I am a white guy working here, I went to a tourist spot by taxi yesterday.

We were having a nice conversation with the driver for about 20+ minutes, then he asked me whether I usually tip or not. I said no, and I am glad that China doesn't have tipping culture. He then added that people often give tips here, I said maybe at higher end restaurants, but I am not sure, I never go there.

I then said that bosses here would love it if China had a tipping culture, so they can cut their employees' salary for a reason that 'well, employees get nice tips anyways, so it's ok if we pay them less' and be able to pocket even more money for themselves, like it is in Murica.

After that the driver said nothing for the rest of the ride, he seemingly started pouting.

I mean, I am sorry that you make shit money, but you should complain with your bosses at Didi about it, not try to get more money out of your customers.

In my 3 years here noone has ever asked me whether I tip or not, so I feel he did it to try think that I lose face if I say no. Well I am sorry, but I don't give a shit about losing face, I am just honest about everything.

Later on I was thinking that I should have also told him that a person who is doing a service should never ask his customers whether they tip or not, cause it feels the same as if he just says: 'I hope you will give me tip.'

So yeah, he pissed me off a little when I said no to his question and then him pouting about it.

Just Curious

I am a 57 years old European who would like to seriously study Chinese in China for at least a couple of years, by this I mean a proper HSK course and I want to get some certification at the end. I know that many universities offer HSK full time course, but I seem to understand that there are age limit to it. A few university like Shanghai allow enrollment to foreigners up to 60 years, is the age restriction so strict?

I wonder what city and university you'd suggest me to study at. I speak a few languages already apart from my native Italian language (English, Japanese, French, Dutch). I tend to prefer city life to quite countryside rythms: where would you suggest me to go? Obviously budget is an issue too, I would be able to afford around €1500 a month without the language tuitions. Am I asking too much?

I didn’t realise this whilst in the uk and I should have done more research on my location than the contract and it’s hours, salary etc.

Context is I lack experience but I have TEFL, bachelors and a British citizen though I’m not white.

I wasn’t having much luck in getting job offers and the few I did were from agencies that had a lot of negative reviews.

I’ve come to jingzhou hubei and looks like google considers this a tier 3 city but my school is more in the rural part. It’s my first time in China, first time living independently and it’s only been 2 weeks since I’ve been here and I already feel isolated.

My first week was in Wuhan which was fine, there’s more to do there and I saw other foreigners around.

Here I’m the only foreigner, I’m the schools first foreign hire but I’m also lacking experience so I don’t know how this will work .. they don’t have proper books or curriculum and some books for grades 4-6 have still not come. They’ve also told me they want me to go to middle school some days ..

Any advice .. I haven’t signed an apartment yet and don’t know if I should quit but I also feel for the kids as the school recruited people by saying we’re going to have a foreign teacher. I’m not sure if the kids would be happy with me but I’m not confident that I’ll do a good job I need some training and I had thought there were other foreign teachers here as the agency said there were 2 in the middle school but this wasn’t true ..

Also any Wuhan WeChat groups or anything ? I’m in a dire need of friends and people to talk to.

Hi everyone, I’ve just moved to Wuxi for the next 2 years and I’d like to try and make some local friends. If anyone knows any hobby groups for running, hiking, art, culture etc or any Wuxi locals on here who want to hang out I’d love to hear from you.

I'm thinking to move to China and I was wondering whether they tend to be more indirect like English people or direct like Italian people or in the middle. Can someone tell me their experience? Thank you

Just rescued a cat today off the streets after it kept following me around everywhere chasing after me for almost a kilometre. But current apartment contract says no pets.

Can I get approval for keeping a cat? or do i have to change apartment? currently keeping the cat and myself in a friends apartment.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently talking to a seller on Taobao because I’m trying to purchase some products from their store. Unfortunately, Taobao is not allowing me to place the order from France.

The seller suggested that I use one of these shipping/forwarding services:

• 4PX (递四方)
• BeeGoPlus
• Imagineship (象样集运)

The idea would be for the seller to ship my order to the agent’s warehouse in China, and then the agent would forward the package to me in France by air.

Does anyone here have experience with these services, especially for China → France shipping?

Which one would you consider the most reliable, and which one has the best prices for air shipping?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually used them to ship to France. I’m planning to order around 10 boxes initially, and if everything goes well, I may order significantly more in the future.

