Does anyone have experience with the arduino? seems similar to the pi. Anywhere I can pick either up in Chengdu?
They’re not that similar. Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that you can run a full-scale operating system on, while Arduino is a micro-controller that you can load programs onto.
Arduino is great, but if it’s for messing around with I prefer Raspberry Pi because there’s so much more you can do with it. If you know what you wanna build and Arduino is cut out for it then go for Arduino.
I don’t know any store selling them in Chengdu, but on taobao.com a Raspberry Pi is around 250 RMB and Arduino depends on model but something like 50-150 RMB.