User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 5:15 PMhi xiaopaul
I'm glad you found it useful - and good luck with your trip to China.
There are a few other things you might need to know - eg. if bringing your own unlocked phone, no worries, just slip in your new sim card and you're away. (You may need a Chinese person's help if you don't think you can cope with a dizzying array of options in Chinese.) If you are travelling around the country, it helps to know that you may have to re-charge your sim in the city where you bought it, or get someone else to do it for you in that city (just need your phone number and money.) When travelling I just slap money on the card before I go, depending on the length of trip.
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 5:04 PMThanks wotingyu, good to know.
A similar system on my plans works for calling to and from my city. If I call outside my city (anywhere in China) I dial 17951 then the number and my calls then are 一分两角 (same as the peak rate within the city)。 This is very cheap for long distance. If I don't add this prefix the calls are much more expensive. Also if I am outside my city I do pay for receiving calls.
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 4:57 PM'unlocked phone' - another reason to avoid contracts.
On texting - with all Chinese plans you can text directly overseas, standard price of 1.5 RMB per text (there is a limit on the number of characters so if you send a long one they chop it up.) Vice versa, Australians can text us, even if you can't make a direct international call.
Oh wow, I didn't realise this about the US, some phones not having a sim (is it built into the phone?) - this does put a different slant on the lesson. I didn't understand the presentation of this idea of a sim card like it needed to be explained - that is how Australian phones work. We just keep two sim cards and swap them when we land. Actually by some quirk both sim cards work in HK, the Chinese one works if you are up high (eg. on the Peak.) The aussie one just automatically switches to the local provider (I pay in Australia of course.)
For an American audience the lesson probably makes some sense, sorry for not seeing that earlier. I have heard that Japan has 'throwaway' phones - well, there have been times when that is tempting.
BTW there is no problem 'running out of minutes' - I always run out of minutes. Then just go to one of the kiosks, shops every 100 metres or so and re-charge. (I have never bought a plastic card or a 'piece of paper' - I take it this is the Shanghai/Beijing thing?)
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 4:40 PMGranted there are two audiences - but even for those 'visiting periodically' does the lesson tell you anything exciting? I think my expectations of ChinesePod must have risen too high: every lesson I do expect to be educated and entertained, and almost invariably they do a great job. With this lesson I am not sure who the target audience is. Ok, for me the lesson failed on a number of levels but of course it is not just about me. :)
BTW, if you are a periodic visitor wouldn't you be interested in getting a useful plan? I mean, would the information about plans be anything but helpful?
'people with bad, or no credit' Yikes!
I was definitely taking a risk stepping into US territory. :) For me I avoid contracts in all shapes or forms so this was perhaps wishful thinking about America - in Australia I think a combination of competition (but not enough) and growing demand for flexibility has undermined the company's desire to get everyone into a contract. I see phone contracts going the way of cheque books - but you see those still in the American movies; I'm not sure how true that is.
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 7:40 AMYes, the money will expire in a month, but the monthly rate is very low. You can keep the number for 6 months I think without charging it.
There are a host of different 套餐 (plans); different bundles of services. With 中国移动 for example, you can pay 20 rmb per month and get 300 sms, and cheap calls (一分一角) from 11pm to 4 pm weekdays and all weekend. So from 4pm to 11 pm it goes to 一分两角. You also get news twice a day, whether you like it or not. Most plans will be bundled with something you don't like so you have to consider a lot of plans. A good one if you favour talking over texting is 12 rmb per month; you give them 10 numbers (friends, family) and you have unlimited talk to these 10 numbers, any time. This one also gives you different songs you can nominate for what your callers hear, it shuffles. And caller ID. All the rates vary up when calling outside your city, or if you are outside your city.
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 20, 2011 at 2:31 AMI can't help saying I am disappointed by this episode of BST, sorry guys. Not only because I did not learn anything at all. I would call it a lost opportunity. Poddies have suggested a number of items of interest, & questions, to do with phones in China and it seems to me we got nothing of great interest.
We could have had some discussion of mobile use that is peculiar to China. Eg. (i) warm fuzzy animated colourful messages from your phone company that have no commercial content; (ii) the prolific use of the mobile for special services (eg. your phone playing your selection of 10 different songs to callers, on shuffle; receiving the news twice a day); (iii) the level of competition in 3G services (eg. a Zhejiang company can provide services anywhere in the country.) (iv) the extremely low cost of phone use compared to the West (when the technology is similar or the same.) (v) the system of mobiles that have a very limited city-wide use - the cheapest mobile arrangement. (vi) the geographical-based system of charging for calls and texts. Just for starters.
I would have liked some discussion about plans - this is the big issue for someone using a mobile in China. These are so different to Western plans; this would have been both interesting and practical. This has not been covered in lessons yet - there is perhaps an UI or Advanced lesson that could discuss the world of plans and give us some practical language. We could have had an update on phones themselves - what kind of phones people are using; the phenomenon of the phone market. (As an aside, a young woman I met once was proud to show me her phone that cost 14,000 rmb, 'hand-made according to her special order'. Combined jewellery, fashion accessory and phone - it did work.)
Further evidence of the gap between Shanghai and the rest of China (and US and the rest of the world?), a number of things presented as fact don't apply in the rest of China. Eg. the process of charging your phone described here applies in Australia, but not in either Hangzhou or Kunming (the reality here is much more interesting - you can charge almost anywhere by just reciting your number and the value, any value.) Also international IP cards cost 18 rmb here for 100 rmb credit - I think '30 - 50 rmb' is a Shanghai special.
And at least one error: you don't pay to receive calls or texts in China any more; that finished a few years ago. (The exception being special text services arranged with your provider as per your plan.)
BTW - long live pre-pay. I don't think we will see a trend to contracts as suggested here. Even in countries like Australia and the US I think the trend is the other way.
Posted on: Rainbow
March 19, 2011 at 7:55 AMI will look out for the Finlay book..
I love the story of Caravaggio particularly as told in the book M by Peter Robb (in my 'top 10' books of all time). But there is a fairly recent 3-part? TV series of his life too, and that focuses in the early part on the job of the painting apprentice in mixing the colours for the master. (The other job is to avoid the advances of the master.) But if you haven't read M - again for the politics and economics and sociology of painting - highly recommended. I have two books I refuse to read to the last page .. M is one of them. (I don't want them to finish.)
Posted on: Rainbow
March 19, 2011 at 4:26 AMUrk, I hope this bruise is going to fade. (I see a bit of green on the right.) I'll check back in a couple of days.
I hear the other day if you suffer a black eye (or two) in China people may call you 熊猫。
Posted on: Rainbow
March 19, 2011 at 4:25 AMYou could say ..像绿松石一样。(Just like the colour of turquoise).
You obviously know more about colours than the average bear. :)
Posted on: Using a Cell Phone in China
March 21, 2011 at 3:08 AMHi Catherine
I'm the least tough audience you could ever hope to have. You got off easy. :)
'plans to SIMs'
This doesn't make sense - you have plans WITH sim cards. I think you might mean making the switch from a contract to pre-pay? Maybe you don't think of having a plan with a sim but you do. When you get a contract in the US maybe you have all the plans displayed there in front of you and it is more obvious.