| 48 |
7 Tips to Travel to China This Quarter Hi there! I intend to go to China in Sep to take Chinese language lessons. However, many sources have told me that students who are already in China will have no chance to extend their visa before mid-October. If student visas can't even be extended, will I have any chance to be granted one at all? Or should I opt for a tourist visa? For me it wouldn't make that much of a difference. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to secure a visa for Sep 08. Has anyone of you applied for a student visa recently? |
| 47 |
Chinese Stock Market is Crazy @ Vera: Did you write an article about stock markets in general or about the Chinese stock market in particular? If the latter is the case, may I ask what your findings are? I'm still struggling to find some sort of scientific approach to understand and explain the Chinese stock market... |
| 46 |
Brief Chat with Andrew Sorry, forgot my conclusion. In the end, if you do not fully understand the one you are criticizing and would like to help, it may be better to refrain from making premature judgements. |
| 45 |
Brief Chat with Andrew "To help is good but to force others to accept the help is often written in the history book as invading. That is the reason why people in China often use the term "Interfere Internal Affairs" to describe what American are doing." Great statement, JS! You use the word invasion, a Chinese friend I talked to opted for another word: "colonization". When discussing how to help a country as large as China or India, people often try to figure out how to do the best to the majority of people because it's hard to help literally everyone. In this context, we mustn't only think about whether foreign aid is welcomed in China. No, we need to go one step further. We must also ponder if the large-scale Westernization really benefits the majority(!) of Chinese people. I find it quite understandable if some ordinary people complain about being colonized; being flooded by undesirable Western stuff extinguishing (sic! - I know it sound harsh, but he used this word) the Chinese culture; being employed, paid bad and looked down upon by Western people who are often considered the superior race; and faring worse than prior to the economic reform in relative terms. I'm not criticizing the economic reform at all (no wonder, since I grew up in Europe). But I do have understanding for people who have not benefited from it. If Western countries, esp. the U.S., continue to push through Western support and aid, they're not necessarily doing a favour to the majority of Chinese people. |
| 44 |
Living Cost in Shanghai @ AussiePB: The words I had chosen ("simply bullshit") might have sound a bit harsh and offensive. Apologies for this. I have no data to support my statement on Shanghai's relative expensiveness either. However, we once had a discussion approx. 18 months ago at my university involving internal professors and externals as well. Although there was no consensus on how reliable this method of measuring is, it was widely believed that if one applied this method, many cities in Africa (such as Lagos) and Latin/South America (such as Mexico City) would rank higher than Chinese cities. This may not convince everyone, but I have found this thesis to be fairly plausible given the extreme poverty in some regions in Africa and Latin/South America. The main reason for me is: While I understand that many people in Shanghai are struggling to make ends meet, I don't see any danger for them to become homeless or die of starvation. In Africa and Latin/South America, I do see these dangers for a certain part of the population. But I admit this is not necessarily what you consider substantiated data. Anyway, let's not start with a debate on data again. What I do agree with you on is the doubt on the tenability of this method of measuring. But I think it's acceptable in the end, even though it would be strange to see cities like Mexico City and Lagos on the top. |
| 43 |
Living Cost in Shanghai LeoAT, Just to demolish this myth of Shanghai being amongst the most expensive cities in the world: This is simply bullshit! There are many ways to measure the expensiveness of a city, let me highlight three of them: 1. Given Shanghai's rapidly growing Westernization, the city is likely to drop further in global cost of living differential tables. This is relevant for expatriation consideration. 2. In absolute terms, it ranks far below the most expensive cities in the world. 3. Only in relative terms, i.e. if you measure the ratio between local price level and local income level, you can argue that Shanghai is expensive. |
| 42 |
1 USD = 6.9966 RMB @ lin: Actually, exports account for approx. 40%, imports ~30%. Consequently, net export is ~10%. For further reference, s. this article: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10429271 I can't tell whether Jonathan Anderson is right or wrong, but his remarks sound quite logical to me. But your objection is still reasonable for I overlooked that the currency problem will cause exports to sag but imports likely to increase. So this indeed adds some significant upside risk for rising unemployment. |
| 41 |
1 USD = 6.9966 RMB I'm glad that these bloodsucking gold diggers of factory owners need to shut down their operations. But it's a sad story for all those poor migrant workers who will lose their job. Factory shutdowns already rose at the end of 07 in the face of the new labour contract law, and will soon be exacerbated by the USD-RMB exchange rate. Creating new jobs will be a challenge, but don't forget that net exports still account for only about 10% of China's GDP. Let's hope the domestic market and government intervention will heal some of the wounds. |
