|
MeramJert posted:Why/when did Lowtax visit China? There is a front page you know, geez.
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2014 15:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 12:09 |
|
|
GuestBob posted:There is a front page you know, geez. Oh.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2014 16:16
|
|
|
So, GF visited Australia and loved playing Mario Kart at my brothers place, but hosed if I can work out the Wii U region restrictions. More generically, what's the best console I can buy while in Australia and import to China? I think neither the Xbone nor PS4 have region locks, but are there any other restrictions I should be aware of? How do they cope with the GFW?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2014 05:53
|
|
|
Trammel posted:So, GF visited Australia and loved playing Mario Kart at my brothers place, but hosed if I can work out the Wii U region restrictions. Xbone and PS4 are region free, but the Xbone DOES have region locking on digital things. IE if your account is for the UK you can't redeem a code for a US game. Discs are 100% region free. PS4 is similar but is more of a Japan/Rest of world split with different offers on the online store. Downloading stuff is generally fine from the Playstation servers. I have a Vita and PS3 here and while the download speeds for games aren't astounding, they're not terrible. A few hundred kbps is where I max out, but that's about normal for here on outside-of-China connections. I've heard the Xbone/360 are pretty much the same insofar as downloading games or system updates. Online gaming like with Mario Kart 8 will probably not work too well. Generally connecting to outside servers means pings of 200-300 at a minimum. All Nintendo stuff (wii, wii u, 3ds) region locked in an especially harsh way. On the grey market here Japanese and US-NTSC games are the easiest to come by, and those will obviously only work on JP or US systems, respectively. I'm going to guess the AU gets PAL stuff, so you'll have to find AU or EU games. In fact, looking on Taobao for Mario Kart 8 specifically, I can't even find the PAL version so that might be an issue. Just a lot of US or JP versions. The E-Shop should work fine, though, as long as you have an AU account and use AUD to buy stuff (it does on my US 3DS when I make purchases from the US E-Shop). Another issue with the Wii U is the power source. Cause Nintendo follows in the footsteps of electric shaver makers, all of their consoles ONLY use the power standard of the region they are sold in. China uses a 220v standard so EU and AU Wii Us should work, and US/JP things do not. My office has a US Wii U and we have a step-down transformer it has to go through. So to summarize: Xbone and PS4 are a lot easier than the Wii U because games are very readily available. You would have a hard time finding games for your Australian Wii U here, but you could probably download them from the Eshop. Online gaming will probably not work on any console. Steam/Origin both work fine without VPNs. I use the eshop on my 3DS (using the US store) and it's fast enough, so I'd guess it's OK for the Wii U. Might take one whole night to download MK8.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2014 07:44
|
|
|
It would probably be cheaper for Nintendo to only manufacture a single switching power supply instead of manufacturing different regional power supplies. Anyway, watch out for those transformers Magna Kaser just mentioned. Some of them suck up tons of power just by being plugged in. I had a coworker here that bought one to plug a 120V device from the US in, and he forgot about it for a few months and was wondering why his electric bill was so high. He didn't make any changes except unplugging that transformer, which by that point didn't even have anything plugged into it, and his electric bill dropped by almost 300 RMB per month.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2014 08:11
|
|
|
MeramJert posted:It would probably be cheaper for Nintendo to only manufacture a single switching power supply instead of manufacturing different regional power supplies. Anyway, watch out for those transformers Magna Kaser just mentioned. Some of them suck up tons of power just by being plugged in. I had a coworker here that bought one to plug a 120V device from the US in, and he forgot about it for a few months and was wondering why his electric bill was so high. He didn't make any changes except unplugging that transformer, which by that point didn't even have anything plugged into it, and his electric bill dropped by almost 300 RMB per month. When I had my US Wii in China I just bought a Taobao 220V power supply. First one was poo poo, died in like a week, but I got a refund. Second one paid a little more for and worked like a champ. If I knew you were into such a thing Trammel I would've just sold you mine before I left Xi'an. I still have it and use it on the rarest occasion. Protip: The Wii and Wii U both have that slot loading drive which is prone to get dust (Xi'an is super dusty) in it and quickly kill the drive. Hack your device to play games from a hard drive (is that possible on Wii U yet?) and then put a piece of packing tape over that slot.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2014 16:06
|
|
|
SB35 posted:When I had my US Wii in China I just bought a Taobao 220V power supply. First one was poo poo, died in like a week, but I got a refund. Second one paid a little more for and worked like a champ. If I knew you were into such a thing Trammel I would've just sold you mine before I left Xi'an. I still have it and use it on the rarest occasion. On the Wii U you can literally just buy poo poo online and download it, so in a way, yes! I don't think they're hacked though because when we got the one for our office the place didn't offer to hack it or mention it was hacked, like every PS3/360/3DS they sell.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2014 00:56
|
|
|
Magna Kaser posted:On the Wii U you can literally just buy poo poo online and download it, so in a way, yes! I don't think they're hacked though because when we got the one for our office the place didn't offer to hack it or mention it was hacked, like every PS3/360/3DS they sell. Well that's a plus. A couple of my buddies have both had drive issues with their Xboxes dying due to dirty drives, and my laptop DVD drive also doesn't work. Seriously, Xi'an is dusty as gently caress and the pollution doesn't help. Keep that poo poo covered up if you want it to survive for more than 6 months.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2014 01:11
|
|
|
Magna Kaser posted:the place didn't offer to hack it or mention it was hacked, like every PS3/360/3DS they sell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ1MIbcgkv4 Mario sound effects
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2014 06:04
|
|
|
I no longer reside in the People's Republic of China.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 13:10
|
|
|
New Coke posted:I no longer reside in the People's Republic of China. Is this you singing then? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3rJHOxJ0zs
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 14:40
|
|
|
did your boss ever pay you?
