The China Megathread III: It is not a happy everyday

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > The China Megathread III: It is not a happy everyday

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Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

I chilled and bought a skateboard

Edit: old man snipe

# ? Apr 9, 2019 14:38

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# ? May 30, 2024 21:02

vanity slug: Jul 20, 2010

do you drink half-and-half yet? how do you feel about peanut brittle?

# ? Apr 9, 2019 14:58

Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

Sounds like old Dutch people are boring lol

# ? Apr 9, 2019 15:00

Amergin: Jan 29, 2013; THE SOUND A WET FART MAKES

Quick question to HK goons: I read recently that when going to Hong Kong you should bring and carry around cash, as a lot of cafes, small restaurants and taxis don't accept cards or "Apple Pay" (who the gently caress uses Apple Pay?). This was an article written 4/10/2019.

So uh... does HK not use WeChat Pay/Alipay? Most of the traveling I did in China I felt like cash was wasted because literally even the street vendors had one or both of those set up.

I guess this article is written for westerners visiting Hong Kong in which case getting WeChat/Alipay set up is a hassle, I just wanted to double-check and make sure.

# ? Apr 15, 2019 18:21

Deep State of Mind: Jul 30, 2006; "It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."; Fun Shoe

WeChat Pay/Alipay is very common in places that cater to mainland tourists but is not much used by Hong Kongers. I used Samsung Pay at convenience stores, but just your regular old Visa card is widely accepted. You will need cash if you want to go to like an old school cha chan ting though.

# ? Apr 15, 2019 22:01

sincx: Jul 13, 2012; furiously masturbating to anime titties

sincx fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Mar 23, 2021

# ? Apr 15, 2019 22:14

tino: Jun 4, 2018; by Smythe

You also need cash to recharge subway card in China.

# ? Apr 15, 2019 22:21

Vernacular: Nov 29, 2004

What are the best places to look for housing in HK? Somebody posted GoHome.com.hk and that was helpful. Any others? Seems like craigslist is exclusively realtor spam.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 00:19

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Gotta find the ghost realtors so you can get a low rent ghost apartment.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 00:25

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

Bloodnose posted:

WeChat Pay/Alipay is very common in places that cater to mainland tourists but is not much used by Hong Kongers. I used Samsung Pay at convenience stores, but just your regular old Visa card is widely accepted. You will need cash if you want to go to like an old school cha chan ting though.

You need either a mainland ID linked to your Alipay/WeChat or you need a Hong Kong based account to use them in Hong Kong though. If you were using it in China and you�re not mainland Chinese, it will not work.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 00:55

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

tino posted:

You also need cash to recharge subway card in China.

Probably depends on the city but you do not need cash to use the automatic recharge machines in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Nanjing at least

# ? Apr 16, 2019 00:57

Ailumao: Nov 4, 2004

fart simpson posted:

Probably depends on the city but you do not need cash to use the automatic recharge machines in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Nanjing at least

Yeah every city I've been in has wechat/alipay options to recharge cards.

Now in Shanghai I have the Apple Wallet version of the card and I can have it auto fill when it gets below a certain number.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 01:03

BrainDance: May 8, 2007; Disco all night long!

tino posted:

You also need cash to recharge subway card in China.

Really? This has to be by city then, I recharge mine with wechat and you can use alipay without even having a subway card to pay.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 03:19

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

BrainDance posted:

Really? This has to be by city then, I recharge mine with wechat and you can use alipay without even having a subway card to pay.

Shenzhen is the same but you gotta use WeChat or UnionPay contactless instead of Alipay. Nanchang and Nanjing both let you use Alipay and UnionPay contactless directly but not WeChat.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 03:27

Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

I'm pretty sure you need cash for the recharge machines in beijing

# ? Apr 16, 2019 05:42

Trammel: Dec 31, 2007; .

In Xi'an only locals with Chinese ID card numbers can use Alipay for metro, but we are allowed to use WeChat + Xiaomi NFC bands and recharge through WeChat.

In summary, China is a land of contra~~sts~~dictions.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 05:58

The Great Autismo!: Mar 3, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Trammel posted:

In Xi'an only locals with Chinese ID card numbers can use Alipay for metro, but we are allowed to use WeChat + Xiaomi NFC bands and recharge through WeChat.