| 40 |
Hospital in Shanghai If you're insured through your employer, do you get your hospital bills fully reimbursed? I've heard that employees at Siemens in Shanghai get everything reimbursed if they have fever and go to a hospital to get some drips (you know what I mean, the standard procedure in China). Is there a limit to what you get reimbursed? Does the insurance require co-insurance/franchise from you? |
| 39 |
My National ID Duplicated with Another One If the other person was a girl, she'd be out of luck because her 17th digit would be wrong and therefore need to be corrected. Maybe JS should offer him to pay for a sex change operation :) @ iddd: Don't know if it's compulsory. A friend of mine grew up abroad but kept his Chinese citizenship, and didn't have an ID card until he applied for it at the age of 19. Prior to that, he only had a passport. However, I've been told that in general most Chinese people only have an ID card unless they intend to travel abroad. Crossing borders is the main purpose for which to apply for a passport in the first place. Since the majority of Chinese people doesn't travel abroad, the percentage of ID card holders should be higher than passport holders. But I don't know whether all people in rural areas have an ID card at all... (not meant to be rude, though - just ignorance!) |
| 38 |
My National ID Duplicated with Another One Weird indeed! Even if both of you are male, the odds for the 17th digit being the same are just 1:4 or 20%, respectively. If you have a 1, the other guy might have a 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9. Besides, I didn't quite get how the last digit is determined. What exactly does it check? |
| 37 |
New Rules to Push Down House Price Hi Susan, Out of interest (I'm not an expert on this): Would it make sense to ask a Chinese serving as a 3rd party to buy an apartment and transfer ownership afterwards to a foreigner (let's leave gift tax aside at this point)? Is this a practical way to circumvent the two restrictions? In other words, do the restrictions solely affect the buying process or do they apply to ownership in general? In the way I suggested it would be possible for a foreigner to get an unlimited amounts of units of properties transferred to him, regardless of how long he's been living in China. |
| 36 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners Since this little sub-debate between a total of four persons has gotten way off topic, I hereby apologize to mrMa for having distracted the readers' attention from his last posting which I find truly interesting and worth following up on. Hence, I take the liberty to quote mrMa's posting of April 4, 2008 10:41 PM so that everybody can resume the discussion at that point again: "why do Western men date Shanghainese women - 90% desparate for sex - 5% true love - 5% checking out the the local flavor why do Shanghainese women date Western men - 90% desperate for cash - 5% true love - 5% checking out the foreign flavor So in 10% of the cases we have total overlap in motivation, and in the other 80% of cases it is the oldest trade in the world." |
| 35 |
Is the Real Estate Cooling Down? - Part III Regardless of what self-appointed real estate experts say, one simple fundamental growth driver for the Shanghai real estate market is growing demand in the long-term. Shanghai continues to be the economic center of the country. At the same time, many Chinese go to Shanghai to try their luck there. This urbanization trend will keep on, so we need more low-end housing simply to offer enough shelter for all workers. With rising incomes, young people are striving to upgrade their current accomodation - possibly an apartment they've shared for years with their family - to a mid-end apartment. In the meantime, one perceivable trend is the necessity for a man to have an apartment or at least the plan and financial means to purchase one before the his fiancé's parents accept his marriage proposal => Demand for mid-end apartments grows. Shanghai is set to evolve into one of the major metropolises in the world. This will add to its attraction on a broader scale, and draw the interest of affluent people across the whole world. => Higher demand for high-end apartments. |
| 34 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners AussiePB, Yes, let's leave it at that. No need to go on splitting hairs. Disagreement is also one possible outcome of a discussion. But pls do yourself and all of us one favour: If you implore others to re-read postings, pls do it yourself, too. yeepee's comments certainly didn't inflame a 'mini attack' by me b'cos you had already replied to him when I asked about when I became offensive at all. I understand and respect the rules for communication in a public forum, and I'd appreciate it if you did the same instead of wrongfully accusing others of attacking you. |
| 33 |
Why I Didn't Cover About Tibet Jianshuo, Just one quick comment: You wrote: "I want to give facts, instead of oppinions - especially oppions based on no-so-solid facts." This is a great commitment. Unfortunately, journalism nowadays is gradually shifting from reporting of facts to expression of opinions. By stating opinions rather than facts you're less exposed to legal action, though you're of course still not entirely safe. In a thread on another topic in this forum, there currently seems to be a small argument on whether ungrounded opinions and less-than-rock-solid facts should be allowed to be posted. This is worth debating. For sure, correct facts are more valuable than opinions, but we can't expect all posters to be omnisicient. I personally believe that opinions are also a positive contribution to this blog, and sometimes opinions prompt you to look for facts in a certain area. And pls let's not forget: This blog is kept alive through discussions, and once a discussion starts, you can't shut out opinions anymore. |
