So, I’ve still got my stable job in Shanghai and just came to Beijing for part of my summer wandering trip.” But it’s just that kind of wandering that gives birth to a nomadic curiosity. “I’m a teacher just enjoying summer pay right now which lets me do this long trip. Take for example Elaine Zhou, who I originally at the US Embassy in Beijing – She’s from Chicago and has only been in China for 6 months, and she says she doesn’t consider herself a digital nomad just yet, but in less than a week of knowing her, she had already been in a handful of hostels meeting different people, been couch surfing in Beijing, Hebei, and Qingdao, and even made a few other day trips to other cities in between. Given that it’s such a loose term, though, many Beijingers, particularly foreigners who, by their nature tend to have at least somewhat of a traveling bone in their body, often end up riding the line between full-timer and digital nomad with a Beijing base. CGTN even aired a segment that talked about different types of Digital Nomads and their lifestyles, suggesting that China is no exception to this global trend. Though others may not be toting as many bags around as me, the nomadic lifestyle is becoming a trend in many waysIt goes by other names as well: Full-timing, Global nomad, Teleworking, and Outworking. I try to keep my gym bag with me often, because I have a much higher chance of going to the gym if I have my gym stuff with me and if I am going to be teaching yoga, I also need my mat. My second bag is usually my gym bag, which will substitute as a small travel bag if I’m on the road, in the sky, or on a train. If I only have one bag with me, it is usually my briefcase, which is really my mobile office with computer, calendar, notebook, and a book or magazine. I often laugh at myself when I travel and realize that I sometimes carry just about as much daily supplies that I bring with me for short international trips, or lately just visiting different cities in China. Some may call it overpacking, while I look at it as being prepared. In my own coffee shop life and workstyle, I often think that people might even mistake me for a vagabond when they see me in a coffee shop with 2 bags and my yoga mat. “And even though most of my work can be done from my couch, or the many different cool coffee shops in the area, if I choose to go out, I still have offline activities and cultural scenes available to me.” “I can still always meet many interesting people,” she tells me. She told me, that the upside of the lifestyle, is that she can always manage to keep the company of others working in creative industries – one advantage of keeping a home base like Beijing. For the past 6 years she has been back and forth between Beijing and the US. Caiwei Chen, a journalist, writer, consultant (multiple job titles are common among the nomadic) who is originally from Hubei. I reached out to some other part-time Beijingers who embrace the digital nomad lifestyle and found that I’m not alone in thinking that it has its advantages. Nearly all of my adult life, I’ve fit somewhere within this definition, and being in and around Beijing for about the past 5 years, learning from and experiencing all the city has to offer, I’ve nonetheless been able to stay mobile while making Beijing a home base of sorts. That’s especially the case if we consider the definition of digital nomad to include those of us who regularly alternate between cities, as well as those who root their main work in the capital without rooting their feet here, leaving themselves to roam the country (or, when COVID is over, the world) at any time they please. This specimen of working traveler can often be found dwelling, at least for a time, in the metropolises of the globe – including Beijing. And yet, a decamillennium later, the combination of global transit and hyperspeed communication technology has given rise to a new kind of nomad: the digital nomad. We humans have come a long way from our nomadic days, wandering the plains in pursuit of wild animals without any land to call our own.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |