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So today I went to apply for my z-visa. My company gave me everything I needed and said not to worry about my passport running out in less than a year. But of course this was a problem, and I need to come back with my a renewed passport! Argh at least they said I don't need to get all my papers re-done with my new passport number if I keep my old passport (or that is the view today). So hopefully second time lucky or I guess my summer vacation will be fairly long this year.
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Jul 2, 2013 17:32
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 09:34 |
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So good news my Z visa has been accepted (on the 2nd attempt!) and will be ready to pick up on Tuesday! Had a phone call from the application center to ask me some questions, such as It says on your application you have never been to Mainland China, so how did you get a job in China? How many hours will you be working? How much will you be paid? What will you be doing? Did you sign a contract? What website did you use? She then reassured me that my visa was ok and ready to pick up and that we just need information on people coming to China. Odd but glad it finally done! Not sure my crack about getting the job on this thing called the internet went down to well and I think she gave up trying to understand the name of the website (TES).
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Jul 12, 2013 19:25
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So I have arrived in Shenzhen! First thoughts are drat its hot, I'm staying across from central park and really surprised how green the city is. Went flat hunting yesterday and everywhere had a view of building construction and was expensive as its in the middle of town. Today we are hunting further out of the center in Futian so fingers crossed.
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Aug 6, 2013 05:51
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MeramJert posted:e: also it's not hot today There is literally a big sign across from me that says Shenzhen central park. If your Scottish anything above 30 is hot! Flat hunting went better today, agents are really strange. Yesterday a guy, who was maybe the quickest walker i have ever meet, showed us around with two pretty hot chicks who were giggling ever two seconds. Today was a different guy who seemed to have no idea where any of his flats were and was on the phone the whole time. Sadly the only decent flat was around 5000 which I was interested in but the landlord wasn't wanting me to take it as her paperwork was not on record with the government and if take the place i need to get some signed receipt from her which would maybe land her in trouble! So day 3 of flat hunting is tomo yippie! SO far loving the food here and its pretty cheap compared to the UK!
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Aug 6, 2013 17:02
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So day 3 of flat hunting in Shenzhen was far better. Luckily the school's HR department have a lot of experience working with one agent who was pretty good and even had some pigeon English. Yesterday we got shown around nicer flats for decent money compared to the first two days. The agent even managed to knock off 100RMB of my rent and took us got for dinner (Least he could do considering in 3 days he has gotten himself like 7 commissions) Being a retailer agent in China seems sweet, half a months rent in commission is not bad for basically showing us where it is, opening the door and explaining the contract to the landlord. So for 5500 I am in a nice little garden place in Futian with 2 bedrooms and it has a supermarket on the ground floor which will keep me going. The place has a pool (50 RMB a swim and its only open afternoons, a gym which is basic as but very cheap compared to anywhere else and nice outdoor equipment like basketball hoops, body building equipment/monkey bars, table tennis etc) Landlords are strange here already had a couple who didn't want to rent to foreigners due to the paperwork and were expecting me to carry around the full deposit with me. 2 months rent as a deposit plus half a months rent for the agent plus your first months rent upfront is steep when you have just got here. Think in total I looked at about 30-40 places and would say I only liked about 4 of them.
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Aug 8, 2013 05:02
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If you can fly Emirates or Ethiad they are better than Cathay in my experience. To be fair I flew from Doha to HK with Cathay and it was a horrible flight as parents refused to buckle in their kids and seemed to be confused by how to use a western toilet which had piss all over the floor. Nothing was as fun as flying from Nepal though, Ethiad staff going mental at people trying to make calls during take off, people trying to move around and trying to smoke. I felt pretty sorry for em!
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Aug 21, 2013 12:54
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Donraj posted:In other news, CTLC has elected to not screw me over and provide an official letter stating that my TEFL certificate meets Hong Kong Education Bureau standards. They assured me it would be mailed to me Friday. So maybe the NET thing will work out. Or the fellowship to study at CUHK I applied for (and will not hear word on until the end of April). We'll see. Been interested in this for a while. Are you looking Primary or secondary? Seems like a lot of different criteria are needed that really affects your pay.
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Feb 3, 2014 15:29
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MeramJert posted:You guys should move to Shenzhen, you don't have to deal with nearly as much of everything in this post*: I agree generally here its not all that bad but using the MTR is annoying as the concept of letting people off first so there is more space is like just a weird concept here. They even have PR videos explaining everything on the train! Annoying thing is when I travel across the border and they get onto the HK MTR Mainland Chinese decide they will do it better. Also the idea of having a fast and slow lane on the escalator has not caught on and some people just stand in the middle!
