[Reminder]
This is the third episode of a series I will frequently update, in order to share my ongoing experience and try to answer some of these questions:
What is a Tier 2 city and how is it to live in one of them? Answered here
How is it like to live in China as a foreigner / a French citizen? Answered here
Does China still have the power to make you rich? Has she ever had it? Answered here
Is the language/culture barrier difficult?
Is there a big difference between Shanghai, Beijing, and the rest of China? What about Hong Kong?
What is my daily/weekly/monthly routine: what I eat, do I miss French food, what are my favourite Chinese food, etc…

Anecdote: When I first came to China, I quickly noticed how useless the English language can be in China, compared to other countries.
I remember very well a particular story: I was travelling with a friend, and we decided to go see this famous “Shanghai Bund”, the Shanghai skyline. We stopped several taxis, and none were able to take us to our destination as they didn’t understand where we wanted to go.
Who could imagine that a Parisian taxi has never heard of the Eiffel Tower? Even in English, I put my hand to cut that the driver would understand what it is.
Today I know that Bund is an unknown foreign word to say “WaiTan” but at the time, we couldn’t believe it.
I have never checked since, but I think if I got into a taxi in Shanghai and said “The bund please”, I would experience exactly the same situation, 7 years later.

Yes, China has a deep history and decided to say stop to foreign influences on its country about 70 years ago. It is a country with deep-rooted traditions, among which the Chinese language forms a pillar with food and traditional medicine.
Chinese people do not share many of the Western views.
Why should they, after all?
It is a country that has 3000 years of history, a rich heritage, a huge territory that provides it with most of its necessary resources. Of course, China needed and still needs the West but always managed to find its needs without sacrificing its DNA too much.

But back to the main question: Is it difficult? I think the answer comes in three stages:
1.The first visit/installation: It’s difficult
2.The first months and the first year: You think that it should be ok, after all
3.The years that followed: In fact, it’s really difficult

1. The first visit/installation:
   At that time, I basically couldn’t ask a taxi to bring me back home. after a few weeks, I had the feeling that it would be difficult to be autonomous in this country.
2. The first months, the first year
   Finally, the human being has this ability to adapt himself to foreign and unknown environments. China is no exception, I quickly integrated automatisms and was able to evolve in the city. I quickly learned micro-basis of Chinese, allowing me to understand phrases that I heard regularly, then learned to answer those, and then little by little to build bits of sentences myself.
   I felt like: It would be ok and not so difficult to speak Chinese
3. The years that followed, until today
   In reality, the cultural and linguistic barrier in China is much greater than I thought.

Here are the major specificities I notice in my daily life in China. Some are more difficult to handle than others, but I also believe that every country has pros and cons, and in the end, it is just a matter of balancing.

Language-wise: China is a very easy country, thanks to the multiple services available, especially digital ones: from food delivery to booking a hotel, calling a taxi or travelling by subway: hundreds of cheap services make your life simpler. The only problem is: it usually requires the Chinese language. And this is a country generality. Apart from the upscale hotels in big cities (and even there, not everyone always speaks English), you need to deal with Mandarin whatever you do.

Obviously, not understanding your surroundings creates a distance and great incomprehension that distort impressions and feed the apriorism. I have noticed in my circle that the people who speak the least Chinese are also those who are least integrated into the local life.
Learning Chinese teaches you a lot about the logic and behaviour of the country and its habitants.

The problem is that the language is difficult to learn and requires a lot of effort and time from the learner. I, therefore, understand the huge majority of my expat friends who doesn’t speak a word of Mandarin. Even myself, after almost 4 years, can’t enjoy 100% of the available services, and usually require my wife to help me.

Culture-wise: It is very long to explain, but to make it simple: we don’t live the same way in China than in Europe, that is for sure. Some specificities include the following points, but are far to be limited to this:

Community: This is a central aspect of Chinese culture, and the way society operates even today. Many Chinese have shown me that Western culture is much more focused on the individual, where Chinese society is articulated in community and social groups (neighbours, colleagues, family, …). I do not completely disagree with that view, although I find that in many situations the Chinese people show egoistic behaviour, and tend to apply the rule “first arrived first served” rule abusively.

Privacy and intimacy: these words sound differently in Chinese ears. To give an example, it is absolutely not embarrassing for Chinese parents to ask their daughter when she will have a child. I have also been surprised many times in the work situation, about how public the salary of everyone is: In many companies, everyone knows how much money makes the other.

Noise disturbance: This also part of the two previous points. Chinese society is a society that is full of life, and most Chinese will not be offended by the noise caused by their apartment neighbours or in transport. I do.

Children and Education: Priorities in the education of Chinese child are fundamentally different than in the West. No expenditure is considered too large (within the means available of course) in education and resources for the kids. The Chinese parents I know invest without limit in their child: private lessons, sports, music, travel, learning a new language. It is the top priority for parents, and the whole family contributes to it.
Children are generally spoiled and are used to being the centre of attention. Their education involves little constraint regarding the rest of society, their main mission being to get good grades and learn as much as they can.

That’s my impressions of everyday life, culture and language barriers. Again, I would like to point out that I am presenting things as I see them, but it should not be taken as a generality. Disparities in the country are substantial.
I write as a spectator and do not allow myself in any way to make a judgment. China has its rules and it is our role as foreigners to adapt to the country and not the other way around.