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Hammerstein posted:Also: is the seaquarium any good ? The pics on the internet look nice. Don't bother. It's incredibly over priced and you don't get to see a lot. The only cool part of the place is the underwater walk way but that's towards the very end. It isn't worth $20 US!
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Sep 5, 2013 12:37
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| # ? May 18, 2024 02:28 |
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Goons coming to/ are in Chengdu! Hotpot tomorrow! PM me for details!
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Sep 5, 2013 14:34
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AfroNinja posted:Don't bother. It's incredibly over priced and you don't get to see a lot. The only cool part of the place is the underwater walk way but that's towards the very end. It isn't worth $20 US! Good to know, thanks. I booked my flight today and will arrive in Shanghai on the 29th of September. Of course my mom got scared when I started talking about shady stuff (at least shady to her) like booking and cancelling hotels to get a tourist visa and she wants me to do it the proper way. Oh well... Tomorrow I will go to the embassy with my flight reservation and a letter of invitation in the hope to still get a tourist visa by telling them that my visit is more about tourism than family. I would hate having to go through all that S2 nonsense, plus there's a good chance that our complicated family structure might be too much for their bureaucracy. My parents live in a serviced apartment complex in Hong Qiao Lu. Is anyone familiar with that area and what would be a good jump off point from there to experience Shanghai ?
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Sep 5, 2013 17:19
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Don't forget you need a copy of the invitee's passport and visa for the letter of invitation.
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Sep 5, 2013 17:50
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Jeoh posted:Don't forget you need a copy of the invitee's passport and visa for the letter of invitation. Already got those. Copy of the passport page plus the residence permit (I guess that's the visa) page.
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Sep 5, 2013 18:30
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I usually take photos of all my travel docs/cc cards etc and put them on a locked thumb drive that I carry in a separate location or keep stashed. This has saved my bacon more than once.
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Sep 5, 2013 18:36
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You need actual hard copies, too, and it can be a pain in the rear end to find a willing and able printer when you need one.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:16
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Smeef posted:You need actual hard copies, too, and it can be a pain in the rear end to find a willing and able printer when you need one. This is a back up for when the poo poo really hits the fan and your passport has been stolen or something (which can be a true pain in the rear end if you don't have something like this.)
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Sep 6, 2013 04:09
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CHENGDU HOTPOT FRIDAY NIGHT LADUZI-GANZA!!!! OK guys, let's meet tonight at 7pm at the Shujiuxiang Hot Pot (蜀九香火锅）near Sichuan University at Jiuyanqiao. It might be packed, in which case we walk 10m in any direction to another hot pot place because we are in Chengdu and the streets are just alternating hot pot, 冒冒菜 places and sex shops. Address Here: 锦江区九眼桥太平南新街8号(近九眼桥十二中) Bus stops near it are: Jiuyanqiao South (九眼桥南站), Hong wan si (红丸寺) or even Mozi Qiao(磨子桥) Warning on Mozi QIao though, there are like 8 different ones and some are very far off. I'll be on Weixin and available by text/phone if you can't find it. My number is 一八六二八二七一四二0
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Sep 6, 2013 06:58
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I hate 冒才, it's like buying a bucket of oil with some vegetables dropped in almost as if by accident.
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Sep 6, 2013 07:17
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Hotpot is way overpriced in most places. 'Here, pay through the nose for this platter of meat that you have to cook yourself. Yes, fresh from the freezer'
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Sep 6, 2013 08:49
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Hotpot is pretty reasonable in Chengdu, probably because there are 80,000 of them here and they have to actually compete. Unless you go crazy with special organs and things like BEEF it's never too much.
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Sep 6, 2013 09:33
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So I'm in Guangzhou for the first time. - the subway system sucks. Takes forever to buy a ticket and so expensive - all southern Chinese look like thieves
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Sep 6, 2013 11:10
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Applying for the visa seemed to have gone well today and I can pick mine up next friday. The clerk went through my papers, only looked up once and appeared to be ok with everything. The apartment complex where my parents live gives out tiny business cards in Chinese and English with a roadmap on them, so I attached one of these to the letter of invitation plus the business card of my father in law, guess that didn't hurt.
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Sep 6, 2013 11:13
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Throatwarbler posted:So I'm in Guangzhou for the first time. How much is the subway there? 2 kuai in Beijing, for comparison, if you weren't aware.