| 32 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners johnm, Show me where I tried to provoke anybody. If you feel provoked, it may be advisable for you to see a shrink. But I certainly didn't have the intention to provoke anyone. It's rather people like you who make mountains of out a molehill that arouse anger among members of forum who communicate in an appropriate way. Your posting is the only recent one that's really getting offensive. |
| 31 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners Poignant attack from me? AussiePB bashing?? Can't find anything in my previous postings that's been offensive in any way... Of course you, AussiePB, may raise doubts about data you consider unsubstantiated. But you can't forbid others to express their opinions. mrMa has expressed his opinion based on numbers. I don't know the source of his numbers, but that doesn't matter. Even though I haven't counted the number of discussions I've had on this topic, I know the overall result of what I've found so far in my life comes pretty close to mrMa's numbers. That gives me the right to form a view of my own based on real-life data collected from various groups of people in China, and to support mrMa by expressing my affirmative view. You may still consider the numbers unsubstantiated, but as long as no official and verified data exist, it's appropriate for the time being to rely on data one has collected oneself. Period. |
| 30 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners "[...] perceptions of biased individuals vs reality - it's difficult to convince people otherwise - commonsense?? - I suggest you use yours in this discussion." Dito. You want data about China? About a country in which even GDP figures aren't reliable? Where do you expect anyone to get convincing data? Why don't you show us some data that YOU have gathered on the streets and verified as absolutely reliable and representative? My view is that meaningful data in China is not available. All statistics are very likely to be intentionally forged to suit a certain party - be it the author himself, the government or anyone else. Hence, I prefer to collect data myself in daily life - be they biased or not. As you mentioned, we probably move in different circles. But that, in turn, should tell you that the impression you have of people in your circles does not apply to all of China. |
| 29 |
Living Cost in Shanghai - Part II Does anybody know where I can get information on which MNCs offer how much as cost of living allowances for their assignees to Shanghai? And also which companies offer which amount as reasonable housing allowance? In general, does anybody know of any kind of scientific research exploring and comparing the practice of international assignment management among a couple of MNCs? |
| 28 |
Thinking in English or Chinese Thinking in a language other than your first, native language? Don't try to fool yourself. Thinking in a second language is possible as long as you don't run into a dead end in your thought process, e.g. if you lack a particular word. That happens to me all the time. I try to think in English as often and as much as I can, but whenever I run into a dead end I have to re-phrase my thoughts in German and then re-translate the German sentence into English. That works b'cos German-English translation can be done quickly and easily. Whenever I think in Chinese and run into a dead end, there's no way escaping from it b'cos Chinese-English or Chinese-German translation doesn't work mechanically. Therefore it's really hard for me to imagine a mainland Chinese to really be able to THINK in English unless he grew up in a bilingual environment. Even some Chinese returnees from top U.S. universities are unable to think in English. They are very proficient, or in some cases even fluent in English, but that doesn't mean they think in English. |
| 27 |
Prostitution in China Asia, It's really hard to tell which places are non-prostitution ones. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that 98% of all bath houses offer special service. As for KTV, I'm not sure, but I think the proportion should be lower. But what are you afraid of? Nobody is forced to accept prostitution services. Many people go to bath houses just to relax (maybe they get a foot massage but this is certainly not an issue). In bath houses, prostitutes won't bother wasting their time on you if they understand you're not interested in their service. And in KTV venues, you can always book a separate room for yourself and your friends, so no prostitute will disturb you. |
| 26 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners I guess the source is: common sense. Just go out and ask some thousands of ordinary peolple on the street, and you'll see the results will come pretty close to what mrMa asserts. Please don't take this as an offense. I really feel happy for you for enjoying such a wonderful cross-border marriage, but I assure you this is still the exception compared to the so-called "80% of other cases". |
| 25 |
