Don't moan, get used to it
After all the years I have spent straddling Chinese and Western spheres in Beijing - snacking on sketchy street food like a local or hunting down the perfect French manicure like a picky New Yorker - you would think I've gotten used to the cross-cultural complaints.
No. It still drives me a little cuckoo when expatriates "love-hate" on Beijing. I, too, am guilty of ragging on life in the capital sometimes, rolling my eyes to the ceiling as I describe to foreign friends how I toss my "poking your elbow into my rib isn't going to make this subway car any more spacious for either of us" look to aggressive commuters.
But some people never give it a break. From dowdy "Chinese fashion" to a dearth of fine blue cheeses, to them there are apparently so many things wrong with Beijing that it makes me want to ask, "Why don't you just move?"
