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@Charlie… yeah, that’s certainly a consideration. Unfortunately, the lesser known VPN’s I’ve tried haven’t worked as well normally, but they are much less likely to be targeted and blocked..
FYI… I installed Outline, and I’m testing it out. Seems to work ok for my needs… and it was really easy to install. Might not be so great for people with no tech experience however, as a server is needed.
Just thought I should update my comment… Express VPN seems to have figured out the new Great Firewall, and it’s been very good again for the past couple of days
I have always used Express VPN, but for the past couple of days I’ve been having real problems.. If I do get connected (and it’s not often now) I’m disconnected within half an hour… anyone have updates on a VPN that’s still working?
Haha, well, obviously, some of came here with different intentions. Until now, I’ve gone out of my way to live more like Chinese do than Canadians do. In fact, when I first moved to Chengdu, I knew most of the foreigners were in the south, so I moved to the North of Chengdu (I’m sure many of you are nice people, but I didn’t come to China to live like a Canadian).
But I have changed my tune a bit now. There are things I really miss from home, and my attitude now is I need at least the basic things I used everyday at home, if I’m actually planning on staying in one place for awhile.
Yeah, I’ve decided to take Merior’s advice. I usually go for a walk every evening, so what I’m going to do is just jump on the first bus that stops, go for a ride, then when I’ve gone far enough, jump off and walk back. When I first moved to NuiWangMaio area, I walked every street within 2-3 kilometers in the first month or two I was there, and that helped a lot. I knew where everything was.
I really thought by now, Chengdu would have something better, but I’m living in China because I like exploring new areas, so it will work for me.
Thanks for the help everyone, even though the answers were basically “Nope, don’t have that in Chengdu” 🙂
Yeah, figuring out the PinYin for the station names doesn’t help a lot when I don’t know the corresponding Chinese character. I’ve never taken buses much before, and when I lived in Shenzhen it was much easier, the subway is full developed, and there are English versions of the bus routes.
In Chengdu, I was living near NuiWangMiao before and the subway was close, and I had all the stores and markets I needed within walking distance, so never really needed buses.
But this new apartment the subway is still close, but it’s about 15 stops North to get to a transfer station :). A lot of the stores are east and west and the subway here is only north/south, so buses are needed 🙂 .
I didn’t even know QQ had maps :), so I’ll try it.
Yeah, Baidu maps on my computer works fairly well, even though I don’t read Chinese, but seems a little useless (to me) on my phone. On my laptop, I can click a bus stop and get the list of buses that stop there, and then keep doing that until I find a route that works. It seems a little hit and miss, but sometimes I can get the lines showing the actual routes of the buses. Anyway, it works fairly well from home, as long as I write it down before I leave.
Would really like to find something easier for my phone though. Much handier to get the info while walking around 🙂
What is CBN? Is it a Chengdu specific website? We can post on many job sites, but I’m specifically looking for programmers from Chengdu. I’m in Chengdu, so I can meet with them occasionally if they are from Chengdu.
I’ve been wanting to hear some decent classic rock (not sure exactly what you mean by American Oldies, but maybe it’s classic rock). I listen to a lot of it at home, but I’d love to hear it in a club or bar. I get really tired of hearing bad cover versions of great rock songs.
I’m actually considering going around to a few clubs and offering to do it for them, just so I can listen to it with friends (loud) .
I owned a disc jockey company for 11 years (1977-1988), and I still have most of the music. So, if someone wants to set something up, I can supply the music. In China, I only have access to what I put in digital format, but it’s still a couple of hundred albums and thousands of songs.
Haha.. really Charlie…. shocking?…. more like what else would you expect?
But it is really bad that big companies would be using an SDK they downloaded from somewhere, AND Nobody thought to verify it ;).
That happened to me earlier this year. I had my flight booked already, and then changed my passport… it was pretty simple… the counter guy at the airport sent me over to the manager, and she checked my passport, and gave me a slip of paper to give to the counter guy… only took a few minutes. FYI.. I had already taken 2 flights before they noticed the password numbers didn’t match.
What kind of products are you thinking about? It might help to know… I’m sure everyone on this forum at least knows a couple of bar owners 🙂
Here’s another one….
