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I don’t know about adults, but I’ve seen children play at the Global Center. If there’s an adult league, I’m sure the people who run the children’s league would know where!
I don’t think Xipu/PiXian is the worst, but don’t think I’d want to raise a family out there.
It’s not *difficult* to make that commute, but doing it every day would be rough. Better if you had your own vehicle, but still long.
I second the ZhongHai idea. It’s a nice area with “ammenities”, such as walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, a movie theater, Subway, some kind of beer garden, a driving range, other stuff that “international people” are supposed to be into. It’s probably a 10 minute drive to FoxConn, and not too hard to get into city from.
Cash is still pretty much king. I’ve had success setting up my American visa card on most Chinese payment systems as well though.
For simplicity’s sake, it’s easiest to keep your Dutch bank account and just withdraw cash from big bank’s ATMs (Bank of China, China Construction Bank, ICBC, etc.).
My bank pays back all ATM fees, so there are no problems there, for me.
Has anyone been to the new Five Elephants cafe in Chengdu? If so, how is it?
Any Germans who can comment on how it stacks up to their Berlin cafe?
I was psyched when I saw that Chengdu had gotten a specialty Coffee shop, and can’t wait to geek out over it when I get back.
here’s the (poorly written) article where I found out about it
Build-Outs of Summer: Five Elephant Coffee In Chengdu, China
Because you’re studying abroad for a short period of time, the best bet is to just investigate the fees that your bank will assess you for using a Chinese ATM. I opened a checking account with a bank that doesn’t charge any fees for ATMs, and am able to use ATMs that belong to any of the big “name brand” banks with zero problems.
OH yikes. I hadn’t heard that story yet, Charlie. Can you share more (not names or anything, but more of what happened)?
I know of several Universities that have started baseball clubs/teams. I’m not in country currently, but that could be fun to go out and throw around with some newbs and teach some fundamentals.
I’ve had PSB officers come by and remind me to do that, which seemed a little redundant, but they didn’t really ask any questions, just reminded me to go by the station with my lease and passport.
I saw this last week and wonder how they intend on catching violators other than raids on schools or places of employment. More intense surveillance?
At this point, I’ve taken to just assuming that people have no clue what the english words on their shirts mean
Pretty much all universities are going to have a track or two, but like SS said, they’ll be very crowded in the evenings (seems like running a few laps on the track is the college kid’s version of dancing in the square). Day time is usually plenty open, but you’ll likely get some good stares (as you will any other time)
Depending on the airline, you can bring it as a piece of checked luggage. Be very clear and careful when discussing this with the airline so as to not have any unforeseen problems. I took a bike back to American and was great on the flights from Chengdu to Beijing to Chicago (all on Hainan), but the domestic flight home from Chicago (on United…) was a nightmare and ended up costing me like $150 and they damaged the bike…
Don’t skimp on the packaging for the bike.
China Unicom can hook you up. Pretty much whatever the offer 3G wise will work for you for this short period of time. It should be like 200RMB
Emma, yes. I did the same thing. Arrived sometime around midday and hired a cab to take me from the airport to HuangLong to JiuZhaiGou, waiting in HuangLong. It seemed to be the normal thing, and he knew the drill. He asked us what we planned on doing for food and when I told him we’d just eat noodles at the HuangLong park entrance he was like, “yeah everyone plans on doing that but it’s a bad idea. It’s too expensive and will really suck” or something to that extent, and drove us to a restaurant in the little town by the airport because it would be cheaper and better. He was right.
Be prepared for expensive food though. Because of it’s remote location in the mountains, food apparently has to be brought up from the plain and that adds to cost, whereas in the fertile Chengdu plain, it’s just brought in from down the street, or outside of town.
Charlie, I bet winter would be absolutely beautiful, but outrageously cold. You’d have to have some heavy duty ski clothes and be prepared for some gnarly conditions. It was cold -and even snowed- when I was there the last week of April (which made a really great backdrop at HuangLong and the higher elevations along the drive)
You should be fine. The blood test they do at the entry-exit medical exam functions almost like an innoculation for pretty much anything you could come across.
I totally recommend the freedom of doing it “sans-tour group”. Grab a couple friends and make your own tour. There’s enough resources online to help plan it out.
That area gets tens of thousands of tourists a day (not an exaggeration). And despite the outrageous terrain and distance, they’ve made it very easy to get around. There are tons and tons of taxi cabs and they’re almost all new and in good shape. The drivers are courteous and friendly as they’ve got plenty of competition and their living is predicated on tourists. I had a great time talking to my driver and he was super kind and patient with my laowaihua.
I went in the spring, and it was pretty simple. Flew into the airport and took a cab from the airport to HuangLong and then to the little town of JiuZhaiGou (this was very long, but kind of the only option). I don’t remember what the rate was, but it’s a fixed rate to do this – ask someone inside of the airport before talking to the cabs, just to be safe.
The drive is beautiful. there’s a 4000 meter pass that you go over from the airport to HuangLong, and then you’ll go back over it on the way to JiuZhaiGou. JZG is at a lower elevation, so you’ll see some different landscapes as you head there. Lots of yaks and prayer flags.
Pro-tip. There’s tons and tons of boardwalk that is unused in JZG park and you can find yourself in relative solitude while staying on official, legal boardwalk paths. For some very nuanced cultural reasons, the nai nais in matching floral prints are only interested in going and taking all the same pictures that their friends show off at the majiang table from their trip they took last year and are keen to beat you with their selfie stick if you interfere with that by just being around. SO to avoid that, just go where they dont. When you get off a bus and they all walk down hill, walk up hill and go around to the otherside of whatever lake you find yourself at. you’ll be totally by yourself.
I’d rather find a visa solution that didn’t take up my time with work or study. If anyone finds a visa solution – let me know.
I’m the market for a good unicorn pelt. If anyone knows where to pick one of those up, let me know.
Countries give you a visa based on what you’re going to do there. If you want a tourist visa, you’re not going to be there long. If you want a work visa, you’re going to have to get a job. If you want a student visa, you should expect to at least register at a school. Not sure that there’s a “bum” visa yet…
From what I understand, to get my residency permit I need to have a lot of documentation from the landlord.
Oh, I see. To get a Z-visa you will need a rental contract to prove your place of residence, which you will not be able to get from a host on AirBNB. You might be able to find a workaround if you have a friend who’s willing to provide a rental contract for you to use, but they may call the landlord to confirm their identification number and that you live in the apartment.
I don’t remember taking my lease downtown, just to the local PSB station, and from what I understand it totally depends on the cop and what kind of day he’s having. When I went to register at my most recent apartment, they called and checked with the landlord (her phone number was smudged on the contract and he couldn’t read it which was a ton of mafan) but when I went in with my roommate and the same lease a month later, the guy said something along the lines of, “you’re living with this guy, right? I trust him.”
