The bill lands, the waiter hovers with the card machine, and you add fifteen percent out of habit. He watches you type the final number and says nothing. Here’s the thing: you didn’t need to add anything at all — and you wouldn’t be the first visitor to do this little dance at every single…
Before we moved to China, every forum thread hyped the same fear: squat toilets, no paper, no privacy. Then we lived here a while and found out the panic is mostly outdated. Public toilets in China aren’t the adventure-blog nightmare — they just run on one simple rule you should know. TL;DR (30-second version) Carry…
Green light on the gate, a soft beep, and you’re through. That tiny moment felt like a small victory our first week in China. Getting there cost us a few confused afternoons at ticket machines, so here’s how to skip all of that. TL;DR: the 30-second version You don’t need a physical metro card anymore….
TL;DR (30-second version) Working in China on a tourist visa is a bad deal that people only discover at the worst moment. The immigration rules are clear: a visitor visa allows visiting, not working — even “just helping a friend,” even “it’s remote work for my home company,” even “nobody will know.” Getting caught usually…
TL;DR (30-second version) If you are German, Korean, or Japanese and working in China, your home country has a social security agreement with China — which means you probably pay into one system, not two, and some years count for both. The practical task: get a certificate of coverage from your home authority before or…
TL;DR (30-second version) Changing jobs in China does not mean leaving the country and starting over. In most cases the sequence is: new employer applies for a new Work Permit, you cancel or transfer the old one, and you adjust your Residence Permit within the legal window — usually within 10 days of the change….
TL;DR (30-second version) Save one number in your phone before you ever need it: 110 for police, 120 for ambulance — both work anywhere in China and have English-speaking dispatchers are rare but operators transfer. Save 119 for fire. Write your passport number and home address in both scripts somewhere offline. This list takes ten…
TL;DR (30-second version) Shipping a box home from China is not hard — the surprises are. Three rules keep it boring: write the contents and value on the form even when nobody is watching, use the official courier counters instead of random agents for anything important, and expect customs to ask for an invoice on…
TL;DR (30-second version) The short answer: Shenzhen is where the jobs and the energy are; Guangzhou is where the living is easier and cheaper. Same province, twenty minutes apart by high-speed rail, and genuinely different daily life. Pick based on your work situation first, personality second. The short answer Both cities work for expats. The…
TL;DR (30-second version) In most of China, the default answer to a broken thing is not a new thing. A phone screen, a zipper, a suitcase wheel, a lamp — repair shops fix these daily, usually in under an hour, often for less than the cost of lunch out. The real skill is not fixing;…
