There's a lot to love I think. For me, the fact that China has not been brainwashed by the hokum that cholesterol and saturated fat are bad for you as we have in the West for the past forty-something years (now said to be heart-health protective), together with a rejection (with some exceptions such as papaya here in Guangxi) of GMO and the plentiful and cheap fruit, veg, nuts, poultry and meat means the food culture is absolutely fantastic - even factoring in sewage oil and plastic rice etc. Here in the south of China, people still find time to sit and chat on street corners about life, the Universe and everything; I really value that human contact often sanitized into oblivion in the West's larger cities with their unrelenting pressure to be productive and generate profit with every breath. Dehumanised enslavement camps. In contrast to that, this is more humane and natural by far it seems to me and less enslaved, paradoxically. The tax situation is a boon: you actually have money left at the end of the month and can save - unheard of back home for most normal people who serve as a kind of fodder to feed the avarice of privatised utility and other stitched-up rackets and endless scams. I can easily afford my bills and I guess people on lower incomes here are not faced with the life-or-death choice to quite the same degree either: eat or winter heat, but no longer both for many of our seniors: a disgrace. I could go on...No place is perfect, but China has so much going for it. Oh, did I mention the most beautiful women in the world live here? ;)

I have a question about the pronunciation of 为了。In this dialogue when discussing government investment in public transport, it sounds like the first hanzi is pronounced with a slight 'v' sound rather than a 'w' sound. It reminded me of a debate I had with my Tianjin ex-wife who insisted it should be pronounced as a 'v' sound, quite the opposite of what everyone else teaches; viz, that it's a 'w' sound. So, what's the story? Is it just a Tianjin thing? Which opinion is correct? Thank you in advance for any informed view. ;)

@Grace Qi

Thanks for your input Grace.

David that's an interesting world-view, but ultimately topsy-turvy. There's much stronger evidence to suggest that Chinese workers are effectively enslaved, being the world's factory.