[chefandy]

Personally, I think Guangzhou or any other tier-1 Chinese city would be a great place to live if China wasn't a police state. I know a lot of people see urbanity as something to be minimized or mitigated, but I think well-designed huge cities with robust public transportation are an absolute delight. Sure it's nice to get out every now and then... but people who live in the country also sometimes like to get out and visit a big city where they have museums and theaters and 12 kinds of ethnic cuisine within 5 blocks walk.

[randomsearch]

Lockdown has given a lot of time to think about this.

Humans are social animals. We need to have contact with people outside our families.

Living in the country / distant suburbia doesn’t give enough social contact to be healthy, I think, at least in the U.K. In the past I imagine small villages were much more sociable, because people weren’t commuting out, and families lived in the same place for a long time.

So overall, I think living in a city is psychologically better for you. Not necessarily in the centre, but close enough that you can easily get there, can access lots of social venues and find people you get in with.

Of course that was pre COVID. Now is the time to go spend that year in the country, you’re not going to miss out on anything.