Land of Opportunity:

Americans Follow Their Dreams to China

By staff reporter ZHANG HUI

TWENTY years ago, Americans were a rare sight in China, especially outside metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai. If somebody happened to meet one, he or she usually proved to be a senior managerial employee, technician or English teacher. They were usually here because they had been dispatched by their home headquarters rather than out of their own wish to discover China, and though they were usually given generous financial compensation, they often lived in the poor conditions of China at that time.

Decades later, things have changed dramatically. Americans are found in every Chinese province and region and in all walks of life. Much of this change is due to the increasing exchanges and improving relationship between the two countries, but what lures many here is China's rapid development and the huge opportunities that have arisen with that development. When asked why they come to China, one always hears a common theme – "China is the future." But it is also China's long history and diverse cultures that hook so many Americans.

How do these Americans fare in China? The following stories give you a glimpse into the big picture.

Erik Nilsson with some of the 76 students of Yege Primary School in a remote village in Yushu, Qinghai Province. The nonprofit group he founded funded the installation of two solar panels that provide electricity for the school.

A Jobseekers' Paradise

Currently in China, other than those in managerial and technical posts, most Americans are engaged in language-related occupations like translating, editing and English teaching. As China is becoming more integrated with the world, English publications, websites and training schools have begun to flourish all over the country, while English has become an increasingly important subject at every stage of education. All of this provides a huge amount of job opportunities for young job-hunting American graduates.

Erik Nilsson has been working for the English newspaper China Daily as a reporter for five years since his graduation from Central Michigan University. Although his original plan was to become a conflict zone reporter in Latin America, he decided to stay at China Daily after an internship there.

"I found China extraordinarily fascinating, so interesting and so different, and becoming more important globally. The changes here are so dramatic, and the people are very, very wonderful. Then I realized this is the place to be a reporter," Nilsson told China Today.

What Nilsson enjoys most as a reporter with China Daily is that he gets to go to different regions of China to cover his reports. To date, he has traveled 23 Chinese provinces. "Today, maybe I'm talking to a Buddhist nun in a remote cave, the next day to a CEO in Shanghai; and the following day, I might live for a week with nomadic Tibetan herders in Qinghai Province," he said. He was amazed to see the diverse cultures across China and to hear the many different dialects spoken in different regions. "Chinese culture and history is, in some ways, more fascinating than the U.S.," he said. "In the U.S. local cultural differences are very small," he explained.

As a reporter, Nilsson has covered hundreds of stories of every kind in China, but currently he is focusing on rural development and poverty solutions. "Covering rural poverty means often being stuck on a mountainside because the road ahead has been blocked by a landslide, or walking over treacherous mountains to reach a remote village because there are no roads," he said.

Nilsson is pleased to see the rise of the country and the changes happening here. "Some Chinese media are doing more controversial and sensitive stories now, even some sensitive topics not touched by the American media," he said. About two years ago, Nilsson himself reported on the management of HIV and AIDS and drug users in Emeishan City of Sichuan Province, covering controversial government measures, such as providing users with clean needles.

He is sorry to see there are still many misunderstandings among Americans about China. He thinks the problem comes mainly from Western media. "They just focus on all the problems in China, some of which they exaggerate or simply get wrong. But they don't look at the good sides of China. They pay no attention to its efforts to find solutions," Nilsson said.

Nilsson is lucky to find his dream job, as he said, "This is the best job I could ever imagine." But he is not alone as far as landing a dream job is concerned.