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SB35 posted:
Looks like this loophole is being closed or at least will be limited to ￥100,000 yearly in 2016 onwards.
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Sep 29, 2015 03:21
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VideoTapir posted:Whenever there's some major thing going on in my wife's family, everyone buys a ton of cigarettes to give to the party concerned, whether they smoke or not; because that is what you do. Last year, a close friend's father died of lung cancer, under horrible circumstances. He chocked to death on his own bleeding lungs, blood all over the house, then was kept "alive" in the hospital on a machine for forty minutes while the frantic family argued against turning it off. The friend then had to help wash down the apartment of blood, and then sit in the back of a van, staring at the father's body, covered in a single hospital sheet, for two hours in forty degrees heat in summer. He'd been diagnosed with lung cancer years before, and it was a huge ongoing stress for the family. During the frankly horrible week that followed for the funeral rites, each visiting family member and friend was given boxes of cigarettes as gifts. Irony gave up on China.
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Oct 5, 2015 07:16
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Amergin posted:The plans (for me specifically) for that whole adventure are more murky at this point as my wife likes to hand-wave away any of my worries with "you can just teach/tutor English and make tons of money." Sure, okay. 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.
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Jan 7, 2016 04:40
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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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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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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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mobby_6kl posted:How's HK for a visit now? I have a ton of vacation I need to use up by end of quarter and always had HK as one of the places to check out. Ideally I could also use it as a base for exploring some other SEA places within budget air coverage. Hong Kong is an awesome place to visit. Spring Festival is a terrible time to come to China. Hope that helps.
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Feb 5, 2016 01:09
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Warbird posted:Fiance aside, they're my favorite thing I got from China. A couple of years ago, I'm in China, walking out of a hotel, arm in arm with my girlfriend, when we're approached by a guy handing out cards directly. I'm like "bu yao, bu yao, bu yao". He then turns to my girlfriend, digs into his pockets to retrieve a card especially for women and hands it to her. Kind of burned there, but I wish I'd collected that one.
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Feb 6, 2016 00:03
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NZAmoeba posted:I'm heading over for a holiday and I'm going to be there for a month. I am also going with a tour group, so my likelihood of starving to death is low, and all the logistics of transport is sorted. Still, I'm taking my Android smartphone and I'd like to have some basic translation capability, but Pleco seems far more heavyweight than I'd like to use. It also seems to assume I know how to type in Chinese characters into my phone. The VPN's in the OP suck. Currently all the VPNs in zhong-guo suck. The only one's I'd recommend now are ExpressVPN, Astrill and VyprVPN. Don't worry about usage or bandwidth limits, you're unlikely to ever hit them. Bing and live.com work as expected here. Google translate is awesome, but you'll need a VPN to use it. Microsoft Translator also exists. When you're on tour, visiting the jade factories, silk factories, recommended restaurants, etc. make sure you buy something in each place, or you're likely to be scolded, insulted and further trips cancelled. Hong Kong is awesome. You should definitely visit there.
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Mar 23, 2016 03:32
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fart simpson posted:You don't need a VPN to use http://translate.google.cn/ That's awesome, I never knew it existed. I wish the Android app used that as well, it just times out for me.
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Mar 23, 2016 04:32
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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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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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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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bringmyfishback posted:SO FAR only had one package disappear, and it's because my mom is a drunken derplord and decided not to print out and affix the hanzi address because "it'll be fine!" Are we related? You're describing my mother, and my last two Christmas presents.
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Apr 18, 2016 13:07
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S.D. posted:My sister is going to China for work-related reasons and she's looking for a VPN for her and 4 other co-workers to use while they're there. Last I checked, Astrill still had issues working over iPhone/iPad (which she tells me is what most of them will be carrying), so does anyone have any other suggestions for a VPN? If it's for work, then expense and prepay for some international mobile roaming data packs from your local Telco. Roaming data isn't hit by the GFW, it gets routed directly to the home country. Otherwise I can't recommend a business class VPN that works in China now.
