Learn Hardcore Chinese: dàxué bìyè yǐhòu, yǒude rén xiǎng liú zài shìzhōngxīn gōngzuò, yǒude rén xiǎng huí jiāoqū. - After graduating from university, some people want to stay and work downtown, and some want to go back to the suburbs.

从 + 学校 + 毕业
- 从大学毕业 – graduate from university
- 从北京大学毕业 – graduate from Peking University
学校 + 毕业 (the school in front of 毕业)
- 大学毕业 – “(someone is) university-graduated” / “after graduating from university”
- 高中毕业 – high-school graduate(d)
- 研究生毕业 – graduate from graduate school

So 大学毕业以后 literally feels like “after (being) university-graduated”, i.e. “after graduating from university”.

毕业大学 is ungrammatical in standard Mandarin because 大学 is not treated as a direct object of 毕业.

What exactly does 以后 mean here? How is it different from 后 or 后来?

In 大学毕业以后, 以后 means “after / after that time / in the time following.”

大学毕业以后 – after graduating from university

Compare:

以后
- General “after (that point in time) / in the future”.
- Often attached to a time phrase:
  - 吃饭以后 – after eating
  - 三点以后 – after three o’clock
后
- More formal/literary and a bit shorter; often appears in written style.
- 毕业后 ≈ 毕业以后 (here they’re basically interchangeable).
后来
- Means “later (on), afterwards” but only for past events and usually introduces a new, different situation in a narrative:
  - 我先在上海工作，后来去了北京。
    First I worked in Shanghai; later I went to Beijing.

You cannot replace 以后 here with 后来:

大学毕业后来，有的人… – sounds wrong/unnatural.

So: 大学毕业以后 = “after graduating from college/university (from that point on).”

What is the role of 有的 in 有的人想…，有的人想…? How does this pattern work?

Here 有的 is a pronoun-like quantifier meaning “some (of them)”.

The pattern:

有的人…，有的人…
= “Some people …; some (other) people …”

This is a very common structure to show contrast among members of the same group:

有的人喜欢喝咖啡，有的人喜欢喝茶。
Some people like coffee; some people like tea.

In your sentence:

Group: people who have just graduated from university.
Division:
- 有的人 – some of them want to stay and work in the city center.
- 有的人 – some (others) want to go back to the suburbs.

You can think of 有的 + noun as “there are some [noun] who…”, but in English we usually translate it just as “some [noun]…”.

What’s the difference between 有的人 and 一些人 / 有些人? Can I replace 有的人 with those?

All three can mean “some people”, but there are nuances:

有的人
- Very common in patterns like 有的人…，有的人….
- Emphasizes dividing a known group into subgroups.
- Tends to feel more like “some (of them)”.
一些人 / 有些人
- More neutral “some people”.
- Often used when you just want to say “some people (in general)”, not necessarily contrasted with another subgroup.
- 有些人 is a bit more colloquial than 一些人 in many contexts.

In this specific A…，有的人…，有的人… contrast structure, 有的人 is the most natural. You could say:

大学毕业以后，一些人想留在市中心工作，另一些人想回郊区。

That’s grammatical and clear, but it has a slightly more formal/structured feel. The 有的人…有的人… pattern is very standard and idiomatic for everyday speech and writing.

Why is there no explicit subject like 他们 in the sentence? Who is the subject of 想留在… and 想回…?

The whole sentence is:

大学毕业以后，有的人想留在市中心工作，有的人想回郊区。

The subjects of the two clauses are:

First clause: 有的人 – some people
Second clause: 有的人 – (other) some people

Chinese doesn’t need an extra 他们 here; 有的人 itself acts as the subject:

有的人 (subject) 想留在市中心工作 (predicate)
有的人 (subject) 想回郊区 (predicate)

If you added 他们, e.g. 有的人他们想…, it would sound redundant or wrong in this structure.

So: each 有的人 is its own subject; Chinese simply doesn’t double-mark subjects the way English sometimes repeats pronouns.

What does 想 express here? Could we use 要 instead of 想?

Here 想 means “want to / would like to / plan to”, expressing intention or desire:

想留在市中心工作 – (they) want to stay and work in the city center.
想回郊区 – (they) want to go back to the suburbs.