Shanghai Zoo Are there any koala bears or kangaroos? I know the Dalian Forest Zoo has a couple of kangaroos but I've never seen any koala bears outside of Australia, though. |
| 24 |
National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) What about transparency? Who guarantees that the whole pointing and grading procedure is fair? Am I allowed to see my exams after they've been graded? |
| 23 |
Where are the Train Tickets? Just read the original post for the 1st time. What you described, WJS, seems to be an extremely rare incident. Usually, if the sleeper wagons are not fully occupied, passengers with seater or standing tickets will very likely upgrade their tickets and occupy the vacant beds. In fact, if what you described would happen more frequently, it would be a natural way to tackle the corruption issue. For if the sleeper wagons remain empty or not fully occupied, it would mean that the yellow cows weren't able to sell all their tickets. Every unsold ticket reduces the amount of profit distributable to themselves or the insiders in control of the tickets. This would force them to sell the tickets more aggresively or for more reasonable terms, e.g. by reducing prices to fair levels. In the end, money is the cause for corruption, but also the natural remedy to stop it. |
| 22 |
Prostitution in China Thx for all contributions so far! As for the value of prostitutes, recent hearsay indicates that beauty - as a mere necessary condition - is not the variable factor anymore. It is being gradually replaced by a new variable, namely (as I would call it) the "degree of education" as a sufficient condition. This also explains the recent inflow of educated young women to the supply side. Some of their patrons don't even expect sex for their money; they pay for being accompanied/escorted by and an educated young lady. And as a matter of fact, those ladies are paid far more than what the average xiaojie earns. However, this doesn't allow for the conclusion that all students can earn their living by embarking on such a career since beauty, as mentioned above, is still a basic prerequisite. The interesting thing about this shift is that the connotation of prostitution in contemprorary China thus starts to shift from sex service to escort service (not sanpei, which usually includes sex). Just my observation... |
| 21 |
Map of Motel 168 Thx for the information! Gosh, they're expanding so fast. Even the list above isn't up-to-date anymore. For example, the Chongming branch listed as "to be opened soon" has already started operations in 07. I spent a night there in Oct 07, and have nothing to complain about. Their 168 RMB special room rate, albeit not offered in every branch, is just wonderful. It's cheaper than some youth hostels, and offers even more than many 3* hotels. They accept international credit cards, and in most of the branches there's a restaurant serving Chinese and Western food. I hope they won't make the same mistake as the Jinjiang Inn chain that has begun to ail due to insufficient maintenance of their rooms. Hitherto, most of the Motel 168s are still relatively new. I'd be interested to see the condition of their rooms in about 3 years. |
| 20 |
That is Easy - Easy Solution to Complicated Problems Update: Just had an interesting phone call with a Chinese pal on this issue. He asked me an interesting question: "If you were the Chinese president, and if you were really concerned about the problems of your country and your people, what would you do now? Remember, you're in command of more than 1.5 trillion of USD equivalents." I replied: "Hmm, hard to say. I'm not sure how the money could be used in the most effective way." He said: "Well, that's exactly the problem the Chinese government probably has. When it comes to making political decisions, their ignorance might be concealable through patriotic oratory. But look at the recruitment process for the CIC. The pretend to look for fund managers in the global job market. But so far, they've only hired plain Chinese. And you won't see any foreign faces in the future either because they can't trust foreigners. Even Chinese who were educated in the West are flawed from the CIC recruiters' POV." After this discussion, I believe that ignorance might really be a key issue. And since China would always opt for trust in their permanent trade-off between trust (= rejecting foreign engagement) and absorption of foreign know-how (= allowing foreign engagement), it will be hard to solve all these complicated problems. If Chinese politics really don't know what's the best to do now, and keep on refusing foreign aid, what would be outcome for China during the course of this decade? |
| 19 |
That is Easy - Easy Solution to Complicated Problems China's economy is growing at a breathtaking pace, and has amassed forex reserves worth more than 1.5 trillion USD. Recent statistics have shown that the trade surplus in Jan 08 was 19.5bn USD, up 23% in USD terms on a yoy basis, but pls keep in mind that the RMB has appreciated against the dollar and hence, the surplus in real terms wasn't that much higher than in Jan 07. Besides, the Jan 08 figures are below the Dec 07 figures of 22.7bn USD. I wonder why the Chinese government doesn't increase government spending in an effective way to tackle its myriad problems. What are they doing instead with their excess piles of money? In the past, they invested it in low-yielding U.S. assets, and just recently, they sank a few billions of USD in their investment in Blackstone. Is there nothing better to do with the hoarded funds? I understand that the Chinese government wanted to cool down the economy, and therefore had to restrict its spending. But with almost all economists forecasting a slight decline in net exports (not only in USD terms due to RMB appreciation, but also in real terms) and in the face of a protracted downturn in developed countries, wouldn't the government now be well-advised to consider using a portion of its reserves to develop China's infrastructure, improve its education and healthcare system and so on and so forth? That - imho - would also require involving foreign companies, and thus drive the global economy. Or am I totally wrong on this? |
