Nesli (Nesli in China) is a Turkish blogger. In 2018 she came to China with her husband, settled in Shenzhen, and has lived there for 8 years. Her videos document everyday life in China — a representative voice of "living in China" creators.
Her content is rich: Shenzhen's tech and convenience, Chinese online shopping and delivery, weekends with family, and missing China while visiting Turkey. She loves explaining "Sino-foreign differences": why Chinese drink hot water, why mobile payment is everywhere. Serious and funny at once.
In 8 years Nesli went from newcomer to local: scanning QR codes, loving Cantonese dim sum, bargaining in Chinese. In her videos China isn't an exotic curiosity — it's daily life.
"Shenzhen is my home," she says. More and more foreigners like her marry, work and live in China, calling it home. Their stories are the truest footnote of "life in China".
Nesli (b. mid-1990s), Turkish blogger, has been rooted in Shenzhen for 8 years. She became famous filming Sino-Turkish cultural differences and Shenzhen daily life - a representative of female foreign bloggers developing in China.
Background: from Turkey, she came to Shenzhen, China, transitioning from student to entrepreneur/professional, living there 8 years. Her Chinese is fluent and she deeply understands Shenzhen tech and start-up culture.
Why she rose: videos like "Turkey in the eyes of a Shenzhenite" and "foreigners working in China" are authentic and substantial. She also makes Turkish food and introduces Turkish culture - two-way cultural output.
Significance: she represents the "deeply integrated" foreign blogger - not a short tourist check-in but long-term living and real entrepreneurship. Her journey is a reference for foreigners considering China.
Lesson: what is it like to be rooted in a city for 8 years? Her answer: from "foreigner" to "Shenzhenite". Long-termism gives her content the thickness of time.
A view she shares: what attracts foreigners to Shenzhen is not "development" but "speed" - fast services, fast start-ups, fast iteration. She advises foreigners considering China to "choose the city before the industry", because Chinese cities have distinct personalities, and choosing right wins half the battle. Such practical advice carries far more weight than vague "China has opportunities".
Her reminder on foreign entrepreneurship in China: registration, visas and taxes all have mature processes, but the real hurdle is patience - the market feedback is fast, yet the cold-start period is hard. She advises entering via internship or partnership first to learn the industry before founding a company, far safer than blindly going all-in.
To close: her 8-year Shenzhen story is a growth chronicle from observer to participant. The most precious point: treat a foreign place as home, and it will accept you as its own.
Her next goal is a book about starting up in Shenzhen in a foreign language, helping more foreigners avoid detours.
She often says: "in Shenzhen I learned to be fast, and also to be steady." Those eight words are the most practical advice she gives anyone thinking of trying China.
