The Good Life, China Style

Executives today have it good: a big salary, palatial home, good schools for the kids, world-class restaurants and a wide range of entertainment options.

That kind of luxury life isn’t just available in Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo, though. Beijing and Shanghai have emerged as cities that offer top expatriate managers a cushy, cosmopolitan existence.

Yes, there’s the serious problem of air pollution and some missing creature comforts. For example, at a Starbucks near one high-end housing enclave in Beijing, the bathroom isn’t in the store. You have to walk outside to an unheated facility.

But that Starbucks will give you your gourmet coffee fix. And a few doors down is one of the Jenny Lou’s markets in town, where you can buy cheese and bread, wine from all over the world, and liquors as fancy as Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch whisky.

Private schools in Beijing and Shanghai cater to expatriate families. There are a multitude of high-end restaurants. The Beijing Golf Club—one of a number of courses in Beijing and Shanghai—boasts of its view of the Great Wall.

You can catch classical and jazz concerts, even some rock ’n’ roll. Eric Clapton recently played Shanghai.

The quality of life is such that expatriates’ pay in China is coming under scrutiny. Like many expats, U.S. executives in China typically make more than their counterparts at home, thanks to a number of factors. These include reimbursements for children’s school tuition and "hardship pay" for living in a difficult place.

Like the hardships of golf, jazz and premium whisky?

"Companies are becoming smarter about how they manage expats in China," says Eric Fiedler, consulting firm Hewitt's regional director for the Asia-Pacific region. "Shanghai is really no longer a hardship posting."