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Andante posted:This is super helpful advice, thank you! I use an Android phone here and I've gotten pretty used to the interface. If I were to go that route, are the VPN recommendations in the OP still useful? I understand that which VPN is the best changes with the seasons, is there a consensus on one that is by and large functional? ExpressVPN is the most popular one as of recently, it seems. You'll pay for it, but I've liked it so far.
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Apr 6, 2016 09:02
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Anonymous John posted:Our plans originally were to do some traveling while in the country, originally to Xi'an and Shanghai for the sake of getting to see all the famous landmarks. However, we found out that the May Day holiday season is during this timeframe? Would you still recommend traveling during this time? Right now I feel like holding off until at least May 2-3 to avoid the rush, and to go to either Sanya or Yangshuo for a few days just to relax. Sanya is a collection of fairly average beach resorts. It's probably the best in China, but you're better off spending your cash in Thailand; it's cheaper and the beaches are better. Check the hotel prices for the weeks surrounding the holidays. During spring festival hotel prices are 3-5 normal. The terracotta warriors are always busiest during holidays, and if you're unlucky you'll be in a crowd 5 deep. Holidays just aren't a great time to visit popular famous tourist sites. Still Xi'an has awesome food, great city walls to cycle around, and Hua Shan is close by, complete with hot spring resorts.
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Apr 6, 2016 10:22
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Welcome you to xian
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Apr 6, 2016 11:22
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Anonymous John posted:Hey laowai goons! Mayday isn't a particularly big holiday for travel, it's only one day off. It'll probably be busier than normal but it's not like golden week/spring festival.
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Apr 6, 2016 12:18
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Thanks for replying! I had forgotten that Hua Shan is near Xi'an, though I'm a bit intimidated. We went up the cable car on Mutianyu Great Wall last fall and I developed a fear of heights there, can't imagine what this mountain would be like.
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Apr 6, 2016 15:02
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blueyedevil posted:ExpressVPN is the most popular one as of recently, it seems. You'll pay for it, but I've liked it so far. Good to know. I certainly don't mind paying a little more if the quality is there.
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Apr 7, 2016 02:53
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Anonymous John posted:Thanks for replying! I had forgotten that Hua Shan is near Xi'an, though I'm a bit intimidated. We went up the cable car on Mutianyu Great Wall last fall and I developed a fear of heights there, can't imagine what this mountain would be like. Now I'm imagining trying to take my wife up that...she drops down into a fetal position if she sees Google Earth.
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Apr 7, 2016 05:24
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Anonymous John posted:Thanks for replying! I had forgotten that Hua Shan is near Xi'an, though I'm a bit intimidated. We went up the cable car on Mutianyu Great Wall last fall and I developed a fear of heights there, can't imagine what this mountain would be like. Hua Shan is a cool mountain and you should climb it. 
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Apr 7, 2016 07:07
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I'm in Mauritius visiting my Chinese relatives and my 'aunties' are confused by my 6ft tall vegetarian white wife. That said, they are still feeding us tonnes. Interestingly, none of them speak Chinese despite only being second gen immigrants here - they all speak creole and English.
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Apr 7, 2016 08:17
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I have 7-1/2 days to split between Shanghai and Beijing on my trip to China this August. Per my current itinerary I am spending 3 full days, 4 nights in Shanghai and then taking a train to Beijing the next morning. From there I spend a half day, 3 full days, and then a half day in Beijing before taking an afternoon train to Xi'an for continuation of my journey. I am considering moving the train up about 12 hours so I only have 1-1/2 (two nights) in Shanghai and 4-1/2 days in Beijing. Essentially my question is whether I should keep the time in Shanghai, or try to spend more in Beijing? What is a better city to be a tourist in?
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Apr 7, 2016 18:45
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Cheesemaster200 posted:I have 7-1/2 days to split between Shanghai and Beijing on my trip to China this August. Per my current itinerary I am spending 3 full days, 4 nights in Shanghai and then taking a train to Beijing the next morning. From there I spend a half day, 3 full days, and then a half day in Beijing before taking an afternoon train to Xi'an for continuation of my journey. Beijing and it's surrounding area has way more touristy stuff to see so spending more time there on a short trip would be best. Shanghai is the better city, though.