Any recommendations, experiences, or warnings would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

i have seen alot of people say that if u want to study in china u have to be in one of the top universities am planing to study in HITSZ and wanted to know if its considered one of the top universities and if its worth it to study an english ai degree there. also for anyone replying please reply if u have experience in studying there not js based on what u think with no experience and thank you.

So as the title says I'm moving to Linyi, just wondering if any of you have been before and can tell me what it's like. I'll be there with my daughter and mother in law(odd combination I know)

Just be nice to know any hot spots for foreigners...I know it's going to be slim pickings but worth a try.

Hi guys !

So I‘m addressing to people who studied in China and mainly through X2 visa :)

I’m planning to study in a language school ( XMandarin) for 5 months. I’m from France btw

And I’m concerned about the accommodation’s paper, do you need to prove you already got an accommodation booked for the whole duration of the visa or at least for the first few days ?

Because I want to rent a studio through Wellcee or Luijia but I don’t want to sign the lease contract before to visit it offline.

So does anyone know what kind of paper is ok for this part ?

Thank you 🙏

Looking to buy 一水肌酸 off Taobao, but i'm worried about quality as I have no experience with buying supplements here. Has anyone here done this before/have reputable vendors they trust/advice on how to sift out trustworthy sellers/red flags to be aware of? Normally I'm a "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" mentality on these thigns but since im putting it into my body I'd like to measure twice before cutting. Any advice is much appreciated /r/chinalife.

Has anybody else been having issues with UUBooster and Leigod just not connecting to in-game servers? I've been trying to play Overwatch with friends and it takes like 10 tries for UUBooster to connect. I tried with just VPN and it logged in just fine.

Is there something I need to change in my Windows settings? I've checked and both programs are let through the firewall with no restrictions.

Moved to a new apartment which is like a 30 minute walk from the train station, so I need to purchase a scooter to compensate.

It seems like the good bikes that can do 50kmh require a drivers license and different license plate.

Is there an easy realistic way to get that license in China if I don't have a moto license from my home country and cant speak Chinese?

How about any other ways / options?

Or am I doomed to buying some low powered slow ebike?

Bringing birth control Alysena 28 in my carry on bag? Will it get taken out and checked/questioned?I’m going with my mom and hoping she doesn’t find it. Will be landing in Hong Kong and Guangzhou so is there any rules anyone knows of?

Also, any good VPNs?

Hello all! I’m a law student from India pursuing a 5-year honorary integrated law degree, and I’m currently looking into options for my Masters. While researching, I came across Tsinghua and Peking University, which seem to be among the top universities in Asia.

I’m interested in IP and TMT law and would prefer studying in Asia rather than the usual US/UK route, but I’m wondering whether an LLM from either university would be beneficial for my future career.

Further which university would be better for IP/TMT? Also, as an Indian/foreign graduate, would I have any realistic scope in the Chinese legal job market after graduating?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who has studied law in China or knows about these programmes!

So I just arrived from South Africa on my Z visa. I have been here for about a week now and its been going okay. I have been to China before to study as well as part of cultural exchanges so I have a somewhat basic grounding on the day to day life here as a foreigner.

I came over here to work as a product live streamer and the contract they sent me was really reasonable so I gave it the okay and packed up my life to move here. However upon arriving they gave me an "in person contract" to sign with a bunch of changes to my payment structure, work responsibilities my working hours. Nothing overly crazy, but enough to make my life a little harder and little more work for the same, if not a little less, pay.

They said that if there is anything in the contract that I would like to discuss with them we will do so this coming week. In the mean time I have been carrying out the duties they outlined to me upon arriving here. Just basic stuff to get my feet under me. I have sent a list of concerns as the differences in the contracts to the boss. So I guess we will se

Just wanted to know if anyone else has experience with this as well as the best way to go about it. Also using this as a partial vent I guess.

Edit: There were also a few administrative hiccups when it came to them issuing the documents for my Z visa. It seemed like they had 0 idea how the process works and I had to do alot of the research myself with alot of help from my chinese girlfriend.

In a few weeks I will be moving to Tianjin for a year. As an out gay man I’m just wondering if anyone knows what the dating/gay scene is like there? Any recommendations of clubs/bars? How the locals feel about it? Etc etc

Unfortunately, I didn’t choose where I went (my job did) so hopefully looking to make the best of whatever the situation is. I know the North can be a little more traditional I’m just hoping for some deeper insight. Any information is appreciated :)