yesmaybe

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  • in reply to: Renting a 130m2 Apartment in Wuhou District #38770
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    old post I know, but did you manage to find a tennant yet?

    in reply to: Express Train from Chengdu to Beijing #21410
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    Quote:
    I’ve become quite a train nerd since coming to China.

    – that train-spotter in you was always lying under the surface desperate to come out the anorak.

    Quote:
    Is it possible the Beijing route also went to Wuhan then went north to Beijing thru Shijiazhuang from there? I can’t think of another high speed route north.

    – Could have done, it was a year ago and I’ve done more train journeys since so when I look at the map below from the wiki link above, some of those cities do sound familiar. I guess it was either Wuhan (I don’t think so), or Xi’an (I also don’t remember that one on the itinerary but I suppose I could’ve been sound asleep).

    wiki map

    in reply to: Forum Problems #21389
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    Quote:
    wtf is казино

    not a bad idea though, a casino in Chengdu.

    in reply to: This is the Worst I've Seen… #21388
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    agh, I don’t want to see that.

    Half the reason I am moving from Beijing is because the pollution there is terrible and I want my son to grow up breathing something cleaner. I can’t believe Chengdu can be like Beijing, it’s such a nicer environment here, not trapped in a depression like Beijing with no wind. Every time I’ve been to Chengdu before the weather has been super clean and the streets (traffic) super smooth (comparatively). Have I chosen it 5 years too late to make the switch?

    Maybe I better just stay in this remote mountain village half way to Lhasa.

    in reply to: Any thoughts on the current tensions? #21189
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    Quote:
    I do have to admit that the lack of [democracy] here shields the country from stupid populist movements changing the political landscape too much. The government certainly isn’t suppressing the protests like they would a pro-democracy protest

    And so they weren’t government organised, sponsored or endorsed protests that we’ve seen? I think protests on such a scale of this wouldn’t even be allowed to gather moss if the government weren’t behind it (to some degree).

    in reply to: China Job Advice #21187
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    I worked in a small foreign office in Beijing, with a local LAN, half a dozen pcs with English Windows. They were Acer I think, we bought them from an Acer sales rep and he helped install them as part of the deal (not the LAN, not sure how that was set up). But any problems, we’d phone him and he would come to the office and fix it, whether a overheating fan, driver update, graphics card, etc. His call out charge was ¥100 so just parts on top which he sourced from his local shop at honest prices (although I expect he made a little on them as well). He would often lend us a part, fix the other card or what have you and bring it back a few days later.

    Sometimes I wished he would use more genuine parts, or know his way around the system in English a little better, not install extra software in Chinese on the hard-driver, or ghost partitions, but for the price we paid, the system was always working and no complaints. I guess he had a regular salary / commission from the pc store he worked at and so these occasional calls were a little buckshee for his cigarette habit, or what have you.

    I think if you were in Beijing and could source the parts so quickly and were two or three times the price of our Chinese friend then our little office would have been happy to know about you. But probably not the Chinese secretary who liked to control the petty cash and ensure we always had a bargain. She never understood ‘you get what you pay for’ mentality. And even then you would probably still be struggling to make ends meet.

    I suggest you try to upsell yourself to an IT company, whether foreign or local. Somebody like Candis (http://www.candis.com.cn/) or a Chengdu equivalent) that use foreign staff to help their image and increase their prices.

    in reply to: Express Train from Chengdu to Beijing #21180
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    It’s certainly not all you’ve ever been able to do. The express train from Chongqing – Beijing and Chengdu – Beijing was running from January 11th 2011 until some time later that year. I took it on 20th August, it worked, it was fast, although they obviously found it wasn’t very safe so cancelled it. In that way, you can say I am lucky to be here!

    It was direct, not via Xi’an. It stopped 4-6 times, but I can’t remember where. I will try to dig out some photos if you need more proof!

    The Opening:

    http://www.echinacities.com/chengdu/city-in-pulse/chengdu-to-beijing-and-shanghai-high-speed-train-to-open.html

    The Closing:

    http://www.chinatraveladvice.com/forum/112/974-fast-trains-beijing-chengduchongqing

    in reply to: Express Train from Chengdu to Beijing #21105
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    It wasn’t a bad journey, I did it for the experience and not sure I would take the train every time, but if you have time on your hands and want to study/work/hide/relax/read/chat to strangers/catch up on sleep, then it’s not a bad option.

    When I took it a year ago, I left Lushan on the morning bus to Chengdu, had lunch and a pint or two, took the metro to the northern station for the 3pm train, read and slept well in my comfortable berth, (the cabin shared with some young Chinese sports troupe) and was in Beijing west station at 7am the next morning. The 4 berth soft sleeper was ¥1,050 or something, so similar to a flight, depending. And compared to ¥650 on the slow train.

