Author: Expat Richie

Typically in most places where I’ve lived or traveled there is an inherent lack of trust in strangers. For example, you’d normally lock the doors to your home and you’d normally not leave your cellphone on a table at a coffee shop when getting another cup of joe. If you did, you’d be shopping for a new cellphone and probably having to replace some valuable household goods.

This week there were a few early morning meetings I needed to be in the office for as taking those meetings from home just wasn’t possible. I avoid leaving for the office before 9am as traffic is heavier causing the bus to be slower and typically the busses (and subway) are terribly crowded.

In Suzhou when you ride the bus you are only supposed to enter through the front door and exit through the back, mainly to more efficiently allow for the flow of entering and exiting passengers. Also, you pay for your bus ride with a device near the driver or drop a 1元 coin in the slot. (Some months the bus ride is 2元, usually during the winter and summer months.) There are times when the bus is so tightly packed with people that rule gets ignored and it turns into a free-for-all scramble.

What is amazing is the level of trust that occurs during these free-for-all moments. People who enter through the back doors are trusted by the driver to pay for their ride. The passengers trust their fellow bus riders by passing their transit cards, coins, and even cellphones up to the front to be scanned and pay for their rides. The passengers trust the bus driver to safely navigate the often crowded roads and not to make sudden stops or get into accidents. Oh yeah, the bus riders who passed up their transit cards and cellphones also trust in this ad-hoc system to re-obtain their cards and phones.

It’s pretty amazing to be honest. Could you imagine something like this happening in New York, LA, Philly or Miami? … possibly in Seattle or Portland, but yeah, crazy!

What a boring topic, right? How could someone actually write a blog post about bread? What possibly could be interesting about buying bread in China? Isn’t that on aisle 7 in the local megalomart next to the crackers, jellies, and jams? Or maybe in the, oh I don’t know, the bakery section of the store? Well … sort of. Let me explain.

Most of my life I’ve had some form of processed carbohydrate for breakfast, be it cereal (sugary or not), bagel with plain smear (mmmm), or even a slice or two of toast covered with some form of nut butter (peanut, almond, Nutella — hey, it starts with the letters “nut” so it must contain nuts, right?). Living in China my breakfast routine hasn’t changed much, except instead of just that processed carb with spread (never vegemite, btw, that stuff is nasty contrary to what all those crazy Aussies will tell you) I try and add some freshly sliced or whole fruit to go along with it.

Near where I live in the Xinghai Square neighborhood of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) there are many choices for breads and pastries. If I walk around the four corners of my block, I can pass The French Baguette, 85C, some cake store that I cannot read the name of, Sweet Daddy Toast, and a bread shop at the entrance to the subway station which also has a name I cannot read. That’s at least four bread/pastry shops just on this one block! If you go *into* the shopping malls (there are four malls that touch this block, crazy?!) that number at least doubles. Oh, and then if you add the grocery store type places along the same perimeter that number increases by another four.

OK, so I cannot tell you what the deal is with so many bread and pastry shops, but do know that my neighborhood isn’t alone. Times Square, Suzhou Center/Dongfangzhemen, and Ligongdi all are pretty similar. What I do find really interesting about these shops is that most of them make their bread and pastries at that location! They don’t have a centralized warehouse or factory where the items are made in advance and then placed on shelves for folks to purchase. Walking into one of these shops usually welcomes the person with that lovely smell of freshly baked bread.

My favorite bread shops so far are Holliland (in Times Square along Wangdun Road near Si’an St/旺墩路 & 思安街; there’s another Holliland shop near the W Hotel entrance at Suzhou Center along Suhui Road/苏惠路) and The French Baguette (found almost everywhere there’s a shopping area including Central Station (north side) in Xinghai Square, Times Square along the shopping promenade, and I believe inside the new Suzhou Center shopping mall). Holliland makes some amazing cakes apart from their breads. In fact, they put on display some of their wedding cakes and they just look amazing! The French Baguette is not only great for all sorts of breads and pastries, but they also have some decent non-carb type foods. I like to get some of their salads and sandwiches on the weekends for lunch.

