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July 1st has passed meaning new visa regulations to make the lives of everyone more difficult. Shanghai Expat has a good forum post about the changes. By "good" I mean better than nothing. quote:Here’s a summary of the recent visa changes, which came into effect on July 1st, 2013. I got an email from my work and they said it takes 15 days (instead of the normal 7) to get your visa renewed. There is no rush service available. HR sucks and decided to wait until the very last minute to renew everyone's visa which means now we all have to wait an extra week to get our passports back. Many people already booked tickets home so now everyone is hosed! There's gonna be a huge argument during our Wednesday meeting!
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Jul 2, 2013 08:45
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ZombieParts posted:Did they only give you a 6 month contract last time? I could have sworn you and I went to work at roughly the same time in March/April. Yeah but my other co-workers visas were going to expire at the end of June. I was roped into the process to one shot everything. As long as your paper work is in order, you'll be fine!
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Jul 9, 2013 15:36
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goldboilermark posted:
Definitely do this. If you think you don't need it, make copies any ways and bring it. Rules will change on you last minute and your HR will blame YOU for not checking them online (even though thats THEIR job) You'll save yourself a lot of headache and frantic phone calls to your HR department.
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Aug 25, 2013 02:33
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The Worst Muslim posted:In my experience most "HR" departments is one girl who also doubles as a teacher. My HR department consists of a Director and an underling. Guess who does all of the work?
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Aug 25, 2013 05:54
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Tom Smykowski posted:Gonna dust off my nice fedora for this. Don't forget to POP that collar up!
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Sep 1, 2013 15:45
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Hammerstein posted:Also: is the seaquarium any good ? The pics on the internet look nice. Don't bother. It's incredibly over priced and you don't get to see a lot. The only cool part of the place is the underwater walk way but that's towards the very end. It isn't worth $20 US!
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Sep 5, 2013 12:37
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VideoTapir posted:I use those things for dips, pull-ups and sit ups. Don't even know what they're SUPPOSED to be for. You don't even need equipment. To get the REAL CHINESE WORKOUT EXPERIENCE you have to walk backwards. Once you master that, add in some forward claps. After a few years, you can really show off your experience by walking backwards and clapping forwards AND backwards. Its pretty intense and you can really feel the 5000 years of culture flowing through you. If you really need equipment though, try using a tree. Put your back against it and bump your butt. Do this for 45 minutes and you're good for the day.
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Sep 8, 2013 09:13
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VideoTapir posted:Alternately you get in the vicinity of the address you're looking for. You ask people on the street and they point you in what they think is the right direction. Except half the time it's the wrong direction. This isn't just me speaking for my stupid foreigner experience, this happens to my wife, too. I remember when I was on the Amazing Race (China Rush *cough*), my partner and I had to get to a famous park in Suifenhe. We asked 7 different people and we got 7 different sets of directions. By directions I mean people just pointing into the air.
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Sep 17, 2013 06:03
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Rental Sting posted:I'm planning on going with a group to scope out the Guilin/Yangshuo area sometime during Oct. 1-7, although I'm worried it might be violently crowded. Expect everywhere to be violently crowded! Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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Sep 21, 2013 16:35
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Sogol posted:I ran across this somewhat surreal image the other day: Dude WTF is that? Do I even want to know?
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Sep 25, 2013 11:25
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FearCotton posted:So yeah, zoos = sadness.
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Sep 27, 2013 10:15
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EF sucks. Don't worry about overtime because you'll never get it. A friend of mine was cheated out a bunch of hours because the DoS (Director of Studies) made a stink about the difference between TEACHING hours and OFFICE hours. If you do end up in SH with EF, I'll know who your trainer is going to be because he was my DoS back in the day. The dude is a huge loving piece of poo poo. I can honestly say that he is one of the top 3 most horrible people I have ever met in my life. He is the personification of everything wrong with your stereotypical expat. I could write pages about the low down dirty poo poo hes done but thats for a PM. Take everything the recruiter says with a grain of salt. They have to meet a quota of 10 new hires a month or else they won't get their bonus. They will say anything to get you signed up! While it is true that the quality of your job depends on your branch, I really wouldn't leave it up to chance. EF tends to promote the biggest rear end kissers. There is a big chance that your DoS and other managers will make your life Hell. They want to get ahead and use you as a stepping stone. Upper management has their heads up their asses. Have any of you guys sat in on a meeting with these fools? They read a handful of articles about English and they are self proclaimed English teaching experts. Every sentence started either with "I read an article in ----- magazine" or "According to the research of....." It was the worst dick measuring contest. They even started citing the exact pages of the obscure magazine articles they have read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to rant hardcore about how lovely EF is. Listen, there are some other schools that offer better pay and don't poo poo all over you. Do your research about the schools. Ask the forums about any offers you get and chances are one of us knows something about it. IF you do go with EF, I suggest you find something else ASAP. Its a good way to get your foot into the door as they will help fake your teaching experience. Getting a Z visa through them won't be a problem, despite your lack of qualifications. It will only be a matter of time before they gently caress you over.
