Mike Orchard and his family lived in Baoding for two years.(Courtesy of Mike Orchard)

Chilled-out people

The pace of life goes slower in Baoding, since everyone is not furiously saving to buy an apartment or pay their children's tuition.

"Beijing is very stressful and high-paced, but Baoding people are living a different pace of life and have more time for each other," said Orchard. People rarely work overtime. They don't need to get crushed like a sardine during their morning commute or spend hours a day getting back and forth from work.

Young men will find dating here much less stressful, because owning an apartment is cheaper and the cost of living is lower.

Unmarried women will appreciate all the extra leisure time they will have for dating, rather than working overtime or commuting, as they might do in Beijing.

People gather on the side of the road to play mahjong and chat. Although there is not much in the way of night life, Beijing is only a 40 minute-train ride away. Beware: if you really need to get back to Baoding after the last train leaves at 10:30 pm, a cab ride will cost you more than 400 yuan.


A family passes by a real estate development in Baoding. (Li Hao/GT)

Learn Chinese

Living in Baoding, expect your Chinese to improve fast, because few people speak English. During Orchard's two years in Baoding, he says he knew of about 30 foreigners living in Baoding. They only had one hangout, the coffee shop Honeypool.

Baoding has a number of lovely parks, which are not crowded and full of elderly people playing musical instruments. Baoding was long the capital of Hubei Province, but lost this role to Tianjin in 1958. (The capital subsequently moved to Shijiazhuang in 1968.) Still Baoding is home to several top universities, including The Central Institute for Correctional Police, Hebei University and North China Electric Power University.

Downside

For social climbers or people obsessed with wealth, Baoding may disappoint. The local KTV and street-side restaurants may be the most exciting entertainment.

Children registered as Baoding residents hoping to get into Peking or Tsinghua universities will need to score much higher on the national university entrance exams, because the system is rigged to favor residents holding Beijing hukou.

You may end up with a slightly odd accent - most people speak a dialect that while understandable to people who speak standard Chinese sounds a little funny.

Those looking to escape Beijing's smog should go farther afield - Baoding is less polluted than Beijing but not by much. Orchard mentioned that the public toilets in Baoding should be avoided when possible.

It's easy to drift through life in Baoding without trying too hard, because that's what everyone else does, and there aren't many job opportunities for foreigners and well educated people.

On the other hand, if you dream of owning a home and can handle the commute, Beijing is just throwing a stone away.
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