i find that being in China has changed me so when i return home i notice things i wouldn't have seen before.

it is not that i am less tolerant, but i find i watch to see how common tasks are done in comparison to China. Sometimes they are done more efficiently at home, sometimes not.

But i think dealing with officials in any country is the same - slow and officious.

i do notice how much more friendly people are at home when dealing with strangers in shops

No. But isn't Canada like 50% Chinese these days ? 

After 5 years in China, I not only idolize the West, I also feel estranged from the West. And to be honest, I'm afraid to go back to either Spain or the States. (I'm a dual national.)

My life in China ain't heaven on earth, but I'm comfortable, acclimated, acculturated, and very little anymore pisses me off. I live in a laid-back community where I am a neighbor. I don't lock my door at night. Nobody does.

I have a credit sheet at the Ma and Pop store downstairs. The shopkeepers on my street know me - I'm the only expat in the hood - and they greet me when they see me. The neighbors' kids shout "Hello!" when they see me or I them. Makes me feel "homey".

On the other hand, I miss a lot that is wonderful about living in the West and which I can't get here in China.

I don't have a long-term plan for all this. And I don't know if I'm going through some kind of reverse-reverse culture shock. But the thought of having to start all over again after 5 years staying put makes me feel a bit anxious.

You dont need a doctor or lawyer to vouch for you anymore it can be anyone that has known you for minimum 2 years that isn't a family member. I renewed my passport in June in China, all i had to do was download and  print out the application form then fill out the form and enclose fee as well as an additional 20 yuan for return courier fees to the Canadian Embassy in Shanghai  and was able to get a new Canadian passport within 2 weeks. The people i used as reference were Chinese coworkers so the people vouching for you do not even has to be Canadian

Question: what is the western world?

China made appreciating many little things back home that I was used to take for granted.

Little things that make a huge difference in quality of life.

So yes, under this point of view, I greatly idolized the western world.

And I'm a big sorry ass when I also realize how many other things we managed to f&*%k up, but I still have hope.

The opposite for me actually.  I see the western world in a worse light now.

The western media demonizes China at every chance it gets. It picks up on every non story and sensationalizes it. It's often nothing more than propaganda designed to make the average western citizen feel so lucky for living in such a great country.

I will probably be given masses of thumbs down for this, but China has really opened my mind to how convinced the west thinks their system is best.  Of course China has a lot of work ahead to lift it's peoples standard of living etc, but given the starting point I reckon they are doing ok.

  Yeh, I know what you're talking about, after I returned home from my first visit, I got on the tube from Heathrow and was only sat there for twenty minutes before some drunk bloke came staggering up the tube shouting and being obnoxious. I'd traveled for 10 months, through Egypt, India and China, and this was the first time i'd come across anyone behaving in a threatening way in all that time. Well, except for an Irish fella in Yangshuo. He had a marvelous line though: came up to a table of five of us and after trying to pick a fight with everyone, said to one bloke who started to get pissed, "If you can stand up, I can put you down." I f***ing loved that. But I digest; sitting there on the train, yeh, I was disappointed with my home country. Really disappointed. Decided to leave for good two weeks later. Then after living here for about three or four years I took my wife home to visit. Nine years here i've honestly never seen a fight. Not once. In the six weeks back in England my wife saw a street brawl of about six guys battling hell for leather outside a pub. She also had the experience of sitting in a car on a hill and having the guy in the van behind actually start to push us forward deliberately because he was feeling impatient. I was embarrassed. So my answer is nope, I don't idolize the west as a result of living here. I don't really think people are any different back west than they are here or anywhere else.

I just had this experience myself!  Took my gf home to the states for the first time.  I managed to work it out where I could stay all throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the time between.  Some of my biggest pet peeves about China (that my gf has to put up with) also occurred during our time in the US.

1.  Bad drivers.  We took a little road trip to Florida.  Granted, I had never driven there before, so didn't know what I was in for.  Wow, Floridian drivers are godawful!  I mean, not quite as bad as Chinese....but bad enough for my gf to comment on it.  I can count on one hand the number of times I saw a turn signal being used, and it didn't help that I got a love tap from behind while sitting at a red light.

