Why did I choose to live in Shenzhen. There are quite a few reasons.

But the first and probably the most important reason is that Shenzhen is a

first-tier city

and I've been getting a lot of questions about

the tier system because I do mention it in my videos. I mentioned, you know, Shenzhen being first-tier. Huizhou being second

sorry, third-tier.

And so I thought I'd talk about the differences between you know first-tier city and say for instance a third-tier city in China.

Alright. What's up guys. We're out here with Winston and Prozzie. Stay Awesome!

So I'm here with a friend of mine who happens to live in a third-tier city.

So I thought we just discuss what the difference is between living in say for instance Shenzhen and

Huizhou where you live. So

let's kind of try to explain the whole tier thing to you first. There are only four "first-tier" cities in China.

That would be Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

That's it. Everybody thinks there's more, but there's not.

Prozzie: right.

Those are the best cities, means, it's got the most modern infrastructure.

It's got like for instance, there's a stock exchange here in Shenzhen.

There's one in Shanghai, and they're quite a few things that qualified as being first here that basically means

it's at the "top of the pops" in China.

Prozzie: The highest quality of cities. I guess you could say. First-world.

Yeah, there we go. There are a bunch of new cities

that are kind of on a waiting list to become first-tier and who knows by the end of this video

maybe or in 100 years who knows anyway.

I wanted you to start off by just explaining to everybody what it's like living in a third-tier city,

which is Huizhou, and then we can do some comparisons.

Prozzie: Yeah. I mean living living in a city like Huizhou

you're not going to get all of the sort of western amenities that you're so used to here in Shenzhen.

Every time I come here. I feel a bit spoiled like we just had a nice lunch thing.

You're not going to get that in a third-tier city.

It's a lot more, as a foreigner anyways, you're going to feel a lot more

um...

I guess you could say uh. What's the word I'm looking for?

not "excluded" but

Winston: When you mean in the first-tier or third-tier?

Prozzie: Third-tier. You feel a lot more like "isolated" I guess.

Winston: "Isolated". Yep.

The foreign community is a lot more tight-knit everyone kind of knows each other.

You know, someone does something, everyone knows about it. It's very

"small townie-ish", I guess, because there's less foreigners there. It's perceived as quite a bit "smaller".

Yeah, I mean living in a city like Huizhou also a lot less regulated.

I find then Shenzhen. Shenzhen is very... you guys get like

police and

security and everyone's just kind of

"regulated" I guess in a weird way. Which I know for you it might not seem like that.

Winston: It is. It is.

Prozzie: Yeah, but in a Huizhou. I mean, you know, you can ride motorcycles, but then it's also kind of illegal.

It's like this grey area, right?

It's just yeah.

I mean.

I could go on for days the differences between, I mean, you know you've been to Huizhou

every week for the last couple years.

Winston: I mean. Yeah. It is a gray area sort of a thing.

It's more like the wild west. You can get away with a lot. Like for instance,

you said, riding a bike when it is currently illegal in Huizhou you go can

and as long as you just kind of avoid certain areas. You'll get away with it.

You can kind of do stupid things that you wouldn't be able to do here. Prozzie: Oh definitely,

yeah, for sure.

Winston: So you've got that extra freedom, but it comes at a cost and the cost is that everything's kind of chaotic and rundown, you know.

Prozzie: Yeah, I mean, that's one thing...

I don't really like about living in Huizhou is that you're gonna get a lot of

just lower quality things and I mean everything. The buildings are falling apart

You know, the people are a lot less

I shouldn't say. I sound horrible if I say that but... Winston: A little less civilized.

Prozzie: Yeah, well, yeah. A little less civilized. A little less...ah...

Winston: It's just the fact. People, you can say what you want, but you come here yourself

you come and spend a day in Huizhou, and you spend a day in Shenzhen. You'll see people are more sophisticated here.

