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Kunming is a nice city, in attitude / climate / surrounds. They were really hungry for foreign Engish teachers when I passed through, but i) I didn't think I was going to work in China at that point, and ii) The all said 'yeah, you'll need to get your own tourist visa or something', so... no. Anyway, if you can make it work you'll be in a nice part of China, and a short trip away from Dali if you ever want to spend a weekend chilling out somewhere even nicer.
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Jan 7, 2016 13:53
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The Great Autismo! posted:...It looks like there is a Facebook group here. Thanks for the link and tip on registering with police, it never occurred to me to check Facebook for expat help and I'm willing to bet my wife is completely unaware of the police registration requirement. She took one of her American friends from college to Kunming for a couple weeks and I doubt they registered anywhere, so I'm guessing you're right in that I should be fine for the quick trip but I'll make a note of it for the long-term stay. Warbird posted:I can't think of anything in particular other than "don't be an rear end" and I got away with violating that plenty. Getting around is fairly easy as most places have Chinglish translations, so common sense and using context clues are both great boons. Being pale as gently caress is often a benefit or at least it was in my case, particularly if you're in an area without too many other foreigners. Novelty will make up for many shortcomings. As for jet lag, staying up the entire flight over is hell on Earth, but I beat my fiance back to normal by half a week. I slept most of the way back and I still haven't fully normalized a couple of weeks later. Wow, a couple weeks?! I usually can't sleep on flights, that said the longest flight I've had to deal with was a recent 9 hour ordeal of being stuck in the airplane due to all the storms around Dallas. My wife has been saying she'll get me sleeping pills for the flight but I was sort of thinking staying up for most of if not the entire flight and passing out when we get to Shanghai might be a good idea. I may not have any choice in the matter if we get any screaming children near us, we'll see. Trammel posted:You can't legally work on a Q visa in China. This puts you in a bad position from the start. I'd suggest trying to find a company that'll get you a working visa before you come to China. Thank you for pointing this out! I'll chat with my wife's family and see if they need any work done or help with anything, maybe they can get me a working visa. My wife seems to think there's a market for unofficial tutoring there which I'm guessing wouldn't require a work visa, but I don't think getting paid under the table is the best way to go about things in my first long-term stay there. Or maybe it's way more common than I realize. Atopian posted:Kunming is a nice city, in attitude / climate / surrounds. It sounds awesome! I'm really interested to see the difference between Shanghai and Kunming, although I have a feeling all/most cities in China will end up feeling like "generic large cities" for me, compared to where I've lived in the US. I've heard Kunming is similar in altitude to Denver (where I'm currently living) but I'm guessing it has just a bit more moisture and a bit less "brown" than Denver.
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Jan 7, 2016 16:31
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Spring Festival is going to be total hell from what I've heard and seen. Roughly comparable to the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays except 4 times as many people. If your wife is with you then you'll be fine though, most Chinese people don't care all that much as long as you have cash and can get your meaning across. Don't worry about the police registration thing, I never did it and no one will ask you about it unless you really make a scene.
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Jan 7, 2016 20:27
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Magna Kaser posted:just buy a bunch of house centipedes and let them loose. They'll fix your roach problem I woke up early one morning in Zhengzhou and saw one of those guys scurry across my floor. I just said, "You go little guy." I then went back to sleep.
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Jan 7, 2016 20:29
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Amergin posted:My wife seems to think there's a market for unofficial tutoring there which I'm guessing wouldn't require a work visa, but I don't think getting paid under the table is the best way to go about things in my first long-term stay there. Or maybe it's way more common than I realize. Your wife is right, there's a big market for unofficial tutoring, and it's very, very common. But the laws that apply to you are different, and are applied differently than those apply to her. Even so, it'd be better to arrive with an expectation of employment and regular income. We've seen others who have come to China without a clear plan, staying in an apartment provided by their in-laws, without employment simply got stuck in a rut playing video-games, skateboarding, and becoming increasingly delusional about what exactly their GF was doing with her boss during all those late night working hours.
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Jan 8, 2016 01:48
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He wasn't just playing video games. He was also trying to come up with a plan to suck enough money from his girlfriend's parents so he could afford to dump her and move to Japan.
