🇨🇳 China doable for digital nomads?

Welcome to the Freaking Nomads Newsletter, your weekly dose of stories, insights, tools, and opportunities for digital nomads and remote workers building a life without borders.

Hey Freaking Nomads,

Over the years, I've spent time as a digital nomad in different parts of China, like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Zhangjiajie, and Dali.

But the country is basically more of a continent, and a two-hour flight there can land you somewhere that feels completely different.

So I went back. This time looking for provinces that are lesser known, somewhere I could actually live slowly and work in peace instead of stressing in a big city.

I ended up in Guizhou province.

I hadn't heard much about Guizhou before this trip. Now I can't stop talking about it.

It's genuinely beautiful, karst mountains folded right into the city itself. It's also one of the most affordable places I've been in China (and around the world). A full meal, easily, costs $2 to $3, while a great hotel room will cost you around $12 a night.

And the coffee scene. I did not expect an inland province to have this many good, independent coffee shops to work from, but here we are.

So, the question I get more than almost any other: is China actually doable for digital nomads?

My answer is yes.

Once you're set up, it's smooth and kinda comfy. You need Alipay or WeChat (English translation is built in now) to pay for stuff, Amap instead of Google Maps, and a VPN plus a working eSIM. We wrote up exactly how to set that combo up, and tested a few options along the way: our full eSIM comparison, plus reviews of Holafly and Airalo specifically for China.

Once that's sorted, China might be one of the easiest countries I've nomaded in. It's extremely safe. The infrastructure is very developed. You can get almost everywhere on high-speed trains, and public transport works efficiently even in smaller places.

China is the new digital nomad frontier, in my opinion. It reminds me of what people say about Thailand in the 80s, before anyone else got there.

I'd rather be early.

Have you nomaded in China? Which province should I go explore next? Hit reply and tell me!

Irene

Who is hiring this week? Here are some top roles to check out:

Weird thing nobody tells you about this lifestyle is you can be fully location independent and still get tripped up by a piece of paper.

A bank wants to send something "to your address on file." Except you don't really have one anymore. Or you do, technically, it's your parents' house, and now your mom is texting you photos of an envelope that says URGENT on it in red letters.

Traveling Mailbox gets you a real US street address, and everything that shows up there gets scanned and dropped into an app, so you can actually see what it is before deciding it's worth caring about.

Get started with Traveling Mailbox

🙏 Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend who might like it and help us spread the word. This would help us a lot to spread the word about it!

💖 Join our Community Hub! Discover & review digital nomad places, find workspaces, track your countries and connect with like-minded people who are nomading just like you → Create your profile for free here.

📚 Want more digital nomad guides? Read our articles on all things nomad, including travel tips, budgeting & finance, legal and taxes, community, productivity and more.

If you haven't already, you can also follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads for more no-BS digital nomad content (and plenty of memes!)

We'll see you there, Freaking Nomads 👋