How is life changing in china

When I introduce myself to my American classmates, I insist on stating my native language is Wu-Chinese. That’s true, because my entire family tree has been in the city of Shaoxing for more than a century. Since the day I was born, I was surrounded by Wu-Chinese speakers with Shaoxing’s dialect.

In my blurred memory, everything was simpler then: a medium-sized city with a population of a quarter of a million, historical districts under a big blue sky. I grew up with Shaoxing, from the completion of its business district to the opening of its high-speed railway station. But now I have had to leave - and I will not be returning after college, because Shaoxing provides so few opportunities that my education will go to waste if I take a job there.

This situation happens in almost every third-tier city in China. Our families invest time and energy to ensure we have a good-quality higher education, and they hope we can find a job in megacities worldwide where resources are much more abundant than our humble hometowns. People from rural areas surge into my hometown to work, whereas natives like me seek every possible way to escape