| 18 |
Overseas Chinese Get Back to Home Update: Francis, pls s. http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?tid=555109, posting by "herringbone" in the middle of the page, for precise information. It seems as if the first step would be to check if one of your parents is a Chinese citizen. If this condition is met, further steps can be considered, otherwise it's hopeless. |
| 17 |
Yifan is 3 Months Old Sry for digging out this old thread. I just noticed on the upper picture that Yifan, as many many other Chinese, has a dark spot on his left upper arm. Could someone tell me what this spot is about? Some people have told me that it is due to some sort of vaccination. But if that is true, vaccination against what exactly? And why do so many Chinese get this vaccination, but Westerners not? Others have said that some people have a similar spot on the butt, in which case the spot is purportedly called the "mongol spot". Anything true about this claim? No offense though, I'm just curious. |
| 16 |
Overseas Chinese Get Back to Home Hi Francis, I can't answer your question...sorry about that. But I'd like to add a similar question: How can a former Chinese citizen who has in the meantime assumed foreign citizenship can regain his Chinese citizenship? There will certainly be regulations as to how to assume Chinese citizenship. As for overseas Chinese, I think the Chinese government will probably welcome them. But as for former Chinese citizens (now with "traitor status") trying to regain Chinese citizenship, I guess it's much more difficult. |
| 15 |
Watching Spring Festival TV Show Now I've found this year's Spring Festival Show quite dull, even worse than last year's edition which was already considered one of the worst shows ever. Just my humble opinion. Yesterday, I watched a few clips from the past editions on tudou.com - it was just wonderful. I've noticed some evident differences between past and present editions: 1. In the past, we had much less celebrities from the film and music industry. Then the number of celebrities rose, and coincidentally the quality of the show began to drop gradually. And frankly speaking, I don't understand why we need so many celebrities now, especially stupid ones (this year we had Zhang Ziyi, S.H.E and Jay Chow). They are expensive, but don't add any value to the show. 2. In the past, the skits were simply brilliant in scripting as well as acting. Today, it can be considered an accomplishment if they can make the audience laugh even once. 3. Why do we have so little cross-talk nowadays? They used to be among the highlights of the past editions. |
| 14 |
Current University Students are Different Need do slightly revise my previous statement. There is a talent glut in terms of highly specialized experts (computer experts, chemical engineers, medical scientists etc.). No wonder HiTech companies primarily looking for R&D staff have objected to the talent gap thesis. However, if you look for generalists with management skills, I stick to my initial statement: There is an alarming talent gap. |
| 13 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners MCP = Male Chaunivist Pig, I suppose. Seems as if Naif's surprising revelation puts the situation in a completely different perspective... |
| 12 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners Yes, Wonton, you're absolutely right. That's why I wrote that I didn't feel pity for that particular woman. Neither do I believe that Naif ought to feel sorry for anything. Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. |
| 11 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners @ AussiePB & Naif: Thx for your comments! This is a very tough story, Naif. It was exactly the kind of story I wanted to hear/read. And I'd be glad to read more similar real-life reports. No matter what kind of motivation a woman has for marrying a foreigner, she should be aware that her husband can always "flee" at any time. Of course, the same thing may happen if the husband was Chinese, but a Chinese cannot flee out of the country as easily has a foreigner. I don't mean to be rude, but I don't share your pity for her, though. Judging from her current despair, I suspect that she has had some less-than-honourable motives to marry in the first place, which makes her less pitiful in my opinion. |
| 10 |
China's Low-Cost Spring Airlines I think low-cost carriers aren't less safe than major Chinese airlines. In fact, Spring Airline (SA) is using high-quality equipment from vendors such as GE, and has also awarded long-term maintenance contracts to GE. It's the off-the-flight area on which low-cost carriers save their money. There are frequent reports on delayed SA flights (http://www.china.org.cn/english/business/233495.htm) and lost or damaged baggage. In this context, I have some general questions regarding air travel in China: 1. Has there been any high-profile lawsuit between a plaintiff who had incurred significant financial losses due to a delayed domestic flight in China? If yes, what was the verdict? How are the odds for compensation resulting from a domestic flight delay? 2. Is there a way to insure your baggage when booking a ticket? 3. Are special rules applicable to low-cost carriers or do the same rules apply to standard airlines and low-cost carriers? |
