I went to a typical lower-income rural town in Guangxi, China...
Here’s what I found.
We go back to my girlfriend's hometown every year. We stay in a rural community on the outskirts of a town that I consider pretty big and busy, but is probably small in China terms 😅.
Living there honestly didn't feel particularly different in terms of day to day comfort — fast internet, modern appliances, decent homes, cars and scooters everywhere, normal roads and all the everyday conveniences you'd expect.
Many people here live at least partly off the land, growing crops both to eat and sell. Our family owns their home outright — no mortgage or any type of loan. Chinese people avoid bank loans wherever possible, almost allergic to the idea haha. Owning your house outright is very typical in these communities.
This allows most of their income to go towards things like sending their kids to university, helping them buy apartments in bigger cities and funding retirement etc.
And I actually love staying here though.
Life is way more quieter and super chill. Beautiful scenery, friendly people who seem happier in general. Everyone seems to get by by helping and doing favours for each other. A family friend gave us a car to borrow for the week 🙏.
We'd ride our scooters into town for food, late-night BBQ sticks or bubble tea, or head to the nearest larger town for bars, nightlife and karaoke.
The town itself has everything you'd expect — multiple supermarkets, restaurants, schools and general stores. Although somehow much busier than plenty of Western towns 😂...Packed markets, really bustling and busy during the day
The roads are perfectly decent too, nothing worse than you'd find a few hours outside a major Australian city.
The closest big city with an airport is around two hours away and easy to reach with what seems like infinite buses haha.
it's scruffier and less polished than China's major cities, to be expected obviously, same as anywhere. There's no railway station, DiDi or much food delivery — although some restaurants will deliver to your house for free, which was cool.
Buses are frequent and the main form of public transport, connecting people to schools, larger towns and nearby cities.
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China haters will tell you how desperately impoverished and unliveable rural China is.
But nah...
It's just.. normal. 🤷♂️