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Sep 30, 2013 18:18
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YF19pilot posted:For better or for worse, EF has sent me a rejection notice. I'll keep plugging away at it, because honestly spending time in another country sounds fun, and teaching English in China has to be better than being a retail wage slave. EF rejected you??? Haha I bet it was because you were asking too many questions. Plus the people in HR dont know jack poo poo. I met some of them before and when you look into their eyes...you see they drank the kool aid. No worries, keep looking and you'll most def find something. Really emphasize that you're WHITE because being white means you speak better English. Sounds terrible but its the reality here. On another note, I had dinner with the GM of Crown Plaza the other night. He's British, funny guy, and balls hard. We had good conversation. I kept it light and fun. He treated me to a nice steak dinner! He offered me a job...the pay is 5000 rmb a month with no housing. After taxes and insurance, I would be taking home 3800. gently caress.
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Oct 6, 2013 03:42
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Lol, I've been seeing local restaurants paying 5000 now, plus room and board. Haha yeah the hot pot chain, Hai Di Lao, pay that much and provide housing. The housing is more like a dorm setting but at least its free!
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Oct 6, 2013 11:41
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I just read about the bombing in Beijing at Tianamen Square. Checking in the make sure BJ goons are alright! Avoiding bombs is another thing you have to add to your list of surviving China.
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Oct 29, 2013 03:19
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VideoTapir posted:If the car hit one of those steel traffic barriers they've got all over Beijing end-on, it would sound like an explosion. Heard a couple of such incidents myself. You may be right. I'm assuming its a bombing because a lot articles are reporting people heard an explosion. Also the articles are saying that the gov doesnt know if its a terrorist attack or an accident. Speeding around Tiananmen Square, killing 5 and leaving 38 injured is one hell of an "accident".....
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Oct 29, 2013 07:01
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Magna Kaser posted:If one has roommates how expensive is Shanghai for rent? I may be transferring to Jingan. You coming to Jingan? Great area but its becoming more expensive pretty quick due to all of the boutique wine shops popping up. A few new high rise complexes are going up which is bringing up the area but at the same time making a lot of noise! Expect a place for 2 people to be about 7000-8000 rmb a month total. A single would be about 4500-5000. I'm looking for places just outside the area and will be moving out in a few months. I like my place but its too expensive and the noise is driving me crazy. A new high rise is being built half a block away and the construction is happening all goddamn night!
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Nov 2, 2013 02:19
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MrNemo posted:I'd heard EF isn't too bad if you're employed in an actual corporate branch (i.e. one owned and operated by the main company) since those are the ones they try to use to promote the brand. Get into a franchisee one though and all bets are off, I've heard pretty much nothing good about them anywhere. Corporate or not, EF still is a horrible place to work. At a franchise, anything goes and you'll be exploited to poo poo. Corporate is full of loving assholes who think they are English masters because they read an article about teaching theories. My former Director of Studies (who transferred to corporate) spent an entire hour "teaching" us about all of these theories he used to increase the English level of his class. He did 10 weeks of research and was showing us pie charts and all this other hot garbage. He kept mentioning, over and over and over again, about how he dramatically increased the English usage by using new teaching theories. This man was super serious and truly believed his nonsense. The class he used for "research" was a Small Star Blue. It's the class for 1 - 2 year old kids. There were 5 of them. Oh and he taught them ONCE A WEEK and it was the ONLY class he taught. His presentation was the most ridiculous thing I ever witnessed. As soon as he was done, he passed off the class to me because hes a oval office. These kids couldn't even say or understand their own English name. If you love sticking your head up your own rear end then corporate is for you!
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Nov 12, 2013 11:57
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YF19pilot posted:Yeah, so more than a month after getting rejected, my EF recruiter just left a message on my phone and sent a couple of emails saying they've got positions open and are willing to offer me a position. Probably gonna sleep on it at the moment, but I'm just a little wary of it. Could also be the bitter taste of retail and having just been turned down for a technical sales position is making me leery of job offers. The recruiter is trying to fill his/her monthly quota so he/she can get PAID. Mull it over but the structure of EF is designed to gently caress you over at some point.
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Nov 16, 2013 03:58
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caberham posted:TRUTH Goon Chat is fun and everyone I've met from there irl is fun and has a great sense of humor. China can grind away at the most well adjusted person so GC is there to vent your frustrations. Its also there if you need help with directions, recommendations, and lately JOBS. It can get chaotic in there at times though. A lot of crude humor goes on in there so it may turn off some people. Overall, its a fun place to hang out and meet other Goons. Just last month, there was a Shanghai Goon Meet. I had a great lunch at Morton's over at the new IAPM mall with Caberham, RocknRolla, and a few other goons. I brought my neighbor and he laughed his rear end off. The best part was when we were doing commentary on Caberham eating EVERYTHING. It was like he had a black hole in his stomach. Something you have to see to believe!
