cheers, mate.
Chinese League
- Thread starter SilentWitness
- Start date
Jelavic could be the next one, reportedly. See, him I understand. It's clear he's not gonna leave a lasting mark in european football and he's going nowhere better than West Ham (or wherever he is now). So why not? I'd go to China in an instant if I was him. Get paid more for an easier job. Few ears in a more exotic part of the world, instead of getting kicked all day under the rain in England.
Edit: Actually, forget all that. He's moving to China's second division apparently. That's just fecking embarrassing. A man's gotta have pride.
Edit: Actually, forget all that. He's moving to China's second division apparently. That's just fecking embarrassing. A man's gotta have pride.
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They did for Rooney, were rejected, not sure if by him or the club.
Apparently was offered daft money like 20m a year, or something.
Jelavic off to Beijing Rehne apparently.
If the Payet rumours are true, they've got to accept that offer. He could be a one season wonder.
He's currently in contract talks with West Ham.
As someone said above, "Chinese club" could become the new "interest from Man Utd".
I'm sure there's a lot of interest in Rooney. He's still a big name, even if performances in the last 2 seasons have been of a mediocre player.
I'm guessing he doesn't want to go to China at age 30, either. Maybe after the world cup.
I'm guessing he doesn't want to go to China at age 30, either. Maybe after the world cup.
I'd be tempted to get a season ticket if there was a team near me. Might head to Chongqing for a few games this season.
First positive review of life in China. But sounds good.
How do you find the language barrier? I know Latin languages are pretty easy to pick up but from a couple of random lessons Mandarin (if that even is the language there?) seems like a whole different ball game...?
And if they've already done that to a financially powerful Premier League club think of what they'll do to clubs without anywhere near such clout around Europe...
TBH the Chinese Premier League growing could well be a good thing for the English Premier League in the long term, it'll grow the popularity of football in China substantially whilst remaining a lesser league to our league, so if their population are anything like the rest of the world there's only one place they'll look to for the best fix of footballing entertainment (of course who could rule out the Chinese government banning all rival Premier League coverage ala Facebook)... Particularly so when the Chinese league's momentum inevitably dies for aforementioned reasons.
English is taught in most schools in China so the language barrier would be reduced. I don't know what Shanghai is like personally though
As Swaters says, English is widely taught in China (I was in my wife's home city a month ago and I was walking around looking for photo ops when I heard a popular English song being sang - in perfect English - following the sound I found it was coming from the open the windows of a primary school) and in major cities most young professional people will speak English, some of it not just passable but excellent !
Most major cities have important signposts in English as well as Chinese and even the police have fluent some English speakers (I was pulled over once and pretended I didn't speak Mandarin - he immediately switched to very good English)
Virtually all high quality restaurants will have their menus in English & Chinese, even middling restaurants will try & have a photo menu containing most of their dishes. In Shanghai the language isn't a barrier - it's fun.
I've lived in 11 countries mate. You can find positives or negatives wherever you go if you look for them. China gets a lot of bad press but it's a fascinating country, being both very traditional and very modern, and because of the size of it's population and ethnic diversity (even though the vast majority are Han Chinese) it's wrong to try to pigeon-hole just about anything about it !
Thanks very interesting.As Swaters says, English is widely taught in China (I was in my wife's home city a month ago and I was walking around looking for photo ops when I heard a popular English song being sang - in perfect English - following the sound I found it was coming from the open the windows of a primary school) and in major cities most young professional people will speak English, some of it not just passable but excellent !
Most major cities have important signposts in English as well as Chinese and even the police have fluent some English speakers (I was pulled over once and pretended I didn't speak Mandarin - he immediately switched to very good English)
Virtually all high quality restaurants will have their menus in English & Chinese, even middling restaurants will try & have a photo menu containing most of their dishes. In Shanghai the language isn't a barrier - it's fun.
How good is your Mandarin currently? How easy was it to get to that level?
How do you find the society there? I visited Hong Kong and found the general behaviour to be competitive, people wanting to get an edge over somebody else - even in the smallest of situations. People on the whole were fine, I just felt that small difference.
I imagine Shanghai would be a great place to live. For my own preferences I still prefer Tokyo, but I imagine there is a greater feeling of prosperity with you.
My Mandarin is pretty good - but I've been married to a Chinese girl for nearly 30 years and have spent 20 years living in China, so if it wasn't my wife wouldn't be too impressed
Mandarin is pretty tough to get started in, unlike say a language like Japanese, due to having to learn the tones (which I still mess up) ! It gets easier after a while of course, the syntax is pretty simple. I always tell people to concentrate on just learning vocabulary and forget the rest - in the context of a sentence Chinese people can usually work out what you mean and communication is what it's all about since you'll never be perfect.
Lavezzi the latest player linked
Surely it has more to offer than that? Big buildings, good transport and nice shops and restaurants doesn't sound that special.
Having lived in both cities I can say that Shanghai is far nicer, in that it doesn't have anywhere near the airs and graces that Hong Kong society thrives on. That said HK is a far easier place to live for an expat - though difficult as it's very expensive not that Shanghai is cheap at all) and it's tough to find any sort of employment unless you arrived via an MNC transfer. In Shanghai the people are far friendlier (to foreigners) than in Hong Kong, they still have great inquisitiveness with regard to foreign countries and people (even though many affluent citizens now have children studying overseas and travel extensively), which is pretty much absent in Hong Kongers due to their far greater exposure to foreigners and global business.