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Apr 7, 2016 18:58
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Shot in the dark, but is anybody in Macau? I'm trying to find some folks that speak a couple of endangered languages there, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macanese_Portuguese and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macanese_Patois. They're both critically endangered, and I'd love to see if I can find/meet speakers. I like turtles fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 22:14
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Any advice on Shenzhen when traveling for business? I've also never been to China and might be able to tag on a few days vacation. I think my colleagues in the office there will know plenty, but a goon's perspective is worth its weight in Cheetos. Also, the Sogou app link on the first page doesn't work. Do I just nab the first result in the play store?
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Apr 8, 2016 04:00
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Can anybody recommend a Chinese bank account that offers fee free international withdrawals? I have a couple of colleagues travelling internationally, and they want to use their UnionPay / local Visa cards without being charged rediculous fees by their home banks. Something similar to the CitiBank Plus account, but from a Chinese bank.
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Apr 8, 2016 06:51
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French Canadian posted:Any advice on Shenzhen when traveling for business? I've also never been to China and might be able to tag on a few days vacation. I think my colleagues in the office there will know plenty, but a goon's perspective is worth its weight in Cheetos. I'd recommend Baidu Maps as the current hotness. Although Sogou make a great keyboard app. Somebody should probably update the OP
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Apr 8, 2016 06:58
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Trammel posted:I'd recommend Baidu Maps as the current hotness. Although Sogou make a great keyboard app. On that, I would recommend getting the standalone APK instead of the google play version: http://wuxian.baidu.com/map/map_download.html The button with "Android" is the one for the apk download. I'd guess they have the same level of creepy data collection so the standalone APK probably isn't any worse. The Google Play versions are almost 2 years old at this point and lack a lot of updated maps/features.
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Apr 8, 2016 11:36
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Trammel posted:I'd recommend Baidu Maps as the current hotness. Although Sogou make a great keyboard app. I'll update that with Magna Kaser's info and link. I'm trying to keep this OP up to date but it's tough not being in China any longer and things (tech especially) change quickly. So anything else goons, lemme know!
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Apr 8, 2016 21:52
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How trustworthy is the Chinese mail system? If I'm sending documents with sensitive information to someone who needs to send them to the consulate are they going to get opened and read? Should I just use a courier? Mostly worried about identity theft.
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Apr 13, 2016 16:26
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They always advise using a courier for important documents. I have not personally had any issues with Chinese mail (except the delivery people are universally idiots) but I wouldn't chance it.
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Apr 13, 2016 16:32
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Grand Fromage posted:They always advise using a courier for important documents. I have not personally had any issues with Chinese mail (it works fine for me)
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Apr 13, 2016 16:59
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Oracle posted:How trustworthy is the Chinese mail system? If it's within China just go with a kuaidi. Cheap and reliable.
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Apr 13, 2016 17:37
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SB35 posted:If it's within China just go with a kuaidi. Cheap and reliable.
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Apr 13, 2016 19:47
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Oracle posted:Its international. he'll be internal but we have to get it to him first. Does Fed-Ex or the like work in China? I've sent documents (sensitive stuff) to china express before using Canada Post. I imagine USPS would do a similar job. It works, it's fast, the documents got there within a few days.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:08
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Oracle posted:Its international. he'll be internal but we have to get it to him first. Does Fed-Ex or the like work in China? Fedex/UPS/DHL all ok.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:14
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Hey y'all, had another thought about visiting Shanghai and staying longer to check out one of the nearby water villages (advertised as the "Venices of the East"). Have you been to any of these here? http://www.chinatravel.com/focus/water-town/ If so, any must-see's and must-avoids?
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Apr 13, 2016 23:39
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There's a whole bunch of these water villages. A lot of them get super touristy, especially the ones easily accessible from Shanghai. But still Suzhou is decent and 西塘 was interesting. If I don't have much time I wouldn't go. I rather go around WESTLAKE Hangzhou
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Apr 14, 2016 04:58
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Anonymous John posted:Hey y'all, had another thought about visiting Shanghai and staying longer to check out one of the nearby water villages (advertised as the "Venices of the East"). I went to Xitang back in like 2010. I remember it being kinda cool to walk around, perhaps even romantic if you stay at a hotel in the water town. You can go on a boat tour and in the evening you can buy paper flowers with a tea light in them and then float it down the water. You'll see the guys fishing out all the trash the next morning. It's fun but really just a one day kind of thing though, as it's small and nothing too exciting is happening.
