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Arglebargle III posted:Seeing as there's a Taobao recommendation in the OP and I am still an idiot tourist despite living in this country 2 years, is there any way we could get a guide on how to register an account on Taobao/Alipay? When I've tried it seems that not having a Chinese ID number is an impassible barrier to using Taobao. It's been a long time since I set up an account, but where do they even ask for any ID at all? I have multiple accounts and they don't know anything about me.
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Jun 20, 2013 03:47
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 00:01 |
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About culture shock, I never really experienced it much. Sometimes I feel like Fry from Futurama, like maybe I'm just too stupid to really care about the differences so I usually just accept stuff as is?
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Jun 20, 2013 03:51
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Well, I'm a corporate folk here. Yes, stuff is terrible but honestly I didn't like corporate culture in the US at all either so it sort of feels like a wash to me.
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Jun 20, 2013 04:22
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Arglebargle III posted:I'm actually buying internet service for the first time after living in China for two years so I get to post in the thread like a stupid newbie. How do I bought internet? Your friend probably doesn't use the internet the same as you. Pro-PRC will back me up on this, just go with China Telecom. They have storefronts all over the place in every city. Just walk into one and ask about signing up for internet service (you'll need your passport). You'll have to fill out some info, then within a couple days some guy will come to your apartment and set it up. They'll provide a wireless router, but I've found that their routers don't tend to do PPPoE on their own so I prefer to get an additional router that actually logs in, so the devices that connect to it can just get on the internet right away.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:46
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systran posted:I think you're the first person to do this in all of the China threads. Yeah I don't even remember what his post was about, but that stuck out to me
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Jun 25, 2013 15:13
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PlesantDilemma posted:Any tips for the American who speaks only English? I was planning on going to the big markets, Womens Market and Temple Street, where I assume English is passable for haggling. What other places are good? Where should I avoid? Any useful hand gestures I should use/not use? Don't flip people off and you'll be good. I've only seen one elderly vendor in one of the big, popular markets that didn't speak English, and she was accompanied by like 3 younger guys that could. (Not that I needed them for translation, my cantonese was good enough to haggle a bit over the price  )
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Jun 26, 2013 02:58
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Bloodnose posted:Thanks to colonial heritage, everyone in everywhere that you might want to go will speak some English and will speak English to you. A lot of the time, if you try Cantonese, they'll just speak English anyway because Rule Britannia! You phrased that like you're a native Cantonese speaker, heh. Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Update on the July 1st visa change stuff. Is this only applicable in Beijing?
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Jun 26, 2013 04:01
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Hmm, I'm in a part of Guangdong and I'm do for a renewal in about a month. I might be made aware of all this stuff pretty soon.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:42
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FWIW I never had to do a health exam in my home country. I just did it in China.
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Jun 26, 2013 07:09
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systran posted:My job in the US requires doing visa stuff for Chinese people. You can't imagine how annoying this is for me. "Sorry, but the thing you are asking me to do breaks the immigration law in the US and I also physically cannot even make the document for you because the date has passed." For a while I was the contact point between our company and a company in the US. This same tendency was annoying and embarrassing as no matter what I said, I would be forced by my bosses here to keep sending daily emails to this other company saying stuff like "I know our product doesn't meet your specification, and your approval process is clearly stated to take 7-10 days, but could you make a special exception for us and approve product X by Thursday? Our schedule is very tight. It should arrive in your office sometime on Wednesday. Thanks in advance." And of course I had to ask for these special exceptions to their process for almost literally every one of our products. They never granted a special exemption once, and we even started getting angry emails back, but my bosses kept insisting... e: oh yeah, a favorite "tactic" of ours was to deliberately misread specifications and agreements and try to cite trivial "flaws" in their documents in hopes that they would somehow go "oh ok, you got us. Just go ahead and put our logos on whatever crappy products you want! No need for licensing!" fart simpson fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 13:28
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systran posted:At that point I would be tempted to go on my personal email and tell the person "This is a cultural difference, I am required to keep asking you to ignore your deadlines. Please just ignore all of my requests; I am required to make them by my Chinese superiors." Well, I also had biweekly mostly private phone calls, and while I never said anything explicit like that I think they basically understood.
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Jun 26, 2013 13:34
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Well sure but it can still be annoying to be in the middle when the two ideas clash.