Bread Castle, in Ligongdi along Shuifang Rd/水房路 near where Euromart is (was?! Closed for “renovations”) where I most recently went. No real big differences from any of the other bread shops but I will say this; it is the first time I found walnut bread (mmmm!) and was offered to have the bread sliced thinly for me and put back into the packaging. I was thinking the girl behind the counter was going to hand slice it. Nope! Got my first glimpse at a working, industrial-sized bread slicer — pictured below, of course.

At most of the bread shops you will find the bread either sliced or whole. I usually like going for the pre-sliced bread because otherwise that old adage of “the best thing since sliced bread” would never hold true again!

Happy Chinese New Year! This time of year is special in China, almost akin to Christmas in the western world in regards to spending time with family. The celebration is 15 days long starting with the second new moon after the winter solstice and lasting until the next full moon. If my math is correct, this year the dates are February 15th through March 2nd.

I likened Spring Festival — as Chinese New Year is also known as — to Christmas in the western world as many workers take extra time off, factories and shops close for extended periods of time, and many people travel. In fact, it has been said that the largest annual human migration happens during this period of time. Yep, can’t wait to try out that fancy E-Channel at the Shanghai Pudong (PVG/ZSPD) later this week to jump quickly through the immigration queue!

Now, normally at 6pm on a Tuesday my office is still quite busy with developers furiously typing away at their computers writing more code while others are discussing how to best solve a problem. Today I find myself being the sole person around. Seeing as this is the second to last official work day of the week it’s understandable but at the same time is rather eerie. Don’t get me wrong, it might feel eerie but the quiet is nice!

To me what is strange about Chinese New Year are the days that we officially have off from work: Thursday through the following Wednesday. Some of these days are official government mandated days off while others are added on by my company. To make it so we have seven consecutive days off, we had to come to the office on Sunday of this week after having only Saturday off and, unless vacation time was requested, we are expected to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the following week. This is very strange for someone who is used to always having weekends off — unless it’s crunch-time for a major project deadline!

Anyway, just wanted to share a few random thoughts about Spring Festival. I’ll be working through Friday this week before spending a few days in San Francisco visiting with friends I’ve not seen since moving. Can’t wait!

恭喜发财！

This evening I was meeting a few friends for dinner in the Moon Harbor area of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park). As I was up quite early for work due to morning conference calls, I did leave work a bit early which got me to the dinner location way too early. No worries though, it was a pleasant evening so I walked around a bit and snapped some pictures.

Moon Harbor has a number of restaurants ranging from Chinese to Indian to even Turkish. There are a few coffee shops in this area as well. It’s a weird area as there’s no real “neighborhood feel” to it. Rather, the area seems to be built for attracting the tourist crowd.

Moon Harbor is right next to the Suzhou Culture and Expo Center and can be accessed via Line 1 on the subway pretty easily. If you find yourself in this area after 8pm and are a bit thirsty, look for the iStation mall (attached to the subway station) and find a bar called Locke Pub. It’s quite a friendly place with good prices and fun music. During the week you might even stumble upon one of their events that range from open mic night to “Winesday” (wine tasting Wednesdays) to painting night. Just leave the goat at home or it might get sheared unexpectedly!

The video (if it loads; I’m having trouble with it on this blog) is a short 10 seconds long looking at Dongfangzhimen from Moon Harbor and shows some of the evening lights show from the buildings that make up Suzhou Center. The light shows on buildings in China are pretty amazing. One of these days I’ll take enough video of them to do a full post.

One thing is clear here in China, I hope to never be on crutches or in a wheelchair. Between uneven sidewalks, extremely high curbs (8-12″), and needing to dodge cars speeding around corners when they have red lights and you have the right of way … It would be a miracle if you’d survive!