    I only realised it was cancelled last month when I went to book it for my pregnant wife, who was advised not to fly. It was a bit of a shock when the timetable only showed the 30 hour journey, but that too worked out ok. I just caught up on lost sleep!

    in reply to: Where do you get your Chengdu News? #21075
    Avatar photoyesmaybe
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    Where are you getting your intel from then? Share what you learn boy!

    in reply to: I tried to chase down a thief one day… #20942
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    Like Jerry, I saw a woman (supposedly a Uyghur* pikey) with a fake baby strapped to her back, with badly dyed hair, working the street in Beijing. I just happened to be crossing the road behind her as she was preying on a woman who left her handbag open on her arm after fishing out her mobile phone.

    The woman casually strolled up behind her, copped a feel, found the wallet, and was in the process of removing the cash from it. I hugged her from behind (or ‘battled her into an arm lock’ perhaps sounds more manly!) which alerted the other woman. The thief shouted abuse at me, palmed the money to her mate (who I hadn’t noticed, despite his matching badly dyed hair!) and dropped the purse on the floor, suggesting that it had just fallen out of her bag and she was trying to give it back. Her abuse towards me was really powerful, I started worrying that perhaps the baby wasn’t a stooge and I had mixed up the whole scenario. Basically, I wasn’t expecting her to go on the offensive.

    I didn’t speak Chinese to explain the situation or to defend my position, so just pointed at the thief said ‘ta buhao’ or something and walked off with the adrenalin pumping. The woman picked up her wallet and walked away. I felt it wasn’t the worse scenario because the woman got her wallet and ID card etc back and may be a bit more careful in the future. A thanks would’ve been nice though! I saw the same duo operating on a footbridge a few days later with different coloured badly died red hair. Still with the fake baby on her back. Still with the blurry CCTV channel up in the sky, and below, the organised beggars sat in bandages, earning their dinner and their bosses a new SUV.

    I don’t think I would do it again unless I had some local back up, for fear of being accused as the villain, but then when the adrenalin kicks in at the spur of the moment, I can see meself chasing villains through building sites like the opening to 007 as Chris regailed at the top!

    * my Beijing friends explained that Uyghur gangs come out of the woodwork before CNY etc and go on the rampage in their desperation to send some hand-earned back to the families, as they’ve lost the rest of their savings gambling. Not that I want to suggest that non-han racism is rife in this harmonious society.

    As I say I don’t think I would act the martyr again, but I have put myself in it again and again. I knocked into an old woman as we both using a pedestrian crossing (I was on a bike). It was basically her fault for suddenly changing direction straight in front of me. But still I immediately jumped off the bike to check if she was ok, it’s just basic instinct isn’t it. Of course that immediatly apportions blame directly on my back. Luckily she wasn’t hurt and didn’t make anything of it apart from moaning about her dirty trousers. But I could’ve found myself in that whole compensation game.

    in reply to: I tried to chase down a thief one day… #21010
    Avatar photoyesmaybe
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    Like Jerry, I saw a woman (supposedly a Uyghur* pikey) with a fake baby strapped to her back, with badly dyed hair, working the street in Beijing. I just happened to be crossing the road behind her as she was preying on a woman who left her handbag open on her arm after fishing out her mobile phone.

    The woman casually strolled up behind her, copped a feel, found the wallet, and was in the process of removing the cash from it. I hugged her from behind (or ‘battled her into an arm lock’ perhaps sounds more manly!) which alerted the other woman. The thief shouted abuse at me, palmed the money to her mate (who I hadn’t noticed, despite his matching badly dyed hair!) and dropped the purse on the floor, suggesting that it had just fallen out of her bag and she was trying to give it back. Her abuse towards me was really powerful, I started worrying that perhaps the baby wasn’t a stooge and I had mixed up the whole scenario. Basically, I wasn’t expecting her to go on the offensive.

    I didn’t speak Chinese to explain the situation or to defend my position, so just pointed at the thief said ‘ta buhao’ or something and walked off with the adrenalin pumping. The woman picked up her wallet and walked away. I felt it wasn’t the worse scenario because the woman got her wallet and ID card etc back and may be a bit more careful in the future. A thanks would’ve been nice though! I saw the same duo operating on a footbridge a few days later with different coloured badly died red hair. Still with the fake baby on her back. Still with the blurry CCTV channel up in the sky, and below, the organised beggars sat in bandages, earning their dinner and their bosses a new SUV.

