College grads looking to smaller cities for better lives

It’s that time of the year again, when university and college students are graduating and having to make decisions about where they are going to live and work.  In Yueyang, this almost always means that the best and brightest pack up their things and head for the ‘greener pastures’ of China’s big urban areas (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou).  According to recent surveys, that trend may be starting to change.

(Xinhua)  According to Beijing Evening News, an online survey found that 86 percent of college graduates would like to work in second-tier cities. Responding to the question of what would make them “flee” first-tier big cities, some 67 percent put the blame squarely on excessive living costs. Other factors included cut-throat competition in employment, high pressure in work and life, and hukou issues. In another survey, targeting the happiness index of middle-income families, those living in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, displayed below average levels of happiness. Contributing factors included high housing prices, heavy workload, poor traffic situation, and less time with their families. Among those surveyed, about 67 percent believed they might be happier in smaller cities.

Please pray for the college graduates of Yueyang.  Many are about to enter into the hopeless chase of materialism that China has embraced enthusiastically in the past couple of decades.  Ask that many of these students would find real hope and real fulfillment that is only found in Christ – not money, power or influence!