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Apr 20, 2016 16:17
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Should I spend three days in and around Chengdu or three days in and around Guilin? Tourist, first time in China, but have been all over SE Asia and Hong Kong. Guilin is a relaxing, laid back place, with interesting outdoor scenery. If I was on my own, I wouldn't hesitate to spend a few days relaxing there. Chengdu has pandas and a much larger city, with all the attractions. Also, the sichuan hotpot is amazing, and may leave your tastebuds insensible.
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May 3, 2016 03:37
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Ceciltron posted:No. This thread is about travel and tourism. This is where we discuss the best ways to avoid getting caught in Xi'An, city of Farts. That's only because Xi'an has the most excellent mix of food in China. The pollution is an unfortunate side-effect.
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May 3, 2016 04:58
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caberham posted:Yeah there's really good seafood in xian Except for the seafood. Xi'an being over 1,000 kms from the sea, means that it's rarely that fresh. Also, the rivers that freshwater fish in China are grown, aren't always that fresh. In fact, I'd just avoid fish.
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May 3, 2016 05:33
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Ragingsheep posted:How much does a People's Uber usually cost? There's no fare estimator in Uber and the ride I was looking at was about¥30 for Uber X. In Xi'an, a Tier 2 city, I take Uber twice daily Monday to Friday, and fares vary from 20 to 35 kuai depending on discounts and traffic. I split the bill with a colleague though who lives in the same community. Uber's advantages are that the UI is simple, I can pre-program "Work" and "Home", and it takes dirty foreign credit cards without problem. However, without fail, the driver will call to confirm my pickup location, so you have to have somebody able to describe it in Chinese over the phone. The discounts are important, as Uber is burning through $1 billion USD a year in penetrating the Chinese marketing.
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May 9, 2016 03:55
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Magna Kaser posted:Is this UberX, and if not how far do you go? I've taken relatively far trips (10ish km) and they're still barely over 15 kuai. Sample daily commute. The costs are +5 kuai to use the tollway each way.  Magna Kaser posted:.... then he saw he had input the wrong address to his own GPS app (again, why he wasn't using the correct address which was in Uber is beyond me) and said he had cancel the trip entirely. I enter in my destination address without fail, every trip, and maybe once in 20 times will the driver look at the app and inbuilt map to work out where to go.
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May 9, 2016 05:25
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Is Xi'an a worthwhile city to spend 2-1/2 days in? I want to see the terrracotta warriors, but I don't know what else there is to do. Xi'an's an awesome city to visit. You can do the terracotta warriors in a morning, and then cycle the city walls in the afternoon, leaving you the evening to go to the Bell Tower and Muslim Street for food. Xi'an has the best noodles in China and some of the best Muslim food. It's also very close to Hua Shan, a 40 minute fast train trip away. That takes a day, but you can extend that by either climbing at night, sleeping at a hostel on top of the mountain and viewing the sunrise, or climbing during the day, and spending the afternoon/evening at a nearby hot springs resort. Also, there's the Wild Goose Pagoda to visit, great street BBQ, hotpot, dishes, dumplings and food in general. Lots of food. Also, it's Real China™
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Jun 4, 2016 03:40
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Cheesemaster200 posted:So what is a good VPN/Proxy for my phone when I am over in China? Data roaming is unaffected by the GFW. All your sweet, sweet, but very expensive data goes unmolested back to your home carrier. Otherwise, ExpressVPN and VyprVPN both have good phone apps. When one stops working, switch to the other for a while.
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Jul 19, 2016 16:19
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Cheesemaster200 posted:I will be using my employer's AT&T global SIM card when I am in China. I used it in Hong Kong last time I was there and it just uses roaming data from a functionality standpoint. I had a colleague who would run up $700 AUD monthly bills, while posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. That was true until he returned home in December 2015. I don't think it's changed since then.