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Apr 14, 2016 05:55
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quote:Mudu Ancient Town has a more than a 2500 years history which is as long as the history of Suzhou City. Huh?!
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Apr 14, 2016 06:20
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Oracle posted:How trustworthy is the Chinese mail system? If I'm sending documents with sensitive information to someone who needs to send them to the consulate are they going to get opened and read? Should I just use a courier? Mostly worried about identity theft. Last week I got a Christmas card delivered to my office from my Aunt & Uncle in the UK. It was posted in early december, complete with the address written in Chinese and printed out, and an airmail sticker. I've ordered DVDs from the US, and the seller assured me that Standard US Postal was fine. I insisted on insurance, and 10 weeks later, he's promising me a refund. Go with a courier, and make sure it's trackable. They're very reliable, and pretty quick too.
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Apr 14, 2016 09:41
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SB35 posted:I went to Xitang back in like 2010. I remember it being kinda cool to walk around, perhaps even romantic if you stay at a hotel in the water town. You can go on a boat tour and in the evening you can buy paper flowers with a tea light in them and then float it down the water. You'll see the guys fishing out all the trash the next morning. Thanks! We definitely want to stay overnight at one of those "authentic" guesthouses as a romantic thing, so this sounds perfect.
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Apr 14, 2016 15:37
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At work we use DHL and stuff arrives in like a week. USPS tends to get lost forever.
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Apr 14, 2016 16:04
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I've never had a problem with usps or china post so my anecdote cancels out all your anecdotes
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Apr 14, 2016 16:36
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Hi China thread. I'm strongly considering coming to work as a teacher in China and wondered if you had any sort of consensus on where to go/where not to go? I know that's pretty subjective but I'm having a hard time really narrowing down where I'd be aiming to work. Shanghai would be cool but I guess that's where everybody wants to go, so I'm not sure if it's viable for someone with no experience. Some people online suggest you'll only get a job there with experience. Perhaps living somewhere not far from Shanghai would be good? help.
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Apr 14, 2016 22:24
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The law says you need experience I think. I don't know. I am in Better China aka Hong Kong (not Good China, which is Taiwan) The tricky part about Hong Kong is getting a work visa but if you can sort that I'll have you housed and employed in a week.  What country are you from?
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Apr 14, 2016 22:53
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I'm from the UK. I have looked at Taiwan and briefly thought it would be great, but then it seemed as though you mainly get a job once you're already there. I'm sure that's probably fine but it makes me feel uneasy so I went back to looking at the mainland. I hadn't even considered Hong Kong actually, but definitely would
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Apr 14, 2016 23:09
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Paperhouse posted:Hi China thread. I'm strongly considering coming to work as a teacher in China and wondered if you had any sort of consensus on where to go/where not to go? I know that's pretty subjective but I'm having a hard time really narrowing down where I'd be aiming to work. Shanghai would be cool but I guess that's where everybody wants to go, so I'm not sure if it's viable for someone with no experience. Some people online suggest you'll only get a job there with experience. Perhaps living somewhere not far from Shanghai would be good? help. Regardless of what you choose to do, run your offer by here first or the Taiwan thread, and listen to the smart people who tell you what to do. Ignore the people who poo poo all over your offer because there are a fair amount of people who will poo poo all over your offer regardless of what it is. Shanghai isn't bad but the cost of living is very high, so you're going to need a really good offer to be able to save any money there at all.
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Apr 14, 2016 23:14
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Do you have a degree? A CELTA or other TEFL certificate?
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Apr 15, 2016 11:34
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the only good city in china is chengdu
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Apr 15, 2016 12:10
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So guess who's getting married later this year? Apparently me. Grandma asked the fortune teller when her granddaughter and the foreigner should get hitched, and it's August or about that time. I know a few of you are married to Chinese citizens, any wedding hot tips? I have no idea what I'm doing and I think/hope the inlaws are handling the logistics.
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Apr 15, 2016 13:33
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Warbird posted:So guess who's getting married later this year? Apparently me. Grandma asked the fortune teller when her granddaughter and the foreigner should get hitched, and it's August or about that time. I know a few of you are married to Chinese citizens, any wedding hot tips? I have no idea what I'm doing and I think/hope the inlaws are handling the logistics. If you're weak like me you can drink water instead of baijiu during the reception to save face and not get drunk
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Apr 15, 2016 13:36
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