I haven't been to Tokyo, though if any city would surpass Shanghai for being futuristic then maybe it would be Tokyo (though Singapore may also be close too - it's been a long time since I was there). I was not too keen on Osaka but simply loved the far more traditional Kyoto.
The question would be what more do you expect from a 'modern' city ? Well I suppose it's the scale - Shanghai built more high rises in one 10 year period (1990 - 2000) than the whole of Manhattan. That's pretty incredible. And it hasn't stopped since. It's also the height of those buildings, I've had an office on the 56th floor and friends living past the 60th, you can stay in a hotel over 55 floors up (starts on the 56th), go to a bar on the 80th and sight-see from over 100 floors up.
You can then come down and take a taxi (or use the metro) to cross the river and walk along The Bund, past colonial buildings that were once banks and trading centres and are now 5 star hotels such as the Waldorf Astoria and michelin starred restaurants. Probably the beauty of Shanghai though is in it's variety, you can just pop into a backstreet (it's an incredibly safe city, more so than any town I've ever been to in the UK, and called the 'safest major city in the world'. I don't know if that true but it certainly feels like it - if you discount the traffic
) and be transported back 100 years, stroll around with a camera taking photos of people, houses and traditions such as street barbers, that have barely changed, all that is slowly disappearing though. The modernity is currently only a veneer and it is the fusion of modern, traditional, Chinese & Foreign (much of the architecture) that makes the city so alluring.As a photographer I love the place, for quality of life I prefer Hong Kong though. See some of my photos below (sorry for spamming the thread) !
And then you can drive/take the metro/train out of the urban centre into the suburbs, within an hour you can be in one of the ancient water-towns (there's one 10 mins from my home - 16 kms to my downtown office - and another within 45 mins) :
Qibao (10 mins from my home)
Wu Zhen (45 mins from my home)
3 shot panoramic
A lady (with her BF and friend) takes a rest from strolling the streets of WuZhen. Chinese girls love modern couture brands but when given the opportunity will often dress up in traditional clothing.
This is a HDR processed shot.
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Language barrier can be tough in the beginning but as others have said, most people in Shanghai have at least a little English. There's a huge expat community too so restaurants and stores etc are used to dealing with foreigners who can't speak any mandarin.
I've only been here for about 2 years now but my mandarin is improving all the time, I can hold a conversation reasonably well (depending on the topic) but I have a lot to learn still. I'm going to start studying it full time in a University here soon though which should help a lot. When it comes to learning a language, especially one as different as Mandarin, the best way to learn is being in the country and trying to communicate with the locals. I think it would be extremely difficult to learn it without coming here for at least a year or two, studying at home just isn't the same.
Many Chinese firms just need to get capital out of china. There are few better ways than spunking a large sum on Football players.
@Rafateria @Keenst thanks lads, I find the whole country fascinating and I'm loving hearing about it from expats. If I was a single man with no ties i think I'd be off too
Id be eternally grateful to China if they offered Rooney enough money to have him feck off this summer.
Lavezzi is their latest recruit.
http://www.theguardian.com/football...-psg-chinese-super-league-hebei-china-fortune
http://www.theguardian.com/football...-psg-chinese-super-league-hebei-china-fortune
I can't wait until Captain Fatastic leaves our club for China.. and the national media go apeshit about how the Chinese league is mercilessly recruiting all the world's best players.
@Rafateria Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.
They're giving European clubs a very easy way to balance their books when it comes to transfers.
I think we could sell them Balotelli for a decent % of what we signed him for.
I think we could sell them Balotelli for a decent % of what we signed him for.
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Cheers mate !
The team that Lavezzi is going to have only just been promoted. I wonder if some of these players know where they are going. Hebei Fortune are from Qinhuangdao which admittedly I don't know much about but it isn't going to be like Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou. I lived in a small city in Sichuan for 6 months 5 years ago and although it was a great experience it was hard work at times. A lot of people wouldn't or couldn't speak Mandarin to you let alone English, some people wouldn't sit next to me on the bus because I was a foreigner, there was very little to do at night other than go to KTV and the two fast food restaurants were the extent of western food. Most of the teams in the Super League are from big cities on the coast but I reckon Lavezzi might be in for a bit of a shock especially moving from Paris.
Do they think they've signed Messi or something?
Papers say he takes home 220k. Gyan is supposed to be taking home 230k...
As a communist country, does China not have a flat tax rate? This seems like 45%
As a communist country, does China not have a flat tax rate? This seems like 45%
He will get a huge house with all the entertainment he needs, spend about 3 years there while picking up $30m+ and feck off somewhere else to live a comfortable life. It's a sacrifice he can probably make. Still sucks having very little top level competitive football at 30 when you could have easily been playing for one of Europe's top clubs for 2-3 more years.
Oh yeah, no doubt, me comparing my situation to his is a bit silly given he isn't going to be getting on buses and is earning considerably more than me! You do hear a lot of stories about footballers not settling in different places and outside of the main cities here it isn't always the easiest place to live and some of them might struggle with that.
The Chinese league is not going to be competing for top players anytime soon I do not think.
They will continue to pay insane premiums for a fee decent to good players every transfer window - perhaps.
Hope they can take Rooney on a free!
They will continue to pay insane premiums for a fee decent to good players every transfer window - perhaps.
Hope they can take Rooney on a free!
More top players will be tempted with the kind of money that is being offered in China. This is going to drive the transfer market crazy with insane prices.