American retiree Jim Bryant lives in Beijing where he refits CJ750 sidecar motorcycles with BMW motors at his shop Jimbo's Sidecars. Todd Balazovic / China Daily

BEIJING - Most Americans dream of retiring on the Florida coast or in the quiet countryside, but a growing number are looking East to spend their golden years of retirement in China where their nest eggs will last a little longer.

For 56-year-old American Jim Bryant, who's lived in Beijing for almost three decades, sandy shores and leisurely strolls on a golf course are far from desirable.

"I've been here 30 years, I don't have anywhere else to call home," the former New Hampshire resident said.

China's draw for Bryant and others looking East for their golden years is the opportunity to live an adventurous and laidback lifestyle while making retirement savings last longer. Though the number of foreigners looking to retire in China is not currently being tracked, anecdotally speaking, foreigners already in China say the count is rising.

"There's everything here in Beijing that you want and usually it's more affordable," Bryant said. "Housing is a hell of a lot cheaper."

Bryant's long-term residency, Chinese spouse and home ownership in Beijing makes it relatively easy for him to get a visa. But for many Americans looking to retire in China, the challenges of overcoming visa restrictions bar them from enjoying an unhurried retirement. Often this results in would-be retirees having to pick up low-paying teaching jobs that support visas or finding ways around the system.

"They want to fly below the radar," Bryant said. "There would be a lot more people retiring here if they could get visas to live here without working."

Bryant, who brought the Subway sandwich franchise to China in the late 1990s, retired from his business in 2005.

He now lives in a quiet suburban home with his wife and child in the Shunyi district on the outskirts of Beijing where he operates Jimbo's Classic Sidecars, a customization shop, as a hobby.

But while some like Bryant look to retirement as a time to relax without working, Doc McCoy, a 59-year-old American living in Nantong, Jiangsu province, said working through retirement is one of the main reasons he started his retirement career in China nine years ago.

"I am not your typical retiree - I cannot just sit around and be a perpetual tourist or sit at home and do little of nothing," he said.

McCoy stays active in his "semi-retired" lifestyle as the lead foreign teacher at Nantong University School of Business. He also posts to his tongue-in-cheek blog, oldcodger.org.

Living in the second-tier coastal city on a monthly wage of 4,450 yuan ($700), McCoy works 10 hours a week, seven months a year. He has basic medical insurance and his yearly payments are equal to the monthly amount he'd pay in the United States.

For him, returning to the US would be almost impossible, he said.

"It would be impossible for me to live on the equivalent of $700 per month in the States despite owning a mortgage-free home there," he said. "It would also be impossible to find a job that allows me to work only 10 hours a week, seven months a year that would allow me to live a 'middle-class' lifestyle. Going back to working a 40-hour week with one or two weeks a vacation a year is not an appealing thought."

But should McCoy ever stop his employment at the university, maintaining his residency in China may become problematic.

Without work sponsorship, the only obtainable visa is an L tourist visa, meaning that retirees would have to leave the country every two months to renew their visas, said Wendy Wang, visa immigration specialist at American-based Allied Pickfords relocation services.

But for those over 60 years old, even teaching jobs are unobtainable due to China's current visa structure, she said.

"If people are more than 60 years old, it's very, very hard to find a job. There are almost no employers that will offer a sponsorship," she said. "Even if they have an employer's sponsorship it's hard for them to apply for a work permit."

While retiring foreigners currently face many challenges obtaining long-term visas in China, those who have worked in the country for more than 15 years will soon be able to start collecting a pension, according to a policy introduced earlier this month by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

"They will be able to collect money they have put in over the years after they retire," said Tang Jun, a social policy researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

But even as policy begins shifting in favor of aging foreign residents, retirement homes geared toward Western retirees have yet to be established in China.

"As of yet, there are no foreign senior housing players in the Chinese market," said Tuscon Dunn, CEO of Hanovera Healthcare Management, which provides hospital and senior care management and consulting services in China and Asia.

Dunn tried launching a foreign retirement service, American-based Silver Age International, in Beijing in 2005. He said shortly before construction was planned, land developers who carried clout in the local community bought the land and investors pulled out.

He said there has been a massive rise in interest in retirement homes for both foreigners looking to retire in China and Chinese nationals.

"Many seniors dream of having their own apartments in a senior living village," he said. "This is now a financial goal of many families."

Though there are no official retirement facilities for Westerners in China, online communities and travel forums are awash with foreign retirees offering advice to those looking to come East.

One website, Retire-in-Xiamen.com, launched by Singaporean Ken Zhong, caters to foreigners from abroad looking to retire in China's coastal provinces. Zhong, who said he is more than a decade away from retiring, launched the community after he began searching for his own ideal retirement location.

For Zhong, the small city of Changtai, just outside Xiamen in Fujian province, was the perfect spot.

"It had what I wanted. A modern apartment out in the countryside. But modern amenities within the development," he wrote in a blog on the website. "I bought an apartment immediately."

Zhong wasn't the only one interested in capitalizing on Xiamen's easy, countryside lifestyle. After creating a website showcasing the location, he was overwhelmed from people overseas asking questions about the area.

"It attracted membership from all over the world, including many Westerners, many of whom may have a Chinese spouse, worked in China previously or are very interested in Chinese culture," he said.

The site now has more than 150 members, a majority of which come from the US, Canada and Singapore.

"Frankly, I am a little surprised that Caucasian and USA/Canadian Chinese formed the largest interest group," he said.

But for McCoy in Nantong, the blooming overseas interest is alarming.

"My sincere hope is that people will overlook retiring in China," McCoy said.

"Westerners seem to be prone to bringing their attitudes and lifestyles with them as opposed to making a sincere effort to assimilate into the culture of their host country."

It's the difficulty to adapt to the new culture and language that McCoy said provides the biggest hurdle for aged-Americans looking to retire in a different country.

"Chinese culture can be extremely complicated and at times is a direct and complete opposite to Western culture," he said.

But for him, it's the culture he's grown to love.

"I have a very good life here in China and truly want for nothing. Life is not perfect anyplace, but it can seem like it is if you are able to adapt," he said.

Zhong Nan contributed to this story.

China Daily