36-year-old left the U.S. for China—now pays $1,000 rent and $100 for groceries for family of 4: It's my 'version of the American Dream’

As a kid, I moved around a lot. I was born in California, but I've lived in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Montana and Oklahoma. I never had the chance to call anywhere "home" for too long. So if you'd told me back then that I'd end up in China, I would've laughed. I visited China for the first time in 2016. I was 27 years old and got a job as an English teacher in Shenzhen, a fast-growing tech hub just across the border from Hong Kong. I sold my car and used the money to buy a plane ticket from North Carolina. I had never been outside the U.S. before. Over the next four years, living in Asia gave me the chance to travel to places like Cambodia and Thailand. I loved traveling because it was a profound chance to test my courage and resilience, find meaning and expand my worldview. Today, I live in Shenzhen with my wife and our two kids. Here's why it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. 1. I met my wife and started a family My wife was born in Tahiti and both her parents are from China. When we met, she was working here as a French teacher. When the pandemic hit, we'd been living in China for three years and were on vacation in the U.S. With the borders closed, my wife and I decided to relocate to Tahiti to be closer to her parents. Five years later, we had two kids under five. There were parts of our life in Tahiti that we liked, but something was missing. China still felt like our true home and we returned to Shenzhen in June 2025. …