My Chinese friend called today asking to hang out. When I asked what was up, she said she intended to go home today but her brother called and warned her not to travel today. Apparently today the province is celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival.
It falls on the 15th of the 7th lunar month. According to my friend, they believe that today many ghosts are able to travel around the country. This is why my friend couldn’t travel- she has to leave the way clear for the ghosts instead. Instead many adherents will go to the graves and leave lots of food for the hungry wanderers to eat.
Our Delicious Dumplings 🙂
They also make hand-made traditional dumplings out of long noodles. They are long so you can wrap up your ancestral ghosts in the strand and keep them close to you in the future. Funnily enough, we went to the little Chinese garden here and ran into 5-6 grandfathers out with their grandkids. They had been tasked with entertaining the kids while grandma made the dumplings. To participate, my friend and I had beef dumplings at the local street market and she promised to wait until tomorrow to go home :p
4 Year old and her 6.5 year old sister. The older sister starts English classes tomorrow, and they both knew the ABC song!
Twin 4-year olds. They start Kindergarten this year and are excellent Bubble-blowers!
Chinese customers of Apple’s iTunes Movies and iBooks services are seeking refunds on their purchases amid reports that the features have been suspended at the behest of government authorities.
Apple has not issued any statement to customers in China about the status of the services, but many users report that they have been unable to connect to the movie service and iBooks since April 15.
A Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman said: “We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible,” but she would not elaborate on why the services were unavailable.
The Chinese government has not issued any statement on the matter. However, the New York Times, citing two anonymous sources, said the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television had ordered the services offline, though it was unclear why.
Apple’s App Store revenue has surged in China in the last year, overtaking Japan as the world’s No. 2 market for the service, according to App Annie.
Apple technical assistance and account service representatives, reached by phone in China, said they had received no official notice from the company that the services had been blocked or shut down. They offered to arrange refunds on purchased content. . . .
Hello!
I’m back again with a little piece of life in China! One of the significant issues confronting expats living abroad is the matter of getting money back into the States.
Whether it’s because you still have family at home, you want to put it in savings, or (like me) you have US/China bills to pay – almost everyone goes through the process of moving money from abroad back home or vice versa.
First things first, in China cash has three important vocabulary terms – Yuan, Jiao, and Renminbi. Renminbi (RMB) is the official name of the currency, and if you want to exchange money to the US Dollar (USD), you need to know that RMB abbreviation. We usually say “I need to exchange RMB to USD.” On the other hand, one Yuan ( ¥) is the most basic unit of money in China. In use, it is equivalent to our $1 bill although the exchange rate comes out very differently. Anyway, a bottle of soda here costs ¥3 which means three of the 1 Yuan bills (see above). They also have bills of ¥5, ¥10, ¥20, ¥50, and ¥100. ¥100 is the highest possible bill you can use. Finally, they have Jiao or fractions of a Yuan (10 Jiao, 5 Jiao, and 1 Jiao). 10 Jiao has the same value as ¥1, so we just call it 1 Yuan. 5 Jiao are 1/2 of a Yuan (i.e. 50 cents). 1 Jiao is 1/10 of a Yuan (i.e. 10 cents). The Jiao either come in paper or coins. So we have Cash (Yuan ¥) and Fractions of a Yuan (Jiao) used in the daily, current Chinese currency or RMB.
In some countries, it is probably more simple than others to send money. Perhaps because China is a UnionPay Nation, it can be rather difficult here. Union Pay is an alternative to VISA, Mastercard, ect. and is used in predominantly all Chinese banks. Of course, the banks in China are a little different too. For example, the bank card I was given does not include a security number or expiration date.And my phone number is 1***-****-****. Note the extra digit in the middle. So I have an incredibly difficult time using it online with American systems that require those details. More and more US businesses are modifying their system to accept Union Pay cards, but the additional information required for many credit card entry systems does not always work.
So how do we get our money from China into America? Currently, I have heard of four different primary methods or systems of transferring cash. One important factor is how much you need to exchange. Chinese nationals can exchange quite a bit more RMB to USD than foreign expats. Foreigners can only change $3000 a day.
To do any of this you should have a passport, valid Chinese VISA, a Chinese phone number, and your home address written in Chinese characters.
You also most likely need a Chinese bank account. There are many, many Chinese banks but only some of them work in the International Money Transferring business. For Paypal, only China Merchant’s Bank, ICBC, and China Construction Bank. For Bank-to-Bank transfers or Western Union transfers there are a larger group of banks, but still only the primary ones (i.e. Bank of China, China Construction Bank –I think you can only accept money, not send it though-, Agricultural Bank of China, etc.) I recommend picking your method and then figuring out which type of bank account you need.
To open a Chinese bank account, you need to go during the work week (Monday-Friday) in order to get the right officials at the bank. The bank may be open on weekends, but the officials may not be there. I took a Chinese student and close friend with me. She had us bring our passports, VISAs, and recommended bringing a second photo ID like a driver’s license. We then went to the bank, filled out a lot of information on a form, and processed the account. Had to sign my name a couple times and then got my card.
