Essentials:
- Smartphone: Capable of running
- google-maps
- google translate (Fyi, the android version of google-translate has voice recognition...for some reason the iphone version doesn't...perhaps siri finally fixes this???)
- Pleco's OCR tool (pleco.com).
- Hanping: standalone chinese/english dictionary that you can install on your phone
- Pulse: A very nice app for reading different blogs. I keep track of headlines from US newspapers using it.
- Kindle: English books are limited in Shanghai. Best bet is the kindle-app and buy some ebooks
- Google Chrome: has built-in ability to translate web pages to/from chinese.
- VPN: When I access the company network I can browse certain sites that are blocked by the great firewall of china (aka the Golden Shield Project 金盾工程). I could write an entire post on the firewall, it is very frustrating for foreigners & mildly annoying for local chinese (there are all-chinese sites that provide the same services as the English sites that are blocked). Note that the firewall also blocks certain sites hosted within China from the US because the patriot act allows the US government to monitor all traffic on the internet and the Chinese government thinks that is intrusive.
- Printer that can print Chinese characters. Very useful when heading out, print out directions and hand them to a cab driver. My laser printer in the US couldn't print Chinese & I found it was easier to buy a new printer once I got here.
- Clothes: Bring what you can from the States. Chinese prefer different cuts and styles of clothes and buying off the rack can be tricky. You can go to to the fabric market and negotiate for tailored clothing. This is cheaper than off the rack, but takes time and effort to find a tailor, choose a design, choose a fabric and then wait 3-7 days for it to be made.
- Shoes: Bring good shoes. The quality of shoes purchased in china varies more than you'll find in the states and the largest size stocked in stores is typically a men's 11 or 12.
- Medicine/subscriptions/pills: You can get anything in China, but the FDA has no power here. Play it safe.
- Books/Games: Finding things printed in English is tough. There is one decent foreign language book-store (). Games all come with chinese letters and instructions. We are now huge fan of e-books from the amazon bookstore.
There are many, many grocery stores in Shanghai. They are all designed along the same lines, have clear to read pricing and are fairly easy to navigate if you shop during off peak hours. Most of them are two levels, with a mixture of food, vegetables & dry-goods. The only thing I find annoying is they use these long, slow moving walkways to move between levels. Think of a conveyor belt used instead of an escalator. People push carts onto them and you end up waiting until the ride comes to a complete stop.
- RT-Mart: Local Chinese store
- Tesco: British chain (but you wouldn't know it from RT-Mart if I didn't tell you)
- Lotus: Local Chinese store
- Carrefour: French Chain (see Tesco comment)
- City-shop: Chinese importer of foreign items. The place to shop when you need a specific item or brand, be prepared to pay outrageous prices
- Pines: Cityshop competitor
- Metro: A German version of Sam's club, selling a mix of imported and Chinese goods.
Most of the stores have a Walmart-sized electronics section that charge a fair price (for China). Bestbuy shutdown but the German chain Media Markt (http://www.mediamarkt.cn/en/) is actually larger. There are also several 5-6 multi-story malls devoted to selling electronics in Shanghai that are organized like a bazaar. The prices vary widely and are negotiable. Typically if something is cheaper than you can find at a fixed-price shop it indicates its either acting as an outlet-store, or that it is illegally imported, but you'll never know for sure :-) As a rule electronics cost 10-15% more in Shanghai, are wired for 220V/50Hz, use a funny plug and have a Chinese users manual.
Cell Phones:
Cell phones in China all use sim cards. You purchase the sim card and the phone separately
Any phone that is sold as “unlocked” may be used with a Chinese sim card
Any phone that is sold as “unlocked” may be used with a Chinese sim card
(iphones require a micro-sim card to fit into the slot, you'll have to request this when you get your sim card)
Simple recommendation:
Purchase an “unlocked” phone in the US that can support the protocols listed below. This will limit you to 2G data speeds (see below), but you receive a phone that uses English as its primary language (and comes pre-installed with English applications)
I highly recommend a smartphone (android or iphone) that can run the following applications:
- Google translate (incredibly handy, you can try/test the web-version of the app at translate.google.com)
- Google maps (English maps)
- Pleco (pleco.com) has OCR software that can scan/translate Chinese characters ($15)
- Hanping (a stand-alone Chinese/English dictionary)
- Kindle (there are not a lot of English books in china, the “kindle application” provides access to a large e-book library)
For the more adventurous:
Buy a phone in China so that you can have full 3G support. This works well if you speak Chinese & is really a no-brainer in that case. If you don’t speak Chinese purchasing a phone and getting English applications onto your phone will provide a number of unique challenges. I went this route and can discuss further if interested. Be warned that “fiddling with my phone” has become an ongoing hobby.
