|
Magna Kaser posted:The lack of career advancement was my #1 reason for getting out of ESL even though I really liked it. ESL does have career advancement in the States though.
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 05:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 04:51 |
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:ESL does have career advancement in the States though. That's true. I had originally planned on just skipping China and heading back, and that's why my graduate degree was actually focused on that. I kind of fell in to my current career through an internship though and I like it and I'm getting good experience and stuff so... MeramJert posted:Yeah, you can. There's a lot of places in the US that you don't "need" a car, as evidenced by the fact that a lot of people don't actually have them. I have friends in New York, LA, and Boston that don't have cars. I also have friends in Bangor and some small towns in Maine without cars. You don't eat out at restaurants much at all, and income tax rates in the US aren't really that high for people making so little anyway. Rent really is cheaper in most of China, though I could find a place in the US for comparable or less than what I'm living in now. I used to cook for myself and a roommate for $30/week for the both of us, which is pretty cheap for food here in China too. I'm kind of interested how these people do so well without cars. This is an honest question too since like I said, I hated owning a car before. I like bikes and public transit. When I grew in a suburb of boston the closest supermarket was a 15 minute drive using the highway and the only buses that went there were like twice daily. If you had to work anywhere that wasn't on the two bus lines that went through that suburban hellscape and didn't have a car you were pretty hosed since everyone works in those terrible office parks which are always just off the highway next to a Friendly's. When I lived in Columbus, OH it was kind of OK because the OSU campus and the 60k students that go there made a bus system halfway viable, but if you had to go anywhere that wasn't "that one mall next to campus" or a vague downtown area you either had to bike (which wouldn't be bad except off campus there was never anywhere to park them) or get a car. Columbus is a city of a couple million, and my hometown is by no means a place in the middle of nowhere. I can only imagine in places that aren't so populated it gets even worse. I can't speak for your friends, but my friends in LA constantly complain about how they do need a car there and they all want to move to SF where you don't. But this is kind of totally off topic for a thread about China. Ailumao fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 06:37
|
|
|
Magna Kaser posted:I can't speak for your friends, but my friends in LA constantly complain about how they do need a car there and they all want to move to SF where you don't. LA is just like large sprawling Chinese city but with bad bad public transportation.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 06:42
|
|
|
I don't think it is that off topic because we are comparing China TO other places we have lived. When I lived in Madison with my ex-girlfriend I was about a 15 minute walk from the capitol, and that's where my office was. Walking to work in the fall was fine...and spring was good too. Winter, fortunately I never had to experience, but I imagine I wouldn't have been able to walk there. A lot of people ride bikes in Madison, I did that when I could get my hands on one. In Chicago public transit is ok but I was spending 40 dollars a week just getting too and from my job and getting around downtown, which at bare bones transportation is a hefty amount of money. In China I live in a nice apartment right downtown and I walk everywhere. My apartment is significantly cheaper than any apartment I have had in any place in the United States. In Boston you might not need a car, but you definitely need one in LA I feel like. San Francisco you can get around by bus, I did that just in November, but SF is so freakin' expensive I would have to make six figures easy to live there comfortably like I do here. We are just talking about that here at the office and the list of cities that we came up with where you could live without a car and be able to get around easily were New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, maybe Minneapolis. But you'll have to take the public transport and that can be expensive. A girl in my company just said living in Berkeley and commuting to downtown SF is six bucks a day, and rent was "cheaper" than SF but you're still paying northern California rent. China has a lot wrong with it but also a lot going for it and I'm kind of stuck here now, because no way I will make as much as I am making here/saving here back in the States if I moved back tomorrow and I'm on a track now where I am just getting more responsibility and more bonuses, which is nice but it also makes me feel like I am stuck in China which makes me feel like this  The only way out might be for me to go back and finish my Phd. I guess we'll see. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 06:49
|
|
|
Me too  I'm from Mountain View, home of Google headquarters. My husband and I could never find jobs in California to match our lifestyle in suburban 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 06:57
|
|
|
