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Viewing 20 posts - 21 through 40 (of 83 total)
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  • in reply to: Air Filter Advice? Air Pollution at 299 Today! #22768
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    Just got my mask today and boy do I look like a dork wearing it! haha. I’m sure to get a ton of stares running around in it.

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22701
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    Well, soon after I posted that. The connection dropped again!

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22698
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    Update on Pacific Coffee. I went there again today. (Nice meeting you, Davey!) But the wifi was down for over two hours. Bummer. When it came up it wasn’t as fast as before but still good.

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    Not sure I’ll give this premium-priced basement cafe another chance. Besides the connectivity issue, there’s an ever-present mechanical whine that irritatingly keeps switching between two tones. Might just return to my good ole standby: Starbucks by the Millennium Hotel.

    in reply to: Air Filter Advice? Air Pollution at 299 Today! #22648
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    Quote:
    Where did you read this? That’s a lot less than I would’ve expected actually.

    A Day in Beijing is Like Smoking Only One Sixth of a Cigarette

    Thankfully it’s only 152 today in Chengdu. But sad for Shanghai-ites suffering at an abysmal 320.

    in reply to: Air Filter Advice? Air Pollution at 299 Today! #22645
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    I read that just living in a city in China is like getting second-hand smoke or the equivalent of smoking 1/6th of a cigarette per day. I also posted about yesterday’s miserable smog on the Chengdu Family Living Yahoo group and someone responded that his friend who lived in China for 20 years died of lung cancer.

    This blog post about a cyclist in London was interesting. Wearing a Totobobo mask eliminated her sore throats.

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22643
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    glad you liked it, Davey!

    in reply to: Air Filter Advice? Air Pollution at 299 Today! #22633
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    Thanks, Charlie. Hadn’t see your other post about the pollution.

    Here is an interesting review about Respro from a guy in Bangalore who says that Respro filters our the smell of exhaust from cars whereas Totobobo doesn’t.

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22608
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    Great meeting you, as well, Charlie!

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22559
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    And we have a winner! With 8 Mb/s, hands down the Pacific Coffee Company (from Hong Kong) on level B1 of the Raffles City mall has the fastest wifi of the three cafes in the mall.

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    And with tons of plush sofa chairs, you can’t beat it for comfortable seating. On the down side, being in the basement there is zero natural lighting.

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    As far as price goes, I spent 25 kuai on a tall latte as they aren’t serving drip coffee just yet (which if they did would be 17 rmb for a tall). One perk is their frequent buyer stamp cards. The deal is buy 8 cups and get the 9th one free. That’s a better rewards system than the meaningless Starbucks China member card which you have to pay an outlandish fee to buy and get virtually zero rewards.

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22535
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    Just trying out the Starbucks now in Raffles City. It’s a smallish store. No internal restrooms. Smells like nail polish inside; could just be today… Not many soft chairs or padded benches (a plus if you want to stay for more than a couple hours).

    Connect to the “Starbucks” wifi hotspot for access. Like most public hotspots you need to disable any custom DNS servers for this to work. The speed is nothing to be excited about. Couldn’t even log into Taobao with the wifi.

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    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22500
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    Hi Daniel, I like your cafe! Thanks for providing the info on the price of your drip coffee. It is more expensive than Starbucks, but the refill pricing is attractive. I’d definitely visit your cafe more often if it was closer to where I live.

    in reply to: Costca Coffee at Raffles Mall as a Wifi Hangout #22480
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    Yeah 25 RMB is steep especially when you think of what it would cost at Starbucks in the States.

    Davey, I’d recommend the Starbucks just outside of the Millennium Hotel as the best place to work. But their wifi isn’t super fast either but decent enough.

    in reply to: Internet Service & Speed in Chengdu #22435
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    I think its hit or miss. My neighbor when through the rigamarole of inquiring whether his building supported the 20M service, upgrading, only to discover his building wasn’t supported, then having to go through the trouble of downgrading.

    in reply to: Raffles City New Theater Grand Opening #22434
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    Thanks, Marky. Great site. I hope I can figure out how to buy deals on meituan. I don’t have a Chinese bank account yet. Normally I just put money on wanghuiE at the post office for Taobao purchases.

    in reply to: Raffles City New Theater Grand Opening #22367
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    Sure! Be sure to go earlier on in the day because they only sell 100 of these 4 tickets for 100 RMB deals per day. Tickets expire at the end of the month.

    in reply to: Raffles City New Theater Grand Opening #22365
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    It could have been Expendables 2, I think I remember that the Chinese name started with 白.

    in reply to: Raffles City New Theater Grand Opening #22363
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    There was a movie with Bruce Willis in it but the title was only in Chinese, no English. So not sure if it was Looper.

    in reply to: Getting a Student Visa Outside of Universities? #22308
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    I wrote this blog post with info on studying Chinese in Chengdu a couple years ago before coming here. Might be of some help but the info is old.

    If you’re going to stay for more than a semester, then I’d recommend signing up for a whole year at a time because then the visa you get is for one year. If you only sign up for a semester, the visa ends when the semester ends (and won’t cover summer or winter vacations).

    in reply to: Getting a Student Visa Outside of Universities? #22301
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    It’s 10,000 RMB per semester at MinDa (the minorities) university for 1on1 tutoring six hours per week. They provide a visa.

    in reply to: Sichuan Opera This Week #22252
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    Yang Bing, a private van driver, got me second row tickets for 150 RMB per seat at Shu Feng Ya Yun a couple weeks ago. My wife loved the show!

    If you want to use Yang Bing his cell is 136-5805-8464. He will provide free pickup take you there, wait for you and then drop off where you want to go after the show.

Viewing 20 posts - 21 through 40 (of 83 total)