Tracking those on the move. [Photo/China Daily]

Giving up benefits

Another one to give up the benefits of big-city living, but for whom things have ended up otherwise, is Xia Zhenyu, 27. Before returning to Hefei, Anhui province from Shanghai, he had broken up with his girlfriend, he says, and he felt that his career had reached a dead end. In Hefei, he could attend to family matters.

"I stayed home and was able to look after my mother. Life is steady and I was spending a lot less. But there is something that is not quite right, and I just cannot adapt to my work or new lifestyle."

As in Shanghai, he worked in marketing for a Fortune 500 company, but the work in Hefei differed from that in Shanghai, he says. Those he worked with seemed to be less open-minded and unwilling to try new things, and seemed to be preoccupied with getting whatever they were doing over and done with rather than trying to do a good job.

His family had wanted him back because they could not afford a house in Shanghai, and they had other priorities for him in mind, too, such as marriage. In that aspect, they see Shanghai as a poor market, he says, and his mother frequented a park in Hefei where a kind of marriage bazaar takes place, parents gathering to find a spouse for their child. The most important information to be swapped seemed to concern, jobs, houses and cars, Xia says.

"I had a few blind dates in my hometown, and many were more interested in my job and where I lived. In big cities, young women may have similar yardsticks for finding a boyfriend, but for me these are not the most important things."

After 14 months in Hefei, Shanghai, with its professional attractions and the possibilities it held for him of getting back with his former girlfriend, put out its siren call and he heeded it. Though his romantic aspirations eventually met with failure, he says, his life in Shanghai is more interesting. He goes to concerts, exhibitions, museums and plays and does volunteer work.

Faced with the possibility of living in two different places, the question to ask is exactly what kind of life you are looking for, he says.