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Jul 20, 2016 13:25
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SB35 posted:I had good luck with ExpressVPN while I was there in May but it wasn't perfect. Did the trick for being able to get my email and Facebook though. Connected at decent speeds to HK, Japan and LA. I found Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan the fastest, with Australia (Perth) reliable too. But vypr has nice inbuilt ping checks, and expressvpn has a sweet Linux client, which is really useful for a home gateway box.
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Aug 3, 2016 22:03
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Is Sanya a decent beach town to visit, or am I going to regret going there? It's pretty awful. Crowded beaches, overpriced hotels, lovely "local" seafood that's guaranteed to give you diarrhea, horrible service, loads of tour groups. It's expensive as traditionally it was where all the party hacks would go on vacation at somebody else's expense. Go anywhere else in southeast Asia, ideally somewhere where it's difficult for tour groups to get a visa to. I went diving there, and the instructors were breaking coral off the reefs as souvenirs for their customers, and encouraging them to grab the reefs to pose for photographers. My instructor refused to let me see the air gauge, and at the end of the dive proudly told me that the tank was empty, so I got good value for money. Bunch of dangerous clowns. The small island we visited had no toilet, so you ventured inland to a grotto of trees festooned in rubbish and poo poo smeared toilet paper dangling from tree branches. Each tour group set up loudspeakers to mark their territory on the beach and insisted on party games, including singing. I'd avoid Sanya.
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Aug 7, 2016 09:10
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Baddog posted:Whats the deal with having to provide government id now to get a simcard? Real name verification for services and online services is a real thing now. Been that way for at least a year. You can't even legally buy data only sim cards without ID. Alipay and WeChat need a lot of verification recently, and they're closing foreigner accounts that can't/won't jump all the hurdles. There's reports of police in some areas (Xinjiang) going to people's homes and outright telling then "we know you have this mobile number, you've been visiting the wrong websites, come down the station, sign an apology document and confession, and you get to keep the phone. Maybe"
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Aug 9, 2016 14:47
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simplefish posted:Got a source on the police visits thing? Would be interested to know. From Nov. 2015, Mobile Data Cut for VPN, WhatsApp Users in Xinjiang. You'll need a VPN to read it.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:29
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Magna Kaser posted:That's where you messed up. Unicom is way, way better for this kind of stuff unless you're going to the boonies where Unicom has bad service (every city will have fine coverage). Not to mention phone compatibility with Mobile can be sketchy since they use weird 4G bands not all international phones support. Another excuse to post a link to How the Chinese screwed up their 3G mobile phone networks which is from 2012, but goes through the whole backstory as to why China Unicom is the preferable carrier for dirty laowai (and everybody else).
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Aug 15, 2016 12:53
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Grand Fromage posted:This is every sound system in China as far as I've been able to tell. It's awful and one of the worst things about the country. I honestly think everyone here has hearing damage from being around such loud poo poo from birth, and that's part of why sound is always cranked up to ear splitting levels with nobody seeming to notice, phones are always at max volume, everyone's screaming at each other all the time, etc. It's very noticeable from a foreigner point of view. Even in an elevator, normal conversation often sounds like a heated argument with both people talking a much louder volume than you'd hear outside of China. I'm not sure if it's the effects of sound-systems, or an implicit part of the language with many sounds having the same pronunciation, but different meanings, and requiring very explicit enunciation.
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Aug 22, 2016 02:08
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Magna Kaser posted:My big advice is get alipay/wechat wallet set up asap if you haven't and start using apps for everything. China being so well connected is like the only big plus of this place over the US. That requires two bank accounts minimum & a local phone contract with say China Unicom. Not difficult, but you'll need a native speaker with you, and have to triple check they spell your family and personal names correctly.
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Dec 8, 2016 02:51
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XyrlocShammypants posted:Sichuan food is garbage, you heard it here first Close this thread now. It's irredeemable.
