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  • in reply to: HSK 6 Prep Materials? #53171
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    Pleco has flash card sets for HSK at each level last I checked. Lots of sites and books in any bookstore will have practice questions from previous tests. The Hello HSK app is quite useful not just for the practice questions but for the detailed explanations (all in Chinese, but at level 6 you can handle it) of test question type and test taking strategy. You should be able to go down to the test centre directly and take practice tests too, just book a time with them.

    in reply to: Coming to Chengdu Feb 3rd! #52073
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    The vegan protein thing will be far easier and more affordable if tofu and soymilk can be a regular part of your diet.

    in reply to: Mandarin @ SCU: Your Experience #51057
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    My tutor is a friend who works at a training school, I just asked her for a few private lessons. I can pass on her contact (pm if you want) but she doesn’t speak much English, which I think is a plus because she is not going to waste time in class trying to practice English with you.

    I don’t have any suggestions besides if you are going to stay that length of time you need to research the cost of visa and cost of study together. Arranging your own visa often means a tourist visa where you have to leave the country every two or three months which can cost a lot of time and money from this far inland. For schools that can give you a student visa, Sichuan University, University of Finance and Economics, and Nationalities University are the most popular in town but there are others.

    in reply to: Mandarin @ SCU: Your Experience #51049
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    Not sure if you mean the actual university or the Chinese teacher training school that has been offering free lessons on this site given by their student teachers. You don’t say what your level is now or what level of HSK you are going for, but in general the kind of university that can give you a study visa is the best value. Private teachers can be a waste of time or invaluable. Lots will work for 40 an hour but I paid 100 for a short term tutor and it was very worth it for getting past HSK 6.

    As for this place that gives free lessons, I’ve only tried their free option. Each lesson is with a different teacher and not continuous. Time with the Hello HSK app was better spent, to be honest, though it’s always possible you may run into a fantastic teacher you want to keep working with.

    in reply to: Working out in Chengdu (Fitness/Powergym) #50965
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    There is another new one opening right on Kehua Bei Lu in a couple of weeks. It’s called All Day Fitness and is in front of the Xanadu hotel. They are not open yet but have some pieces of equipment, including a body composition analyzer, that can be checked out for free in the meantime. List price is 1888 for one year.

    Megafit on Shuhan Lu opens at 8, but it’s on the small and dingy side.

    in reply to: Cost of Living in Chengdu #50595
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    I thought my chart, posted above, was pretty detailed, but no, it is everything I spent that month, total of all categories including utilities, grocery/household, entertainment, clothes, personal care, transportation, and coffee. My share of the rent, in case anyone is interested, is another thousand a month.

    in reply to: Cost of Living in Chengdu #50580
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    Healthy for me is 25-30 g of protein per meal mainly from tofu, black or white soybeans, and sometimes eggs and peanuts, but they are a bit too high in calories to use regularly. I’m sure a guy would need more. Lots of greens. Rarely buy meat more often than the once per week when I cook for friends. Bacon – far prefer local 腊肉, have the seller slice it, then wrap portions and keep it in the freezer. Every six months or so I spend 60-100 RMB on a big pack of frozen butter and cheese from a local taobao seller which gets used mainly for baking or for pizza. So I still use a few of those things, but not daily.

    Really do think it comes down to whatever’s important to your lifestyle. Around 1700 a month is doable but uncomfortable for me, 2500 is fine, and does not feel particularly frugal.

    in reply to: Cost of Living in Chengdu #50575
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    I find with a strict budget I can stay under 2000 RMB a month but usually it’s more like 2500.

    I also find that healthy food can be very cheap or very expensive. My 5 RMB home cooked meals are still Western style food。 If I learned to use a wok and cook Chinese style, and was willing to eat rice or (even cheaper) fresh noodles all the time instead of potatoes it would be even less. The lightbulb moment was watching the local shoppers at the market – a good food shopper is internationally recognizable, like someone who is a good cook. Realizing that the shopper carrying a couple of eggs and one spring onion was only getting exactly what he needed for his next meal, the tiny kitchens and fridges here made much more sense.

    in reply to: Running Track in Chengdu? #50360
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    Nationalities University has a nice, newly surfaced track but is crowded in the evenings and is beside a garbage sorting spot so it can get smelly when the work is going on. Sports University has two tracks, one nicer one that is open to the public in the sense that the fence is very easy to climb. They are both within the southwest first ring. Sichuan University is relatively central and has a track too but I’ve never been personally.

    in reply to: Cost of Living in Chengdu #50268
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    Here are my April numbers as promised.

    Utilities 150 a month per person (share a 120 m3 tao san with 2 roommates) is usually enough to cover electricity, gas, water, internet, and management fees. During winter I will sometimes have to throw in another fifty or so for electricity. I put another 150 on the phone. Average is 200 a month.

    Grocery/Household I cooked at home about half the time. Usually I get strictly what I need for the next meal at the veg stand, which works out to 3-5 RMB on home cooked meals. This is an opposite strategy to cooking in bulk, but I prefer it personally. Once a week I go to the supermarket, buy some better food and cook for roommates and other friends. Other everyday meals out make up a large chunk of this category. (My local friends who cook for their families at home and eat out only rarely spend around 350-450 per person per month.)

    Clothes was higher than usual this month, being a change of season. I budget 200 a month for clothing but it’s highly variable.