| 9 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners I've recently been pondering this topic again, and came across one question that I couldn't find an answer for. Imagine a foreign expat marries a Chinese woman in China. They are formally registered as a married couple in China, but for whatever reasons not(!) in the man's home country. And there's no prenup. The man gets the major proportion of his remuneration paid in a hard currency to his home country account. He has virtually no tangible property or assets in China except for some consumables such as clothes, electric appliances. His apartment in China is of course paid by his company. What happens if the couple divorces and the man doesn't want to share anything of his assets with his former wife. All of his assets are insulated from her in his home country. He is willing to go back to his home country for good in order to maintain his assets and avoid any exposure to the Chinese Marriage/Family/Divorce Law. Is there anything the Chinese woman can do in this situation to secure a piece of the man's assets? Pls keep in mind that they're only registered as a married couple in China! Another similar of this question would be: What happens if the man skips the divorce procedure and just leaves China for good? Does the woman in this situation has any chance to get some of his property? Can she file suit in the man's home country if the man negates being married to her by international standards? Would be glad to get some replies. Thx in advance! |
| 8 |
Hotmail Does Not Work Have a German Hotmail account, and have experienced no problems so far to log in - neither on the website nor on MSN Messenger. If the problems persist, try to circumvent the standard traffic route...the web should offer a lot of hints on how to accomplish this. For example, if you're still registered with an institution (such as a university) in your home country, a VPN connection via that institution would an option. |
| 7 |
Hukou System in China First of all, the UN Human Rights do not apply to countries that deliberately object to them. The Hukou system seems to be a very complex and nerve-racking practice indeed. However, I don't believe that "discrimination" is the most adequate term to characterize it. As everybody knows, China is regarded as a country full of disparities or even inconsistencies. Based on this assumption, I - when looking at China-related issues - look at China not as one country but as a large area enclosing many smaller regions, all of which may well be regarded as a country of their own. China is a territory much too large to be managed by one government, and the administrative structure in place (central vs. provincial governments) indicates that in practice, provinces have a country-like status. Thus, crossing provincial borders is virtually equal to crossing country frontiers. Crossing country frontiers is anywhere else in the world as difficult as in China. And this approach removes a lot of the accusatory sentiments against the Hukou system. Some of the writers of the previous posts have already pointed out that similar forms of "discrimination" exist in other countries as well. A couple of years ago, it wasn't that easy to move across borders within the EU, so people there were facing problems just as the Chinese do when planning on cross-border healthcare, job-hunting, studying and so on and so forth. I admit that the extent is much more severe in China, but from an overall perspective, the underlying principle of the Hukou system is not uniquely Chinese. Apart from cross-border healthcare, which is a matter to specific to be discussed in just a few lines, the rules applicable to cross-border movement and employment are the same in China as in other places and can be summarized as follows: If you're in demand at the intended destination, you will be pulled there. But if you're not in demand, you have to fight to get yourself pushed to that place. |
| 6 |
Foreign Job Seekers Move to Shanghai @ SuperDave: Just came across a German news article (http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/karriere/:Kampf%20Fachkr%E4fte%20China/302137.html) stating that currently, the average gross salary for a CFO in China is USD 195k, though I think this figure applies to the tier-1 cities only. And please note one thing: You definitely don't need to have foreign experience to fill a CFO spot in China. You can't compare the tip of the iceberg in China with the average employee in the US. Sure, a graduate in China usually starts with a gross salary of ~3-4k RMB/month, while his US counterpart starts with ~3-5k USD/month. But after working for 10-15 years, China's best people will earn more than the average US employee in ABSOLUTE TERMS. An ordinary foreigner (regardless of his education and work experience) coming to China can't base his salary expectations on what the very best locals earn. |
| 5 |
