Go West, Young Man

In an opinion column in last month’s New York Times entitled “Go East, Young Man”, Jonathan Levine, a recent Ivy League graduate and current lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, advised the youth of America to join him in China. Citing an abundance of job opportunities, fellowship amongst expats and comfortable living conditions, Levine made an oft-heard argument for why ambitious Westerners should move to China. However, what Levine didn’t say, and what many expats in already China know, is that if you want to strike it big, you’ve got to go farther than Beijing or Shanghai. Today businesses, spirited entrepreneurs and explorers alike are looking to establish themselves in the so-called 'second-tier' cities of China's interior. The motto ought to be: Go east, young man, but once you've arrived, head due west.

One of the fastest growing cities in the world, Chengdu is a leading destination for expats looking to capitalise on the Middle Kingdom’s opportunities. On paper, the city is nothing short of a boom town. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in China: “In the first half of 2010, foreign trade [in Chengdu] increased by 52.1 per cent, and the city’s GDP grew by 17.5 per cent.” Chengdu's first subway line opened in 2010, the arrival of a second line is scheduled for this year and four more lines are under construction. More than just a roaring industrial and manufacturing hub, Chengdu's IT and retail industries are also growing rapidly. As one of the great bastions of Chinese culture, Chengdu is now poised to be seen on an international stage. For those looking to jump in, the time has never been better.

Charlie Moseley, an IT professional presently living and working in Chengdu, has seen Chengdu's tremendous change firsthand, arriving in the city in 2005. “Chengdu was pretty undeveloped at that time and didn't resemble Shanghai or Beijing much at all. Almost no English was spoken in Chengdu, but it was still a large city of many millions,” he says. In addition to the vast changes taking place in the city, Moseley also notes that the kind of expats arriving in Chengdu has changed over time as well. “They tend to be more professional and better educated. These days you see more architects, business majors and property developers,” he says.

Adam Mayer is one of these new professionals that Moseley describes. Now a Project Architect for Urban Hybrid Architecture, Mayer originally did not set his sights on Chengdu when he moved to China two years ago, but was moved by his firm in Beijing to its Chengdu office.

“I had the option of returning to Beijing if I did not find Chengdu suitable, but at the time of being hired I saw that there was a development shift happening from the coastal regions inland,” Mayer says. “So I did not hesitate at the opportunity to establish a base in the up-and-coming city.” Since moving to Chengdu, he has worked on many large-scale development projects including a new headquarters for the Chengdu Railway Bureau. With so much opportunity, Mayer is happy that he made the shift inland. “I'm definitely not the first architect from the West to realize that there is a building boom taking place in China. By the time I arrived in Beijing in mid-2009, I felt like I was pretty late to the party. Yet the sense of having missed the boat changed as soon as I touched down in Chengdu.”

While the demand for architecture firms in the city is growing, the IT industry in Chengdu has already reached an astonishing level of maturity. A Quality Assurance Supervisor for video game developer 2k Games, Steve Manners made the move from Shanghai to Chengdu six months ago, finding that his company was behind the curve.

“We’re playing catch-up to other software companies. A lot of them have already left Shanghai for the interior of China or other countries like Vietnam. Western companies have realized what many Chinese IT companies already knew: you don’t have to go to Beijing or Shanghai to get the best staff,” Manners says.

Of course, this move to the interior is not without its challenges. Manners says that the oral English skills of many of his Chengdu employees lag behind their Shanghai counterparts. The language barrier and cultural differences also carry over into daily life.

“Fewer people speak English here. There just aren’t as many Western luxuries around, either. In Shanghai you also get used to a more Western attitude,” says Manners. “If you want something done, it gets done and if it doesn’t get done, you’ll know why. In Chengdu, there’s a more laidback way of life.”