I’ve come to realize that escalators, elevators, and people movers aren’t designed to help those in need or to speed up one’s ability to move from point A to point B. Local Chinese tend to stand on contraptions and are shocked if you try and walk past them. The idea of expending energy to move one’s self when a mechanical device could do it for you seems to be the norm.

And then there’s the busses. No kneeling ability to make it easier to step up onto one. No ability to extend a ramp for helping someone in a wheelchair get on. And if someone in a wheelchair did get onto the bus, most of the time there’s not even a spot for that person to sit or secure their wheelchair!

My most favorite example of the lack in help for those who cannot navigate stairs came from Shanghai the other weekend. Pictures below is an escalator found near a very busy intersection. There’s a raised walkway above the intersection where one could safely circle around to any corner at a speed reasonable for their conditions. But not if that person is bound to a wheelchair. Why? There are stairs leading up to the escalator!

Yup, that makes sense and completely renders a situation moot. Ah, China. I guess that’s why it’s called the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) and not the CDA!

One of my first days in China I wrote about going to Starbucks and buying tins of their tea to have in my temporary apartment in the morning. It’s been a while since such a purchase but not since my last visit to Starbucks. Time for a hot cup of joe and some Chinese lessons to boot!

I’m not a big fan of fancy lattes, macchiatos, or cappuccinos. Instead, regular (black) drip coffee with a bit of half-n-half is more my style. I’ve tried ordering a cup of coffee like that a few times here but the baristas always think I want a latte. Sigh. Wanting less milky goodness, ordering an americano turns out to be an easy substitute.

Like in the rest of the world you can order americano of various sizes: short, tall, grande, and venti. Those sizes, however, are not as easy to figure out in China as some baristas know what the words are but most do not. Time to learn some Chinese!

The word for americano is easy: 美式咖啡 / měishì kāfē. (Loosely translates to American coffee.) Next up in ordering would be the size, and this is what I learned today:

• Short: 小杯 /xiǎo bēi/ (small cup)
• Tall: 中杯 /zhōng bēi/(medium cup)
• Grande: 大杯 /dà bēi/ (large cup)
• Venti: 超大杯 /chāo dà bēi/ (extra large cup)

Knowing how to order an americano and what size, you might be asked if you want it hot or cold. Typically you’ll be asked the former as 热的/rède? And you can respond with the same words or just 好/hǎo, meaning OK.

Since milk isn’t on the dressing bar with the sugar, you’ll need to ask the barista for some: 一点儿牛奶/Yīdiǎn er niúnǎi.

Put it all together and you’ll have a hot, americano of your size with some milk in it! In my case, that would be 美式咖啡热的一点儿牛奶，谢谢您!

TL;dr: If you get a phone call from 201-515-3126 saying it’s the IRS and they’re contacting you regarding a lawsuit, it’s a scam. Do not call the number back, do not engage.

When the New Year rolls around, US citizens begin to figure out their taxes for the prior year. Some people with simple returns are able to file their returns in early February while others with more complex ones — or if they’re just lazy — wait until the last minute. Living overseas like I do you’re granted a two-month extension automatically, whoo hoo! Oh yeah, this is also the time of year scammers will do their best to hijack your tax return or trick you into turning over some of your hard-earned dough!

True story: This morning (4:12am my time, 12:12pm PT) I received a phone call on my USA number, waking me up. Without thinking the only thing I could do at that ungodly hour was to dismiss the call without answering it, especially since the caller’s number was not one I recognized.

Upon rising for the day, I checked my phone and saw that number again and thought it seemed a bit odd. The caller left a voicemail message, so I listed to it:

I rs. Is filing a legal warrant under your name and your tax id for the tax fraud and the investigative team of our department is investigating you and your family. We had tried to notify you regarding these issues in Previous 6 months, but we had never got a response from you, so it has been considered as an intentional fraud and lawsuit has been filed under your name by the United States government you may call our department number on 201-515-3126. I repeat. It’s 201-515-3126. Thank you.