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Sep 6, 2013 11:25
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VideoTapir posted:How much is the subway there? Yeah, but I remember reading that Beijing was taking a loss pricing it so low, but they were doing it to reduce traffic congestion. Other cities don't have theirs at a single price per trip, and probably more expensive than ￥2
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Sep 6, 2013 13:40
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What Beijing OUGHT to do is require proof of someplace to park your drat car like Japan does, but that would be corruptioned away right quick. Alternately, they could confiscate and crush every car caught parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk. That would eventually cut down on the number of cars on the road, and it would reduce the congestion caused by shitheads parking their cars in lanes of traffic, people walking in the middle of four or even six lane roads because the sidewalks are too full of cars, bikes dodging between cars because there are two rows of cars parked in the bike lane, and people taking forever to exit the road because the intersection is full of parked cars. These are all things I saw in the last 30 minutes, BTW. edit: I don't want to live here anymore. VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 13:48
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VideoTapir posted:What Beijing OUGHT to do is require proof of someplace to park your drat car like Japan does, but that would be corruptioned away right quick. Alternately, they could confiscate and crush every car caught parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk. That would eventually cut down on the number of cars on the road, and it would reduce the congestion caused by shitheads parking their cars in lanes of traffic, people walking in the middle of four or even six lane roads because the sidewalks are too full of cars, bikes dodging between cars because there are two rows of cars parked in the bike lane, and people taking forever to exit the road because the intersection is full of parked cars. These are all things I saw in the last 30 minutes, BTW. Yeah... Xi'an had similar problems. I would think you could make bank building skyhigh parking garages and selling or renting spots. But of course apartments sell for so much more, and people can just  Apparently apartment complexes are supposed to have one parking spot for 80% of the apartments in a complex. But most places I can't imagine they have more than 20% of the apartments covered 
SB35 fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 14:02
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Hey everybody, I'm back home after teaching in China. Hopefully I'll be back to Thank you so much for all of your help while I lived in Kaifeng. It was a good two years. -10dishOkiku
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Sep 6, 2013 14:18
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10dishOkiku posted:Hey everybody, 再见！
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Sep 6, 2013 15:55
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VideoTapir posted:What Beijing OUGHT to do is require proof of someplace to park your drat car like Japan does, but that would be corruptioned away right quick. Alternately, they could confiscate and crush every car caught parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk. That would eventually cut down on the number of cars on the road, and it would reduce the congestion caused by shitheads parking their cars in lanes of traffic, people walking in the middle of four or even six lane roads because the sidewalks are too full of cars, bikes dodging between cars because there are two rows of cars parked in the bike lane, and people taking forever to exit the road because the intersection is full of parked cars. These are all things I saw in the last 30 minutes, BTW. We're getting ready to buy a second car 
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Sep 6, 2013 16:03
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Magna Kaser posted:CHENGDU HOTPOT FRIDAY NIGHT LADUZI-GANZA!!!! Please post pictures because I wasn't able to come because I've been cleaning my apartment all night because a) I'm pretty sure the previous vol never really did and b) I'm pretty sure the school dusted the place before I came and that was their "cleaning"
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Sep 6, 2013 16:34
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VideoTapir posted:What Beijing OUGHT to do is require proof of someplace to park your drat car like Japan does, but that would be corruptioned away right quick. Alternately, they could confiscate and crush every car caught parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk. That would eventually cut down on the number of cars on the road, and it would reduce the congestion caused by shitheads parking their cars in lanes of traffic, people walking in the middle of four or even six lane roads because the sidewalks are too full of cars, bikes dodging between cars because there are two rows of cars parked in the bike lane, and people taking forever to exit the road because the intersection is full of parked cars. These are all things I saw in the last 30 minutes, BTW. You should key all these cars
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Sep 6, 2013 18:20
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MeramJert posted:You should key all these cars They would just leave them there and buy new ones.
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Sep 6, 2013 23:21
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MeramJert posted:You should key all these cars when they've got someone in them, and they're within reach, I often slap them really hard on the trunk or rear quarter. But if I see a Miata driven by a foreigner, I'm gonna put my U-lock through the window. VideoTapir fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Sep 7, 2013 |
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Sep 7, 2013 00:46
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VideoTapir posted:How much is the subway there? It cost me 7 to get from the train station to the hotel, and it could go up to 12 or something. Shanghai has a similar system. It's not so bad if you are a regular rider and have a pass but for anyone out of town its horrendous because you have to stand in line for ages while other out-of-towners try to figure out the crazy fare system, press the correct buttons, dig up the right change, dig up more change because the silly machine doesn't recognize half the crumpled notes, etc. One guy in front of me took 5 minutes to get his ticket, and there are a lot of people. I guess it's nice that no one cut in line.  If parking bothers you you should try living in an area where the only access is through a 2 lane road in front of a huge junior high school. Beijing isn't even that bad!
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Sep 7, 2013 03:10
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Throatwarbler posted:If parking bothers you you should try living in an area where the only access is through a 2 lane road in front of a huge junior high school. Beijing isn't even that bad! I do, actually. (Well, I can cut through the hutong across from my gate, but that's not much better, particularly if some dumbshit decides to drive down it.)
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Sep 7, 2013 03:46
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Throatwarbler posted:It cost me 7 to get from the train station to the hotel, and it could go up to 12 or something. Just get one of those cards like a local has. You can just walk up to any person actually working there, or even some newspaper stands, and buy one. There's a deposit, but you can save the card for if you come back to Guangzhou, and having one will make most of these complaints go away!
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Sep 7, 2013 06:30
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You guys do know that the Shanghai Metro now has 1,3, and 7 day passes with unlimited rides, right? It's a great option for visitors.
