HI there...What to expect in yiwu? There is plan for the company to relocate my husband and family ( includes me and child) to yiwu. I could not find any photos, image or pictures about the place. Except, fancy description of "Commodity shopping paradise". I wonder, those who had been there or visited there many time. PLease help me with the followings.
(1) Proper health care centres? Private hospitals and specialists? Easily available?
Local practitioner or foreign?
(2) Accessibility to groceries, eg, hyper or supermarket? Wal-mart? K-mart? Tesco?
(3) Where do expat stay? Landed property with local? Condominium?
THis is a major decision for us. Our child is 2 years old. I have a good career. A wrong move will tie us there for 3 years. Contract.
Desperately need answers....Thanks.
LYra
Quoting from [lyra]:HI there...What to expect in yiwu? There is plan for the company to relocate my husband and family ( includes me and child) to yiwu. I could not find any photos, image or pictures about the place. Except, fancy description of "Commodity shopping paradise". I wonder, those who had been there or visited there many time. PLease help me with the followings.
(1) Proper health care centres? Private hospitals and specialists? Easily available?
Local practitioner or foreign?
(2) Accessibility to groceries, eg, hyper or supermarket? Wal-mart? K-mart? Tesco?
(3) Where do expat stay? Landed property with local? Condominium?
THis is a major decision for us. Our child is 2 years old. I have a good career. A wrong move will tie us there for 3 years. Contract.
Desperately need answers....Thanks.
LYra
Hi, Lyra,
Doing business in Yiwu is an good idea, however, residing there with your faimily especially your kids there might not as good an idea as doing business there, it's a small inland city of district level. Maybe you can reside in some bigger cities nearby, like Ningbo and Hangzhou, where the community of expats are fairly mature, to my knowing, and you can find some nice kindergartens for you kids.
For Ningbo city, I strongly recommend you to visit www.ningboguide.com, it's a website sponsored by some expats in Ningbo. And on links of this website you can find guiding websites of Hangzhou for expats as well. Ningbo and Hangzhou are 2 hours' drive distance to Yiwu, and 2 hours' drive distance to Shanghai as well.
Welcome to Zhejiang, and hope you can find your happy life like other expats here.
Regards,
Sun Jin (Marlow)
Quoting from [lyra]:My answers to your questions:HI there...What to expect in yiwu? There is plan for the company to relocate my husband and family ( includes me and child) to yiwu. I could not find any photos, image or pictures about the place. Except, fancy description of "Commodity shopping paradise". I wonder, those who had been there or visited there many time. PLease help me with the followings.
(1) Proper health care centres? Private hospitals and specialists? Easily available?
Local practitioner or foreign?
(2) Accessibility to groceries, eg, hyper or supermarket? Wal-mart? K-mart? Tesco?
(3) Where do expat stay? Landed property with local? Condominium?
THis is a major decision for us. Our child is 2 years old. I have a good career. A wrong move will tie us there for 3 years. Contract.
Desperately need answers....Thanks.
LYra
(1) Proper health care centres? Private hospitals and specialists? Easily available?
Local practitioner or foreign?
It's easy to find any public or private hospital in Yiwu, your children can also receive proper education in Yiwu. Yiwu is a small and lovely city for small businessmen worldwide. Currently there are more than 20000 foreigners living there. But Yiwu is not a big city, you'd better buy a house in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo etc to enjoy more benefits.
(2) Accessibility to groceries, eg, hyper or supermarket? Wal-mart? K-mart? Tesco?
Yes, there are many supermarkets in Yiwu, it's convenient to buy any daily commodities at any way in Yiwu.
(3) Where do expat stay? Landed property with local? Condominium?
It's up to you, you can meet some foreigners in Yiwu when you there. Join them or join local communities, Chinese people are very friendly.
THis is a major decision for us. Our child is 2 years old. I have a good career. A wrong move will tie us there for 3 years. Contract.
Desperately need answers....Thanks.
LYra
Dear Lyra,I see your posting is from more than a month ago, so perhaps you have already made your decision. I would still like to address your questions, in case you are still wondering or if another reader is considering a move to Yiwu.
I am a Canadian living in Yiwu, not of Asian heritage, but I studied Chinese in university and consider myself quite fluent. We have a two year old daughter as well. I lived in Beijing from 2000-2004 so I am not a stranger to the Chinese lifestyle.
We moved here in March 2008 to start up an export business and we deal mainly with clients from Europe and North America.
The markets are amazing. There are many of them and they are colossal. The design and upkeep is quite good: plentiful toilets and vending machines for water. My biggest complaint is despite the no smoking signs people smoke freely and unabashedly inside. My husband's office is across the street from the biggest market (Futian) and he divides his time between his office and the market. I take care of our daughter and work from home.
As for kids' facilities, that is my biggest complaint. There are no public playgrounds or community centres, so if you are used to such facilities you will be disappointed. There is one McDonalds in the city, as well as several KFCs, all of which have a plastic climbing gym for toddlers - perfect for kids our age.
If your budget permits there is an excellent International School called Eton, which takes kids as early as 2.5yrs. A Gymboree just opened up too - that place is more sanitary than most Chinese hospitals! They have play programs but at a hefty price.
The best supermarket in town is TESCO - even being somewhat of a gourmande I can find most things I crave, such as good quality olive oil, Italian pasta, American made cheese, New Zealand butter, and the best meat I have seen locally.
We have not had to use any medical facilities here but I have heard there are some English-speaking services. I would not feel as comfortable living in such a small city if my Chinese wasn't so strong. I am confident that most medical needs could be addressed here, and there is always the evacuation option to Shanghai or HK.
Shanghai is a two-hour train ride away. Hangzhou is 1 hour away in the same direction.
In essence, Yiwu is an ideal place to live for doing business but a sub-optimal place to raise expat kids, in my opinion. There are many expats around, mainly of Korean and Middle Eastern heritage. If you can find a niche of close friends and some favourite places in the city, maybe learn some rudimentary Chinese, you should get along just fine.
If you would like to contact me directly with more questions you can email me at ji (underscore) danni (at) yahoo dot com.
Good luck.
D.