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Having a car is great if you want to get off the beaten path in China (and if you stay here very long, you’ll want to). One way is to take a bus and then hire a driver in nearby town, but the negotiating/haggling/death-wish-driving has been comical sometimes.
muell is right about renting – fair prices and it eliminates a lot of headaches. But it’s not super cheap.
As far as owning a car goes, the used car market is great for sellers, bad for buyers. Decent new cars are quite pricey, except for the (old style) Jetta, which is still made here. Someday I’ll write up my experiences at owning a car here, but for now I’ll just say that Chengdu DOES have smog testing for older cars, and its kinda a big deal.
here’s a trail I hiked recently, not much cement.
Finding teaching jobs in small towns shouldn’t be too difficult, the pay/cost ratio might even be better than the cities because most expats prefer bigger cities. I talked to a small college near Qingchenshan that about a job a couple years ago, location was the the only reason I didn’t take the job.
You’re going to want a driver’s license to get to the places to ski/climb. Here’w something I wrote about a year ago:
And yes, the climbing looks awesome.
And the skiing looks …scary?
Try asking your provider to unlock the phone for you, tell them you will be traveling temporarily. AT&T was cool about it for me.
If you are currently using a CDMA iPhone 4 (w/o SIM slot) then you will definitely need to upgrade.
Here’s the consulate’s page about getting the record/non-record for US citizens
<span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal;”>http://chengdu.usembassy-<wbr />china.org.cn/service/other-<wbr />services/criminal-record-<wbr />checks-for-u.s.-citizens</span>
Basically two methods
1. Mail a form with your name and fingerprints to the FBI along with a fee.
2. Do the same thing with your “local police” (last residence in your home country) and then get the local police report “authenticated” somehow.
I don’t think the consulate doe the authentication for this. At least they didn’t volunteer to.
And hopefully your prints aren’t in any cold case file, thus avoiding the whole butt-rape thing.
I believe there is a type of visa for a foreign spouse of a Z-visa holder, maybe that’s what Janez has. I don’t think you supposed to work on that visa.
You don’t need the FEC to work, mostly it allows a foreigner to exchange cash, and import a car for personal use, and maybe get some advocacy from the government.
But the Z visa will be required unless they are willing to pay you cash.
So…… which Belgian beers exactly?
I can’t wait to rule that tasting competition! So much money spent on research at the Beer Nest and Belgian Monk will finally pay off.
Oh yeah- Go anyway even you’re not a beer person- best fuckin’ Tiramisu the ‘Du
Kim- that’s about 120km west of Wenchuan, in a valley called Liangtaiguo. It’s close to Bipengguo, but the road is not on the map.
Vince- I don’t think visa type matters. It is valid for 6 years and is not supposed to be ID.
Everyone else- 1 thing I forgot to post: 028-8785-0000 will ring the info desk
Yeah, we rented a car for the weekend recently. 200/day unlimited mileage (kilometerage?), 5000 cash deposit, and they are holding onto 2000 for month, just in case I got a ticket from a speed camera.
And it was totally worth it:
Apparently, most people don’t. Unless you’ve got some bullet proof insurance, or just like taking risks, I wouldn’t. But, then, rule bending is a way of life around here.
Haven’t rented but I did talk to a company about it. Oddly enough enough they said they would accept an international driver’s license. As far as I know they are still not accepted in China.
Dana, I think you’re right. I have confirmed with a long time Chengdu-dwelling-Mexican (who’s also married to a chef) that there are no tomatillos in the Du. Maybe salsa verde at the Tongzilin Carrefour.
I used them, they did ship door to door, and there weren’t surprise costs (inspection fee and import taxes, I think, as previously mentioned). But, it took four months, and every box was pretty well crushed by the time it arrived. We only packed durable things, so only a couple things actually got broken.
About the electronics: Pack carefully, be prepared to pay import taxes on all electronics (and certain sporting goods). Also make sure you can plug things in when you get here: laptops & phone charger might be OK with 220v but a blender won’t.
I’m pretty sure the folks at Survivor do some guiding, don’t know how much it costs. I’m sure they would provide gear too.
Hook me up with a ride and I’ll happily belay!
There should be outdoor climbs that are suitable for beginners, so it’s really only a matter of safety- if someone there knows how to set up the rope and belay, then the others can climb.
OTOH, if you have to ride a bus, pay a driver, etc, then you might get more enjoyment out of going to the gym a few times. You might end up paying a bunch of money and spending all day traveling just to climb for 15 minutes.
We were apparently the only people that didn’t hire horses to carry our gear. Unfortunately, there were lots of horses in that meadow, so finding a place for the tent was tricky.
@Kim – Camping with kids content is being worked on.
@Rick -Summer in the mountains (near Sigunianshan) can be rainy & snowy. But not very buggy.
Either way, you’ll need to get them to unlock it. WTF is with your cell company? AT&T took care of it for me over the phone- Unicom SIM installed, called AT&T via Skype, and it started working immediately.
BTW- There are websites that sell unlock codes for a few bucks. Not sure if they cover iPhone, but I have used them for Samsung.