Dave has been offered a years contract to work in China (Beijing) he has until wednesday to decide! its 30% more wages and all accomodation air fare and food paid for! if i was married to him they would pay my airfare over there! this is tearing me apart as we have several events happening in the next couple of months with Tiffany due to have our first grandchild and Ben going off to the Army in september. and other family events! but as we know jobs are harder and harder to come by so some sacrifices have to be made...so i will have to stay behind and continue alone. im sure it will pass quickly if he decides to accept but we have a lot of talking to do! has anyone got any advice?

If he'll have a job to come home to then I think he should go for it. If he's giving up a job to take it then I'd have to give it lots of thought. It could be the chance of a lifetime and very exciting.

he is being made redundent on 30th of this month so this is a factor.
he has had a lot of job interviews all over the place but has to wait to find out if he was succesful but time is against him.

Last year my husband spent a lot of time working in Beijing and to be honest he hated it. He has always traveled a lot with his work to many countries around the world , but he found the cultural differences in China very hard.One thing he found difficult especially being starred at and accosted by prostitutes when he went anywhere. Also the work culture is very different, he was working on a contract his company won in China and he found many of their working practices difficult as they seem to be designed to slow work down(that may have been that particular company though). Also very few Chinese speak any English so communication is difficult and there is not an expat community as such in Beijing so until you can speak the language it can be quite isolated unless you stay in the more tourist areas (he was in an apartment away from the tourist area).

He also found the food difficult to cope with partly because he has a nut allergy and gluten intolerance so he needs to know what he is eating. When he traveled outside Beijing to other sites for work the facilities are very basic and hygiene virtually nonexistent in food preparation. 
On the plus side there is a Walmart and one of the big French supermarkets in Beijing so it is easy to get bread etc  but it is very expensive the same as milk and other basics apart from that living there would not be very expensive. Travel is very cheap compared to what we are used to.

But to be honest the whole experience for him out there was such that rather than do another 2 years over there he decided to change jobs and is now going to the States  on a regular basis. There were more negatives than positives for my husband working in China but that is just his experience if you decide to go ahead with it it may be very different for your husband

Dave has spent a lot of time working in Taipai, singapore and India in the last year so is ok with different cultures languages etc and spent a long time in the army travelling and living in other countries so he is probably more used to it
he will be working with Italians and english and swedish engineers so it wont be so bad for him as it will be like having an ex pat community around him at all times. the food and apartment will all be paid for and his wages will increase by 30% so plenty to send home for me to spend lol
In india he was accosted by beggers(children aged around 5) and in Taipai he came across prostitutes and also singapore but you learn to ignore them he said.
Dave would not work in America he doesnt like the place at all so this is probably the only option if Dubai dont get back to him in time!
whatever he decides i am sure we will be ok and i will have my new grandson to occupy me! and we could fly half way to each other and spend a week on holiday there! which if my calculation is correct would be Aphganistan lol!
fingers crossed it works out well x