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Some pre G20 meeting will be held in Chengdu very soon. This may be related. I can’t get fried noodles outside my place anymore, cause the street seller is probably already in some basement getting tortured by chengguan. There will also be restrictions on driving starting from sunday, if I remember correctly. Nothing new really, it’s just that time of year again.
Just checked Taobao, you’re right, those are really cheap! I got mine at Metro. Should be the same if the Taobao ones are genuine. Am dropping the price down to 100 in light of this!
@ Ian
If you could help me get a pass somehow that would be awesome! Actually already asked a friend’s friend and they said yes but haven’t heard back from them. Don’t know anyone else there.
And yeah, I totally agree that driving doesn’t make much sense in CD but I have to keep the car for reasons.
Yeah, they should be pretty good, it’s an international brand. I’ve only stayed at the one in Shenzhen, not Chengdu but I don’t think it would be much worse here. Security won’t be anything to worry about, location is great, no idea about the internet, but I’d say if you stay in a good hotel in China and you’re having internet trouble it usually isn’t the hotels fault 😉 You might want to get a VPN before you come over.
Out of curiosity, may I ask what rate they offered you? Basically you’ll be paying hotel prices staying at Somerset. You could also stay in a hotel for the first few days until you find an apartment to rent. It’s easy to find fully furnished apartments here in Chengdu. Would be cheaper.
Golden Apple sounds familiar, do they have branches elsewhere in Chengdu?
I live out in the suburbs now (not my choise) and personally I wouldn’t do it. You’ll be a bit isolated out there, at least if you wanna speak English and meet other expats. If you wanna improve your Chinese and really immerse yourself in the local culture on the other hand, being out there might help, because you will be forced to speak Chinese.
It’s common that schools hire fresh-off-the-boat expats to work in those kind of places. I’d insist they give me something in town if I was you. They’ll probably agree if they think you are serious and wouldn’t take the job otherwise. Or just get a job with some other Kindergarten – those are the easiest jobs to get in China.
How about something like this: http://search.jd.com/Search?keyword=%E9%B2%9C%E8%8A%B1&enc=utf-8 ?
JinDong is the Chinese Amazon equivalent, you can pay by credit card and they will delivier to her door. The only problem is you might need help signing up and navigating the site cause it’s all in Chinese. You could try to email them, they’ll answer emails in English I’m sure, and maybe they’d take orders by email too?
Hey Woodwerd,
I was gonna suggest that earthquake site, the phosporus factory near pengzhou but then I did a forum search and it was you who posted about that (https://chengduliving.com/forums/topic/chuanxindian-earthquake-site/) 🙂
I’ve travelled around China extensively and in my opinion a lot of those reports of ghost towns get exaggerated by foreign media. There aren’t any real deserted places in China just because there are so many migrant workers and homeless/poor people. If you got an empty place it won’t take long until it gets taken over by squatters. Googled Chenggong and it looks a lot like that place in Ordos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangbashi_New_Area), the BBCs favorite ghost town – not really all that empty from what I heard.
The only places I could think of would be really remote areas like parts of Qinghai or Xinjiang, there might be villages that have been given up cause everyone moved away and I know in Xinjiang there is a historical ghost town that got swallowed by the desert (you can still explore the ruins).
I’d agree with squirrel, don’t go to Kunming just for that but go and explore all those cool places around Kunming.
Since you say you have experience I’d suggest you try the Universities. Relatively easy to get hired if you are a native speaker.
If you want to teach smaller classes and don’t mind working a bit more Meten and I2 seem to be alright. They are both private language “training centre” chains. There are lots of smaller private schools all over Chengdu as well, but those can be hit and miss, you’d better check them out yourself once you’re here.
Beware of dodgy “schools” and recruiters!
Hard to say. If you give us a bit more info someone here might be able to help.
I’m assuming you are in China on a tourist visa now, correct? Is it your first time here? How many days have you stayed already in total? Did you get extensions on your visa yet?
It’s definitely possible to get a tourist visa in some of the neighboring countries – including Hong Kong – but not garanteed, you might get refused if the paperwork isn’t in order or they think you aren’t a genuine tourist.
amusing thread.
@Mouze: Don’t listen to Rick, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
There are indeed lots of great investment oportunities to be had here in China. As a matter of fact this very forum is actually quite famous for people asking for money to invest in their “projects”. I did a quick forum search and found this for you:
I’m sure you will find more if you dig deeper. Keywords are: Money, lend, help out, pleeeze aso.