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
New Coke posted:I no longer reside in the People's Republic of China. How's the DPRK treating you?
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 14:50
|
|
|
Arakan posted:did your boss ever pay you? Eventually, yes. It was sort of tense. Back in June, my supervisor (not the principal) told me that the students were all busy reviewing for exams, and if I didn't have anything going on, I could "go take a vacation." I was suspicious, of course, and tried very hard to get him to confirm that this was, in fact, a paid vacation and he was still going to give me all of the money that I was entitled to. I forget exactly how the conversation went, but I remember walking away confident that he was going to give me all of the money stipulated in my contract. So, of, about 36 hours before I had to catch my flight back home, at about 6:20, after I had left the school to go meet my friends, he called me and told me he wasn't actually going to pay me for the last month, because I hadn't taught any classes. My first class was July 17th of 2013, and my last day before I took this vacation was June 20th of this year, but you know, close enough. I argued that it was a 12 month contract, that he had never said that taking nine days off to go on vacation meant forfeiting an entire month of pay, and that before I agreed to take the vacation, I had showed him a list of all of the pay periods I had worked, which ones I had been paid for, and for which ones he still owed me, and made sure we were still on the same page, and he had confirmed it. Finally, I pointed out that my contract actually included more than enough paid vacation days to cover my trip anyway. He argued that I had been in China so long I should have known that "would you like to take a vacation?" meant "we're just going to stop paying you." He claimed that he had agreed to pay me for all 12 pay periods because he hadn't realized that I hadn't had class in July, and he said that I hadn't taken those accumulated vacation days. That last part was really dumb and revealed a lot about his thinking. "Hey, if we look at this as just ending the contract a month early, New Coke will have just finished his contract without using any vacation days," but of course he didn't phrase it like that when he offered me the vacation and why the hell would I have agreed to it? We were at an impasse: I was obviously right, but there was gently caress all I could do about it. We agreed to talk with the principal the next day (24 hours before I would have to catch my flight), who simply told me that he would check my contract. Eventually, he and my supervisor both told me with delighted smiles that - even though I hadn't worked in the last month - they would pay me after all. I thanked them profusely, even though I knew drat well I was right, and left with everything I wanted and on good terms with my bosses. They encouraged me to recommend them to other foreigners; I'll let you make up your own minds on that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 19:31
|
|
|
New Coke posted:They encouraged me to recommend them to other foreigners; I'll let you make up your own minds on that. If you don't mind my asking, what company was this? Or were you hired on direct with a school?
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 20:49
|
|
|
New Coke posted:I thanked them profusely, even though I knew drat well I was right This is the correct way to do it, for what it is worth, so thumbs up to you.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 21:08
|
|
|
quote:If you don't mind my asking, what company was this? Or were you hired on direct with a school? I was hired through a company here in Canada. The school was 28 Middle School, Shijiazhuang, Hebei. It was a public school with two campuses and includes junior and senior high. I taught at the high school. For what it's worth, I don't regret it at all; I really liked my bosses and co-workers, and they did ultimately give me everything that I was entitled to. It was just, you know, tense. New Coke fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jul 20, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 21:17
|
|
|
MeramJert posted:Why/when did Lowtax visit China? To help his friend buy a lamp.  Also, where is my Henan welcome basket
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 00:03
|
|
|
when i left my job in china they gave me like an extra 7,000 RMB bonus that i didn't ask for at all and i still don't know why i got it. me and one other guy got it and our co-workers didn't  it's crazy like...if they hadn't done that i never would have thought about it or asked at all, and i was ending my contract and had no plans to come back so it was totally just nice of them. school was 重庆理工大学 (Chongqing University of Technology) if anyone is curious
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 17:03
|
|
|
Quick Visa question: My school is sponsoring my Z Visa but part of the application is they need me to do a physical exam. I got all the examination stuff taken care of and the form filled out but I'm kind of getting the run-around when it comes to the "official stamp" section. My sponsor keeps telling me I need to get it notarized, but I don't know what she means and she won't explain; I also can't reach the embassy for clarification. She also has said it will be okay if I can't (but to try anyway) and bring the form with me when I arrive regardless. I got the clinic's official "stamp" on the form and I took the whole thing to a notary public that attached his stamp verifying my signature but I still don't know if this is correct. Do you guys know if I'm missing something? Should I even worry about it? I'm slated to get my invitation letter in a couple days.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
Don't worry about it, I've always just had the clinic stamp it. They just want it to have a stamp on it. You have two stamps now so I'd say you're doubly done.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 19:25
|
|
|