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Jan 8, 2016 02:17
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He also seemed like kind of an alcoholic.
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Jan 8, 2016 03:53
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Arglebargle III posted:He also seemed like kind of an alcoholic. Actually we were talking about FPR, not about you, although your China story is pretty sad too.
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Jan 8, 2016 04:07
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believe it or not, especially in kunming, you can smoke some good weed. so plan to smoke a lot of weed and watch videos on youtube through VPN at 240p
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Jan 8, 2016 04:26
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angel opportunity posted:believe it or not, especially in kunming, you can smoke some good weed. so plan to smoke a lot of weed and watch videos on youtube through VPN at 420p
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Jan 8, 2016 04:49
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fart simpson posted:He wasn't just playing video games. He was also trying to come up with a plan to suck enough money from his girlfriend's parents so he could afford to dump her and move to Japan. This isn't true. After he moved back to the uk he was bitching about how unfair one of the visa requirements is (the one that says you have to earn enough money to support the person you're bringing across)
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Jan 8, 2016 04:51
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He was terrible at being a human being, but he wasn't a terrible human being
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Jan 8, 2016 04:52
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simplefish posted:This isn't true. After he moved back to the uk he was bitching about how unfair one of the visa requirements is (the one that says you have to earn enough money to support the person you're bringing across) Yeah well his plan must have failed, because he talked about wanting to dump her and move to Japan but he couldn't afford to do it until he leeched off her parents for a few more months. People in the Japan thread might remember.
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Jan 8, 2016 04:56
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Amergin posted:LONG DISTANCE FLIGHT Get some melatonin I guess? With Ipads, digital media and improved air travel it's not as bad as before. At least you are not flying alone and you can chat with your wife. Sorry I'm not very helpful, I never understand the fuss about long distance travel  Amergin posted:Moving to Kunming Yeah other people covered the basics here. The nice part is that you will have an extended family to support you. Then again it's the extended family so good luck with that! So what kind of business will your wife be involved with? The awesome part about Kunming and Yunnan is the close proximity to Myanmar. Get a visa to Myanmar and chill out when you feel the need to get out. Tutoring for under the table money is common but it can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to hours and pay. I'm just assuming that financially you guys are doing pretty solid and that's why your wife is hand waving everything. As for what can you prepare to do in the mean time for this trip? LEARN CHINESE  You feel much less of an idiot when you can read basic signs and less of an alien when you can communicate with locals.
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Jan 8, 2016 05:53
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Dude said he's already learning Chinese, mate.
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Jan 8, 2016 06:29
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Anybody else's vpn acting up the past several days?
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Jan 8, 2016 07:26
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Minus1Minus1 posted:Anybody else's vpn acting up the past several days? Astril seems to be really broken the last couple of days. Others like ExpressVPN seem OK.
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Jan 8, 2016 07:53
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My coworker says Express VPN stopped working for him in the past week or so, but Astrill is still working for me.
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Jan 8, 2016 07:57
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fart simpson posted:My coworker says Express VPN stopped working for him in the past week or so, but Astrill is still working for me. It's completely the opposite in my office today (Astril is not working at all, ExpressVPN and Pandapow work fine), but a lot of this is up to the local telecom office so it's pretty impossible to nail any of this down.
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Jan 8, 2016 08:02
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Tom Smykowski posted:Dude said he's already learning Chinese, mate. Ooooooops 
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Jan 8, 2016 08:12
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The fiance hasn't mentioned Express not working, but I'll make a note to ask. It was up and down a bit when I was there, but it seemed to be more load related than guv'ment meddling.
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Jan 8, 2016 08:13
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It's really not possible to get an Alien Employment Licence on a Q visa? 
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Jan 8, 2016 08:22
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Jeoh posted:It's really not possible to get an Alien Employment Licence on a Q visa? You probably could find a job but then you'd get switched to a Z. Having a Q would probably be beneficial since you could interview/etc in China without issue, then get the Z/居留许可 once you get hired.
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Jan 8, 2016 08:31
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Jeoh posted:It's really not possible to get an Alien Employment Licence on a Q visa? No, which is silly. But it basically means if you're coming over on a spouse visa you're either independently wealthy, work online, or your spouse's family is rich and you don't need to work.