Knowledge of Chinese on your side isn’t necessary, since all the really trustworthy people will be able to speak English. And no need to actively go looking for oportunities, they will come to you like Miro says, although I’m not sure why he’s so concerned with fraud – seems to me like he dosn’t have to balls to gamble a bit with his money.
I’d only use Hong Kong as a last resort, and definitely ask an agency before going. The visa situation there tends to change a lot, without notice. You can’t count on getting at least 3 months for a tourist visa anymore like it used to be. I think they generally give out shorter durations in HK too, compared to if you apply in your home country. And of course it depends on your nationality and their mood that day.
It’s a gamble that might or might not save you some money. Safest and most hastle free would be to enroll for another semester at one of those Unis where you don’t really have to attend classes.
here: http://cd.ppzuche.com/service-policy – under 2.2 they explain insurance. as far as i understand it that sounds pretty good actually. will be looking into this too. great find gandalf, thanks for sharing!
2.2 保险
每笔租车订单，都有针对车辆驾驶人在租赁期间的额外保险，车主自身商业保险在租车期间内不受影响。平台将自动根据租客订单情况，为租客匹配保险，保险费用为租金的20%-30%。Hey squirrel!
I’ve traveled around Western Sichuan quite a bit. Hard to recommend a “best place”. Tagong (between Xinduqiao and Danba) would be the closest to Chengdu. The largest would probably be that huge area starting around Hongyuan all the way up to the Gansu and Qinghai borders. What I haven’t seen yet is the area around Litang, but it’s supposed to be good. Actually that would be my recommendation too if you’ve got some time to spare, you could combine that with a trip south from Litang into Yading and from there possibly Lugu Hu – Yunnan.
As for the grassland itself, definitely worth seeing at least once. I haven’t seen anything as strikingly beautiful as in some of those awesome pictures you can find online, but it’s still an experience seeing those rolling hills, the grass, the clouds… As always with photography im sure it much depends on season/time of the day/sun and just luck being there at the right moment (and photoshop of course).
Camping is definitely possible, like anywhere in China. Know what you’re doing though! Most Chinese people will tell you it’s dangerous or impossible. While that’s not necessarily true camping outside of hostels yards or those tent cities they set up in certain scenic spots is very uncommon and you never know how local herders are going to react when you trespass on their land. They’ll at least be suspicious. And on a side note: Local Tibetans can be super friendly and welcoming towards outsiders in one town and rude or even hostile in the next. Maybe there’s any Tibetans here who can explain this to me, am still puzzled every time im out there as to how that comes.
Check out chinatrekking.com for ideas for itinaries. Ignore all information about prices, travel times aso. – think the site hasn’t been updated since 1965!
Do you have such a card Charlie? Where can I get one? Could I use it to pay for things online just like with a regular credit card?
Last time I tried they wouldn’t even give me a credit card WITH a residence permit (that was about two years ago though and not in Chengdu). Don’t know any other foreigners who have a credit card issued by a Chinese bank either. Notoriously difficult to get your hands on one 😀
I don’t think this is surprising for anyone who knows a bit about the ESL industry in China (or any other second/third world country I’d guess). Still an interesting read!
@Miro: If you read the whole article there’s that one case where the school faked this guy’s degrees to apply for a work visa on his behalf and didn’t even tell him. Authorities found out and he got in trouble, even though he had no idea what was going on. So there are definitely cases where people get f**ked over by schools and job agencies unknowingly.That said, I agree that most people who come over here to teach know mostly when they are breaking the law working illegaly and just dont care. Part of the reason is that no one cared in the past and I feel like word of mouth amongst many expats is still that it’s no big deal working on an F or L visa. Don’t we expats all know someone who’s working here illegaly? I’m also from Europe and find the outrage in the expat community every time police do crack down hilarious. Same thing with tighter rules for the visa application process that they introduced last year – people are still bitching about it. What do you expect? That Chinese authorities keep all gates open so the country gets flooded with more and more illegals?
A map with all destinations would be really cool, but at the rate CD airport is growing I think it would be outdated really fast too.
Most of you have seen the list on wikipedia i guess but since new flights pop up nearly weekly, lets all post in this thread whenever there’s a new direct flight that isnt mentioned in any of those lists yet.
There is a direct CD – Luang Prabang flight now for example that can be found on qunar.
@Charlie: Qunar and Skyscanner (and sometimes local sites depending on where I wanna fly to). Don’t know how much you’ve played around with the settings but both sites are awesome, you can get prices displayed on a calendar to see which days are the cheapest.There’s also yiqifei which is an agency like elong/ctrip but they are often cheaper when it comes to international flights.
Do they rent out snowboards at Taiziling or just skis? And are those properly maintained (like at least waxed)?
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