Answers of the Day
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May 27,2012
We do best giving advice in focused areas, than open ended like your question. What areas are you hoping to get advice in?
-Try to keep a sense of humor, because everyday is going to be a challenge in one way or another
-Don't try and stay in your comfort zone or you will miss some many good things and will just loath your time here
-Don't try to...
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May 25,2012
I've heard that they do this.
More importantly, your employer might also be reading your emails. So I think it is important to use a VPN.
It is also not true that its "safe" if you didn't do anything wrong. There are a lot of laws which are easy to break. For example, here in China it is illegal for foreigners to interfere in China's "internal affairs...
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May 23,2012
Walking away is the only way I have found to deal with it. Using common sense and logic in arguments with an immature girl is just a waste of time and breath. Just walk down the street, grab a beer and just let it go. If it happens too often, walk down the street, grab a beer and let HER go.
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May 22,2012
Ted:
Bank of China, and many other Chinese banks, do charge fees for even sneezing inside the bank.
If you make a with drawl using a foreign credit card, if with a teller the fee will be 3 % of transaction total. If you use ATM machine, the fee will be 1 % the last time I checked.
If you use a foreign debit...
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May 21,2012
Yes, they have it easier in some ways. But don't forget that the ones you see in university and in the cities are the "wealthy" ones. There is still 70% of the country that can't even afford to send their kids beyond grade school.
And all the copying, coddling, etc that you see going on is what makes Chinese education just about useless outside of China. ...
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May 19,2012
The different visas to enter China are for very especific areas, and depending on what the purpose of your visit will be will determine the type of visa you get.
A Business Visa, called the "F" visa, by definition, is issued to a foreign citizen who is invited to China for a visit, research, lecture, business, exchanges in the fields of science, technology or culture,...
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May 18,2012
First a word of caution. In China, normally engagement rings are not used by the majority of locals in the "getting married" process. So, unless your GF asked you for one, you can ignore that step.
I recently priced a few for a good friend from Chicago. I would say you could get a set of...
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May 17,2012
If you fly domestically (inside mainland China), the airlines will allow one suitcase with a weigh up to 20 Kgs free of charge, besides the carry on.
If you fly International routes, the normal allowance is two suitcases per person, of less than 50 pounds each, plus a carry on.
The actual charge per extra...
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May 16,2012
I think it depends on the size of city you're in, but yes, I have been treated better than others. For example, this weekend, I went with some friends on a trip to a town outside of the city. On the bus, there wasn't any sitting room for a while (it was a 40 minute trip) and when a seat opened up, my friend said I could sit down. But I noticed there was a woman standing right beside me, at...
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May 15,2012
The pay in universities is low because the contract hours are lower. In most cases the university contracts are less than 20 hours a week, with no office hours. University holidays are also the longest in the public system. Also reflected in the low salary is the free rent, utilities and subsidised meals that most universities provide. The bosses of these establishments know that the...
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May 14,2012
With 10 grand (and I assume it is US dollars), you will never open. If you are a foreigner, to legally own a business in China (100 % ownership) you will have to form and register a Wholly Own Foreign Corporation, and to do so you will need a monetary amount deposited at a local bank as the corporate treasure....
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May 13,2012
Some "fakes" really look like the real ones, sometimes it is very hard to spot a fake. But two things are definitively dead give always in my mind. One, real Apple iPhones only can take one SIM card, if you are offered one that can take two, it is a fake. And also, on real Apple iPhones you can not open the back to get to the battery area, to...
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May 11,2012
It's isn't our job to just roll into Chinese schools and start pushing western views on sex, religion, and politics. In say, encouraging condom use to a group of Chinese high school students or even undergrades you could be conceivibly lending tacit approval to not only cohabitation and and sex out of wedlock, which theoretically run counter the way that the Chinese think its...
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May 09,2012
Preaching any religion in non-government approved surroundings (such as Ren Ren) and non-government approved doctrine is illegal and can get you kicked out of the country or banned from the website and endanger anyone who takes part in these types of discussions.
The Chinese government takes this kind of thing very seriously.
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May 09,2012
Well, unless you begin to understand who in reality Chinese mind works and thinks, and how ingrained are their "social" beliefs, you will not make much sense of what goes on around you.
In Western societies, with a lot less restrictions, people are used to interactions and do "mind their own business". And with open access to travel,...
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May 08,2012
In China, the day you are born you are consider to be one year of age, instead of "zero" as we normally do.
Allow me to give you a hypothetical example. Assume New Lunar Year is on January 27 of year XXXX. And that a baby is born on January 25 of XXXX. On January 26 of XXXX, one day after being...
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May 07,2012
Many people believed in both, and the mythologies and beliefs were freely mixed. For a very famous example, I'd point you to Journey to the West, basically a long Buddhist parable, which features a bunch of Buddhas and Bhodisattvas chilling out in Daoist heaven listening to Laozi give a speech, which was a fairly commonly described scene in old-timey Chinese literature. There are thousands of...
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May 05,2012
My husband and I have lived here two years and have been trying to adopt that whole time. The biggest issue with adopting while living in China is finding an agency who understands the words "I live in China." I contacted dozes of agencies explaining upfront we needed specific help because we live in China who would say they would help us, get my hopes up and...
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May 04,2012
I will be part of that demographic; one year and gone. There are many reasons, but here are the top ones.
1. We came here for a purpose, to pay off debts (his) and to fund travel plans (mostly mine). One year here will allow that to happen.
2. There are VERY few Chinese we can communicate freely with and the expats in my town (...
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May 01,2012
The "legal" drinking age is 18, but it is never enforced. It is very common for parents to give their children wine at large or family dinners and it is common to see students as young as 13 at a bar drinking with their teachers. Convenience stores will also sell alcohol to anyone who wants it.