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Dec 20, 2013 12:30
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tacoman165 posted:What is it with China and elevators? I see this happen in Panama too. People barge in while people inside try to get out. Time is wasted and everyone gets mad. Despite this, cars in Panama do stop for people crossing the road, especially if you have kids. Something I have yet to see here.....
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Feb 9, 2014 05:00
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Medical Advice TRUTH. This is why the China threads and the WeChat group exist. Its for the sake of our sanity! I love hearing about Chinese medicine. It never ceases to amazing me. It's amusing but at the same time really dangerous. Its one thing to have a crazy cure for the common cold but when claiming rhino horn powder can cure cancer is just hosed up.
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Feb 12, 2014 06:09
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FearCotton posted:Goons, I need advice. It's about to get all E/N up in here. Holy poo poo is this real? I've never had this happen to me or know anyone one who has gone through this. How often is this happening? If its the same group of guys then you got some stalker problems!
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Feb 14, 2014 02:31
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With all this talk about airlines, I hope you guys have a membership with the airlines you use the most. Flying back home to the US racks up the miles and you get a free ticket out of it pretty quick. I stick with American only because I used it a few times when I first came to China. You eventually get an upgraded status and you get perks like free baggage, "premium" seats, and priority boarding. These perks aren't game changers but every little bit helps! I'm Gold status btw cause I roll DEEP
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Feb 25, 2014 15:00
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Flyin high while flyin high? Sign me up! No matter what I take I can't sleep for long because of the position I'm in. I need to be completely horizontal while I sleep. My lovely seat going back 30 degrees isn't enough!!!
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Feb 25, 2014 15:57
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Magna Kaser posted:http://aqicn.org/map/ Fantastic, now I can see my cancer growth rate in real time.
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Feb 26, 2014 07:52
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SB35 posted:If you do decide to marry this girl, make sure she's prepared for the possibility of leaving China, whether that be to your home (Aus) or another country altogether. You can always wait it out in hopes that things will change, but it could be a while. I'm gonna have to side with SB and Blinky on this. You can cross your fingers but dont get your hopes up. Myself and my colleagues are seeing a lot of changes in the Hospitality industry here. Just a few years ago, pretty much all of the General Managers were foreigners because Hospitality was (and still is) a relatively new industry in China. Many high level positions were filled by an experienced foreign person. A local Chinese person simply didn't have the know how to open a 5 star hotel let alone run it properly. Now that China is learning more and becoming more familiar with the industry, there are less foreign GMs and Directors. The ones that are already in place are being set up to be replaced by local Chinese. While a majority of 5 star hotels are still run by foreign GMs, the tide is shifting to local Chinese. It seems like once China gets what it needs from you, you're no longer needed and bye bye!
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Mar 6, 2014 15:20
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I am a real American...fight for the rights of every man! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCGoA-dZBzo
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Mar 10, 2014 06:34
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Living in China on dialup is pretty awful. That might sound goony as gently caress but the Internet, even in China, is designed today for speeds at least three times that. Most the entertainment I have in my life comes from the Internet and at those speeds even 10MB downloads fail constantly. You can't even really look at images online and it makes making PowerPoint presentations take twice as long. Aint that the goddamn TRUTH
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May 5, 2014 04:09
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Cuatal posted:I know it might suck but I'm still considering it just to meet the parents and get some 关系, one of them might offer me a good job or something. Sounds like you're using FPR logic: Do a lovely job for low pay and MAYBE you'll get some connections out of it. You're getting shafted by getting an hourly rate for that kind of work. Listen to the other goons and get a package deal or be done with this.
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May 21, 2014 10:06
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systran posted:you simply must ask them to come into the restroom and give it a good bleaching and scrub down so that it's usable ahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahha On my way to Leshan, I stopped at a rest stop to use the rest room. The squatter was so full of poo poo it was sticking out of it and I could even smell the poo poo a good 10 feet away and the bathroom floor was cover in lovely foot prints it was the worst thing ever. My body shut down and I didn't even have to pee anymore. RCE!!!!
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Jul 9, 2014 08:32
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caberham posted:Oh geeze here we go again One of us one of us ONE OF US
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Jul 10, 2014 02:28
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Ceciltron posted:If you want me to stop posting in these threads then well, ok, MeramJert! I'll do it as a favor for you. Once apart of China, always apart of China! We can update you on the current street making GBS threads situation.
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Jul 11, 2014 02:43
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