That should be self-evident from this blog, which is titled 'Based in Shanghai' and how I'm keeping it going continuously over the summer even while I'm not there at the moment.
I don't want to get into a big long essay comparing and contrasting the life in two different cities, as it would take multiple pages and would bore the readers to death. However, there are pros and cons to each city, and a lot of nice things to say about Vancouver but I really feel I belong more in Shanghai than I ever did here.
That being said, with things all queued up for a significant stretch of time to spend abroad now, a thought that occurs in the back of my mind is what on earth I'd do if 'recalled' back to Canada for whatever reason. That is to say, what's the emergency plan if the adventure abroad were to suddenly end for whatever reason?
I've given this issue some though and the first thing would be to move onwards to a 3rd country if living/working in China was no longer feasible for whatever reason. There are numerous alternatives in this case, almost all of them being Asian countries or city states like Hong Kong and Singapore. The '3rd country' alternative would also work nicely if I married a Chinese local who wanted to leave China but I wasn't exactly keen on returning to Canada.
However, given a situation where repatriation to Canada was inevitable, I've also thought about where I'd end up. After much considering, I'd likely choose the Toronto area. This city is certainly more happening and busier than Vancouver and the prices are not nearly so expensive. Toronto ain't cheap, but it's a margin better than other cities.
For the world's most livable city, Vancouver is a killer when it comes to the cost of living, and I honestly don't know how the high prices can be justified.
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