The foreigners flee

For the first time in seven years China can breathe again, and that's no intentional pun on the air pollution. As far as everyone is concerned, the Olympics has been pulled off without so much as a streaker or free Tibet shriek (that I know of), which makes us all over here very proud indeed.

For most of the locals, and expats especially, we were more than happy to cart off the billion squillion tourists to the airport and back to their own country, so that we can have our bars, malls and taxis back to our self-centered selves. But now they've gone the city feels kind of lost. Despite the fact that the Paralympics has only just begun, the excitement and buzz has disappeared, and a lot of the people are asking themselves, "so what's next?"

Expats are leaving, having run out of excuses to stay in China, and new expats are finding it harder and harder to get jobs in China thanks to a new employment law limiting job offers to foreigners who are already living, and have been living in china, for at least two years. It's also becoming a requirement for those foreigners to be fluent in mandarin. After all, who needs a foreigner to do the job when each year more and more Chinese are returning from abroad with top qualifications, able to speak both Mandarin and English and willing to accept a lower salary than your average foreigner?

Gone are the carefree times for the expats, and things are becoming serious. The expats that remain, myself included, are upping their mandarin classes, and doing grown-up things, like marrying their chinese boyfriends and girlfriends. Calm down, Dad, i'm not married yet!