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Jun 26, 2013 16:04
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I thought the death of my grandmother meant that there was nobody left that actually likes twinkies.
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Jun 28, 2013 09:28
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You gotta break into a social circle of rich white world travelers based here. Then you can start a bourbon drinking club and amass 30 decent bottles between you. That's what I did for scotch, except I didn't start the club.
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Jun 28, 2013 15:24
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Well, my company here in Shenzhen just told me it will take 15 business days to renew my residence permit, but I don't need any additional documentation.
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Jul 4, 2013 01:39
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Also there's no heating or insulation and most of the windows don't really close properly in the south. So even though it only gets down to about 10 degrees C, it will be 10 degrees inside your office and your apartment as well. My first winter in Shenzhen was the coldest winter I've ever experienced, and I'm from Maine.
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Jul 9, 2013 07:16
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The ideal option is to shed yourself of ugly mandarin and adopt a nice southern accent.
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Jul 9, 2013 17:46
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No I haven't really worked on my Cantonese in a long, long time. I really should start studying it again...
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Jul 10, 2013 07:16
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Looks like the way the guys in my office from from Hong Kong speak.
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Jul 12, 2013 13:46
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Smeef posted:Plus once you get to Vietnam, it's about the cheapest place in the world to travel if that's a factor. I'm in Vietnam right now and I can confirm it is cheap.
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Jul 19, 2013 07:00
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BadAstronaut posted:So with those holidays, if I understand correctly you'll be getting the Monday to Wednesday off, and if your company was mellow with it you could take proper leave for the Thursday and Friday and get a full week off, if they are, as you mentioned, the kind to not expect you to come in and make up the time on weekends? This is still an "if". My American company, as well as at least a couple other foreign companies I know here, are not mellow with this sort of thing and will actually make you come in on these days or take your vacation time. Most people take vacation time, so these days sometimes end up being a massive waste of time. I've been in on a couple of these stupid days where only about 15% of people came in that day, so if your job requires cooperation with other people at all then it's just a wasted day entirely. Sometimes they're scheduled basically maliciously, too. Last year we had a week that was something like: two days off, then 1 day on, then 4 days off, then 1 day on, then 1 day off, then it was a Monday and back to a normal working schedule.
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Jul 25, 2013 00:36
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Works best when it's a MNC that relies on regular communication with the home office... because nothing real will get done on the weekend anyways, and all the managers have already left town, and half your team is "sick", and going into the office is just a complete waste of time. I'm the guy that shows up at the office that day.
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Jul 25, 2013 07:35
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Cuatal posted:How do you get to the bus to Hong Kong from the Shenzhen train station? How much does the bus cost to Hong Kong for foreigners, is it round trip? If you're going somewhere in Hong Kong that isn't well served by the MTR or you would have to take a roundabout route with lots of transfers, another good strategy is to ride the MTR to Sheung Shui and look for a bus there. There's a lot of buses just outside the MTR station there. Normally when people are talking about taking a bus, they're talking about crossing at the Huanggang (or Shenzhen Bay) crossings, which are not served by the MTR but there are a number of ~50 HKD buses that will take you to Central or Mong Kok or wherever. Also both of those crossings have some city buses that are generally cheaper but range in price more depending on where you're going (around 10-40 hkd for most destinations, iirc. These are useful especially if you just want to take a quick bus to the nearest MTR station, or to the airport because taking the MTR from Shenzhen to the Hong Kong airport sucks). Oh and also none of them are round trip as far as I know.
