Dajia Picks

Based in Guangzhou, I asked a Didi driver about the numbers: car rental is 3,200/month, charging costs around 1,000, and after running 12+ hours a day, gross daily revenue is about 300 — roughly 4,000–5,000 per month. No social insurance, no benefits, and I’d pay rent and utilities out of pocket.

So it makes more sense to buy a car instead. Renting at over 3,000 is a bad deal. If I keep car payments under 3,000/month, I’m ahead — at least the car ends up being mine.

It can be so precarious that if you let your guard down even slightly and make a wrong choice—such as becoming addicted to gambling, trying to take out loans, losing your job in middle age, or breaking the law—you could spiral onto an entirely different life path from which it's very hard to get back on track.

Twenty Years After the Gaokao: The Real Life Stories of 50+ Classmates From the Same Key High School