The Queen is NOT amused. In fact, I’m pretty down-right Pi**ed (pardon the language). After all the trouble I’ve had, I thought it pretty necessary to update all future China-Travelers to the dangers of buying/using Apple products here.
I don’t remember if I told you all this, but Lawrence the Laptop has had another revolt. He attempted going on strike via a broken LCD screen; I cut him off at the start via a nice HDMI connection to my television. Unfortunately, he laughed in my face and promptly refused to work without the HDMI connection. No need to get into it, it was a whole thing.
So last November, I bought an Ipad 2 during China’s version of Black Friday. I’ve had an I-Pod for several years, which lasted pretty well and I figured I’d give their tablet a try. YES, I checked and it is a legit Apple I-Pad; had it tested by the real Apple Company in Zhengzhou (it’s on the apple website as a legit seller).
WRONG! BAD! Stupid Olivia!
Price: 1800 RMB (approx. $300)
Review: The price was a little expensive for my tastes (almost all of Apple is), but I figured it was worth the bargain. Apple products in China tend to run a bit pricier than products in America. Go figure given that they are literally produced about 10 miles away in the city I live in. They have their own personal runway at the international airport they ship so many Apple products out of here. Yet we still get charge at least 50% again as much as American buyers. So, I had to wait until 11/11, China’s Black Friday shopping day to pick one up from Hong Kong.
Initial Purchase: Semi-Good; Semi-Problematic
Review: The first shipment I got was not too terrible. It came with the charger, a cover, a screen protector, and ear plugs, pretty sweet all together. The I-Pad itself was unmarked and undamaged, it seemed like everything would be okay.
It worked for about 2 hours, and then problems started. The swiping part of the screen wasn’t working. It would stall up, like the screen was locked. You could go up about half an inch and down about half an inch, but otherwise nothing was happening. Buttons wouldn’t click, etc. So we tried turning it on and off again (the answer to most issues), which revealed that the lock screen was not working either. Once again, I couldn’t swipe from the screen saver to the unlock screen. When I did finally get to the lock buttons, it froze and wouldn’t click them. Tried a hard reset and several other options, nothing worked.
So we called the seller and sent it back. They kept it for about two weeks and finally sent me a new version. This one seemed fine, so life moved on.
Use: Final Product
The final I-Pad I got worked fine soft-ware wise. Sometimes it would randomly shut down songs or the internet would stop working, and none of the VPNs like it at all. Otherwise, it was great and I was happy.
Hard-ware wise, the screen cracks like crazy. Literally, press to hard on the screen when punching a button and the whole screen cracked. I put on a super duper safety case on it intended for toddlers, took it off and the whole edges were broken. I asked the computer fix-it people and they said it sounds like I was sent a re-furbished model that had a cheap screen put on it. The screen supposedly should not have cracked like that, but they verified the computer was really apple so they think the screen was just replaced with a cheapo version.
I was not happy, especially knowing it takes 300 RMB to fix the screen. Furthermore, they admitted that if the top screen breaks the second lower screen there may be no fixing it at all?!? 0_0 Don’t you think that’s something they should have told me about before I bought the I-Pad? I did a ton of research into I-Pads, I asked questions, and this never came up.
ERROR: Blue Screen of Death
Anyways, along I go using my ipad for about 5 months, when suddenly the screen goes blue and the whole thing just shuts off. Black. Off, no charging, no connecting to the computer, no nothing. Reset doesn’t work. Plugging it in to the computer doesn’t work. It is dead as a doornail for no apparent good reason. No warning, that would be too nice. Just stops in the middle of a show. Takes with it my calendar, contacts, messages, photos, videos, notes, everything. So off I go to the computer store to have it fixed.
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I have yet to see a day where Balloons on a Blue Sky don’t make me a little bit more cheerful!
judged the Student run Sias Oral English competition last night. Students were judged on Presentation, talent ( piano, guitar, theatre!), and answering questions. They did great!
