Typical trip to a Chinese bank

1. Find the ticket machine and press the button for the type of banking service you want
2. Look at your ticket and find that 150 people are ahead of you.
3. Glance at all the available counters and find that only one clerk is working.
4. Sit down, twiddle your thumbs, and have a few cigarettes.
5. After about an hour, your number will finally come up and a sense of achievement will overcome you.
6. After talking with the clerk, you found out the transaction you want to complete is only available on Mondays and Friday from 8 AM to 9 AM both days.
7. Leave the bank with your head down while cursing to yourself.

Two Chinese Companies I Trust

I've made two recent purchases that I'm extremely satisfied with. It's not every day that I go with a Chinese company and end up with no regrets.

1. Meizu music card MP3 Player
It was 650 RMB, which is roughly 1/3 of the price of a iPod Nano. They share a lot of the same features. Who know? Perhaps they copied it. It comes with 4Gs of storage, sliding-touch navigation (or whatever the technical term is), a radio tuner, and it even plays videos. The battery life is decent (~20 hours). The primary reason I bought it was because you can sort your songs by album and artist. Other cheap-ass MP3 players just list all of the songs together, which makes it an huge pain-in-the-ass to find the song you want.

The one, little negative about this player is that you can't fast-forward and rewind while watching videos. However, what made up for this was their customer service. I found an email address for customer service on their website (http://www.meizu.com/) and wrote to them. To my amazement, I received a reply early the next day. They say that this feature will be available when they make a software upgrade.

Even if this thing breaks after a year, I'll feel that I got my money's worth.


2. Ctrip
We recently bought a travel package to Bali through Ctrip. A few weeks after paying for it, I received a call from a rep. He called to tell me that the plane ticket prices had just been finalized by the airline, and that they would be refunding me 200 RMB. I had to ask again because I thought I heard it wrong.

Let's just say that if I owned a travel company, I wouldn't give a refund to my clients. They have no idea how much the plane tickets cost, so it wouldn't hurt just to keep the "extra" money.

I've been using their services for roughly two years now. Everything has been great with them. Competent staff. They actually call you back if you leave messages. And they actually give you exactly what you buy. I know that last sentence sounds funny. But hey, this is China.

Today's Interesting News

--The article is mostly about spitting and public behavior, but I had a good laugh about the parts on English signs. I wonder if I'll still be laughing at the Chinglish when I'm 80. "Some translations are trickier, like describing pullet, which is a hen less than a year old but appears on some menus as Sexually Inexperienced Chicken. Mr. Tool said one prominent sign had become a regular photo op for foreigners: the Dongda Anus Hospital. Mr. Tool intervened. It is now the Dongda Proctology Hospital."

Today's Interesting News/Sites

-China is the source of the bird flu virus, according to reports by international news agencies. "It's not true!" says that Chinese government.

-The war on dogs continues in China - this time in Chongqing. I am so glad I have a cat. If this same thing happened in Shanghai and I had a dog, I would definitely consider fleeing to another city.

LiveJournal Blocked

I just learned today that LiveJournal has been blocked in China. Luckily I moved everything back to Blogger. However, who knows how long access to Google's Blogger will last...

2002-2003 Web Albums

My web album project is finally finished. Spending 500 kuai to digitize my photos is probably one of the better investments I've made in the last few years. I've put the Web Albums up on picasaweb.google.com/alexliang79:

001a) Jan. 1, 2002 - June 30, 2002 - Jinan
001b) July 1, 2002 - Mar. 18, 2003 - Jinan

002a) Feb. 9-12, 2002 - Qingdao
002b) Feb. 13-14, 2002 - Weihai, Chengshantou, Yantai
002c) Feb. 14, 2002 - Penglai
002d) Apr. 12, 2002 - Taishan
002e) Apr. 22, 2002 - Weifang

003a) Apr. 26, 2002 - Shanghai
003b) Apr. 27, 2002 - Wuyishan
003c) Apr. 28-29, 2002 - Xiamen

004a) Aug. 31 - Sept. 1, 2002 - Jiuhua Shan
004b) Sept. 2-3, 2002 - Huangshan
004c) Sept. 3-4, 2002 - Taiping Hu
004d) Sept. 5-8, 2002 - Hefei

005a) Sept. 9-11, 2002 - Xian
005b) Sept. 14, 2002 - Xiahe
005c) Sept. 15, 2002 - Qinghai, Mengda Tianchi
005d) Sept. 16, 2002 - Taersi, Qinghai Lake
005e) Sept. 17, 2002 - Xining, Lanzhou
005f) Sept. 18, 2002 - Jiayuguan
005g) Sept. 19, 2002 - Dunhuang
005h) Sept. 19-20, 2002 - Hami, Urumqi
005i) Sept. 21-22, 2002 - Kashgar
005j) Sept. 22-23, 2002 - Karakoram, Karakul Lake, Kashgar
005k) Sept. 24-25, 2002 - Hotan, Taklamakan
005l) Sept. 26, 2002 - Turpan
005m) Sept. 27, 2002 - Tian Chi

006a) Oct. 9, 2002 - Shanghai
006b) Oct. 10, 2002 - Putuoshan
006c) Oct. 11-12, 2002 - Shaoxing
006d) Oct. 13, 2002 - Hangzhou

007a) Oct. 19-20, 2002 - Datong, Yungang, Hanging Monastery
007b) Oct. 21, 2002 - Pingyao
007c) Oct. 22, 2002 - Taiyuan
007d) Oct. 23-24, 2002 - Shanxi to Sichuan
007e) Oct. 25, 2002 - Jiuzhaigou
007f) Oct. 26, 2002 - Huanglong
007g) Oct. 28, 2002 - Leshan
007h) Oct. 29, 2002 - Emei Shan
007i) Oct. 29-31, 2002 - Chengdu

008a) Nov. 19-23, 2002 - Hong Kong
008b) Nov. 24, 2002 - Macau
008c) Nov. 27-29, 2002 - Sanya
008d) Nov. 30, 2002 - Zhaoqing

009a) Dec. 30, 2002 - Yixing
009b) Dec. 31, 2002 - Zhouzhuang

010a) Feb. 2, 2003 - Beijing
010b) Feb. 3-4, 2003 - Harbin
010c) Feb. 5, 2003 - Beijing

011a) Feb. 24-26, 2003 - Hainan Inland
011b) Feb. 26-27, 2003 - Sanya
011c) Feb. 28, 2003 - Haikou

012) Mar. 3, 2003 - Beijing

Today's Interesting News/Sites

--Shanghai still has a ways to go before becoming an "international" city, especially with their signs in English. Why don't they just find a native English speaker in Shanghai to work as a language consultant?

--An outlook on the social security situation in the villages of China