349 rmb on a salary of 4,500 rmb a month (and yes, there are some teachers with chinese wife and without qualifications who earn low salaries-believe it or not!), is a lot of money for a turkey to a poorer, married FT. You may well be richer than most, and in a 2nd or 3rd tier city, where the living costs are low, but 500 rmb a week is nothing, even to some poorer chinese, and especially to the wealthier expats. It is funny how FT's in China like to argue about living costs and money saved in China, when normally these things would not concern them outside China.

Also where did I say I was missing families...I have no wife and child, so watching movies makes me happy (I studied film studies, and to me watching a good movie is like reading a good book all over again, I can enjoy things in it, that many people would miss and not think about!).

As many posters say, each to their own! Merry christmas to you either way.

Provided an FT has a sufficient enough oven to do all that in China, then yes. Meanwhile the wealthy expats will go to one of the nicer hotels with friends and family and have the whole thing cooked and served to them, along with other nice things to eat, like smoked salmon, and presumably free flow of Champagne/sparkling wine. Christmas is a bloody miserable time of year for your average piss poor FT in China, but that is just my opinion. And if you are in a bumf**k 3rd tier city, I doubt you could get turkey anywhere anyway. I have only seen turkeys to buy in supermarkets in H.K., presumably they can be ordered online in China, but not too sure, I never bothered, I slept almost every christmas day or just watched movies while drinking, each to their own though. (I meant oven, and have edited my post to that effect!)