Prozzie: Yeah. You know it comes down to money as well, people in Shenzhen obviously make...

Winston: A lot more.

Prozzie: Usually make quite a bit more money than people in Huizhou.

Winston: you have to and that's another thing

we should talk about is cost of living now. That's a big plus for you.

I mean. Tell me how big is your apartment and how much do you spend?

ah...

Prozzie: Ah... Jesus. I don't know how big it is.

Winston: Would you say it's bigger than 100 square meters?

Prozzie: I've only got one bedroom, but it's a decent size apartment. I've got my living room.

I've got a separate kitchen and a separate bathroom

and it's nice, and it's in the most expensive part of Huizhou in the kind of "New Development Area".

and it cost me about

1,800 RMB (185 USD) every month right and that's the top, the tippy top, that you're going to get for a

normal apartment. Of course you can get some crazy five-star apartments but that's like the top your gonna get for a normal apartment.

What do..ah.. what would you pay here in Shenzhen?

Winston: Okay. I got a 45 square meter apartment. It's tiny.

Basically it's the size of most people's kitchen. You know maybe smaller. It's tiny. It's horrible. I can't stand it. It's badly lit.

You know. There's like one window in the bedroom.

there's no window in the

Living room. The kitchen doesn't even have a place bigger than, like, this to prepare food on. It's terrible.

And it's rundown, and it's crap but it's in one of the best areas. So for that 45 square meter apartment

I'm getting a good deal. I'm paying 4,500 RMB (662 USD) a month.

That's a good deal.

That's only because my wife knows the owner but usually they go for about six to eight thousand for those tiny little places.

So you know that cost of living is...

Prozzie: Through the roof.

Prozzie: That's one of the reasons why I chose Huizhou. Third-tier city is so much cheaper.

Winston: Yeah

But you're paying for what you get for, right? Like you're gonna pay quite a bit more money... quite a bit more money

but you live in the better parts of town.

Winston: Yeah, I can go downstairs.

There's a nice supermarket, shopping malls, access to the subway straightaway. So yeah, it makes up for it.

Yeah, that high-speed internet at least for China

Um.

You know that kind of thing so it's kind of worthwhile.

What about parking?

Ah Yeah, I mean...

That even you were talking about your parking. I had a car not too long ago, and you could park it literally anywhere.

It's cheaper. Parking for me

cost

120 RMB (18 USD) a month.

Winston: That's nothing. Yeah.

For me, it's about five to... no. What am I saying?

It's way more than that because I just got back. 40 days was 1,020 so it's probably about

700 RMB (103 USD) a month or something like that where I...

Prozzie: You can... you can get an apartment for that much money like rent

I also wanted to debunk this kind of idea,

I think a lot of western people have is, that if they go to a smaller city

they're going to get more culture or they're going to get more kind of Chinese-esque

Ah...

feeling or you know. I don't think that's true after coming to Shenzhen enough. You do get

Shenzhen is a much more of a lively place. I feel like people think that just because there's more foreigners here. It's more western. It's more ...ah

you know, it's lost some of its Chinese culture. Just because there's more of an international community here.

I can say that after being, you know, in Guangdong area for three years that it's just not true.

Winston: I agree. But in small little kind of

alleyways, and there have been villages here, and you see everything that you'll see in Huizhou, if not more.

Yeah, and then you can just walk down the street

And you got like really nice restaurants and really cool infrastructure and things to see. A good mix of both worlds. Yeah.

Prozzie: I would agree. Yeah. Where as Huizhou you're only gonna get

I mean. Yeah, it's tough. If you watch what C-Milk put on his videos, you kind of see what I'm talking about.

You're not gonna get the crazy skyscrapers here, but you're also not going to get the alleyways. Yeah, it's all big open kind of

roads, and you know.

Winston: Let's talk about public transport for a moment because that's something I love about Shenzhen.

Hop on the metro, get anywhere, and it's expanded all over the place. You can literally pretty much go.