In summary, China is a land of contra~~sts~~dictions.

actually to label China as anything makes you a sinophile, you can�t sum up china with simply one word. Reeks of orientalism imo

unless you have met every single Chinese person on earth and coded every interaction, to talk about China as a single entity is incredibly offensive

edit: #wokeposting from downtown San Francisco lol

The Great Autismo! fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Apr 16, 2019

# ? Apr 16, 2019 06:52

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

We were in HK a couple weeks ago

I would say 80-95% of the shops we were in took visa/mastercard without issue

Restaurants was about 60% would take visa/mastercard but we ate a lot of "street food" and local places

You need an octopus card to get around the city; all the shops in the underground/metro take octopus card which covers about 99% of your on the go eats

Circle K/7-11, if you depend on those shops while traveling (I walk a lot when traveling, end up buying a fair number of candy bars and red bulls, etc), all take octopus cards

Between the two of us we probably went through $300 in cash in five days/four nights, maybe $80 of that was spent putting money on our octopus cards

# ? Apr 16, 2019 08:27

Ailumao: Nov 4, 2004

Tom Smykowski posted:

I'm pretty sure you need cash for the recharge machines in beijing

lmao typical beijing still behind circa-2014 chengdu

# ? Apr 16, 2019 08:32

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

Hadlock posted:

We were in HK a couple weeks ago

I would say 80-95% of the shops we were in took visa/mastercard without issue

Restaurants was about 60% would take visa/mastercard but we ate a lot of "street food" and local places

You need an octopus card to get around the city; all the shops in the underground/metro take octopus card which covers about 99% of your on the go eats

Circle K/7-11, if you depend on those shops while traveling (I walk a lot when traveling, end up buying a fair number of candy bars and red bulls, etc), all take octopus cards

Between the two of us we probably went through $300 in cash in five days/four nights, maybe $80 of that was spent putting money on our octopus cards

Hong Kong is not china :qq:

Magna Kaser posted:

lmao typical beijing still behind circa-2014 chengdu

I had to pay then newspaper vendor extra money to exchange for some cash

# ? Apr 16, 2019 09:48

simplefish: Mar 28, 2011; So long, and thanks for all the ~~fish~~ gallbladdΣrs!

Vernacular posted:

What are the best places to look for housing in HK? Somebody posted GoHome.com.hk and that was helpful. Any others? Seems like craigslist is exclusively realtor spam.

Squarefoot is a popular site

# ? Apr 16, 2019 10:12

Ailumao: Nov 4, 2004

simplefish posted:

Squarefoot is a popular site

is it because the name is the biggest apartment you can find in Hong Kong!

# ? Apr 16, 2019 13:38

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

caberham posted:

Hong Kong is not china

I had to pay then newspaper vendor extra money to exchange for some cash

So when you told me you could only recharge metro cards at newspaper stands you were lying and you meant you didn�t have cash on you

# ? Apr 16, 2019 14:09

sincx: Jul 13, 2012; furiously masturbating to anime titties

sincx fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Mar 23, 2021

# ? Apr 16, 2019 15:05

Amergin: Jan 29, 2013; THE SOUND A WET FART MAKES

Thanks all for the HK cash/card/app pay info. In Kunming I believe it was cash-only for recharging bus/subway cards, but that was a year ago so they may have updated it.

Of course we had all of two lines so it didn't matter so much.

# ? Apr 16, 2019 15:27

Bofast: Feb 21, 2011; Grimey Drawer

Magna Kaser posted:

is it because the name is the biggest apartment you can find in Hong Kong!

Good one

# ? Apr 16, 2019 16:16

peanut: Sep 9, 2007

sincx posted:

I'm based in the US and travel to Asia for work once in a while. Always been that way.

Recently I've been looking for jobs and a recruiter for a large Taiwanese company that manufactures semiconductors reached out. The position is almost a perfect match for my skills and interests. Unfortunately the job is at their headquarters in Hsinchu, and the pay is below US standards (because the job is in Hsinchu).

If I was 5 years younger, I might be open to it. Loved Best China every time I visited.

Alas, I'm too old and have too many things tying me down to spend a few years overseas now.

</end rant>

follow yr heart mate !!!!

# ? Apr 16, 2019 23:38

Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

Do it

# ? Apr 16, 2019 23:52

tino: Jun 4, 2018; by Smythe

Steal the Taiwanese semiconductor secrets and make the offering to the Pooh. You will be rewarded handsomely with high pay.

tino fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Apr 17, 2019

# ? Apr 17, 2019 00:15

GoutPatrol: Oct 17, 2009; *Stupid Babby*

Hsinchu is one of the nicer places to live in Taiwan. Taiwanese people want to be here.

# ? Apr 17, 2019 00:42

Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

I'm gonna move to Taiwan we could be friends

# ? Apr 17, 2019 01:42

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

Tom Smykowski posted:

I'm gonna move to Taiwan we could be friends

When

# ? Apr 17, 2019 01:48

Tom Smykowski: Jan 27, 2005; What the hell is wrong with you people?

Whenever the hell I want :mufasa:

# ? Apr 17, 2019 01:55

Deep State of Mind: Jul 30, 2006; "It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."; Fun Shoe

I wonder what my life would be like if I moved to Taiwan.

# ? Apr 17, 2019 01:57