My friends in Boston are great without cars. They just take buses or the subway. They live and work near subway stops and it's really never an issue. If they really need a car they just get a taxi, but that's very rare. LA is a bit worse, but 16.53% of households in LA don't have a car. They're not dying in the streets or anything, you just take the bus, bike, and walk. One of my dad's good friends has lived in LA for 20 years and he's never had a car. He works a good office job that he can walk to and just takes the bus everywhere. I knew another guy that worked, ironically, as a hotel shuttle bus driver in the Valley who didn't have a car. He took the bus everywhere, too. I lived in LA for a year without a car. I rode my bicycle, lived within walking distance to work, and generally did everything in my little area. I had a few friends with cars, but they hardly used them. This is what I'm talking about with expectations. If 16.53% of households in LA don't own a car, and you start saying you need a car to live in LA, then you clearly have certain lifestyle expectations that would come with living in LA. I know when I first came to China I didn't have the baggage of basically any expectations at all; I just accepted the life I got. I like it here, but I think the disconnect from living expectations allowed me to accept a different sort of lifestyle than I'd be willing to accept back in the US.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 07:07
|
|
|
I am living in a smallish town. I have not had a car in 15 years. I have an electric pedal assist bike (because it is hilly and I am an old). I just got that last October. I walk a lot. I take buses when it works. If I go to the biiig city I take a train. I readjust what I consider possible and convenient. Sometimes friends take me places. That's the exception though. Edit: I have loved all sorts of places without cars. Cities are usually easy. Boston, NYC, European cities, Asian cities....
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 07:09
|
|
|
On the whole "buy a house" thing: I am about a 1/4 of the way to a deposit on a buy-to-let in Edinburgh. At my current salary level in China I'll have reached my goal in about four years. Buy a small flat, do it up, rent it out, 100% of the rent goes into the mortgage (and property mangement), 50% of my monthly savings go into topping up the mortgage payments to pay it down faster. Rinse. Repeat. Might take more time if I have to pay fees for a PhD or somesuch, but it'll still be done. Hopefully twice. [edit] Or I may go insane in my quest to find four people who aren't sex offenders and want to work in bumblescum'by'nan. GuestBob fucked around with this message at 08:25 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:22
|
|
|
If you can get me a job in Edinburgh I will move there tomorrow.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:34
|
|
|
Personally I really miss having a car. The ability to just get out and drive somewhere on a lark is hugely important to me. I like public transportation and I think it's a Goddamn travesty how my country generally shits on it, but I miss the convenience of our vehicles and the independence they provide. (Having always lived in a rural area exacerbates that, I'm sure.) They're just collecting dust in garages right now. If we stayed in China any longer we'd probably sell them. Oddly enough, what I'll miss most about Chinese transportation systems won't be subways and taxis being cheap and easy, but the high-speed rail networks linking cities together. I absolutely love the gaotie and really wish we had something like it in the States. (Amtrak can go gently caress itself.) I loathe distance driving especially because fearcotton falls asleep 36 seconds into 14-hour drives and leaves me to Red Bull it up all by myself while she drools happily against the window. Chinese trains--when they're not crammed full, of course--are a wonderful way to travel: relatively efficient, cost-effective, and comfortable.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:40
|
|
|
goldboilermark posted:If you can get me a job in Edinburgh I will move there tomorrow. You and every other human being who isn't from Glasgow.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:44
|
|
|
GuestBob posted:You and every other human being who isn't from Glasgow. I hear Scottish men wear skirts. Also there are no human beings from Glasgow. Just Scotsmen. sincerely, Margaret Thatcher
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:46
|
|
|
I read your post wrong and thought you were going to have trouble getting four people who aren't sex offenders to live in your flat in Edinburgh. It is the best city I have ever been to in my entire life and I really wanna go back. .__. edit: it being the best has nothing to do with kilts
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:46
|
|
|
Y'all are babies. I was paying £30 a DAY on a 1hr commute - including a 1/3 off my rail fare.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 08:49
|
|
|
With the unfair assumption that you made that commute every single day for an entire year, you spent an entire GuestBob salary commuting.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:06
|
|
|
You also spent almost 22 days out of the YEAR commuting. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:08
|
|
|
Before coming to China I was travelling up to 3.5 hours a day and spending around 3500RMB a month on it, so, yeah it gets expensive in the UK.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:14
|
|
|
My employer is paying me €150 every month to travel two hours per day. But I sit in the train and watch Netflix and make bad posts so it's cool.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:15
|
|
|
goldboilermark posted:I read your post wrong and thought you were going to have trouble getting four people who aren't sex offenders to live in your flat in Edinburgh. It is the best city I have ever been to in my entire life and I really wanna go back. .__. PM/WeChat me your industry and I probably can, since it's also my homeland 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:16
|
|
|
BadAstronaut posted:Before coming to China I was travelling up to 3.5 hours a day and spending around 3500RMB a month on it, so, yeah it gets expensive in the UK. Why were you paying for your commute with RMB?