Follow up on part one of my Luoyang visit! You can see my post about the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, another beautiful site to see in the area 🙂
Did you know that for a long time the Peony was actually China’s official national flower? And it started right here in Luoyang, where the Peony was the flower of kings and noblemen. Now, there are many types of Peonies grown in the gardens of Luoyang, and those gardens are opened up to visitors during the annual Peony Festival!
Every year from the middle of April until the middle of May, the Peonies bloom and visitors from around the world come to check them out. The festival itself is during the peak time, usually April 15-25, when the flowers are at their most stunning.
There are many, many Peony gardens you can see, for example the Luoyang National Peony Garden (it was too busy so our tour bus couldn’t reach it; we checked out another garden) is said to be the very best. But there are many others you can see, like the one we visited. It was much smaller, but still breathtaking! You can check out China Highlight’s post for a list of options and prices!
You can reach Luoyang via Train (approximately 4 hours from Beijing and 8 hours from Shanghai) or by Flight, and the price to the gardens isn’t too bad. There are lots of hotels and restaurants to check out, and many other sightseeing activities for your family 🙂
Took a little trip to the Luòyáng , China this past weekend as part of a culture trip hosted by the University!
Pronounced something like “loi yahng,” this beautiful home to the National Peony Festival (I’ll add an update on the Peony Garden later) is one of the “cradles of Chinese Civiliazation” and one of the ancient capital cities of China (Henan has 2 of them! – Luoyang and Xinzheng). The city itself is amazingly clean and open, the streets are unlittered and it’s pretty modern.
The best part of my visit by far though was the Longmen Grottoes and the Peony Garden. This week was part of the 2 week festival they have each year for the Peony festival, so people were everywhere despite the rain.
The Longmen Grottoes themselves are absolutely mind-blowing ~ an amazing feat of human design and capability. To imagine that such intricate design, specific carvings, and gentle touch art were feasible so many centuries ago is one of those things that always stops me in my tracks. I know a lot of people aren’t as interested as I in history and stone statues (several of the teachers I was with were fairly denigrating about spending so much time in a “Stone Garden). But to me, standing on the same ground, touching the rocks they touched, seeing the art they created, glimpsing pieces of hearts long past. It’s simply miraculous.
The Grottoes are home to thousands and thousands of carvings on the stone faces of the mountain cliffs. Most are of Buddha or his followers, some are pagodas, buildings, and other designs. The varying stone colors used to frame and decorate the statues, each one different from the rest. Carved over a period of centuries (5th – 15th Century AD), each set was designed by a different artist, many from completely different times. You can trace the changes, both in religion and philosophy (skinny to fat Buddhas for example) and in art styles.
One of the other reasons the grottoes is so stunning is the River Yi (pron. ee) that runs alongside the valley in front of the rocks. The river is clean and beautiful, sweeping along a lovely walkway as antique-style dragon boats float up and down. Stone bridges line the view, criss-crossing over to the other side that offers views of antique buildings lining the mountain paths.
Life has been a little bit crazy recently; although I kind of feel like I am always saying that. The university has put on a program where ever teacher goes through strict evaluation. The first round had students evaluating their teachers. The second round, each teacher visit five other teachers twice and evaluates them both times. So we are all judged 10 times. Plus, our bosses are evaluating us twice each.
Plus, the mid-term exam for my students was re-scheduled a week earlier, right after two weeks of holidays – meaning, I suddenly went from 2 more weeks of classes to my last class overnight.
It’s all been a wee bit insane 🙂
However, one awesome thing happened this week! I was chosen as one of 76 professors to give a sample lecture in front of the Provincial experts as part of the school’s evaluation. The 76 professors were judged accordingly, and the top teachers receive a bonus. And I was chosen as one of the top 5 in my group!
My first year, and I’ve already gotten an award!
It was really exciting! 🙂
“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 