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Feb 9, 2014 05:41
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Mackieman posted:Also, I didn't see this covered in the OP: do you guys have issues with Skype calls through the firewall? I had a VPN router last time and it worked fine but if I don't have to haul the extra gear, so much the better. Never had a problem using Skype with VPN on. THough sometimes it is not quick enough to support video and may require a reconnection if its poor quality. Do you need the router because I just use the app when I got Strong VPN (which is like twice as good as privateinternetacess which had become almost unusable in the last few months) Thought I imagine a router is probably better but seems like a luxury you can do without.
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Feb 9, 2014 14:52
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Ceciltron posted:Anyone know what happens on an Air China flight if your baggage is too heavy? I have no idea if they're gonna use the domestic flight maximum or the international flight maximum. I just know it's confusing. Are you flying domestically or internationally? How much are you overweight?
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Feb 20, 2014 13:00
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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!
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Mar 18, 2014 12:33
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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
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Mar 18, 2014 12:36
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MeramJert posted:I heard it's pretty difficult to buy bitcoins in China now because they passed some law basically banning it? So you'd need to find someone willing to accept a giant wad of cash. Dont think its banned per se just not recognised as a legitimate currency to buy stuff with. A friend of mine has like a 100 dollars worth invested in Bit coins and was telling me about some kind of witch craft that involved buying taobo vouchers with it but the whole thing leaves me at a complete lost to be honest, as interesting as it is.
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Mar 19, 2014 10:14
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caberham posted:Hey Ally are you a Shenzhen goooooon? indeed I am 
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Mar 19, 2014 13:18
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goldboilermark posted:Do you like it there? My old roommate/best friend from Tianjin just moved there for a job and started this week. I've been getting daily updates from him, he says Shenzhen is awesome and he already made the trip to Hong Kong for visa stuff and said it was beautiful. I really wanna visit him. Having spent a fair few months in HK it is way way better than SHenzhen. But SZ is pretty decent. Cost of living is way lower than compared to Europe, close to HK, it is way greener than I would have ever imagined, my work is good, people are friendly enough, public transport is great and cheap, not many people speak English but its not hard to get by with like 10 phrases as I do, and nightlife is pretty good and if you like aggressive girls then come. But if you can afford to stay in HK go there and get your friend to come visit you.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:53
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VideoTapir posted:What the hell would Golf English even properly be, anyway? I mean couldn't you pretty much cover that with 2 pages of vocabulary? Hah its teaching his kids how to be supercilious not just golf etiquette and par this and birdie that.
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May 21, 2014 11:37
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pedro0930 posted:Hello China goons, can't believe I'll be a China goon too pretty soon. I'll be in Shenzhen by this Friday. Is there any other China goon based in Shenzhen? I'm in Shenzhen. Pretty sure someone asked me ages ago, so sorry for not responding to that person. Where you staying and what ya doing here?
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May 22, 2014 05:42
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goldboilermark posted:Old people in Tianjin sit around on little stools all day in a shaded area and stare at people as they walk by. I was taught last year that this is actually called 乘凉 and means to sit in the shade and relax in a cool place. Would bore the hell out of me but more power to them, I guess. People watching is popular among many people really!
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Jun 5, 2014 14:47
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MeramJert posted:Air France does I think? Also doesn't Cathay Pacific have free wine/beer in economy for those really long flights? Cathay Pacific, Etihad, British Airways, KLM, Qantas and Emirates all do that. Easy Jet and Ryan Air are the people who charge you for air and stuff. I remember asking for coffee and been shocked to pay like 4 pounds. It was even terrible for airline coffee.
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Jul 3, 2014 18:23
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Winklebottom posted:I'll be in Hong Kong with my family July 13 - 20 and I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for restaurants and the like? We're up for pretty much any non-European cuisine and price range. City Hall for Dim sum is a must for me. Learn Yellow milk bun in Cantonese. The Peak restaurant up in the peak has an amazing view and the bar up in Princess building I think has great views of the city (not sure if it is a restaurant though!). I also enjoy going to Stanley beach and having seafood but the restaurants are nothing special though. Also if you meet anyone who is part of the Hong Kong yacht club get them to take you to their places, one has a bowling alley downstairs!
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Jul 5, 2014 18:01
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Glasgow has the best Subway, its just one circle with like 14 stops. Cause we aint that smart. Senzhen MTR & HK MTR are fairly amazing and so easy to use. Not sure the Tong card can be used as widely as an octopus card in HK. Bus and metro not used it for anything else though. WIsh someone could sort out a decent bus map. I dont think I have ever seen a good one. Google doesnt let you sort individual bus routes in China yet 
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Nov 3, 2014 10:37
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 09:34 |
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fart simpson posted:Bus map in China or in Hong Kong? Either as I travel between HK & Shenzhen a lot. Cheers Magna will try those!
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Nov 3, 2014 12:04
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