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:19
|
|
|
MeramJert posted:Why were you paying for your commute with RMB? I would denounce the willful ignorance of this post if I hadn't thought of posting the same thing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:21
|
|
|
goldboilermark posted:You also spent almost 22 days out of the YEAR commuting. I haven't done the maths, but it was an hour each way, and that didn't count the 15-minute walk from the station to the office. So 30 quid fuel, parking and train fare, which was 2 hrs a day total, plus 30mins total free walking through Oxford Public transportis much more reasonable if you live in a big city, but I lived in the middle of some fields. A fifteen minute bus rideto the nearest town in 2007 cost like £5 so I got a car as soon as possible. Also there was a 20 minute drive to the station, parking was £3-ish a day, petrol was like £1.42 a litre at a supermarket, more at Esso or Shell.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:25
|
|
|
MeramJert posted:Why were you paying for your commute with RMB? In preparation for my move over here obviously, geez  I needed to practice handling 35 notes at once to get used to a lower value currency that doesn't have denominations higher than 100.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 09:56
|
|
|
Bloodnose posted:...an entire GuestBob salary commuting. You're just grumpy because you're not allowed to go to Temple while you're unemployed. Without even trying, this year I am on track to save over $8,500. I don't see what's bad about this. It's alot more than I was ever able to save whilst working in the UK. I need to do something with it actually. I have a wad of foreign currency sitting in a drawer which wants moving into an ISA back in the UK. Transferring money is such a bitch though I am not sure I can be bothered - last time it took me two and a half hours and involved thriteen forms, one of which I had to fingerprint in red ink (Henan  ). Is there a maximum limit on a foreign currency transfers? GuestBob fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 12:31
|
|
|
GuestBob posted:You and every other human being who isn't from Glasgow. Cause us weegies know all the great places to be and all the hundred of terrible placs to avoid. Good luck on your deposit saving im at 10 percent! It costs 20p to work and back on the bus, and for people complain that Shenzhen has expensive taxi for china but seriously it like 1/10 of a difference compared to home! Been interested in moving to Boston so nice to hear you dont require a car!
