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Dongguan, the Place We Love to Hate or Hate to Love

While talking with my expat friends in Dongguan, the question comes to my mind is Dongguan a place that we just love to hate?  

Of course in a way we love to hate the place, there is plenty to complain about.  There’s dirty air, atrocious traffic, the fact that a vast majority of us foreigners can’t speak or read the language, lack of entertainment other than the usual 2 girls and one guy playing keyboard band that plays oldies, and extremely slow ADSL speeds.  And when is Dongguan Cable going to at least add Star TV in English?   

But, believe it or not, things have gotten MUCH better in the last few years.  Take living quarters for example.  When many of us first came to Dongguan, the only place to live was the Silverland Hotel.  Of course it did have the town’s only western restaurant and you had a choice of steak or spaghetti Bolognese, just don’t eat the spaghetti two nights in a row or else you were looking for problems.  Entertainment was on the 5^th floor, the usual band as mentioned earlier.  There was the “M” floor and the quiet lounge on the 28^th floor.  One good thing was that almost all the expats in town stayed there, and the most difficult thing was finding which one of the 3 floors everyone was on.  

Now, there’s a multitude of choices of places to live, from the concrete canyons of New World Garden to the high rise gardens of Moon Bay Garden, to the mid levels of  East Town Center to name a few.  That’s just the Dongcheng area; other complexes are springing up in other areas of town also. 

Food used to be another problem, for western food, the aforementioned restaurant at the Silverland was about it.  Now, although there still isn’t a good old American style restaurant in Dongguan, there area some options for western food such as Rhine Castle, plus other more exotic venues such as Jewel of India for Indian cuisine, and Sahara for Middle Eastern Cuisine.  Of course there’s Bacci, Chino Latino and the Sheraton Hotel for some quite good Italian food.  I could go on, but you get the idea.    

Shopping has gotten better too, from the time when JR market across the street from the Silverland was the main shopping stop, to now with no less than 3 shopping malls within walking distance of Moon Bay Garden, and another 2 to open up in the next 3 months.  Egad, there are even rumors that Starbuck’s is opening a branch here!  And for western groceries, there’s the No 1 market and Oliver’s.  By the time you combine the two, you can get about all the western groceries available in this part of the world.  

So, even though there’s a lot to dislike, things have sure improved in the last few years, and other than the pollution and traffic, things will continue to improve from what I see.  Just remember the “Good Old Days” in Dongguan, and be thankful they’re not still here.