China’s census results have been released. Besides numbers that verify the slowing of China’s population growth and the migration of people to cities, as well as that there are lots of migrant workers, the most interesting and relevant bit of information (for me) was that there are 107,445 laowai in Beijing. And I’m one of them!

Beijing has the third-most foreigners in China, after Guangdong and Shanghai. Actually, Shanghai has almost twice as many foreigners than Beijing, and Guangdong has more than 316,000. Still, it’s a pretty sizable number. This was somewhat surprising to me, until I remembered that not every foreigner in China is a white guy. In Guangdong, where many of China’s factories are, many foreigners are from Southeast Asia looking for opportunities. So a point that I cannot emphasis enough: China, like the U.S. once was (and still is!), has become a land of opportunities.