    I don’t think I would do it again unless I had some local back up, for fear of being accused as the villain, but then when the adrenalin kicks in at the spur of the moment, I can see meself chasing villains through building sites like the opening to 007 as Chris regailed at the top!

    * my Beijing friends explained that Uyghur gangs come out of the woodwork before CNY etc and go on the rampage in their desperation to send some hand-earned back to the families, as they’ve lost the rest of their savings gambling. Not that I want to suggest that non-han racism is rife in this harmonious society.

    As I say I don’t think I would act the martyr again, but I have put myself in it again and again. I knocked into an old woman as we both using a pedestrian crossing (I was on a bike). It was basically her fault for suddenly changing direction straight in front of me. But still I immediately jumped off the bike to check if she was ok, it’s just basic instinct isn’t it. Of course that immediatly apportions blame directly on my back. Luckily she wasn’t hurt and didn’t make anything of it apart from moaning about her dirty trousers. But I could’ve found myself in that whole compensation game.

    in reply to: Premium Beer for Sale, very Cheap! #20986
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    are there bars stocking these awesome beers in Chengdu these days?

    in reply to: Premium Beer for Sale, very Cheap! #20918
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    are there bars stocking these awesome beers in Chengdu these days?

    in reply to: Internet Service & Speed in Chengdu #20889
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    Quote:
    I’m downloading at ~650KB/sec

    you are downloading 22,000 files? Extraordinary.

    in reply to: I Sent a Package Home and Something's Missing #20917
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    sounds to me it was likely the UK customs, x-rayed and checked it and removed the knife because importing knives into the UK over 6 inches (at a guess) is illegal without the documentation. But then the customs would have put an inspection and removal notice on the package.

    If it was China customs I also think they would put a notice on the box.

    Perhaps it was just some lacky who needed a sharper knife, or it was a soap character out of ‘lock stock’.

    I have sent plenty of stuff back to England, mostly choosing the overland rather than oversea option (just because I like trains) and the packages have never been interfered with despite going through Russia and eastern-bloc countries!

    in reply to: I Sent a Package Home and Something's Missing #20985
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    sounds to me it was likely the UK customs, x-rayed and checked it and removed the knife because importing knives into the UK over 6 inches (at a guess) is illegal without the documentation. But then the customs would have put an inspection and removal notice on the package.

    If it was China customs I also think they would put a notice on the box.

    Perhaps it was just some lacky who needed a sharper knife, or it was a soap character out of ‘lock stock’.

    I have sent plenty of stuff back to England, mostly choosing the overland rather than oversea option (just because I like trains) and the packages have never been interfered with despite going through Russia and eastern-bloc countries!

    in reply to: Where to Live in Chengdu? #20909
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    thanks to you both for your input, all really useful. I know the subway will make a big impact on where to live. BTW, on cdmetro I saw an opening date for 27th Sep, if I remember (and google translated) correctly.

    You all seem to think the south is the way to go, and that is interesting. If I live somewhere for a couple of years and then try to rent out to a foreigner (although I am not sure why I am thinking that actually), where he wants to live will be important.

    For us, the Jinsha area would be good, because a) the subway line 2 is close by and b) the sister is there for baby-sitting! c) It is to the west-ish of the city so fairly easy access to the airport and Ya’an. But if there is little foreign presence in terms of restaurants, local bar and shopping them maybe it won’t be so appealing to others. Saying that, the subway seems an easy option for the jump into town.

    As for Flower Town, that is not a priority, if we want to escape the city it will be to the family home in this pure and tiny village.

    We are looking to move in the next few months but don’t need to buy straight away. Being here in Lushan is great for the time being but I will soon be itching for a bit of city life and my own kitchen. And I am still renting in Beijing, so may do a stint back there before making the move to Chengdu.

    Do you have any thoughts on Jinsha?

    in reply to: Internet Service & Speed in Chengdu #20850
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    no, not the 50mbs connection, I was trying to explain my wifi network was proper slow on this old laptop. The Internet is only 120, GB I presume.

    in reply to: Internet Service & Speed in Chengdu #20778
    Avatar photoyesmaybe
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    no, not the 50mbs connection, I was trying to explain my wifi network was proper slow on this old laptop. The Internet is only 120, GB I presume.

    in reply to: Chengdu Metro Map #20774
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    Cheers. I also found this one which has slightly different pinyin station names – http://www.urbanrail.net/as/cn/chdu/chengdu.htm

    But I want to see where that line runs on a city map. For example at Yipintianxia, does the line run along Chadianzi lu? Or further north?

    Cheers,

    Andy

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 27 total)