You can sit on the metro for like an hour and a half and get to some far-flung place

that's still a part of Shenzhen. Miraculously.

Even though it's passed the airport and it's in this weird, in fact, you want to see Huizhou

it's pretty much the same as going to Huizhou in those far, far flung places

but this amazing underground network which is probably going to be the biggest in the world soon.

I think that's their plan and you've got buses that go everywhere.

You got taxis that go everywhere. All the time. 24/7 so. Well not the buses, the taxis. What about in Huizhou?

Prozzie: Oh uh yeah, I mean, I don't use public transport in Huizhou because I've got a motorcycle, but um

you know I take a taxi from time to time if I don't... my bike is not available. Also very convenient. Cheaper.

Yeah, I think we start at 7 RMB. You start at 10.

Winston: 10.

Prozzie: And they yeah, they would go all over the city. Taxis are quite nice

but you mentioned the subway, which I love about Shenzhen. Cause of course,

I don't have a vehicle here, so I have to take public transport. Yeah, the subways set up here is like nothing

I've ever seen before. It's incredible and it's clean and it's cheap. Huizhou..

we just got one subway line and it's a joke. It runs like once an hour. If you're a foreigner

you have to use your passport and it's more expensive.

It's just... it's... it's not... the City's not big enough to have a subway system, but the public transport

Ok buses, how much is the bus here?

Winston: It starts at about 2 RMB (0.30 USD)

to go like a couple of stops and then I think the

maximum it can go for, if you're on the bus like over an hour, it's like 7

Prozzie: Ok yeah. it's one RMB in Huizhou to go pretty much anywhere.

But I would not I don't think too many foreigners take the bus.

Winston: Yeah, there's a reason for that. It's the same here.

There's no English on the bus.

So, you know, like you really need to know where you're going and be able to recognize the place or know the name.

Yeah, so even for a seasoned foreigner to take a bus here can be quite daunting because you need to be able to understand Chinese.

Yeah, pretty straightforward. Do you have a system like we have here in Shenzhen. We got something called the "Shenzhen Tong"?

Just like a card. It's like an Octopus card. You can basically

use... you can use it in a taxi now.

You can use it in the subway, on all the buses and you can even in

7-Elevens and stuff buy drinks and stuff with. Do you have anything like that there?

Prozzie: I don't think we do. We might and I could be wrong

but I'm pretty sure we don't just because we don't have a subway system.

The buses are less common. We have a lot more e-bikes and things like that and plus with WeChat pay.

That's definitely the most common way of paying is with your phone. I don't think we have that card.

Winston: It's actually quite cool in Shenzhen. You can get a sim card for your phone

which has that built-in so you can use a phone to like use the subway and pay for stuff and all that.

Just by like, beeping it. Cause the sim card acts as like an NFC thing. It's pretty sweet.

Prozzie: We don't have that fancy stuff Huizhou.

Winston: So I mean, that's the thing though.

There's a huge difference between tier 1 and

tier 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, tier 88. We call tier 88 it's like the worst. Of course,

I think there... I think there are only like three or four tiers.

Correct me if I'm wrong. In fact, I'm going to "Wiki" it. I'll put it up

so I don't get my facts wrong.

But having been around the whole of China

From the very north to the very south I've seen pretty much everything China has to offer. I've been to the other tier 1 cities

a bunch of the tier 2 and tier 3, excetera.

Shenzhen still my favorite for a number of reasons. Number one, you might agree with me here, proximity to Hong Kong.

Prozzie: That's huge.

Winston: You can literally just pop over. Now something that sucks for me, but it's actually really good for you

and you should do this is next time you cross over. If you've got a passport

That's got that little. It's got a little chips on it.

Prozzie: You don't have to wait in the line, right? Yeah. Winston: You go register...

Winston: Have you done that? Prozzie: I will soon.

Winston: Okay, but you can actually go register it