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 12:33
|
|
|
GuestBob posted:You're just grumpy because you're not allowed to go to Temple while you're unemployed. I think yu cant send home more than your monthly wage or a precentage of it, I think I was told. I usually can send back 40 % without much effort. Merchant bank seem ok only take 50 mins and most of that is getting the money changed to GBP. Though I have all my details on a little USB stick which seriously saves like an hour. Double post but differnt topics so suck it
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 12:36
|
|
|
ally_1986 posted:I think you cant send home more than your monthly wage or a percentage of it, I think I was told. The 70% salary transfer ceiling in my contract is not a limit. I suppose I should have asked whether there is a limit for Chinese people on how much they can bang over in a single transfer? The daily changing money limit isn't an issue because I have a dude at a bank who does this for me on the sly so I can pop down whenever I like and get Queenface no bother. GuestBob fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 12:44
|
|
|
Something like 300,000 or $50,000 US or something. I'm planning to ask a good friend to help me ship money out of the country now that Chinese bank lockdown is looking like a future possibility. Not a certainty it's just there's rumbles about it. I heard rumbles in early 2007 and I'm not ignoring rumbles again.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 12:48
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:... Chinese bank lockdown ... That's going to be a lot of trips across the border at SZ/HK. This is how we roll in Taking bets on how long a stripper can ride a mechanical bull is the epitome gambling. GuestBob fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 13:00
|
|
|
If you are moving a decent amount of cash (20k GBP++) then open an account in XE, place the money in your account and withdraw to your UK account. It's pretty easy!
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 14:09
|
|
|
kru posted:If you are moving a decent amount of cash (20k GBP++) then open an account in XE, place the money in your account and withdraw to your UK account. It's pretty easy! XE doesn't trade in RMB so I'd have to use GBP - I suppose I could convert it into GBP, place it in a Chinese bank account and then maybe pay it to XE. But by that point would it not have been easier just to have paid for a wire transfer to my Building Soc in the UK? The wonders of a controlled currency.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 14:19
|
|
|
GuestBob posted:XE doesn't trade in RMB so I'd have to use GBP - I suppose I could convert it into GBP, place it in a Chinese bank account and then maybe pay it to XE. But by that point would it not have been easier just to have paid for a wire transfer to my Building Soc in the UK? I think you might be right. I have a few people I can ask around the office to find out how they do it, so let me check.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 14:35
|
|
|
What fee do you end up paying to XE, kru? I'd rather send more frequent smaller amounts back and forth between HK and the US, but bank wire fees make it prohibitive and dumb.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 21:43
|
|
|
Ask your banks about details on transfer fees. When I send USA-JP, if my US bank converted to yen they took a big chunk out if the rate (\104/$1 - \99/$1) and killed my margin. If I left it as USD, my Japanese bank exchanged at-rate plus a $30 fee. I profited 3%. We're also saving up for a house, but very soon and in Japan. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 23:04
|
|
|
Bank of America lets me do international wires up to $1000 online, or up to $10,000 with a Safe Pass code (instant code sent to my dad's phone.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
CitiBank Global transfer! http://www.citibank.com.cn/english/services/atm_network.htm I think they also waive fees for other bank terminals in China. Nevermind, only first 3 are free every month. If you deposit a million RMB and set your self up as Gold member then it's free wherever you go. Still, CitiBank is great. Good internet banking, global transfer, just great. Except for setting up housing crisises. caberham fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Mar 19, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 01:54
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:
Wait, what? Details! What rumbles?
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 02:19
|
|
|
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/chinese-debt-worries/ When non-China focused econ blogs start sounding warning notes it makes you wonder what the China watchers are saying. If the banking system goes to poo poo there's a good chance that capital outflows will be stopped completely, which means John and Jane Foreigner will be poo poo out of luck at getting money from Chinese banks to anywhere else. We might end up in Hong Kong run/carrying $10,000 cash on the plane territory. Part of the uncertainty is that Chinese banking numbers are opaque and what you do get is likely to be fabrications anyway. This being China, would you say it's more likely that the situation is worse than the powerful people would like it to appear, or better?
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 02:45
|
|
|
GuestBob posted:
If there is, you're probably nowhere near it!
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 07:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 04:51 |
|
|
GuestBob posted:Is there a maximum limit on a foreign currency transfers? HSBC HK warns me every time I make any forex transfer that only 20k RMB a day can be moved, so it's actually quite easy to be near it. Supposedly that's why you always get Chinese people caught at the Vancouver airport hauling wheelbarrows full of Chinese cash illegally, since they can't just transfer it out through normal channels.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 07:44
|
|