Hey Earthlings…

Since I had been living in China for the past two and half years, I have experienced some things, I thought I would share, with my readers, it might help someone who is planning, travel or live in China.

Internet

We all know that there is a China Firewall, which is an added expense when you are a student and you have to research on an assignment, you a have limited space of the world-wide-web to use. But the is fixed by buying a VPN, I used Express VPN, it worked for me when I was using my laptop, it works on all your devices. I used Better net for my iPhone because it was free and it would use it every day. (https://www.expressvpn.com/)

The phone carriers that are available are:- China Mobile, China Telcom, China Unicom. You can have a contract but most foreigners use pay as you go all you need is your passport to register the sim card, they can top up airtime for you.

Travel

When use a taxi, have address of the place in Chinese and Use Maps to find it,if you don’t have VPN Google Maps is out of the question, you can use Baidu Maps,so when you get into the taxi you know which direction you are going, because most taxi drivers won’t take you to the place if it is on the opposite side of the town or if they have to take a U-turn, and always insist to use the meter cause sometimes they will take you without the meter but overcharge you.

Never give a taxi driver a 100 Rmb has fair when the distance you have traveled in under 100 Rmb because they tend to exchange it with a fake one and tell you that you gave him a fake money. Always have loose change for a taxi ride.

Be careful of your belongings when using the subway or the buses, since they tend to be packed especially during rush hour, plus they are apps that have each subway stations and lines. I never got anything stolen when I was using the subway or bus but people have experienced it, so it is a friendly warning to be vigilant of your surroundings.

Invest in a Metro Card they are sold in all the subway station, it is cost around 100 RMB with 50 RMB pre-loaded, It will save you the trouble when it comes to using the trains and buses. You can top them up in 7 eleven, they are practically in every corner just go up to the counter and show them your metro card and they will help you load it.

Clothes

This is something that I went through more than once, because of the humidity, clothes tend to get mold, my wool coat, or any of my winter coats, any material that can retain water like cotton, leather, and velvet, these materials are not great for the China weather.

You can have to get a humidifier to put in your closets to help combat that, Hang the affected clothes in the sun, then send them to the laundry mat. It doesn’t only affect the clothes, it sometimes everything.

The clothes that don’t get affected are clothes made with polyester, so don’t carry your really good expensive clothes.

Money

There is a lot of fake currency, so don’t exchange your money anywhere, apart from the bank, but if you do find a black market exchange place, the highest domination is 100 Rmb check the collar of the president, it is usually ribbed if it is real, the fake ones the collar won’t be ribbed.

The domination is 100 Rmb, 50 RMB, 20 RMB, 10 RMB,5 RMB,1 RMB.

I hope this post helps someone.

Signing Out Ramblings Of a Kenyan Girl

Song of the blog: Issues by Julia Micheals