User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Car Crash
March 23, 2011 at 2:34 PMWell, you've probably noticed my uniform (clue: check the avatar) .. I am always on duty. :) I also think a lesson on the police would be good but it is such a big topic.. Just as a matter of interest, what do you imagine you couldn't say or do? (That you couldn't say or do in the US, say.)
BTW did you see that film set in modern BJ about a police station and the middle-aged cop with about seven sisters all working hard at marrying him off?
'the most common reason foreigners cross paths with the law?' The PSB for registration, and applying for an extension to your visa. Reporting something lost or stolen. Getting help with directions. :)
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 23, 2011 at 8:51 AMThe option of learning to read them is a good one - practice your writing skills by writing them down, or on the computer. If it really is an ad they can be difficult to understand. I used to get some offering me loan deals for buying an apartment. Some might be from the phone company, offering you new deals, or advising you how much money you have left. Some could be from third parties - I get them alerting me to web-based sms services. Some might be giving you the latest news, or selling you music downloads. Some could be about nothing much at all - just a nice feel-good message (I have posted about these elsewhere.) Who you gonna call? 10086.
Ah.. just realised, you're the poddie from Sichuan (Chengdu?)
Actually calling 10086 can be difficult - depending on your Chinese level get a friend to help. I called them recently to change my plan and after asking what my plan is I didn't understand the answer. I was expecting a number or a code but it is a flowery kind of name, 动感音乐．． and then they recite the dozen or so features of this plan, I was lost. You have to understand how the plans work in China to understand what they are telling you. Now I know a little more about them.. :)
Anyway, good luck stopping your 广告 (advertisements.)
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 23, 2011 at 2:43 AMExactly, and when you get the sms it is a kind of reminder to 充值..
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 23, 2011 at 2:32 AMWell, in Australia, take Optus for example, I assume the others are the same, if you get a phone on a contract it is locked for a set period (meaning you can't put another sim in it.) Or you have to pay a fee to get it un-locked. They lock them for commercial reasons - it is how they make sure they keep the customer.
If you stay away from contracts you can use any number of sims with your phone. We bought an HTC in China and just bought the phone, so that we are free to use different sims in it. The contracts often give you the phone for 'free' up-front, but of course in practice you pay for the phone in agreed minimum monthly payments. Does that all make sense?
Posted on: Handsome Foreign Student
March 23, 2011 at 2:21 AMWikipaedia has a funny story about the head of a ranking organization who was asked to 'lecture' at a certain university. After he received 50,000 rmb for his guest lectures the rankings of the institution climbed markedly.. Well, obviously it was a result of those high quality lectures. :)
Wikipaedia also says that the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China strongly opposes all university rankings, most especially those rankings based on payment of certain “fees”.
Posted on: Handsome Foreign Student
March 23, 2011 at 2:10 AMThis is funny how Chinese people are so obsessed with rankings, any rankings.* I think Peking is #2 isn't it? I went to 浙江大学 (Zhejiang University) ranked #3 in China. The Chinese are impressed, but you just turn up with your 9,000 RMB for a semester and they let anyone study there. I'm sure Peking University would be the same. That is not to say that they not good schools - the Zhejiang University language school is highly recommended.
*Rankings are often over-used, if not mis-used; you have to look carefully at the criteria applied. The criteria that are important to you may result in a completely different ranking. Chinese university students are generally aware of this but their parents often have a less sophisticated understanding of rankings.
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 22, 2011 at 11:10 AMIn Aust I'm usually on a motor bike and drive-thru is more than tricky. :) In China I rarely go to Maccas but if I do it is strictly on foot.
Posted on: Car Crash
March 22, 2011 at 9:21 AM'if parties are quick to agree '
Yeah, I was on a blocked road in country Jiangxi once for about an hour (seemed like more) before the parties reluctantly made room for a long line of cars and trucks that had built up on either side.
But I think the process is part of it - parties have to let off steam. Or, as in a film I was watching last night said during a long fight scene between two women - the husband of one trying to settle them down said to the woman not his wife 'don't worry about her (his wife); it's like one long fart .. it'll go away presently'. Or words to that affect.
Posted on: Car Crash
March 22, 2011 at 9:10 AM'Policing Chinese Politics: A History' by Michael Dutton. I have recommended it here before. If you are seriously interested in police culture you have to read this. He charts how things have actually improved (from a human rights perspective) in China - something so hard to see from the present. Provocatively he nominates '89 as a sign of 'improvement', not the beginning of the end. What he does is lay out the history in gory detail from the 1920s using original Chinese sources. It is a sobering read, but it changed how I look at China. I guess it wouldn't get onto COPS, it would be too confronting.
Posted on: Handsome Foreign Student
March 23, 2011 at 3:18 PMYes, that definitely looks like me in the photo for the lesson .. when I was 12 years old... :) It looks like his grown-up teeth have just all come through.