Apparently there are 180,000 foreign workers in China. That’s 54,608 in Shanghai, 30,484 in Beijing and 6,800 in Guangzhou.
Of course, you have to wonder how they measured this. Are they including those of us registered as foreign experts, or only those with an “Alien Employment Certificate” or whatever weird work permit-y thing I had when I was at BeiGongDa? And are they including people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as “foreign workers”? Technically, they’re not foreigners, and that applies to Taiwanese no matter what side of the fence you stand on. And I’m wondering why the number is so incredibly low for Guangzhou. Isn’t the Pearly Delta one of China’s richest areas, attracting a vast amount of foreign investment? Shouldn’t that translate into a much larger number of foreign workers?