Zophar posted:Quick Visa question: My school is sponsoring my Z Visa but part of the application is they need me to do a physical exam. I got all the examination stuff taken care of and the form filled out but I'm kind of getting the run-around when it comes to the "official stamp" section. My sponsor keeps telling me I need to get it notarized, but I don't know what she means and she won't explain; I also can't reach the embassy for clarification. She also has said it will be okay if I can't (but to try anyway) and bring the form with me when I arrive regardless. The best part of all this is that your sponsor/new boss will proceed to drag you to the cheapest hospital they can find about a week after you arrive in order to make you do this whole thing all over again, but in Chinese.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 19:34
|
|
|
Zophar posted:Quick Visa question: My school is sponsoring my Z Visa but part of the application is they need me to do a physical exam. I got all the examination stuff taken care of and the form filled out but I'm kind of getting the run-around when it comes to the "official stamp" section. My sponsor keeps telling me I need to get it notarized, but I don't know what she means and she won't explain; I also can't reach the embassy for clarification. She also has said it will be okay if I can't (but to try anyway) and bring the form with me when I arrive regardless. Where are you? A lot of this depends on where you are. The NYC, Chicago and SF based embassies, or at least the ones that serve those areas, have sometimes not cared and sometimes given a massive run-around for us. You need to get the physical done at a hospital that has an official notary, so it can be notarized. Your sponsor ideally would have been clear about that to you. Don't bother contacting the embassy, every time we've tried that they have been hilariously unhelpful. You're on your own, sadly. In fact, the SF area based embassy demanded that the notary stamp be put in a place that was actually illegal. Like there's a place to put it on the physical (at least there used to be) and it was there and the lady at the SF based embassy said it needed to be somewhere else, and when the girl took it back the notary said it was illegal to stamp it there. Took about a week of broken communication before it was finally "illegally" notarized and taken to the Chinese embassy. This is not an abnormal day in China, FWIW, so you may as well get used to all this. edit: Or maybe not. This is the way we do it, and we've never had a problem on the Chinese side once we get it, so other results may vary.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 19:38
|
|
|
goldboilermark posted:Where are you? A lot of this depends on where you are. The NYC, Chicago and SF based embassies, or at least the ones that serve those areas, have sometimes not cared and sometimes given a massive run-around for us. I'm in Nebraska, which I guess is serviced by the embassy in DC. Really, as long as I get my Visa by the time I'm set to fly out I don't really care. If they make me do it all again when I get there it's whatever.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2014 19:47
|
|
|
My job demanded a stamp, so my doctor stamped the form with the old address stamp they used for the mail.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 02:38
|
|
|
They probably have no idea that "stamp = official" is just a China/Korea/Japan thing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:05
|
|
|
I have a hanko and a dojang, and I'm kind of disappointed that personal stamps aren't also a thing in China.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:12
|
|
|
VideoTapir posted:I have a hanko and a dojang, and I'm kind of disappointed that personal stamps aren't also a thing in China. They aren't? poo poo, I figured they were. Maybe I should get a comedy dojang before I leave here.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:15
|
|
|
Where will you teach?
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:24
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:They aren't? poo poo, I figured they were. Maybe I should get a comedy dojang before I leave here. I have one!
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:25
|
|
|
caberham posted:Where will you teach? The school of hard knocks.  I'll tell you in private but I don't post specific details like that on the internet. Always seemed like a bad idea.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:30
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:I'll tell you in private but I don't post specific details like that on the internet. Always seemed like a bad idea. I would go as far to argue it still is!
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:38
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:The school of hard knocks. Who cares about some left over kimchi? I meant the new guy, which city will you go?
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:38
|
|
|
Enjoy your hongeohoe flavored gim. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 03:40
|
|
|
I think it's more that signature=official is a Western European thing. The stampers are in the majority.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 08:08
|
|
|
yeah somethingsensitive has a database of all the personal info they have found of every mod on SA, so you want to be careful of that and cold water
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 12:58
|
|
|
they know you like to put corn and sour cream on your pizza, forums moderator grand fromage
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 13:04
|
|
|
caberham posted:Who cares about some left over kimchi? Qingdao
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 14:29
|
|
|
Jeoh posted:they know you like to put corn and sour cream on your pizza, forums moderator grand fromage son of a btich Where do they do stamps outside East Asia? I thought stamp officialness was a Chinese thing that spread around over here.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 14:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 12:09 |
|
|
We have a stamp at our office but I have to go ask the dean's secretary to use the blessed stamp, and it's a huge hassle, but Chinese people always ask me to stamp documents and I try to lie and say we don't have a stamp. Sometimes their friends told them that we have one and I get stuck having to use it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2014 15:01
|
|