Yes, that was the entire message. (And no, I did not type all that is. Google Hangouts, which I use for text messaging and voicemail for my USA number, will transcribe voicemail messages and you can access them via Gmail or the Hangouts website. All I had to do is load up Gmail and copy the transcribed text.) What was really strange about the voicemail message, besides receiving it, is the phone number the message tells me to call.

Area code 201 is from northern New Jersey. Don’t know about you, but I thought the IRS is based in/around the Northern VA/Washington DC area. Compounding my skepticism at this point, the phone call I received this morning was listed on my phone as 925-663-2512 and there was another entry in my call history from the day before from 925-266-5886. Both of those numbers are from Contra Costa County, which is near Oakland and San Francisco, CA. How do I know where those area codes come from? Easy: LMGTFY (Let me google that for you…) 201, 925.

I entered the phone number listed in the voicemail, 201-515-3126 … it’s a scam

Fully well thinking now this is a scam and that the IRS is not trying to contact me regarding a lawsuit, I entered the phone number listed in the voicemail, 201-515-3126, into Google and looked at the search results. It was more than obvious from the search results that the associated phone number indicates that it’s a scam.

Go ahead and do a Google search on your phone number and compare it to the search results for 201-515-3126; guaranteed you’re going to see vastly different results … and if you don’t, go change your phone number now as your number might be listed as a scammer!

So yes, even living overseas it is possible for fraudsters to attempt to contact you and steal your money or hijack your tax return. Be careful out there. Here’s a short list of ways you can help determine if something is a scam or not:

• Google it and see how often others report on the same issue
• If you’re told to call a phone number, don’t. Call a number you know of for that company or government office and ask them if the number you’re told to call is one of theirs. (This often happens with credit card companies.)
• Do not click on links in emails if you cannot verify the email came from a trusted source. One easy way to do this is to hover your mouse over the link and see if the link will direct you to the company’s actual website or if it looks like a fishy one.
• Never give out your personal information over the phone, via email, or through a website.

If you’ve had scammers contact you in similar fashion, hopefully you did not fall prey to such miscreants and let me know about it by leaving a comment!

Editor’s note: This post is likely only of interest to people living in China who want to watch YouTube, Netflix, or other online content on their TVs. It may also be of interest to people who want to protect their internet usage from prying eyes in the now post-world realities of repealed net neutrality. 

Living in China is pretty amazing as there are many of new places to visit, literally billions of people to meet, and lots of culture to experience. There are times, however, that you might just want to binge watch some Netflix or YouTube because, oh I don’t know, the air quality outside resembles the inside of a chimney. While YouTube and anything Google is technically blocked by The Great Firewall and Netflix just won’t let you stream content while in China, there are ways around this situation and get this awesome programming on your TV via Chromecasting! (That’s a verb, right?)

First up, let’s discuss equipment, services, and things you will need:

• VPN access (I use ExpressVPN; use this link to sign-up so we both get 30 days free if you’re in need of a good VPN in China)
• A wifi router with the ExpressVPN app installed on it
  • While it is possible to set up a virtual VPN on your laptop, it’s not something I’ve attempted
• Chromecast (or other streaming media device like Roku or AppleTV)

Personally I bought a Linksys 3200ACM from FlashRouters.com while in the USA and had it preconfigured for ExpressVPN as I’m not the most savvy computer networking guy out there. FlashRouters.com can preconfigure other wifi routers for you with different VPN providers if you so desire. The Linksys 3200ACM wifi router I bought was quite pricey and is likely overkill for my small 2br apartment, but hey, if you’re going to do something do it right!

The wifi router came with instructions on how to set it up on my home network and it was pretty simple to do that. After testing the VPN connection was working (if you’re in China, just go to www.google.com and see if it loads), it was time to hook up my Chromecast.

The Chromecast gets plugged directly into an HDMI port on the TV and set up is pretty simple. Just be sure to have the Google Home app installed on your phone or tablet and follow the prompts for setting it up. At the end of setup you might be shown a screen indicating that while the Chromecast was set up it cannot be reached on the network. Don’t worry if you see this, just ignore it for now.

