What they say

A lot of the infrastructure in China is really up-to-date, so in that sense it's quite modern and safe. It doesn't seem to have any problems with drugs, drunkenness, street violence or anything like that. I feel quite safe here. If I have been on a night out, I will quite happily walk around until I find a taxi.

Alex East, 23, from Suffolk, United Kingdom, moved to Beijing in October

In my experience, Beijing is a very safe city, much more so than the countries in the West that I've lived in. In terms of safety, violent crime is not something that I've seen to be very common here. At least in my experience, violence is generally quite rare. Theft is another story. For instance, many of my friends have had their bike batteries or bicycles stolen.