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At the end of the 20s, Ales Lightyear worked in reality television production and lived in New York, which, in her opinion, was her dream.
“In the midst of my career in New York I probably earned $ 100,000 a year (and), working eight months a year, which sounds great on paper, but New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so $ 100,000 went very quickly,” says Licteyear.
“I spent all my money, going outside and buying clothes so I could be fashionable and feel that I lived in” Sox “and the city” New York -Siti “.
As it approached the 30th anniversary, Lightyear realized that it was still working from 70 to 80 hours a week, but did not have a retirement savings. And since she was a freelancer, she had no benefits and health insurance.
Aleese Lightyear left New York and moved to Beijing in 2019.
Alesia Laiter
“I had to save on these things. I lived a check to check what I sucked out. The last few years of life and work in New Yar were some of the most tense years of my life,” she says.
“I came up with this idea that I wanted to leave New York because I got tired of working 70 hours a week for ten years. After getting in the 20s, I felt like a 50-year-old woman.”
One day Lightyyear woke up and looking: “How do I make money and travel the world?” The first result was about teaching English. After talking to an employee who taught in South Korea, Lightyear began to explore what would entail to teach abroad without prior experience.
“I kind of paused because I was just not sure if it was right for me. I took about two years to decide that I wanted to become a teacher,” she says. “Google told me I just needed a TEFL certificate to teach students in an English language, so I recorded.”
Lightyear has completed a 13-week program to earn your English language teaching as a foreign language certification (TEFL), initially setting its sights on South America. However, she quickly changed the course, deciding that when she was going to leave her life in New York, she would go as possible.
“When I am going to move the whole world, I better go to the distant country I absolutely do not know anything, and I have a complete adventure, and China just seemed a clean adventure, fun, excitement and great money,” says Laliaer.
“I am the one who traveled a lot but I had never been in Asia before, so I didn’t know what to expect and, frankly, my first days were just a huge blur because there was so much cultural shock.”
Lightyear spent years working on the reality of television production in New York.
Alesia Laiter
At the time, Lightyear, 31, in 2019 made its official move to Beijing, China – and it did not look back. She lived in the Chinese capital for four years before she moved to Chengdu where she is a teacher at the university. Lightyear works 18 hours a week, four days a week and has an annual salary of about $ 30,000.
“30,000 dollars a year is poverty in America, but in China I live great,” she says.
Her typical working week is completely different than New York. In China, it works on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, offering two -three classes a day. Some of its advantages include free health insurance, travel scholarships, rent scholarships, flight assistance and two months of paid summer and winter vacations.
Lightyear cut the salary when she left the work in Beijing for one in Chengdu. But her life in Beijing began to feel too similar to her time in New York, so she doesn’t regret it.
“I didn’t move the whole world to work as much as in New York,” she says.
“My current working life balance is a dream. I can have time to make so many different hobbies to find the time to actually learn the language and do whatever I want, and it feels amazing. I just feel so lucky and glad to have so much time.”
Lightyear says he spends about $ 75 on products every month.
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In Chengdu Lightyear lives in a pre -laid out three -room apartment with one bathroom with a balcony and laundry. From the Scholarship Scholarship, the Lightyear should pay only $ 278 a month for housing.
Lightyear complements its profits as a teacher creating content and active YouTube channels. Both of these things allow it to save up to $ 1,000 a month. That’s what she never was able to do in the USA
Lightyear complements its teacher’s salary when creating content.
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Now that she lives in China for more than five years, says the lights when she visits the US, she feels a back culture. She almost always needs to explain to friends, family and strangers why her life is much better than before.
“For a typical American, there is a lot of confusion and misinformation that China is really such a life, but I feel completely safe as a woman like a color, being independent, doing anything. I feel very calm in this country,” she says.
Although in China it feels comfortable, Licroyear says that since the country is as uniform as the color of the color, it “sticks out like a painful thumb” and it sometimes bothers her.
“I probably can’t go on an hour while on the street without pointing to me and said that in Chinese” there is a black man, look, there is a foreigner, “she says.
Lightyear says her confidence has intensified after life in China.
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Despite these uncomfortable moments and the time it will take to adapt to the Chinese culture, Licroyear says her confidence has soared.
“I still face a lot of problems (and), there are so many things I still don’t imagine, and at the beginning it was the most difficult,” she says. “You know the saying that if you can do it in New York, you can do it anywhere? Well, throw it out and apply it to China. If you can do it in China, you can really do it anywhere. I feel fearless and how nothing can do.”
Conversions from Chinese Yuan to USD have been made using the Oand Convert 0.14 July 3, 2025. All sums are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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