Next up, it’s time to try things out! Load up the YouTube app on your phone or laptop and find a really cute cat video — hey, that’s all YouTube is for, right? Look for the casting option in the app and choose your Chromecast. Yes, it’s that simple!

OK, so things might not be that simple as your VPN connection might be too slow at times for streaming content seamlessly or your Chromecast might not be discoverable on your network. Below are some troubleshooting tips that I follow when things go awry. If you find another tip you want to share, leave a comment!

1. Reboot your Chromecast by unplugging it for a few seconds then plugging it back in
2. Reboot your phone or tablet
3. Reboot your wifi router (this one tends to allow the Chromecast to become discoverable on your network most often)
4. Change your VPN server by logging into the admin page and selecting a different option on the VPN | VPN Connection tab.
   1. Los Angeles 3 is needed for Netflix; Taiwan 1 sometimes works as well
   2. Any location can be used for YouTube — choose the closest location to where you are to help minimize ping latency

One other troubleshooting tip you might want to try if you really want to watch Netflix but are having issues connecting your wifi router to the Los Angeles 3 server: Set your VPN server to the one closest to your physical location and then on your laptop, tablet, or phone use the ExpressVPN app to connect to the LA 3 server. For some reason this usually works for me and while you won’t be able to watch Netflix on your TV/Chromecast through this route, you will be able to binge watch Stranger Things no problem! (OK, maybe some buffering issues but that’s outside of my control…)

Do you have any other troubleshooting tips or advice on how to stream blocked content? Drop a comment in the box below!

Note: As of May 1, 2018, people signing up for E-Channel may be required to entry China three times as they’ve switched to a new system. How strictly this is enforced and if you can sign-up for E-Channel on your third entry or if it’s after you third entry is TBD. So far I have two entries into China after May 1 and will update after my third. (Since I now have a new resident permit I need to sign-up for the service again. This will happen annually, which is something I don’t like but will have to deal with.)

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Those who know me best would describe me as a travel pro who’d prefer to be relaxing in an airport lounge instead of waiting in a line. Who wouldn’t?! I’ve got the USA all figured out in terms of TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and airport lounges but China … that’s a whole other beast.

Anyone upon entering and prior to leaving China at an airport will need to go through immigration control. (I’ve not taken a domestic flight yet so I do not know if you go through the same process before flying; my guess is yes.) The lines at immigration control at Shanghai Pudong Airport are typically 30 minutes or longer. During my last two trips I waited over an hour on each end, which is definitely not ideal! Ugggh.

Doing some online research, I found something called “E-Channel” is available to certain foreigners living in China if they have a longer term visa or resident permit, have a passport with an RFID chip in it, still have both of his/her thumbs, can sign a piece of paper, and are not afraid of having their photo taken. With all those boxes checked, it was time to give this a spin and see if I could sign-up for E-Channel! Oh yeah, you can only sign-up upon arrival to China, which just so happened to be earlier this week for me!

After landing I followed the sheep other passengers to the immigration control corral at Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG) airport and walked through the first checkpoint. (If anyone can tell me what that first checkpoint is for, since you just walk through something that looks like a metal detector that never goes off and no one is ever stopped, please leave a comment!) Next up it was time to look for the E-Channel sign to point me in the right direction. At the time I went through, the E-Channel application area was all the way to the right of the “immigration control hall”, or whatever you want to call the large room where all visitors need to queue up and be processed by immigration officers.

When I got to the E-Channel area there was a small table attached to a rather large support pole that had an application form that I filled out. There were some blank lines I did not know how to fill-in, so I left them blank and got in line to hand the document over to the immigration officer. When it was my turn, with a nice smile and a friendly 你好 (“Hello!”) I handed the officer my passport and the application. She reviewed the documentation, scanned my passport, looked at me a few times, and pointed to the fingerprint reader and said “Thumb”. I placed my thumb on the scanner. She said “Again”, so I lifted my thumb up and put it back on the scanner. Then she prompted me to do the same with my other thumb, ostensibly incase the next time you go through the immigration process you’re without one of your digits. (WTF?!) After having me back up a step for a picture, she handed my passport back to me and waved me away. I guess my application was approved? Only one way to find out!