Difference from 要:

想
- Softer, more about inner desire or intention.
- Often translated as “would like to / want to”.
要
- Stronger; can express definite plan, demand, or necessity.
- Context can make it feel more forceful: “going to / must / will”.

In this sentence, both are possible:

有的人要留在市中心工作，有的人要回郊区。

But 想 sounds more neutral and descriptive (what they want to do after graduation), while 要 can sound more like firm decisions or arrangements. In a textbook-style sentence describing people’s preferences, 想 is usually the safer, more natural choice.

How does 留在市中心工作 work grammatically? Is 留在 one word? Why is 在 there?

Breakdown:

留 – to stay, remain
在 – “at / in” (location marker)
市中心 – city center / downtown
工作 – to work / job

Structure:

留在 + place + (verb)
= stay/remain in some place to do something.

So:

留在市中心工作 = “stay in the city center (in order) to work / working”.

在 here marks location (like “at/in” in English), and 留在 is simply verb + preposition (not a single word). Similar patterns:

住在北京工作 – live in Beijing and work (there)
留在家里学习 – stay at home to study

The English translation might compress this to “work in the city center”, but the Chinese emphasizes staying there (not going elsewhere) with 留在.

What does 留 mean in this context? I thought 留 could mean “to leave (behind)”.

留 has several related meanings. Two common ones:

To keep / leave (something/someone) behind
- 把手机留在家里了。 – I left my phone at home.
- 请把电话号码留给我。 – Please leave your phone number (for me).
To stay / remain (somewhere)
- 我想留在北京。 – I want to stay in Beijing.
- 他留在公司加班。 – He stayed at the company to work overtime.

In 留在市中心工作, we are using meaning 2: “stay / remain”.
The 在 + place makes it clear we’re talking about staying somewhere, not leaving something behind.

Why do we use 回郊区 and not 去郊区? What about 回到郊区?

Key ideas:

去 – to go (to some place). Neutral: just movement from here to there.
回 – to go back / return (to some place you consider “back” or “home”).
回到 – “return to” with 到 emphasizing arrival at the place.

In 回郊区:

The speaker assumes that for some people, the 郊区 (suburbs) is their original place or “back home”.
回郊区 = “go back to the suburbs / return to the suburbs.”

Comparisons:

去郊区 – go to the suburbs (no implication of “back”).
回郊区 – go back to the suburbs (implies it’s a place you’re returning to).
回到郊区 – also “return to the suburbs”; 到 can make the “arrive at that place” part a bit more explicit or formal, but 回郊区 is already completely natural and common.

In everyday speech, both 回郊区 and 回到郊区 are fine; 回郊区 is simpler and very natural here.

What does 市中心 mean exactly? Is it the same as 城市中心 or 市里?

市中心
- Literally “city center”, usually meaning downtown / central business district.
- Strong association with a busy, developed, central urban area.
城市中心
- Also literally “city center”.
- Slightly more formal or general; may be used more in written descriptions, geography, planning, etc.
- In many contexts you can substitute it for 市中心, but 市中心 is the more common everyday term for “downtown”.
市里
- Literally “inside the city”.
- More general than 市中心; can just mean “within the city limits / in town (as opposed to the countryside or suburbs).”

So:

留在市中心工作 – stay in downtown / the very central part of the city to work.
留在市里工作 – stay in town / in the city to work (not necessarily the very center).

How is the whole sentence structured? What does 大学毕业以后 do grammatically?

The sentence is:

大学毕业以后，有的人想留在市中心工作，有的人想回郊区。

Structure:

大学毕业以后，
- This is a time adverbial phrase: “after graduating from university”.
- It sets the time frame for what follows.
- Grammatically, it modifies the entire rest of the sentence.
有的人想留在市中心工作，
- First main clause:
  - Subject: 有的人 – some people
  - Predicate: 想留在市中心工作 – want to stay in the city center to work.
有的人想回郊区。
- Second main clause, parallel to the first:
  - Subject: 有的人 – (other) some people
  - Predicate: 想回郊区 – want to go back to the suburbs.

So:

大学毕业以后 = “after graduating from university” (time phrase)
Followed by two parallel clauses describing what different groups of people want to do.