Nanjing Expat is conducting a year-long survey throughout 2015 that aims to capture an accurate snapshot of the foreign community in Nanjing.
In the interests of transparency and to assist community groups and any interested persons, full results of the survey shall be published at year end, while at the end of each quarter a summary of interesting and relevant findings is also being presented.
Here, at the end of quarter 1, some surprising trends have already emerged in the 2015 Big Nanjing Expat Survey. For starters, while we have long known that expats in Nanjing are two a penny in Xianlin and Xinjiekou, that many are also now choosing to live in the Hexi new part of the city has come as a pleasant eye opener. 19 percent of survey repondents reside in Xianlin with Hexi and Xinjekou each in second place on 17 percent each.
Elsewhere, it is common knowledge that a lot of foreigners in Nanjing are teachers. Want to know exactly how many? 38 percent, to be precise. As regards how other professions are represented, it appears more and more expats are finding Nanjing’s environment conducive to starting their own business; some 14 percent of survey respondents claim to be entrepreneurs. Rounding out the top three foreign professions in Nanjing come the ever-present engineers, at 11 percent.
The survey has also shed light on the much made-of male-female divide that exists as a whole among foreigners in China. In Nanjing, that divide is represented by the 38-62 percent in favour of the men, as revealed in the survey.
Saving perhaps the best for last, for this quarter, it seems as if Nanjing’s expats are happily a green, environmentally-minded bunch. Almost a quarter of us (24 percent) have stated that the metro is their primary form of transport; no doubt having a bilingual user friendly system is a big influencer here, with 22 percent of us choosing to ride a bike to and from work every day. Moving onto the top three secondary forms of transport, foot and ebike come in tops (22 percent each) followed by public bus (19 percent).
Nanjing Expat looks forward to revealing more insights into the survey as we pass the half-year mark at the end of quarter 2, and would like to thank all survey participants, many of whom were by way of thanks also winners of vouchers for hairdressing, dinners and overnight stays thanks to sponsors, V-Salon, Origin and Best Bond. Prizes continue to be on offer to participants; click here to do the 2015 Big Nanjing Expat survey, and a good chance of being a winner!
