This past week I was at a networking event and, with a writer for the Wall Street Journal, found myself discussing one of the eternal questions in China–why are we expats here? Why do we stay here?

Anyone who’s been to China knows this is not an easy or comfortable place to live. Dodging 1.3billion people and their spit as you walk down the street is certainly not everyone’s dream. The constant noise is definitely not soothing either. Personally, every time I go to Hong Kong, I let out a sigh of relief because I know I’m returning to civilization. Even many native Chinese wish they could leave.

Despite the many drawbacks and the certainty of suffering China Rage, many foreigners volunteer to come to China. Case and point, recently I received an email from my mom saying that her friend and 60-year old husband and sought a jobs working in a school in China and therefore were moving here in the middle of the summer!

Sure, China is mentioned on the news very frequently with stories discussing China’s growth or the government’s latest activities so recently all eyes and ears are focused on China. And as humans we’re tend to be curious about what we don’t know.

That’s fine, then why not book a week long trip to China? What induces people to move to China? And what keeps them here after they’ve fully experienced the ‘real’ China?

First, it’s true, not all of them stay. As people go through China Rage, aka Culture Shock (1.Honeymoon, 2.Rejection (everything is different just to spite you), 3.Adjusting, 4.Regression (fatigued with it all), 5.Final Adjustment) some do give up and just go home. Tom Peterson has a theory that people tend to give up on China after certain amounts of time; these being 7-8 months, 2-3 years, or 5years. If someone gets much beyond 5years, there’s a good chance they’ll be here for the long term. So if there’s all these forces dragging on people to go home and and certain time frames in which people are likely to say ‘I’ve had enough’ and just go home, why are there so many expats in China?

Estimates put the number of expats in China at around 300,000 in the working population and 350,000 in the student population. (Granted, some of that may be overlap as many students of Chinese also work teaching English, or French, or Spanish.) As a percentage of the population, that’s extremely small but in sheer numbers that’s fairly remarkable given the total situation.

One answer to the question, why are we here and why do we stay is, as I’ve always said, to make money. This is a very logical answer in a country with growth rates exceeding 10% annually and particularly in boom towns like Shenzhen or Shanghai. But what about the people who aren’t making money or making less money here than back at home or aren’t even trying to make money or in the case of some adult students I recently met, are spending more than they’re making??

Another idea I have, is that the vast history of China and complexity of the culture intrigues us. This offers just enough appeal to get us into China and once here we become drawn into the intricacies of the culture and society of which we are at once both captivated and confounded by. It could be that which keeps us here.

Another theory put forth by the WSJ writer is that China is like the Wild West (of America). We are reaching into a new frontier where anything and everything is to be explored. The rules are a little more bendable here than back home and therefore opportunities abound.

Newsweek’s theory in some respects combines both the idea of making money and the Wild West theory as well as adds on its own ideas.

Of course there must be other reasons why foreigners are in China and each individual is sure to have his own story, we were simply looking for theories to answer the question of why are we collectively here? Other thoughts and trackbacks (especially exact stats of the # of foreigners in China) are welcome.