Foreign Job Seekers Move to Shanghai I'm really sorry to hear that, meouw! That's such sad story. I can imagine how you feel because something similar happened to me when I was travelling alone in Suzhou. My loss amounted to approx. 2,000 RMB, too. There's no point in going into details. Since I know that it's practically hopeless in such a situation to try to get the money back (the police won't help you and other guests would never dare to butt in), I have sworn that I would one day go back and have my vengeance then. Of course, the amount itself is ridiculous, but I can't tolerate being deliberately cheated in such a mean way. I don't care if this is legal as long as the lines between what's illegal and legitimate is blurred in China. In some cases, taking the law into one's own hands is the only way for "justice". And this, by the way, is the positive side about China. In Germany, if the law doesn't bring justice, I would have to accept that. However, in China, I'm not afraid of using violence to fight for justice myself. |
| 4 |
Current University Students are Different @ Joshua Allen: I wonder what you mean by "limit" and what type of applicant you consider a talent. I have worked with three German companies in China, and all of them had one common problem: Most vacancies were filled (based on this observation, your statement that there are not enough jobs is right), but almost none of the employees could be considered a talent. Most of them only carried out orders given by superiors. Initiative, proactive suggestions for process improvements, sparking creative ideas were virtually zero. As long as there's no other choice, you must fill the empty spots with what you get. You can't leave them vacant. But that doesn't mean that all your hirings are "talents". It takes an eternity to even discover a talent. So in this sense, yes, there is a limit on how fast you can find talents. And that means, the quantity of talent is insufficient. Otherwise recruiters wouldn't even have to interview applicants anymore, but could instead just take some employment contracts to the campus and go for signature-hunting. As for your US example: Sure, in every country, there are extraordinarily talented people. And every company in developed countries welcomes them. However, that example only tells us that there is a talent gap in the US. It provides no information as to whether there is a talent gap or a talent glut in any country other than the US. |
| 3 |
Shanghainese Girl Marrying Foreigners Why do Chinese women prefer foreign men? I don't know. But it might be helpful if someone could explain the methodology of the idiom 崇洋媚外. Why does such an idiom exist in Chinese and what does it really mean? Does anybody know if there's any equivalent in English or any other language? And most importantly, is this term positively- or negatively-connoted nowadays in China? |
| 2 |
Current University Students are Different Thx, Wang Jianshuo! I didn't know that. But I assume your statement reflects the traditional and official differentiation. I doubt that this version still holds true in the present society since top university grads are much more preferred by recruiters than their peers from non-top universities. I can't comment on the thesis that today's university students are different than their predecessors. But I'd like to underscore one point which I believe is a fundamental obstacle when assessing a Chinese graduate from a foreign company's POV. Foreign MNCs complain about a talent gap in China. But usually they can't access the whole labour market for there are skilled people with insufficient English language skills. I know that one large German company attaches huge importance on English skills, and it's quite common for them to hire a candidate mainly because his English skills are superior than those of another applicant who might be stronger in other areas. Imo, this is economical nonsense. To shed a bit more light on my thesis, I'd like to name Yang Yuanqing, Chairman of the Board of the Lenovo Group, as an example. He is without doubt a great businessman in China. But when he began his career, he was an introverted person who barely spoke even one word of English. I think this would have already disqualified him for any job in a foreign MNC, let alone for a job as a manager. But he was a well-educated and knowledgable person, an expert engineer able to foresee upcoming trends. Lenovo recognized his talent and potential, and under the guidance of his mentor and then-chairman Liu Chuanzhi, who even talked Yang out of his plans to leave Lenovo to study in the US, Yang rose to the top of the company and eventually succeeded Liu as chairman. In any foreign company, Yang's career would have been impossible. When watching Lenovo's IR events, you can easily notice that he still is neither fluent in English nor very outgoing and hence does not correspond to a typical Western manager profile. Anyway, I firmly believe there's no doubt that he would also have added value to a foreign company in China. But imagine a job interview (in the 1980s) involving a foreigner who does his part of the interview in English, then the result is quite predictable. Now getting back to the above-mentioned obstacle, the key questions remains: "Should someone like Yang have been or be considered a talent?" |
| 1 |
Current University Students are Different What I'm wondering about in this context is in how far Jiaoda or Beida or Qinghua grads are really different than grads from non-top universities. Do they have a wider range of knowledge? Or deeper knowledge? Better hard skills? Or better soft skills? In my humble opinion, their only additional asset is a higher proficiency of the English language. Pls correct me if I'm wrong. I'd be glad if someone could briefly outline the added-value that grads from Chinese top universities can offer compared to "ordinary" grads. |