No.

China is the perfect place for lazy Foreigners like me, I earn in a month more than most locals in a year, while working for myself, when I want to. Seriously, the amount of money floating around in this country is incredible, the opportunities are here and you don't even need to work hard, China not being a meritocracy.

I only get along with my partner and her family, everyone else here is a relation of interest (customers).

Plenty, and plenty of arsehole Chinese too.

Better than any woman I met back home.

I had no expectations when I first came to China. I have been here for about four and a half years now, with a couple of months each year spent in England just for work. China still surprises me, not always in a good way, but not always in a bad way either. My social life here is good, I have many friends here both foreign and Chinese. What I do find is when I am back in England, which I am now for the next three weeks, I find it is England that I find grates on my nerves a bit. It just seems so quiet, orderly and tidy. I find I miss the noise and the bustle of living in a tier two city. There are many things here I find completely retarded and I bitch about them as much as the next guy. However on balance I am happy. Financially I am way better off than when I lived in the UK, and I am married to a wonderful banana!!. This is my wife's description of herself, yellow on the outside and white in the middle. Her family are all good people, never had the problems that some seem to get. The only time we offered to help with some money for hospital bills they flat out refused. We are able to travel when we want and we have a good settled life, no mortgage or rent to worry about. I have a few young Chinese women as friends and my wife is fine with that. I am talking only about friendship, there are no sexual relationships there, but I do love them as dear friends.

As I said there were no pre-conceived ideas about China but in some ways it has bought out the best in me. I know anywhere I go there is good and bad, and China is a country of extremes but I have found my balance here and if I had to leave tomorrow there would be things I would greatly miss.

Yes, and no. It's a complicated question.

I also came to China with no real expectations, other than that it would be an adventure and a cool thing to do, a great opportunity. It certainly has been that. I've (mostly) loved my time here, aside from the usual complaints but even they kind of added to the experience. I don't regret coming here at all, It met my expectations.

I've met some great people,some interesting people, some crazy people, some downright horrible people, made some lifelong friends,experienced a different culture, traveled, made enough money to set me up in my next life and learned a lot about myself and the world.

But, my expectations now are different. I know what each day will be like, it's not new and different and exciting any more. I expect daily frustrations, simple things made difficult when they don't need to be, an environment that will probably be the cause of a tumor one day, idiotic driving, people being rude and boorish, dishonesty as a way of life, willful ignorance, cruelty to animals and people, shallow and meaningless conversations,shallow and materialistic people, a complete lack of quality anywhere you go, nepotism, incompetence, greed, a complete lack of any morals, non-existent hygiene, spitting and pissing inside, stupid bureaucracy, flight delays... the list goes on.

I also expect to continue to meet really awesome people here and to be surprised almost every week by examples of genuine friendliness and hospitality. I expect to still see things that make me appreciate what I have and to get a lot of satisfaction and pleasure from my job. The negatives far outweigh the positives now though.

Now that I know what to expect, and know it it won't change anytime soon and there is nothing left I want to see or do, it is definitely time for me to leave, and I plan to next year when my current contract expires. Leaving will probably be both very difficult and a huge relief at the same time.

Absolutely !!

The key to have your expectations met is not to have any expectations.

I had no great expectations. So no disappointment.