    Transportation was low this month, all bus fares. I usually budget 100 and it will include a few taxi rides.

    Entertainment expenses were mostly nicer restaurants and drinks.


    Personal care
    is anything that you might get at a drugstore plus services like massages, manicures, pedicures, and haircuts. I budget 200 for this usually.

    coffee is basically the cost of sitting in a comfortable spot with internet for a couple of hours while getting some work done or reading. I expect to spend about 200 per month for this.

    The main reason I’ve never replied to a budget topic on the forum is that so many of the expenses I have as an expat are not month to month. Visa costs, tuition, the next trip home, rent, and medical insurance have always made up 60-70 percent of what it costs me to live here.

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    in reply to: Cost of Living in Chengdu #50037
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    I’m in for April. I haven’t tracked spending in detail for a few months but will dig out my old spreadsheet.

    in reply to: Thanksgiving Turkey? #48808
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    Check the freezer section of supermarkets for legs or wings (I’ve bought them at Spar). You can also order fresh ones at the regular street markets. Just find a place that sells poultry, ask if they raise ‘huo ji’ and tell them how big of a bird you want, if you want the grass or silage fed bird, and if you want a male or female.

    in reply to: "China's Food Delivery Apps Bite Into Yum Revival" #48506
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    ele.me is crazy popular; we can’t turn around in Chengdu lately without tripping over one of those blue bikes. Very impressed with how their website is set up too. You can find the closest places and it updates in real time if they are busy and not delivering. Da zhong is another major delivery player.

    in reply to: Stores Accepting Foreign Credit Cards? #48241
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    No experience with Mastercard but used to use my foreign VISA all the time at Auchan and Ito Yokado.

    in reply to: Can't Install Google Play Services on Android #47475
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    There are plenty of Chinese Android devices that come with the play store installed, just not all of them. My old Aoson tablet had it, and so does my new 51cube tablet. My 51cube is running the google apps but also has a vpn so everything works smoothly. For my ancient phone, which I flashed with MIUI, I did not bother running google services on it but just get any apps I need from the play store using http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/

    However, I found that I prefer using the China versions of certain apps anyway. The Chinese version of iReader can read books to me in Sichuanhua but the version from the play store did not.

    in reply to: Working out in Chengdu (Fitness/Powergym) #42830
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    Physical has offered groupons for a RMB40 month non peak time membership pretty much ever since they opened, so I am pretty sure most of the people working out there are grouponing. Boning is half a block away and nicer IMO, it is smaller but has better service. About half that price.

    in reply to: Good Chinese Music Recommendations #42765
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    To find songs you might like, get acquainted with Baidu music, which has totally replaced Spotify for me, and check out some of the non-pop categories..I would look at 劲爆 or 摇滚 categories based on your picks. Individual artists, I don’t know…Xu Wei maybe? SHE has a song called ‘Zhongguohua’ which is a real tones and pronunciation workout, though the group falls into your commercial pop category it’s pretty fun to attempt with a bunch of locals/foreigners.

    Songs at KTV, the good songs to sing at KTV are not always the same as what I would choose for listening. I like to look for Chinese remakes of well known English songs, like 流星 which is to the tune of Yellow by Coldplay, or 分开游行 which is a remake of Black Black Heart.

    in reply to: Where to Donate Clothes? #42209
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    There is an organization that sets up recycling bins and teaches people how to use them; they run on a membership basis as I understand (you get rewards like dish soap etc for sorting and delivering your trash). I was going to write a profile on them but didn’t get around to it. I think they are only active in the Jinjiang district right now.

    I went to one of their presentations last month and it was pretty eye opening – we throw out 1 kg/person/day of garbage, most of it ends up in the landfill, and the scavengers only add to the problem. I am not sure that the clothing/furniture that gets picked up and divided up immediately is included in that total.
    Their site is http://www.lvsediqiu.com/

    We even have an ayi on an upper floor who goes through all the neighbours’ garbage; she was wearing an old pair of slippers of mine for ages. Now I take my old clothes to a neighbouring complex so I at least don’t have to see my discarded stuff walking around all the time.

    in reply to: Where to get Rugs Cleaned in Chengdu? #40783
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    My experience is not the same as Charlie’s; lots of places will clean rugs. I used to get mine cleaned all the time but it was cotton and not that heavy. You need to tell the cleaner the size, weight, and material of your rug for them to know if they can really do it or not. Wool and silk are the most expensive.

    in reply to: Free Online Cloud Storage #40782
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    Meant to check these out when I saw the thread but never got around to it until last weekend, can share results of few days’ tinkering fwiw. Tencent and Baidu both have tons of other services so signing up for the cloud means you also get a QQ acount etc. I did not figure out how to upgrade the tencent account to the free 10T, though I did see the ad on their site. Performance was OK but since I was limited to the tiny default account I abandoned it pretty quickly.

    Baidu also has a small default account but figuring out how to upgrade to free 2T was relatively straightforward. I also was able to use the Baidu account to buy a book from dandan, so it was actually convenient. The initial performance was OK and the folders/layout etc make sense, and the upload speed was about 1.5M/s which is pretty good. The biggest kicker with Baidu is there is a 4G limit for individual items, which means any HD movies are out. upgrading to the next level and removing this restriction is RMB10/month. Today for some reason my upload speed is only 116k/s, but the rest of the online stuff is also slow.

    Anyone else take them for a spin?

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