The living in Tianjin is very acceptable. This is a very modern city, one of the biggest in China (after Shanghai and Beijing I believe). It is possible to stay in the "western bubble" in Tianjin, because many expat work there, there is even Airbus industry building airplanes here, in addition, many western shop down town.
You can possibly live in Beijing and work in Tianjin, there is a train connection between the 2 cities, it takes only 30 minutes, the train travels at more than 300 KM/H and it is quite cheap.
Concerning the cost of living, it is quite cheap, but if you want to rent down town in the western part, the rent could reach the 500$-1000$ range easily.
Tianjin has some famous university, including an aviation university.
In China we drink water from bottles, maybe I have been here too long, but I don' t see it as a problem.
Concerning polution, even if Tianjin is close to the sea, the problem is the same as the remaining industrial part of China. Concerning the health risks due to the polution, that is your call, personnaly I guess I have accepted it, but I have no children... And I don' t really know the rate of cancer here, maybe it would be interesting to know...
I have been living in different cities north east China, and I found Tianjin nice, modern, quite "clean".
Now I cannot tell you wether it will be easy for you or not, it all depends on what you are looking for, and how much you are ready to accept a big change. Maybe coming here first for one week or two would be a good idea.
Concerning the flying, I don' t know in wich airline you will fly, but where I am I like it, the colleagues are nice.
Last edited by KAG; 24th Mar 2009 at 07:50.