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Dec 9, 2016 00:03
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Vitamin P posted:I swear this visa bullshit is doing my head. The lady sorting my visa is saying that the medical assessment has to be from a hospital, not a clinic, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works here in the UK. Hospitals are for healthcare, travel stuff is like a luxury thing that private clinics normally take care of. Usually you only need a medical assessment if you're planning on getting a temporary residence permit associated with a work visa. I'm that situation, a medical assessment isn't necessary to obtain the initial 30 day visa. Once in China, you can go to a designated local hospital for the medical assessment, and hand the resulting documents over to the labour bureau for the next stage. Trying to get the medical documents done, translated and certified overseas usually results in "lol, whut?" from the local visa authorities, who demand you do a local test (for about 1/10 of the price) when you arrive anyway.
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Jan 7, 2017 21:35
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Starmaker posted:how bad of an idea is it to teach with a tourist visa in the year of our lord 2017? I have no idea how to get around this, or get a proper visa, without burning bridges or losing the job. On the other hand, I've been warned that this could be a sign of more trouble ahead. The biggest problem is that I already signed the contract, assuming the visa stuff was on the level (I thought I would be getting the 90-day Z visa, not a tourist one). Well, there's no such thing as a 90 day z-visa. They're always 30 days, and the first step in getting your temporary residence permit. Once you have that, the z-visa is cancelled and you can come and go on your residency permit, which are always annual. Additionally, you can't apply for a z-visa within China. In most cases they'll insist you apply from a visa centre in your home country. Sometimes you can apply from Hong Kong, but that requires somebody that understands how to fill out the paperwork correctly.
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Mar 17, 2017 03:23
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simplefish posted:This assumes all your paperwork is in order and you don't need to wait for the school to send more documents That's one nice thing about the process. Usually the visa officer will double check all the paperwork before accepting the application. Once it's accepted and paid for, it's just a matter of waiting a few days. Rejections after that point are pretty rare.
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Mar 17, 2017 04:33
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fart simpson posted:My new Dutch boss just got a 2 year residency That's cool. Maybe the CCP wants more foreigners to come and stay longer term in China? PR rights even?
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Mar 17, 2017 06:14
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caberham posted:If you are only in China for 90 days, I'm not sure if it's really worth the hassle of setting up a bank account. I guess you can do it on a Saturday or weekend if you really wanted do. If you get lucky with the bank teller and find one who speaks reasonable English, and go at a quiet time, with your passport & ideally a mobile number, you can get an account opened and a card issued on the spot, within about 30 minutes.
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Mar 27, 2017 23:57
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Vitamin P posted:Nerds I'm moving to Wuhan in 2 weeks if any of you are near there I will happily buy you beer whilst you tell me things. My advice is to try and learn Chinese in the next 2 weeks.
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Apr 8, 2017 11:28
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TheReverend posted:China goons, is the OP up to date regarding VPNs to us?. Which VPN is good now?! Heard some conflicting things about StrongVPN. OP posted:SB35 hosed around with this message at Feb 20, 2015 around 16:15 The only VPNs I'd recommend are ExpressVPN (link contains referral code) and VyprVPN, with ExpressVPN for me being more expensive, faster & more reliable generally. I could run the ExpressVPN linux client on a gateway box, to keep a GFW free WiFi at home in Xi'an 24/7. Alternatively, PureVPN offers SSTP (Windows only), which generally is left untouched by the GFW, but was much slower. VyprVPN android client seemed to work great on China Unicom (in Xi'an). At one point I was paying for 3 VPN services + a cheap-rear end shadowsocks proxy. I think the GFW won.
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Apr 10, 2017 02:12
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VideoTapir posted:Anyone know if you can bring pseudoephedrine into China without getting in trouble, and how much? I regularly brought in six months worth of diabetic and anti epileptic medicine in my carryon. Also some codeine based pain killers, unavailable in China. About 15 boxes of pills each flight, over four years. There was never a single question or query.
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Apr 13, 2017 00:04
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