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Next to the entrance of the foreign students place at Sichuan University there used to be a vinyl place, for example I found a Depeche Mode German special edition that i resold for 200 USD and they had a ton of other fun stuff…
Anyway… what I want to say is check around… maybe you get some tips here but Ive seen so many vinyl and other music stuff while walking around in Chengdu so be prepared and bring your cash… they might not be at the same place when you come the next time…
Daniel
I would like to add, come here first and stay a few days in a cheap hotel or hostel and visit a local agency.
Also, Charlie forgot his good guide 🙂
https://chengduliving.com/5-steps-to-renting-an-apartment/
Daniel
Even if Emei Shan changed a lot the last 15 years it’s still worth a visit, I would switch a day of the more “generic” Chengdu city stuff, “ancient streets” and shopping for that.
For Leshan, make sure you do the boat trip to see the great Buddha from the river,it will be worth it, I promise 🙂
Also, eating at the veggie Wenshu restaurant is recommended.
Daniel
hello,everyone,.I am looking for an appartement,but I don’t know where is safe,and can you describe your location’s information?I speak French too,so if you could to me which zone is best for foreigners,I am appreciate,thank you！
Well, most areas are safe. I actually felt safer in the old blocks around the south gate of Sichuan University than in the more fancy areas…
Keep your balcony door locked at night even if you live high up and it should all be good.
Not creepy at all…
Hm, when I was living in Chengdu I was stopped more than once outside my apartment complex. Local police forced me to go and get the passport, a copy of my local police living registration (or whatever the official name is) and visa that I was “supposed” to have on me all times…
PSB never gave me any problems since I was running a proper business with all papers in order, taxes payed and so on…
Daniel
Hard to say without any information about what you want to do in Chengdu. Check out Chengdu Places, find places of interest, seek them out. Find friends and collaborators in the city. Learn Chinese.
Like Charlie said, learn Chinese 🙂
Very intersting thread, alcohol tends to be expensive if you go to the “wrong” places and that will kill the budget unless you have enough to spend. Local place, as most of you long stayers know, keep the local beer and bai jiu prices at a good level though 🙂
Daniel
Check out http://www.chengduplaces.com/ and you might get an idea.
Underground is good, say hi to Gary and Bernads from me and Beer Nest2 is another good place. Peaople in Chengdu are generally nice to new faces so just get out there.
Daniel
My local post office always had a big bunch of foreign mail that weren’t delivered, I regularly checked with them if they had something for me and every now and then there was, even if the address was correctly written.
Also, sometimes mail ends up at the office of the complex you are living in. Dont ask me why, I just know I found lost mail in more than one of those offices.
Daniel
Standard reply from landlords is that you have to fix whatever is the problem, if they are a nice one they will budge for good reasoning but most of times you are on your own if something breaks in the apartment that your are renting and you have to fix and pay for it yourself. This is often the most smooth way to get it done if you have the money to do it.
What the law says has very little to do with things when you are renting an apartment in China… There is usually also some fine print in the contract that wont help you as a tenant 🙂
Sometimes it works to fight the landlord but during our 10 years we usually just fixed and payed for broken things by ourselves to get it done in a way we wanted it to be done (not the brother’s cousin fixing a gas leak because he did that ten years ago at home) but it’s all up to how much energy and time you have for those things.
We were fluent in Chinese but that doesnt help when fighting a landlord but it helps a lot when you are looking for a repair guy and negotiating with him 🙂
Good Luck !
Daniel
Yeah, still kicking ass in Seoul and loving it !
Slim to nil chances of a trip to Chengdu in the near future but will let you know if…
Thanks for the nice comment in above post 🙂
Check your PM…
Daniel
Metro has an oven from by the brand Tomato for 700RMB that works perfect for bread, we used to do 3 loafs at the same time in it.
And a few pics of sights and surroundings all less than 30 minutes away from where we lived.
http://www.slickpic.com/share/0NLDzQMjzYj4jN/albums/Suzhou2009/?wallpaper
Daniel
Me and my wife moved to Suzhou after 18 months in Shanghai and it felt like heaven, blue sky, a big central lake giving you some “sea breeze” , good food, lots of sights and a very nice atmosphere. Much more laid back than Shanghai but not as laid back as Chengdu haha.
I would suggest that you look for an apartment close to the lake, depending on your evening and night time pleasures you can look for bar and club areas, restaurant areas or just on the edge areas where you can go running or biking without being bothered.
The lake is called jinji hu , golden chicken lake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinji_Lake
and I can not stress enough how nice it was to live with a view over the lake, morning mist, sunsets/sunrises over the lake and that magical breeze…
We lived close to Crown Plaza at this google map, it was close to the lake, close to the city center with all that came with the backstreet restaurants and so on, decently close to the train station by taxi. Nowdays its close to the metro too 🙂
https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3161331,120.6802255,15z
The city center is basically without skyscrapers but lots of back alleys with cool local restaurants and much more of an old skool China feeling like I got in Chengdu in the early 2000…
The metro was finished after we left but as in any other city, if you need the metro live close to it…
Taxi drivers were the best ever in China, Ive lived in China for more than nine years and traveled most of it and nowhere I got the service and no BS from the taxi drivers as in Suzhou.
Suzhou University was one on the better universities Ive been to.
The PSB was an absolute horror, being a student at the time with all exams passed and so on, they still called and demanded interviews, not so pleasent ones where I was constantly called a liar, all in Chinese, to renew my student visa. Just a bunch of assholes at the PSB… So be prepared to have your papers in order 🙁
Suzhou has a lot of nice sightseeing stuff in the city too, perfect for your spare time and when you have visitors. All the canals are really amazing, you can spend days wandering along them and taking photos and enjoying the everyday life if that is your sort of thing.
Its very easy to to to Shanghai by the bullet trains.
No airport, a bit ma fan when having guests or going traveling but there are many black market taxis that you can book for a pick up at your home, offering good prices to go to Pudong in Shanghai, just make sure to set up the trip when you are arriving at Pudong and want to go to Suzhou at weird hours, got stuck a few times in that situation.
Just PM if you have any more quuestions or post here so more people can learn.
Also, we left Suzhou in 2009 to go to Chengdu to open up Kaffestugan, things might have changed but I have only good memories of Suzhou and my old friends there still claim it’s a gem.
Daniel
Getting my 10 year tourist visa in Chiang Mai was my best visa application experience ever.
What happened?
Haha, nothing dodgy going on, seems to be a new visa available for some countries like USA.
http://www.usccc.org/#!china-visa/c1nj9
Daniel
Well, dont come to South Korea for visas. You can only get visas here for China as a foreigner if you have an ARC, Alien Registration Card, with 6 month lefts on it. Daniel
Isnt it hard to leave every 60th day or did I misunderstand the requirements ?
Daniel
Well, dont come to South Korea for visas. You can only get visas here for China as a foreigner if you have an ARC, Alien Registration Card, with 6 month lefts on it.
Daniel
Yes – you need to do the exit/entry, and sometimes HK will require you to go back to your home country to apply for the work permit, depends. That’s the case for any time you change between tourist>work visa.. I don’t know if it’s the case for student>work visa.
If things not changed, you have to leave China to change your student visa to a work visa too.
Daniel
