Reddit reviews Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China

I've fantasized about living on a mountain in China and doing my own thing for a while now. It's possible, but it probably isn't what you expect or really want.

Can't think of a great way to organize this, so:

Don't ignore or downplay the "legal" aspect. I've visited small towns in China. You attract an enormous amount of attention in small towns by the virtue of your being foreign. If you demonstrate a capacity and willingness to do good works, you might be accepted and ignored. It's more likely that you'll be subject to a lot of scrutiny - on your visa, on your income, on your personal life. You might not be blatantly kicked out of a city - though that does happen - but you'd probably have a lot of little nuisances and harassments. Tough to find a place to rent, tough to find a hotel that will take you. Your local friends and love interests may be taken in for questioning or subject to vicious gossip. That sort of thing. Even if you are accepted and ignored by the current officials and your neighbors like you, who knows when a new hard-line administrator will strut into town and want to change things up?

Now, that's a view of the day-to-day assuming income and visas aren't a problem. They are. China doesn't grant a lot of long-term visas and the visas that are out there are usually tied to an employer or a school or a sponsor. Who are you going to find that's willing to stick their neck out for you so that you can roll down mountains of tea and read the classics?

So, yeah. You're probably best off going in with a legit program. Find an organization in your country and in your field that works in China and ask about the opportunities there. Once you're on the ground, you may find some way to make it all work for yourself. Or you may find that you aren't all that enamored with China and are fine with having just stayed a year or two. Who knows?

Bonus: read Oracle Bones if you haven't already. It's vaguely related to anthropology and it's as close as you can get to living in China without being there. If you get a few pages in and nothing makes sense, try River Town by the same author first and then come back to Oracle Bones.

Alternative: If you're American, you know that you can just buy a plot of land up in Nebraska or North Dakota for like $1,000 an acre, right? Set up one of those energy-efficient siding houses or something and you can hermit it up all you want.

Addendum: China is often said to have a pretty materialistic culture. Your telling people that you want to live simply in a rural area won't necessarily impress the locals. Expect a lot of bemused looks, some straight-up bewilderment and dismay at your choices ("You had it all! You're throwing your life away!") and even some derision behind your back.

Here is a controversial one:
When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques.
Not that I agree 100% with author, but there are plenty of thought provoking arguments that the author makes about the rise of China that are new and refreshing. I highly recommend it for any Sinophiles (although a vast majority of them have probably already read the book).
For a much less serious and more historical book, please check out Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler. I read this book for my East Asian History class for school, and it focuses more on culture and language than economics and politics.