bit because it probably sounded better. He even mentioned that he got his start teaching English and worked his way up; however, his success was often seasonal and had to supplement his income doing other things.

Don't really like him; he's a bit full of himself, but has developed a good resource for those looking at China as a destination.

Post: #373

I admire Serpentza for hanging in there through the good times and the bad and doing his best to establish himself in China. It's easy for Americans or Europeans to go to China, get frustrated, and come back home-- but his home is South Africa so there's a bit more riding on his success.

Post: #374

I'm pretty sure serpentza had a good year or two in between before he re-married. I don't think he "jumped in" to it. Marriage isn't for most of us, but he's in China for the long run so more power to him.

How much money do you guys speculate he's making off of youtube these days? Personally I'm more of a fan of his old videos. They just seem more gritty and real, and he seems more down to earth.

I lol'd heartily at his latest video about his friend getting his place trashed by a chinese girl he cheated on and then getting a chunk of flesh bitten out of his arm. I bet that girl was from Hunan.

Post: #375

Definitely take a trip down this way and hit up Huaqiangbei. That place is wall to wall, floor to floor blocks of nothing but everything electronic. Between there and Taobao, if you can't find it, then it ain't in China.