ATT & T-Mobile both sell simcards that can be used in this same manner. They aren't as cheap as the Chinese plans, but it does ensure we can still use our phones when we visit the States without paying the roaming fees.
I bought the Samsung Galaxy S (I9008L) from amazon.cn It came pre-installed with applications that only had Chinese text. I was (eventually, 2 months later) able to obtain/install English version of all the app's. The OS does a nice job of supporting english/chinese. The galaxy hardware has some problems with the GPS receiver, but this apparently extends to all models worldwide.
I bought Momma an HTC desire. With her phone I was able to reformat the phone and install cyanogenmod by following the instructions on the website, fully converting it from chinese->english the same day I purchased it.
All phones in China use GSM for voice and different variations of CDMA for data. To see a very confusing chart on how these match up look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G
Tech Details:
China mobile’s network (the one used by most of the GE people) uses the following protocols:
o Voice: GSM 900 mhz
o 2G data: GSM 900mhz (edge network protocol)
o 3G data: TD-SCDMA (3G protocol developed and used only in China, only supported by phones purchased in china)
If you read the China section of wikipedia's 3G page you'll note:
China Mobile: supports TD-SCDMA for 3G data
China Unicom: supports W-CDMA for 3G data
China Telecom: supports CDMA2000 for 3G data
I remember reading that W-CDMA is the data protocol used in the GSM iphones, but haven't been able to confirm this is true or not. I do know that people from the States have gotten 3G support while in China, but I'm not sure which network they were on.
TAXIS:
Taxi's are plentiful in Shanghai and very very cheap. The minimum fare is 14rmb (~2USD) and you can get around town for 20-30rmb a trip. Rides to the airport will cost 160-180rmb (25-28USD) for the 50km (30mi) trip.
Business travelers:
On your way out the door ask the hotel to write your destination down on a piece of paper. They flag down a cab & off you go. Don't forget to grab an address card for the hotel so its easy to return.
Lazy or Lost:
Call the English help line (962-288). Tell them where you want to go. Hand the phone to the cab driver. This is a free service that Shanghai put in place during the 2010 expo. The operators speak pretty good English and can look locations up on a computer terminal.
Basic:
- Pull out your smartphone
- Find the destination you want
- Find the nearest major cross street
- MAKE SURE YOU CAN SEE THE CHINESE CHARACTERS
- Show the cab driver the chinese characters
- If you can read pinyin then just tell him the cross street :-)
- Smile & nod while he tries to confirm what he is reading
Advanced:
- Pull out your smartphone
- Find the destination you want
- Click on "find route" and select "public transportation"
- Do what your phone tells you. Cost will vary from 1-10rmb depending on distance, transfers are discounted if you have a transport-card. Transport cards can be purchased in the subway and can be used to pay for all public transportation, including taxi's.
FYI: Google maps has very good knowledge of the subways and buses. Listing the number of stops, fares and duration with reasonable accuracy.
Signs:
The Chinese played a dirty trick. Many, many, many signs, including road signs, use English characters. Some of these signs (restaurants, stores, elevators) use regular English phonics...good. Others, road-signs, sign-posts, etc... use pinyin, not so good. Pinyin is a written language that uses English characters, but the pronunciation is slightly different. For example "puxi" is prounounced "poo-shee". This makes communication very difficult since if you don't use the pinyin pronunciation nobody will understand you. The plus side of pinyin is that there is only one way to pronounce anything written in it. The downside is that the sounds they chose are not the most common use of the letters in English (qixin == "chee-sheen"). Then you toss in the fact that your voice can rise/fall while speaking and if it is rising or falling changes the meaning of a word.
For example "mai", pronounced "my", when said in a descending tone equals "sell", when said with a falling & rising tone it means "buy".....say them both together (mai-mai) & it means "business"....go figure. All three are written using the exact same pinyin, the only difference is the little tone character they put above the word. To better understand this look at http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/pinyintable_vertical.php and click on cell 3-4 to hear the 4 different ways of pronouncing "mai"....each of which has a distinct meaning.
Pinyin also plays an interesting role in Chinese society. All the keyboards I have seen are QWERTY. So the Chinese type using pinyin, are given a list of matching Chinese characters, select one and move on to the next word. I find pinyin pronunciation difficult to learn/remember and I'm not sure using the same same characters as English helps anything.
Maps:
I created a number of google maps to help find my way around shanghai:
Maps:
I created a number of google maps to help find my way around shanghai:
- http://g.co/maps/47f3z (business info, all office locations, bus routes & recommended hotels)
- http://g.co/maps/mvfsf (all of the above, plus schools & puxi-housing options)
How to create your own maps:
- Find a location on google maps
- Click on it
- At the bottom of the pop-up box select "save to map"
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