- I know it’s the middle of the night, and there are no other cars on the road… but you are privileged that I’m on your street… I want you to know how privileged you are.
It seems you need a VPN now… I just tried and almost every channel gave me a “not available in your area” message…. maybe the Great Firewall discovered it 😉
Brad
Well, I didn’t say I wouldn’t find it, but the directions don’t inspire confidence. So… constructive criticism follows… please take it in the warm, loving and amused spirit I’m writing this with :).
Directions to parties have 2 purposes.. the first, everyone knows.. .help people find the party… but the second… and it’s just as important, most people forget about… it’s to give people confidence, they will easily find the party. If you’re wondering if you can even find it, most people will decide not to go. Getting to a party shouldn’t be something anyone needs to wonder about.
As soon as I saw the notice, I wanted to go, because I’ve been living in Chengdu about 4-8 months a year for at least 5 years now, and I only know about 3 other ex-pats. But I debated about going, because I wasn’t 100% positive I would find it. We decided to leave about an hour early, and just take our time finding it, and if we didn’t find it, we already knew where else we would go.
So.. the point is, directions NEED to give confidence… I wonder how many people decided not to go because they weren’t sure they would find it, or thought it would be too much effort to find it.
I saw two sets of directions before. 1) take subway line 2 to the second last stop…. really.. then we’re there? Nothing else to do? Haha… if the directions said, take subway line 2 to the second last stop (Honghe station), then take a pedicab from there. Don’t worry, if you give the address in Chinese to the pedicab driver, they will know where it is (about 15 RMB should be ok).
Now that inspires confidence… I can do that… I can do it without the directions too… but having it in print assures me that even though I don’t know that area of town very well, I can find this party easily.
Quick note – that’s how I did find the party, but it still wasn’t quite that easy. Even the pedicab guy had to stop and ask for directions 3 times before we found the party :).
This line though is the one that hurts…. “If you’re driving down the road toward Flower Town (三圣乡 in Chinese), you’ll turn left into Flower Town through the main gate. From the main gate, Dojo is about a 3 minute drive, or a 15 minute walk.”.
If I’m driving down the road toward Flower Town… really? any road? Doesn’t matter which direction I’m coming from, I still turn left into Flower Town?
Of course, I’m nitpicking, but I attended the Tunnel Raves in Shenzhen many times, and they had the same kind of directions. A group of 7 of us (including 3 Shenzhen natives, spent more than 2 hours walking around trying to find the rave one time, and almost gave up). A couple of times, we decided not to go because it was too much work trying to find them.
So… just naming the roads and giving some kind of directions, like “take xxx road south about yyyy metres, turn left onto xxxx road, go xxx metres and turn right on xxxx road” would be soooooo much better.
Anyway, the party was great. I’m a little old for the music, but it was good, and it was great to meet all the people I met. Really enjoyed it.
Oh.. and I will definitely go to the next one… even if the directions still suck ;). Thanks Dojo people, you definitely put a lot of effort into this, and it’s much appreciated. I had a great time (and I even took my ex-wife).
OH.. and Mr. Klink, your directions screwed up at 2) Print. I don’t have a printer in Chengdu, and it’s too much trouble to go a copy shop and get a map printed….. but I did take a camera shot of the Chinese address.. it was enough to get there, but not enough to give confidence I would find the place before I left.
Well, I hate to be too critical… but the directions on Dojo website suck…. As near as I can figure out, you’d turn south off G318, on Yinxing Ave, then take your first left on an unnamed street (on Google Maps), then when you come to the fork, turn left on another unnamed street, Then take a left on Chong Rd, and another left on another unnamed road, follow it to the end…. Sound right?
Any chance someone can post some directions that a normal person (without much Chinese) could follow?
Hope this open anyone…
Brad.
Ha… well… I guess I’m definitely a generation or two older than you guys…. I keep thinking what Chengdu needs is a good classic rock club. I’m actually thinking of offering my services to a couple of clubs (I was a disc jockey from 1977 to 1988) just to be able to hear some decent classic rock (instead of the cover tunes by unknown bands I seem to hear anywhere).
But… any decent music would be good to hear. Let us know if you get this going and where you’re playing 😉 .
