Alan

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  • in reply to: Shooting Incident @ Binjiang Dong Lu #46333
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I don’t know much about this incident, but I was on my way home in a taxi on Tuesday night 3am (Wednesday morning) and witnessed a car getting attacked by guys with machetes.

    By the time I got back to my apartment I noticed that the guards had their hard hats on which isn’t normal.

    in reply to: Escape the Room in Chengdu #44444
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I’ve done a few of these and I agree that they are awesome.

    They can be a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. The decoration is usually pretty decent and most of them don’t require Chinese. However occasionally they can be quite Chinese heavy!

    There are scores of these places dotted around Chengdu. If you go on a groupon site and search for 密室 (mi shi) you’ll find a bunch. You can also search for “X-room” or “Takagism” and you might get some different results.

    One that I can recommend is in the Poly Centre, fifth floor room 511. The same building as Helen’s etc.

    in reply to: Impacted Wisdom Tooth Removal #42635
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Genital Dental? *snigger* reminds me of that ridiculous horror movie called Teeth.

    in reply to: Google Nexus 5 in China? #42254
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I use a Nexus 5 that I bought in England and it works fine. Except I have issues accessing Google Play without a VPN. So if you are thinking of getting one bear in mind that you’ll likely need to set up your VPN on your phone too in order to update your system and apps.

    in reply to: eBike Purchase Suggestions? #42125
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    From one of those paid lots? Yikes. I thought those were pretty safe.

    Yes.

    It doesn’t require a huge imagination to conclude that the “guard” had a nice pay off for his troubles.

    in reply to: eBike Purchase Suggestions? #42122
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    If you park in and only in those little closed off parking spots with a tag, that’s not as much of a problem..

    But it does still happen. One of said colleagues had his rather expensive bike stolen from one of those parking bays.

    in reply to: eBike Purchase Suggestions? #42120
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    When you buy an e-bike you need to consider that there is a very real organized bike stealing gang running about Chengdu at the moment. Within three weeks two colleagues and at least two other friends have had their e-bikes stolen. On top of that, I stopped a robbery (along with one of said colleagues) not far from the American Embassy.

    Before you buy your bike think to yourself “How much do I want to be tethered to it?” because you’ll want to make sure it isn’t stolen and “How much money can I afford to lose?”

    in reply to: Getting an Abortion in Chengdu? #41599
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Maybe the Women and Childrens’ building near Niushikou? (牛市口)

    It’s quite a modern looking building from the outside. I’m sure they would have English speaking staff there that could at the least offer your friend some advice.

    in reply to: Settling in the UK with Chinese Wife #41454
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Here are some links to articles written about the previously mentioned UK visa restrictions change. They were written last month. Sadly, they probably won’t be much help.

    Here is a quote.

    “George Osborne announced during a visit to China last October that Britain would introduce a 24-hour “super priority” visa service for business leaders. A separate pilot scheme allows certain Chinese travel agents to apply for UK visas by submitting the application form used for the EU’s Schengen visa.”

    Again, it seems only business and tourism are the focus of these reforms. Not surprising given the political gains made by the anti-immigration parties in the UK recently.

    in reply to: Settling in the UK with Chinese Wife #41325
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I read an article recently about the Chinese ambassador in London who commented on how ridiculously difficult it is for Chinese to get Visas to the UK. It was before a visit by a top Chinese politician (I don’t think it was the President) so got big headlines and caused a lot of embarrassment .

    As a result I believe they changed the rules to make it easier. Although I’m not sure it will help you much as it was mostly talking about business visitors to the UK.

    The change was very interesting though because they effectively added China to the Schengen arrangement. Meaning that if your wife has a visa for France she can now go to England on the France visa. But as I said this seemed to be mostly relating to business and not residence or even holiday.

    Please check the details of this though as I am only going by recollection of a recent article I read.

    in reply to: Chlorine in the water… #41323
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I thought I smelt it this morning in the shower. But if it was there it wasn’t very strong. But I use bleach quite a lot so my senses might have been dulled a bit.

    in reply to: What's Up with Google? #40643
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    It took about 4 days to download the Android 4.3.3 update. And I can’t seem to update my apps or get new news on Play Newsstand.

    Lets hope this is only temporary.

    in reply to: Looking for a Skilled Carpenter #39619
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I’d also be interested to hear what happened. I was looking to get a cider press made last year and the only person that could understand the diagram was quoting 10,000rmb which he quickly reduced to 3000rmb after I told him it was too much. I walked away in disgust.

    in reply to: Best Ways to Learn Languages Fast #39605
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    A slight piece of input. If your a textbook user don’t go for Short-term spoken Chinese or any of those crappy books. Get yourself on Amazon and buy the New Concept Chinese books.

    The reason for this is that the other books are extreeeeeeeemly bland and uninspired. They teach way too many pieces of vocabulary in each unit and in addition teach you useless words. Beginners don’t need to differentiate between a ball point pen and a fountain pen (yes I have seen a book for beginners that does this).

    Here’s a link… (edit) *sigh* links never work for me. Try searching for 新概念汉语:课本 . there are 4 books in the series so far. Each has 40 lessons.

    Another thing I’d like to mention is the Michel Thomas method which I found really useful. It can be found on torrent somewhere or at ludicrously high cost.

    in reply to: Hiring a Private English Teacher #39484
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Tell your friend to check out languageclan.com

    There are quite a few people on there trying to do language exchange and tutoring.

    in reply to: 15th April Rainbow Fair #39418
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I can only see HTML script. Maybe you should repost. Or perhaps it’s only me.

    in reply to: Heartson English #39357
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I’ve never heard of it before, do you mean Hampson English?

    in reply to: Korean Dramas in China #39057
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    I used to always get Samsung phones as a result of the alienating “I’m a PC and I’m a Mac” ad campaign that Apple used to have. That was until the Nexus contract went to LG which helped me realize that Samsung are just plain crap.

    Samsung do allow people who can’t afford expensive phones access to cheap alternatives though, but this is where the Chinese might have something to pitch into the arena. I’d put money on Xiaomi making better phones than Samsung in the coming years.

    in reply to: In Need of an Online Angel #38917
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Alabama would seem strange but I use Strong VPN and they list these cities in the UK as having servers:

    Manchester
    Rugby
    Livingston
    Canterbury
    Maidenhead
    Nottingham
    London

    Rugby and Maidenhead? Fairly obscure towns in Britain. No offence to anybody from there.

    I honestly think the more tell-tale sign is the punctuation issue. As Rick pointed out it’s not uncommon for Chinese (and other non-alphabet using Asian countries) to have this English language problem. Europeans and Africans don’t usually have this issue.

    Have the other posts had this issue? That may indicate if we are dealing with the same person or different people.

    Obviously I could be wrong. There’s nothing to rule out a down on his luck overseas student studying in Alabama. Plus $200 does seem like a small amount to ask for when you consider the overhead of a VPN.

    in reply to: In Need of an Online Angel #38907
    Avatar photoAlan
    Participant

    Alabama? Maybe it’s Forest Gump?!?

    Stupid is as stupid does.

    or more likely they are using a VPN.

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 63 total)