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Jan 8, 2016 11:13
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Just start a business somewhere, get a business visa, caveat: you must frame it as consulting/independent contracting not employment I actually don't know if that would work but hey its not tourist-visa-teaching
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Jan 8, 2016 12:19
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simplefish posted:Just start a business somewhere, get a business visa, caveat: you must frame it as consulting/independent contracting not employment It won't. Everybody who works in China (broadly defined as "doing work", while in China for more than 90? days) must be an employee of a Chinese registered company, or its illegal. Chinese companies that want to hire foreigners must apply for a special license. SAFEA for teaching institutions, the local labour bureau for other companies. This is troublesome, subject to quotas and expensive. There's just no such legal idea of independent contractors, local or foreigner. But, a Q visa is great for on the ground interviews and networking. And its China, so who knows what you can get away with?
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Jan 8, 2016 12:59
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Couldn't you register a WFOE for yourself?
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Jan 8, 2016 17:01
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Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprises are being phased out and are going through more and more stringent tax reviews and restrictions
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Jan 8, 2016 20:33
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caberham posted:Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprises are being phased out and are going through more and more stringent tax reviews and restrictions This is going to change if China keeps sliding economically. They've already shown a willingness to change long-standing policies (i.e., lifting the ban of share sales by large corporations). Actually, it could get more restrictive, but only if industrial growth picks up.
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Jan 8, 2016 21:34
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Jeoh posted:Couldn't you register a WFOE for yourself? Yep, start with How To Form A China WFOE: The Initial Information Required and just keep reading. It's a 12 part series, but I especially like Forming A China WFOE: Watching The Sausage Get Made. a lawyer who does this stuff posted:To form a WFOE in China, you typically need around 25 documents, 33 originals, 594 signatures (18 times the 33 originals) and 297 seals (9 times the 33 originals). Fun stuff, let me tell you.
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Jan 8, 2016 23:54
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I am so hard right now
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Jan 9, 2016 00:49
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From the back of my head you also need 1 million plus RMB as registered capital so good luck with that! Great to start a factory, but not so good to start a tutoring gig
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Jan 9, 2016 05:25
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ExpressVPN still works in China as of this morning.
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Jan 9, 2016 22:12
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Which city deserves an extra day for my first visit to (mainland) China: Shanghai, Beijing or Xi'an? My time shall consist of sightseeing, eating and aimlessly wandering around the city.
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Jan 10, 2016 18:51
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How long are you visiting? Do you have lung cancer yet?
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Jan 10, 2016 20:19
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Jeoh posted:How long are you visiting? Do you have lung cancer yet? 10 days total in China proper before heading to Lhasa on an overland tour to Kathmandu via Xi'an train.
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Jan 10, 2016 21:15
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Which city deserves an extra day for my first visit to (mainland) China: Shanghai, Beijing or Xi'an? Shanghai, definitely. Way more to do there.
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Jan 11, 2016 02:02
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Which city deserves an extra day for my first visit to (mainland) China: Shanghai, Beijing or Xi'an? Beijing would be the best because seeing the Wall takes most of a day. You could very easily add Nanjing into the mix, it's not far from Shanghai. You could do the city in a day and a half if you go see Sun Yat-sen and Jiang's house.
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Jan 11, 2016 05:06
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Beijing would be the best because seeing the Wall takes most of a day. Way more touristy things in BJ than anywhere else. Xi'an is a great place to relax though.
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Jan 11, 2016 06:08
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Things worth seeing in BJ: Temple of heaven (on a clean air day), Lama Temple, Hutongs (near Andingmen for quiet, nanluoguoxing or drum and bell tower for people) Things not worth seeing: Tiananmen A car park with a mausoleum and a gently caress ton of security Forbidden city, a jillion people looking at a jillion nearly identical rooms The wall isn't really worth the effort. Badaling and all are rebuilt from the 1980s and are packed unless you're on the first train out at 5.30am. The wild wall can be interesting but its harder to organise to get there. I'd go relax at Xian and don't bother with the terracotta soldiers unless you really like out of the way musuems to see a dozen statues that they didn't gently caress up. Chill in the muslim quarter and eat all the muslim food.
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Jan 11, 2016 06:59
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