Italian explorer Marco Polo spent 17 years working in the court of Kublai Khan's China, but today most foreigners seeking to live and work in the country aren't looking for the same time-invested cultural exchange. "It's the place to make money," explained Aynura Askerova, a Russian who has lived in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou for four years. Work as a fashion model has taken Askerova across China and the rest of Asia, but "now it's time to find a real career," she said last month, in an overly-illuminated hotel conference room in the city's China Marriott Hotel. Like hundreds of other visitors from across the world, the graduate in software development from Kazan State University was there for the Jobs Fair for Foreigners; one of three annual events organized by the Chinese government, where expats get a rare chance to meet prospective employers face-to-face.
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For foreigner graduates it is increasingly hard to find jobs and develop careers
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Guangzhou's annual jobs fairs for foreigners attracts hundreds from overseas looking for employment
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Around 7 million Chinese graduates enter the jobs market each year
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Still lots of opportunities for those expats with established skills
"At a market in @placeholder you're expected to haggle and that applies in some way to job negotiations.