As I walked to where the E-Channel queue / automated gates are located I noticed the length of the immigration queue and it had to be at least 60 minutes long. Ouch! At this point I was really hoping the system approved me and I’d have no trouble with the automated gates.

In the automated gates area there are about 20 different ones to choose from. I walked up to an empty one and noticed there was a scanner that looked like it wanted my passport. I opened it up to the picture/info page and placed it face down. Apparently that was the right thing to do — not that there was any English instructions telling me what to do — as the first gate opened. The next gate looked like it wanted my thumb print, so I applied my right thumb and backed up a little bit so my face could seen on the screen that was facing me. Voila! The second gate opened and I was past the immigration control section in less than 15 seconds!

With one hour of my life returned to me instead of waiting in a line, I can now say I’m fully looking forward to my next trip (mid-February, hello San Francisco!) and attempting to use the E-Channel line for exit immigration control line!

In short, here’s a few bullet points about applying for and using E-Channel at the Shanghai Pudong (PVG) airport:

• Ensure you have a passport with an RFID chip in it
• Be sure to have a longer term visa or resident permit; if resident permit, you might need to have it for six months before applying for E-Channel
  • You probably cannot use the E-Channel line with an “L – Tourist” visa
• Apply for E-Channel on your next entry into China — you cannot apply on the way out of the country
• Upon entering the arrivals immigration hall, look for the E-Channel sign to point you in the right direction
• Fill-in the application form and wait in line for the immigration officer who will need your passport and application form
• When prompted, submit your thumbs for fingerprinting and have your picture taken
• When given your passport back, walk over to the E-Channel automated gates area and scan your passport (picture/information page face down) and walk through the first gate
• Scan one of your thumbs and have your picture taken to open the second gate

Ways in which E-Channel is better than Global Entry for the USA:

1. It’s free!
2. No card needs to be carried (not that I’ve ever used my Global Entry card…)
3. It’s available for foreigners! (Yes, there are some residents of other countries that can use Global Entry besides Americans, but that list is small…)

If you’ve traveled through other airports, land crossings, or entered via sea-going vessels, let me know about your experiences using E-Channel in the comments section!

Rumors have it that when my resident permit expires in July I may need to reapply for E-Channel as the stored documentation may change. If that’s the case be assured another blog post will be coming!

Happy trails and travels.

 

I fly a lot as I like to travel places. I’ve got the whole process of flying in and out of the USA down pat with airport lounge access for relaxing stress free before flights and Global Entry for speeding through TSA security and Immigration lines. My next goal is to figure out traveling in China to the same degree. I’ve got the high-speed rail under my belt but haven’t flown domestically yet.

Most of the time when I’m flying there is a nearby lounge after clearing security that I gravitate towards so I can relax before my flight or between connections. This holiday season I’m traveling back to China from Tampa (TPA), an airport with no lounge — at least not in the A Gates where United Airlines departs from.

So what did I do this time around? Well, I took a short 10 minute walk and made my way to the airport Marriot hotel which is connected to the departure level. Sadly you’ll need to be outside security to get to this spot, but it’s definitely worth it! Lots of seating, great drinks selection, and the food ain’t half bad. You don’t need to be a guest of the hotel to use it and the atmosphere does not feel like you’re eating at an airport restaurant at all as it’s much more relaxed with fewer people running by you trying to get to their flights. Finding electric outlets might be a bit of an issue to charge your devices, but if you look hard enough you may be able to spot a few.

While having to exit security to grab some food and drink isn’t ideal, if you have a long connection at an airport where you do not have lounge access, look to see if a hotel is connected to the airport and give it a shot! Guaranteed you’ll get to walk around a bit more which is always better than sitting on your butt any day.