I highly recommend that when you do this process you do a couple things to simply the process later. First, bring your Chinese phone number and add it to the forms so it is attached to your bank account. You will need this if you ever want to add Alipay, use Taobao, check your account online, etc. That phone number is one of the ways they verify that you own the account – they usually send a verification code by phone. Paypal verification process also sometimes requires that you accept the verification code by phone to enter it into the registration process. Second, ask them to approve you for online banking and tell them you will use the card for online shopping. The Chinese translator can hep, but they have to actually approve you for using your card online or using it to pay for something. So go ahead and get that paperwork filed this first time.
Many people simply use the Chinese bank itself to transfer money over to a US Bank. Personally, I found it expensive and a bit of a hassle (especially since I work so much and getting to a bank with a Chinese student who can translate gets to be a problem).
To do this, you need to bring them your Passport (and Visa) and the foreign bank’s name, mailing address, routing number, swift code, account number, etc. You then probably need to bring a Chinese student with you to translate depending on where in China you are (Shanghai, they might speak English, but I’m in Henan where that ain’t happening). It usually costs you a few hundred RMB on top of the exchange rate. Sometimes you have to exchange the money first and then transfer it. Sometimes they will do that for you. It depends.
This is the method I find simplest and most effective. It requires a series of steps, but once set up is extremely easy and cheap (4% fee). You can send up to $1000 a day and Paypal will do the currency exchange for you! To do this though, you will need two Paypal Accounts and two email addresses. 🙂
First, set up your US and China Bank Accounts. Make sure (as I said before) that the Chinese bank has approved you for online banking. China Merchant’s Bank, ICBC, and China Construction Bank are the only China Banks that this will work for! In a safe location, keep track of your account numbers and the full and exact name that is on your Bank Account. This is very important especially for the Chinese bank because the name must be exactly the same or they will reject it.
Second, set up a Paypal Global Account and use one email address. I recommend doing this with Google Chrome and then just right click on the page, hit “translate to English” and the Chinese will go away 🙂 Sign into the account and on the left click “Bank Accounts and Cards.” Now click “Link a Bank.” For country, choose “China-Bank Verification.” Name should be your first and last name as you used for Paypal. Choose your Bank (the list in order is ICBC, China Merchant’s Bank, and CCB). Continue. They will ask you to verify that this is your bank account. To do so download the pin number software as instructed and refresh the page. Input your Phone Number (per the Bank records) on top. Then enter your ATM withdrawal pin number. Then the “verification code.” If done correctly, Paypal will tell you the account has been verified.
Third, set up a US Paypal Account using another email address. Go through the same process of linking and verifying your bank account but add the US Bank this time. Paypal will tell you the account has been verified.
Many choose to send money home via the Western Union Wire Transfer process. Western Union (西部联盟 – Xībù Liánméng) is an American Financial Company that will allow you to transfer money either from the USA to China or China to USA. You can do this via Money Transfer -You have to physically visit their offices, but they have many agents in the bigger cities. You can locate an agent here. Conveniently, they give you a tracking number for your receipt. Inconveniently, they only accept US Dollars and their exchange rates (I’ve heard) are fairly high if you do it there.
Their fees are
Last, of course many people simply carry their money home. If you don’t need to send money home monthly, it is an option to simply carry it home with you. There are two ways you can do this.
First, you take out cash in China and take it with you via plane back to the USA. I think this is dangerous because you are carrying too much money. Also, remember that RMB has its highest possible denomination in 100RMB (about $16). So if you take your money home in RMB, that’s a LOT of cash. If you take it in Dollars, it is dangerous.
Second, you can use your China bank card in the States. For example China Construction Bank has an agreement with Bank of America where you can withdraw money fairly cheaply and easily at their ATMs. You pay a small fee for using your card outside of China, but otherwise this is not too bad. Just remember to verify with your bank in China, because not all bank cards will work.
I don’t post a lot of pictures of myself, because I’ve never felt comfortable being in front of a camera. In fact, I’ve avoided pictures like the plague for about 15 years. However, this past tomb-sweeping holiday I went to Shanghai, partly for the trip and partly to celebrate the fact that I have lost 70 lbs since coming to China in 2014! I still have a long ways to go, but I’m so much healthier than I was before.
Probably 1/3 of my weight issue was the fault of a childhood accident, 1/3 due to stress and lack of sleep, and 1/3 was my own stupidity and love of cooking/sweets (especially when stressed).
I was actually really energetic and active as a child. However, when I was 11, I accidentally crushed one of my feet in an exercise bike. It severely shattered most of the bones in the front part of my foot (where you put pressure if you wear high heels), and my doctor didn’t believe me when I told her it was broken. Claiming it was a bruise, she had me try methods that actually worsened everything. It ended up being permanently damaged and to this day I cannot wear heels and my foot swells a lot if I’m not careful. I’m not supposed to run really at all even now and for years walking long distances would cause me a lot of pain in that foot. Trying to protect my foot, I threw out my whole body structure and let’s just say it got bad.