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Sep 7, 2013 13:32
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Watching some Chinese movie called the midas touch. Verdict :Chinese movies are still garbage.
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Sep 7, 2013 14:35
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It looks like I'm going to be spending January and February of 2014 in China for work! My company is opening a new R&D facility and I'm going to train/manage some new employees and get the lab up and running. I'm not very well travelled at all, having visited maybe 10 states and never having been out of the country until a year ago, and that was just on a cruise to a few places in central America that all spoke english. I'm 28. The lab is in Suzhou, I believe in the industrial park area. I'll be flying into Shanghai and taking a bus or something to get there. I have a whole bunch of questions, I guess I'll just start with a few random ones: 1) Fitness/lifting is my #1 hobby and I devote a lot of time to it - am I going to be able to find a decent gym near where I'll be? How expensive are monthly memberships? Related to this, does anyone know how easy/difficult it is to eat a high protein diet in China? Are decently lean meats available or is it all chicken thighs and cuts of pork? 2) If I could take a train or easily travel somewhere each weekend, what would be the best places/cities to see? I've done some reading on the wikitravel guide but any suggestions would be helpful. 3) I've been working on some Mandarin audio tapes from Pimsleur to at least have a very basic set of things to say and understand. Are there any good resources I should know about? Maybe something that actually shows characters so I can start to memorize a few important ones, since the tapes are all audio? I have the Pleco app on my phone, is the add-on to that where it looks through your camera and translates characters any good? 4) Anything else you can think of for this kind of 2-month business trip? It looks like there aren't any goons living in Suzhou anymore, but maybe I could spend one of my first weekends in Shanghai and meet up with anyone there!
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Sep 7, 2013 15:36
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There will be plenty of gyms in Suzhou, but monthly the gyms here tend to border on highway robbery. My gym (not in Suzhou but a city of comparable cost) offers a year for about the same as three months if paid at the per-month rate. Still, there could be some in Suzhou that don't fit this mold, so good luck. Chicken breasts are cheap here, as are eggs. But that comes with eating chicken from here which almost no one is doing due to health scares. Also fake eggs are common so you gotta be on the lookout for that. The beef here is a ton leaner than in the states but pretty expensive. Pork is really the go-to protein here. And there's always tofu as well! If you use any powders I'd bring some over since they're all imported from the US here and see a huge markup.
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Sep 7, 2013 18:31
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When I was doing my job interview, my soon to be manager told me that there are gyms scattered out in the parks and stuff, and from what I understood these are all/mostly free and open to whoever. They (those Chinese  ) are not so big into lifting so there aren't many weights around. But anyway, that's something I heard from a Chinese American who is living there now. Obviously I don't know what it will be like where you are going.
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Sep 7, 2013 18:45
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Those park gym equipment things are rusty, rickety and intended for use by the elderly. Using them would be equivalent to you riding a child's horsey toy in a western park in terms of social awkwardness.
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Sep 7, 2013 21:24
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The ones at my apartment complex are new and shiny!
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Sep 7, 2013 22:03
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Bloodnose posted:Those park gym equipment things are rusty, rickety and intended for use by the elderly. Using them would be equivalent to you riding a child's horsey toy in a western park in terms of social awkwardness. Yeah, they're not so much "gyms" as they are "playground equipment"; where is your work putting you up for those two months? If you're staying at a hotel/fancy-ish western place, there should be a gym available for you to use. Be prepared to have to play with the weights a lot though, especially if you're a serious lifter; the typical thing at my Beijing gym seemed to be "guy lifts 15 pound weight six times, pauses for iphone, flexes in mirror, adjusts polo, resumes rep once, repeats." Bring any powders or supplements, as those are wicked expensive; if you use any sort of athletic tape or anything like that also bring it with you, as it can be a pain to get them if you're outside Tier 1/don't like taobao. Remember that you can haggle with the gym folks for a better price on month-to-month, especially if it's a little hole in the wall place. I paid 2500 for a year in Beijing, but that was because it was right around the corner from my house, came with a pool/free spin/dance/whatever classes, and a personal trainer.
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Sep 7, 2013 23:08
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Bloodnose posted:Those park gym equipment things are rusty, rickety and intended for use by the elderly. Using them would be equivalent to you riding a child's horsey toy in a western park in terms of social awkwardness. You would probably make chinasmack if you were using it though, so there's that. In all reality, a guy I work with and I were walking home and saw some old man on one and he said something like "+1 health, -4 dignity". How apt.
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Sep 8, 2013 00:22
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I use those things for dips, pull-ups and sit ups. Don't even know what they're SUPPOSED to be for.
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Sep 8, 2013 01:22
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They look like brightly-colored medieval torture devices.
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Sep 8, 2013 02:05
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| # ? May 18, 2024 02:28 |
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Yup, when I lived in Ma On Shan I used to use the pull up bar and the dip bar in the park, and I had to share them with some pretty ripped locals. Maybe I'm just shameless, but I never even considered that I might be losing four dignity points. I think living in China tends to make people more self-conscious.
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Sep 8, 2013 02:08
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