2.  Movie theater yakkers and cell phone users.  Took her to see 47 Ronin, because she said it wouldn't be played in Chinese theaters.  Lo and behold, 2 separate groups to our left had their cell phones out the entire time, screens on full bright.  And a group to our right brought their small kids who weren't controlled at all.  Granted, we didn't hear any full volume, outside voice conversations....but enough to shatter the image I had created of the utopia-like movie going experience in the US.

3.  Those assholes that scream "hello" at you in China.  Well, this one wasn't too bad actually.  We were walking around Target (US supermarket chain), and some kid of about 7 or 8 years old just starts screaming out "NI HAO NI HAO" at my gf.  I always told her this would never happen in the US......*facepalm*, when did they start teaching Chinese in little podunk towns in the US? 

Gonna agree with cooter...

1. Bad drivers. We have them everywhere here. Ever been to Massachusetts or New Jersey? Driving through New Jersey and MA make me want mount a .50 caliber gattling gun to the roof and go on a rampage.

2. Movie theater yakkers and cell phone users? Well, I've only been to one theater in the past 20 years, and it was in China. Nobody was really yakking or talking. Everyone behaved. But I remember that, 20+ years ago, when I used to frequent the theaters, there were always a bunch of dbags. OH WAIT, I went on a date with some chick on craigslist and she wouldn't STFU in the cinema. Okay, so 2 theaters in the last 20 years.

3. Those guys who yell "hello"? Well, we have them here, and they're usually autistic. Nobody else screams "HELLO CHINESE GIRL!" like him.

after i went back for christmas i cant agree at all. At least in germany it felt like a paradise for me.

A warm house, clean air, friendly people, no queue jumping, no staring and i wasnt afraid to cross the street when it was green light

I am not idolizing my country. We have no money.

What we have is relatively humane living conditions, clean water and air. There was an issue with the air quality in our capital recently, but the people went crazy and starting openly blaming the government, in the end they had to check every single industrial pollutant.

Somehow everything is cheaper back home, but the quality is much better than what you would get in China.

We also have the guanxi system :(

Wouldn't stay in China in the future unless I am earning a lot of money by international standards. Again, I am pretty realistic.

When coming back home (France) after years in Asia, it felt like paradise on Earth. Houses warm inside in winter, people say 'hi' and hold the door, no staring, people walking on the walk lane, bike on the bike lane, my wife (Chinese) did not felt like a zoo animal and nobody assumed she was a foreigner. Nobody shouted "NIIIHHHAAAAOOOO HOHOHOHO" at her. Okay, and 2 policemen waiting for my wife next to the plane remining her to go home before her visa expires. Paradise with gates.

It is kind of half and half for me. China has made me more aware of those things I didn't even think about when back home. The main things I miss, and I guess idolise, are the variety of good restaurants and the way that most things are done properly. Would I want to go go back permanently to the UK, no. No country is perfect but will I stay here long time, no. There really are too many basic things here that are wrong, pollution, education, rudeness, cheap quality of goods unless you are prepared to pay stupid prices, and just the basic idea that everything gets done at the lowest possible level, and lastly service - it doesn't exist. All those things back home are so much better, but the cost of living and the politics spoil all the good stuff.

No, but it sure has made me realize how much better off North America is.  For all the corruption in politics, the ownership and price fixing by the corporations, I am sure I am better off in the west.  You can still change the government and voice your opinion in Canada.  It may not do any good but you won't end up in jail for calling the Liberals idiots and the Conservatives Ass holes. We also have a communist party in Canada.

No, it's made me thankful for the West. for all the reasons cited by various people on this forum,etc. All the MANY people. China has 10 times the problems of the United States of America. Of course, there are problems back home but geez do an overall comparison! 

No in fact where I live is nicer (for me) than most cities I know back in 威国. Good public transport, nice parks a short distance from futuristic trains etc. The "anything goes" kind of freedom, absence of political correctness, low cost of living, all in all I have a good life in China. Ive also got a nasty cough from pollution and get pissed off at locals sometimes (typically not the people u see on the street, but English speaking locals), in fact often enough to semi-avoid people, but no I don't idolize life in the west.