It kept me from exercising for many years and I starting packing weight on ridiculously. Matters were worsened by the fact that I genuinely love baking as a stress-reliever and often cooked with the kids around me for entertainment. My specialty (if you noticed on my site) was treats and that is not conductive to an exercise-less life. Still, I had lost about 60 pounds when I left high school. Then I hit college, and while I was finally starting to get back to exercising through rehab for my foot, the stress began to hit. Since college started, I’ve averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep a night and tried handling 21 hour semesters. Now, I genuinely had no time for exercise even if my foot could handle it. And I was eating at the school cafeteria every day (and ours was a good cafeteria tragically). At first I lost a little more, but then I started pounding it back on again. Entering law school then made my life a misery of epic proportions, saved only by my visits abroad.
I discovered that I actually was a lot healthier whenever I went abroad. The first summer in Japan and Korea, I walked and walked and walked and walked and climbed stairs and walked some more, climbed mountains, hiked tourism streets, climbed temple stairs, and walked a little more again. I found that eating with chopsticks just naturally causes me to eat less, if only because my hand gets so dad-blamed tired before I finish anything. 😛 And the food around me was healthier. I don’t particularly care for Asian treats and there are so many vegetables and fruits and fresh foods added to it all that I just naturally ate better. It also seemed to do wonders for my breathing and other health issues that I experienced in the States. I’m just genuinely more healthy almost the moment I enter Asia. I lost 30 pounds the first semester (gained back in the following year of law school) and then 40 pounds the second semester (gained back in the following year of law school).
It would have taken an idiot not to realize the pattern here, and so I decided to take the leap and just move abroad. My house here has no kitchen so I never make treats anymore. Perhaps a loss of entertainment, but better for me in the long run. I walk everywhere and have been doing my foot rehab exercises regularly (at least I try). I eat lots of fruits and vegetables (Hot Pot in China is the BEST!) and I try to avoid snacks too much. It’s been a long road, but the Chinese have been amazingly supportive.
You know it’s funny, but we all know that most Chinese are fairly thin. Not all of them (apparently that is more of a Southern trait than a Northern one), but still. The highest size (1x) in a Chinese shop is on average a medium in the US. When I first came, I couldn’t wear anything Chinese. And I really, genuinely thought that it would be hard for me emotionally to try to live here. I thought they would make comments or treat me weirdly, but really they have been incredibly supportive.
My students and the locals in the area genuinely worried about me when I first came, but they were never ever rude about it nor do they try to ply me with sweets as a “show of friendship.” I’ve had students randomly come up and say “teacher, we need to go for a walk today.” “Teacher I think you need to eat more vegetables so here are some tomatoes.” “Teacher, you drink too much soda, it’s bad for your healthy. Drink this water I got you” “Teacher, you are too round. You are so beautiful and you will be even more beautiful if you are less round.” It probably sounds mean to you, but for me it is incredibly wonderful. They never say it out of meanness–they genuinely care and want to help. The little old guy at the convenience store started giving me free water because he wants me to stop buying soda. They add fruits and vegetables to my plate. They never ever try to take me places with lots of sweets or get dessert. They frequently call me up and ask to walk with me in the afternoon because it is “a beautiful day.” They encourage me to go to the track with them and to do activities. Instead of repeating how I need to lose weight if I want to find a man, their response is more along the lines of “you will find a much richer man if you lose weight.” The suggestion being that I am okay now, but will be better later. They worry about my stress instead of adding to it. They tell me to sleep more, ply me with soothing teas, encourage me to drink hot water, etc.
Their approach to my weight has been a weird mixture of brutal honesty “You have gained too much weight this week, I think no dinner for you maybe? Yes?” and unfailing kindness “Here is a new tea that will help you lose weight. Now drink it every day and I will give you some more. It will make you more amazing!” And it’s been great for me. I walk with them, my stress levels have dropped so much (My blood pressure was in the normal range this week!), they take me out to eat healthy meals, I’m happier and just all around more healthy.
And finally, the results are showing! I’ve officially lost about 70 pounds since I got here, and I am so much more fit than before. I can keep up with the tours and hikes, fit through all the stupid skinny gates, wear actual Chinese sizes (the bigger ones, but such an improvement), I’ve lost one shoe size at least, I’ve lost at least 3 US clothes sizes. I am actually dressing up and feeling attractive for the first time since I was in High School. I’m putting on make-up, posing for pictures in front of cameras, agreeing to photo shoots and interviews for local activities. I went this week for my annual physical and it was like night and day! I don’t take up extra room on a bus anymore. I was not only able to easily sit in the airplane seat, I had to pull the seatbelt tighter. You don’t know how close I was to crying on that plane to Shanghai.
I even flirted with a guy in Shanghai. Yes, me, flirting. Who would have thought! And he flirted back! 🙂 SO awesome! My confidence levels are so, so, so much better now!
My trip to Shanghai was to celebrate this, to enjoy the changes and to try something new as a new woman. And to honor that, I’m sharing with you the first real picture I’ve posted publicly in years other than my required professional one! Thanks for my readers. You all didn’t know it, but you are part of what encourages me to be better. I want to be healthier so I can take more trips, share more pictures, and find more beautiful things to share with you. You steady readership has been a great benefit. Thank you!
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 