How to move to Shanghai after high school?

Hey Krys,

Here's my experience of accomplishing that in Beijing and my friend having done it in Shanghai.

I too didn't have money but I attended the University of Birmingham (good ranking university but terrible on the inside, I'm not recommending it, I digress).

This university had a BSc Computer Science degree with 1 year work experience in year 3. I had was on that degree but then changed it to  BSc Computer Science with study year abroad in year 3 instead of working. That enabled me to study at Tsinghua University in Beijing for 1 year. At the same time my friend did the same but he chose the University of JiaoTong in Shanghai.

This way I was studying in China on my government student loan but for that year the tuition fee was waived i.e. free and I only got a student loan for living costs.

The next year I wanted to stay in China so I applied for a scholarship throught some website which I cannot remember I think it was somehow in partnership with the UK embassy. I applied after the deadline and to my surprise I got it.

By that time I was already working as an English teacher to make money. With the scholarship I studied at Peking University (lang programme this time) for free, the scholarship covered the tuition, living expenses and it even included pocket money. I was also working as an English teacher to make more.

Finally, in the 3rd year I applied for another scholarship from the same website and got it again for Tshinghua univeristy. Keep in mind that I applied for multiple scholarships but only ever got one from the one in partnership with the UK embassy or something like that.

I got tired of attending classes and working so I declined the scholarship and paid for a dummy Chinese lang course at BEIDA. university i.e. get a visa without having to attend classes everyday in which time I could make more money working as a teacher that if I took the scholarship. By that time I had made enough money to be able to afford paying those tuition fees just to stay in China.

Then covid came, I was out of the country and couldn't return so I finished my degree in the UK.

But now here's another option for you, which is what I'm doing now. I am working remotely as a web developer and get to live wherever I want on tourist visas which allow you to stay in most countries for 3 months at a time but you can bend the rules a bit. So now I'm living wherever I want but I need to move around which is kinda nice in it's own right.

Best of luck man, hope you can pick up some relevant info from my story, keep in mind that this was years back and this advice may not work for you right now but regardless, it's nice to see you knowing what you want and going for it!

Hi Krys,

Basically, the most likely way for you to be able to come over and live in China is to either Study or work here.  That Chinese person who told you that was not thinking clearly about the possibilities so don't get too bothered by what they said.

If you can not afford to do a degree here and you have no degree from your country then you will need another way. The most common way would be for you to get a job here as an English Teacher if you are fluent. It may be hard in a city like Beijing or Shanghai because those areas will have schools that may expect you to have actual teaching credentials. So if you want to eventually live in Shanghai you may want to do a little strategic planning.  Come to China and work in a smaller city for a couple of years, learn some Chinese, and then once you are established with some experience you can start looking at moving to Shanghai. 

I'm curious as to why you chose Shanghai as your destination? Have you ever been to China before? It is a huge country and it's cities can be very different from one another. I myself live in Beijing but I've lived in other cities here too and I have traveled all over this country that I love so much. Personally, Shanghai is a place I like to visit but wouldn't really want to live there. But everyone has there own tastes.  Another city you might want to consider is Shenzhen. It is the IT center of China and seems to attract the younger crowd.

Either way you choose, good luck to you.