<p>I’ve been to China before (Beijing specifically) and just the atmosphere and the attitudes of the people make the environment feel incredibly harsh.
<p>[Life</a> expectancy in Shanghai rises and infant mortality falls -- Shanghai Daily | ???? -- English Window to China New](<a href="http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200902/20090218/article_391406.htm%5DLife">http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200902/20090218/article_391406.htm)</p><p>After reading your posts, I have to wonder why are you living in the US ? Why pay 50% of your income without any benefits?
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<p>:confused: I have trouble understanding the above.</p>
<p>I have considerable doubt that anyone who thinks China is less corrupt than the United States has really been in both countries recently.</p>
<p>What hlbb posted was very interesting to me. His observations about China were different from mine. I am fortunate to be able to travel and even live in China. For a few years we actually were thinking of buying a place in China and spend part of our time there. After some thought, we decided to live in SoCal instead. </p>
<p>I love the US constitution btw. (Well, the health care system not so much 
) I live in the US by choice.</p>
<p>Here in US, we are compete with those Chinese guy not even has engineer background. Work 2 hours a day, get 300K a year; Go Shanghai 4 times a year, not bad.
I have trouble understanding the above.
Software engineer is a very leisure job, you work average 2-3 hours a day (8 hours would mean your mind blow up), and you get 300K USD annually in good years and there are no serious competition for this kind of job and I am going to spend 4 weeks every year at Shanghai!</p><p>China’s education system is terrible. Being a student there sucks and they have a much more difficult time relative to the US</p>
<p>I love the US constitution btw. (Well, the health care system not so much ) I live in the US by choice.
<p>I have considerable doubt that anyone who thinks China is less corrupt than the United States has really been in both countries recently.
Another question here, why most people in China pays less than 20% of income tax while they still enjoy perfect education and efficient medicare(Not free); how come I pay 50% of my income as tax and get literally nothing, just look at those streets at Oakland, epically the one leads to 880 south, this is America or Africa? What happened to all those money??????????</p><p>they have a much more difficult time relative to the US
<p>BTW, to open your guys eye, I feel UK’s journalist did a much more professional job than the US one’s, feel sorry for US, great country, big sur, San Francisco, NYC, Yellow stone, but education sucks so much, anyway, all young civilizations were like this, Turks, Mongols, Manchus…Britain, and now is America.
[Search</a> for Han Chinese sister whose family were butchered by Uighurs - Times Online](<a href=“The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines”>The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines)</p>
<p>Wow, hlbb, what an odd way to rationalize your country’s faults. Speaking of maturity, when visiting China one of the things I noticed was the immature outlook on life and surprising close-mindedness. Also, your bashing Uighurs? I’m pretty sure they are extremely well-persecuted and have very little legal recourse in their own country.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they are extremely well-persecuted and have very little legal recourse in their own country.
<p>Every Chinese know and most will let you know that Uighurs are first class citizen compared with Han Chinese, when they committed crime like theft or robbery, they were simply let go the second day.</p><p>Let me quote some of the comments to open your eyes,
I have seen how Gipsy were discriminated by almost all europeans, how black and latino is discriminated by americans, how Aboriginals were discriminated by Aussies, compared to them, Uighers in China are been treated far better with far more benificial policies like college entrance, crime leniency.</p>
<p>Michael F, Shanghai, </p>
<p>~~~~~~~~ I understand as American or Chinese countryman, to open the eyes are painful experience, but that the reality. If you are talking about everything you are talking are your fantasy, then this website is the wrong place, you should go CNN, or MSNBC, if you like to talk about reality or at least pretending like to talk about reality (to slash china you have to pretend what you are talking is reality? ), then look at the reality.</p>
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<p>I think this is a good time to remind everyone that ultimately it is still down to the student, and that family background still makes the biggest difference. In Singapore, where the same accusations are levelled at our education system (by ourselves - how strange) - I think I would say that you can’t take the creativity out of a person, but you can certainly fail to harness it (and this is true of Singapore at all levels, not just in education). At the same time, without <em>some</em> standardized testing, it’s very easy for students to slip through the education system without the foundational knowledge they need for higher education. The education system cannot be flexible enough to cater to all types, and this is where the home environment comes in, to supplement where the system is lacking.</p>
<p>phantompong - You are quoting me out of context. I was referring to the Chinese system, where testing was the only measure of getting into college. I don’t think anyone opposes some sort of testing, that’s why we have SATs or ACT.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the insights and feedback on this thread and on the Underworked American Child thread, of those who have had experience with more than one country’s educational system. Although I also prefer our way vs. overseas, I think there are ways to improve our system in terms of excellence & expectations, and I would hope we can be open to that. I think we need other viewpoints, based on experience, in order to evaluate our own better. I’m not sure whether I’ll expand on this on this thread, or on the other one. I’ll think about that. :)</p>
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<p>Is it just me ? When I read this I can’t help but smile. Irony is amusing.</p>
<p>Agreed. :)</p>
<p>@oldfort:
“I actually totally disagree with with what hlbb said about Go Kao is a better system. My father left Taiwan because of it. It forces students to memorize useless things just to pass the test. It takes a lot of creativity out of a person. It does not encourage students to think outside of a box, because what you need to do is to spit out exactly what the test is looking for.”</p>
<p>one of my dad’s friends actually got a stack of potential questions that might be on the test and memorized every single one. It was literally 3 to 4 foot stack of books. The friend had the questions memorized to the extent that he only needed to read the first few characters and the last few characters of each question to know the answer. I think that person ranked in the top 10 highest scores for his year and had his choice of universities. Of course, he almost immediately forgot most of the pent up knowledge after the test!</p>