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Jul 25, 2013 11:16
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Tom Smykowski posted:I'm taking the train from Chengdu to Guangzhou this weekend. What's cool to do in Guangdong? Like not-Guangzhou Guangdong? There's a bunch of knife factories that sell novelty swords and some beaches in Yangjiang. I also saw a naked man with matted hair walking through the city. There's a lake that people seem to really like in Heyuan, but it didn't seem all that special to me. You can go "hiking" around it, or pay like 5 rmb or something to have a golf cart drive you around it instead! If you really wanna see some poverty and violent crime, Maoming is supposedly the place to be. Zhanjiang is cool because they're close to Hainan and Guangxi if you wanna "get out" of Guangdong for a while. Dongguan is famous for its prostitution and also I know a ridiculously tall Englishman that just opened a New Orleans themed bar there. A lot of people really like Zhuhai for some reason but I don't know why because I haven't been there. But I think they have a bar run by a white guy that brews his own beer and sells it at the bar, but I hear it's not very good anyway. The Chaoshan region in eastern Guangdong is where you should go if you want to find a hard working wife that will cook you light, fresh tasting seafood dishes while speaking an incomprehensible moon language. Shenzhen is "cool" and "modern" and "close to Hong Kong." There you can even see a fake Eiffel Tower or go on a safari at some of the many amusement parks in the city. It also has tons of expensive golf courses, if that's your thing! Nobody actually lives in or goes to northwestern Guangdong. Attractions in Shaoguan begin and end at the high speed rail line that can quickly take you out of it (or out of Guangdong entirely!) That about sums it up, enjoy your trip to non-Guangzhou Guangdong. Why are you avoiding Guangzhou anyway? It's a pretty cool place.
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Jul 26, 2013 09:40
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I've lived in two complexes with pools  They're not even that rare or expensive in the modern city of Shenzhen.
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Jul 27, 2013 05:05
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Cuatal posted:What time do the subway border crossings/bus crossings close and open in Shenzhen? I should be getting to the train station at around six in the evening, is that enough time to get to HK and back in Shenzhen? My train leaves for BJ at around 7:30 the next morning. Huanggang is the 24 hour crossing, but it's not served by the subway (but there are plenty of 24 hour buses). Futian is served by the subway on both sides, but it closes at midnight. These two crossings are like 200 meters from each other, but getting from one to the other sucks way more than it should. Basically all of them except Huanggang open at like 6 or 7 (I've never actually been there before 8) and close at 11 or 12. I don't know what you're planning to do that night in Hong Kong, but it will be possible to cross at 6pm and come back the same night.
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Jul 27, 2013 14:10
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caberham posted:Man I'm sooo done with American suburbs even though it's a paradise to live in and raise kids. It's been what, 2 days?
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Jul 27, 2013 19:30
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$60 for 300MB is a completely ludicrous rip off compared to Chinese prices. I'm not on China Unicom, but I pay like 45 or 50 RMB per month for a plan that includes 300MB of data.
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Jul 31, 2013 00:40
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Arglebargle III posted:Glad you felt qualified to comment then! I think you have a bad boss.
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Aug 1, 2013 07:49
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Baijiu's not bad though. I don't know why it gets such a bad reputation.
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Aug 1, 2013 11:24
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By the way, when Pro-PRC says mystery meat it's a euphemism for literal rat meat. Also baijiu kind of reminds me of really crappy yet drinkable whiskey.
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Aug 1, 2013 18:36
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caberham posted:ping yin  How ironic.
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Aug 2, 2013 04:18
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Just remember every vendor wants your money and they'll be willing to go at least slightly out of the way to get it.
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Aug 2, 2013 04:40
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Actually I think the "k" in Peking is there because Mandarin had a sound shift from k -> j after Wade Giles was made
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Aug 2, 2013 05:42
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I read it in a book a long time ago, but I can't really find anything online. this page seems to indicate that the shift happened sometime within the past 800 years, but it's not more specific than that. I don't really remember what book I read it in either, so what I said might be completely incorrect!
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Aug 2, 2013 08:17
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ally_1986 posted:So I have arrived in Shenzhen! Welcome to Shenzhen. By central park do you mean near the convention center? Where's your job located, because central Futian has basically the most expensive rent in the city if that matters to you. e: also it's not hot today
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Aug 6, 2013 06:29
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Private Snowball posted:So after 2 years in China I returned home to the West for my summer holiday. This place is strange and everyone is fat. I remember my first time going to a fast food place back in America after living in China for a while. I couldn't believe how big the portions were, even for the smallest combo meal. And the people eating there were enormous, plus it felt weird to order in English.
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Aug 7, 2013 02:56
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Detroit staff aren't so bad. I've even seen them being helpful and friendly at times, unlike Houston where all the TSA guys are on a huge power trip.
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Aug 7, 2013 03:48
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This isn't a crappy country where they cap your bandwidth or make you pay for incoming text messages
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Aug 7, 2013 10:02
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I can download stuff from the US at like 1500 kbps
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Aug 7, 2013 10:18
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