Another Newbie Moving to Chengdu

[Joerg]

I will be moving from San Francisco to Chengdu at the end of the months and just wanted to say hi. You have done a terrific job posting a lot of info here which makes my move less anxious. On the other hand I probably still have a million questions. Anyway, I hope to meet some of you after I arrive.

Cheers,

Joerg

[Barlik]

Welcome joerg. Chengdu is nice and you will meet many good people here 😉

[Charlie]

Hi Joerg,

What is bringing you to Chengdu?

[Brendan]

Hello!

[Janice]

hi new friend

[Ria]

Hello new frienddd

[Joerg]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

@Charlie: I am starting a position as scientist at one of the companies in the Hi-Tech zone, that is if all works out switching my tourist visa to a work permit

[Brendan]

Hello Riaaa

😀

[Ria]

@ Brendan，Hey yaaaa~~lol

[Ono]

Hello world(((

[Totoro]

Welcome 🙂

[Joerg]

Hi,
so I finally made it to Chengdu. Thanks to a lot of help from friendly coworkers and a lot of info on this forum I am kind of settled in despite still jetlagged. Hope to make some new friends.

I am not really familiar with the use of vpn, anybody out there who can explain what I have to do to set it up?

Thanks,
Joerg

[Qwerty]

Basically you need a VPN provider (anonine, astrill among others) and a software for your computer (usually downloadable via your provider).

I believe most providers have thorough instructions on how to set it all up with the software they use.

[Joerg]

qwerty, thanks for the info. I only ran into a little problem. Anonine uses paypal to pay for the service, I tried using my US paypal account with the result that my account is now locked. I still don’t have a Chinese bank account, credit or atm card. I can’t even connect to my bank at home.

Right now it looks like online banking does not work for me. Any ideas how to pay for the VPN service?

I would appreciate any help here…

Joerg

[Brendan]

Did you figure this out Joerg?

If you open an account with a bank you will be given a card and internet banking dongle/usb immediately. You could then set up a paypal/c2 account (must be /c2 for global transactions) and add your card. I think you get an initial spend limit of $500 before verification is needed, but if you verify at the same time you’ll be able to use the PayPal account in the future for anything online.

There’s a VPN thread on the forum recommending services if you haven’t chosen one already.

[Joerg]

Brendan,
Thanks for your reply. No, I haven’t figured it out yet. My company is setting up a bank account for me since it will be tied to payroll. Once that is done I can go and follow your suggestions. It just takes sooooo looong. Even all the reading about China and on this forum did not quite prepare me for the complexity of transaction here. Well, I will play (once again) one of my favorite Gnr songs, ‘Patience’ 🙂

BTW, what is that about with your rather violent quote?

[Brendan]

My company is setting up a bank account for me since it will be tied to payroll.

I’d still suggest setting up an account yourself. You might want to consider a second account that’s used for online banking only. I personally have a separate account for this, transferring cash ahead of any imminent online purchases I’m making. I don’t want to activate online banking on my main (payroll) account, and feel safer doing it this way. Bottom line though is that while your company wastes days/weeks, you could have an account open within an hour and be online setting up PayPal in minutes.

BTW, what is that about with your rather violent quote?

Once you’ve been here for a while you’ll soon realise no matter how logical, straight forward, or just plain obvious anything might be, you will more than likely frustrate yourself the more you try to interject any reason. Put that quote and my avatar together and it should make perfect sense. 😉

[Qwerty]

Oh… troublesome. 😉 No idea how to do the payment then.

You could try https://www.chengduliving.com/forum/topic/free-vpn-accounts-for-forum-members/.

[echosh]

Welcome to Chengdu!

[Joerg]

Thanks!

@Brendan: I will try your suggestion, just hope I have all the required paperwork to open an account myself. Any tips which bank has a decent English (or I take German as well) interface for online banking? Company uses China Merchant Bank, so I probably want to have a different one. And WRT to your answer to my question, it looks like I get an idea of that pretty fast.

Well, I hope I can make it soon to one of the events mentioned here. Happy Holidays everybody!

[Author]

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