b.c

And lube, vibrator and pink furry handcuffs. Might as well go all out But expect to get the handcuffs confiscated on your way back out of China like I did.

This is actually not true. 80% get mortgages and only about 20% pay cash. The claim that young people are finding it hard to have roof over their head is also not true. Although housing prices have gone up quite a bit, rental has not. The rental return is about 3-4% in most cities and as low as 2% in cities with high housing prices. People can rent. Out of curiosity I do look at housing prices as well as rental rates in a few areas in China. And I have noticed that the rental rates are extremely low compared to values. You are probably spot on with the return figures you mentioned. But what I cannot figure out is why. Is this simply a supply/demand equilibrium situation? And if so, would that not suggest an extremely scary amount of speculation in the real estate market, even more so than perhaps even some 'china real-estate bubble alarmists' believe? What say you?

It can be real comedy here sometimes as to where people are getting their figures when they make statements. I would consider it very likely that many Chinese young, and real estate investors are opting to go the mortgage route, in lieu of years past where predominately cash was paid in full. It would be very difficult to validate any figures, as I don't know that they are published in China. That culture of remaining debt free is alive and well. There are dangers in financing a home in China. Many of my co-workers have opted to get a loan, and had to come up with the standard 50% of the total value when submitting the application to the bank. The danger here is, that if you don't get approved, and it does happen, that you lose that 50% down fee. Therefore, unless you have a very stable income and history, it is still safer to pay the total in cash. Also, don't forget that most Chinese live in rural areas where everything is different. FWIW, I know of a couple families in my wife's hometown about 40 miles west of chengdu that recently bought apartments with 30% and mortgaged the rest. It is in the earthquake stricken region and I wonder if that has anything to do with it because there is a lot of developments and buildings going up within the past year. And I do know some of it is coming from government funds...particularly a lot of resorts at the hot springs area and the base of the himalayas.

I dont believe any $500 or $1,000 are in circulation any longer. One option would be cashier's check but the exchange rate you get on them is a bit lower than cash. I dont have much experience with ATM in china as I usually bring cash. But lots of members here use ATM and there have been many posts about them recently. It sounds like a good option, especially through Bank of America and its China partner bank (forgot who it is). But I think there is a daily limit so you would probably need to do it for several days. Regarding the wedding, I am curious as to how much you are planning to spend and what city/area the wedding will be and any details about the wedding you can provide because we are in the process of planning our Chinese wedding ceremony.

Haha, thats funny. Aint gunna happen anytime soon. They can write all the code, policies and guidelines all they want. Its the enforcement that is so crucial. And there will continue to be very little enforcement, count on it. For every 1 official that gets caught and is made into an 'example', there are 1,000 more carrying on. The risk/reward ratio is highly in their favor. And the central committee has known this for some time. If it was such a concern for them then it would be taken care of by now. When China is committed to something they move fast and forceful. They are the barbarians at the gate.

I have always got business (F) visa in the past, but it should be no problem at all, especially with your previous history of multiple visa's in the past. And another benefit of what you plan to do is that you can get a 2 year multiple entry visa by providing your marriage documents provided that she is still a Chinese National.

Be careful - Xoom charges 1% on the currency conversion (6.75 conversion rate) and has a fairly small limit. Last week they did not. The $1500 was converted to a little over 102300 RMB. My limit is $6000 per month. Probably because I have been using them for quite a while. The $4.99 is a recent rate reduction. Not sure if it is for long time members or not. Wow, wish I could get 102300rmb for $1,500. My wife uses xoom to send money to parents. Always works fine but one time it did take a few days longer than normal.

I have flown United out of Chicago to China 8 times and all has been well.

Thanks again Tony. I appreciate these reports.

Yes this was on the news when we arrived in Shanghai last week. We ate at a restaurant the first night and laopo ordered acoke and they recommended that she not drink it because there were problems reported about it lately. But they didnt know the exact problem then. I didnt really believe it or think much of it. And being the coke lover I am, I continued to drink it over the next couple days. A few days into our trip we were in Jinhua and I took a drink out of a coke bottle and sure enough, I felt something with a weird texture going into my mouth. I quickly spit it out and it was a glob of gooey subtstance and contained a few small round balls, like seeds. I quickly went to our hotel room and brushed my teeth. No problems since.

Seems like the celebration has already started here in Jinhua. I am here visiting some factories before going to wife's home for SF and there were fireworks going off all over the city throughout the night, from about 10pm all the way up to about 7am when it got light outside. I woke up at 2am and got some of it on video. Very impressive. If the celebrate this much more than a week before the beginning of SF then I could only imagine how it will be when it officially starts.

Randy is spot on as usually. Definitely need to provide all 3 to make it look as good as possible. Employers are required by law to provide W2's by Jan 31st. So if you do not have all of them yet then you should be getting them very soon. If not then get on the horn with ur employers and ask wtf is going on.

You did good Robert. Damn good. Me thinks your home free.

My wife has a luggage bag full of gifts that she is bringing back for friends and family. People on 001 have her concerned that she is going to face problems at customs. I told her worst case scenario is that we will have to pay some duties on it, which is no big deal. But she wanted me to post here to see if there would be any problems and to get an idea of the duties we would have to pay. Also, its not possible to lock the luggage bag in usa, correct? The value of the goods are about $1,400 and contain a couple coach and guess handbags and lots of makeup and a couple guess watches. Anyone have any idea if this will be a problem and what/if we will pay in customs so my wife will settle down? TIA, Brian

Absofuckinlutely go go go to ACH on Monday. What are you thinkin? You got a cheap shot in the nads. Get up, shake it off and fight back, with courtesy of course coz they still got ya by the balls. I would exhaust every possible opportunity while still in Guz.

Not trying to be pessimistic, but my experience suggests that there is usually something 'missing' or unforeseen complications, disadvantages, etc in regards to any business transaction or venture in china. For lack of better words, Chinese businessmen can be very opportunistic and clever. Before doing such a thing I would try to seek counsel from someone (preferably a foreigner) that has had experience with a similar endeavor.

I'm not sure what you disagree with. Etymology of democracy: In the US, we instituted democracy through voting. No dispute. But there is nothing in the original greek words about voting, which was my point. How do you understand and explain Wen Jiabao's claim that China has democracy, then? He made the claim back in 2006-7. Only in ancient Greece was democracy practiced. The Greek citizens voted on every legislative agenda. In America, we have a Republic; not a democracy! We elect representatives to vote for us on legislative issues and hope that they are not representing other interests. On that note....

The English teachers I've met here in Nanjing are an extremely unhappy lot. Most of them are younger students who dreamed of a glorious easy life and easy money. Two or three months after they arrive, they wind up on bitter expat groups talking to each other about how bad everything is. A very small percentage of them make it past the one year mark. Those that do, seem to adjust well. Very good Jesse my feeling exactly and just what I told another member here just a short time ago in a PM. These guys go for the adventure, travel and lets not forget the female companionship. Larry Doing doing, we got a weiner right here.

Mutianyu is a fantastic place. And if your driver takes the backroads to get there, it's even better! Yeah Yeah, you probably spent all your time at Maggie's bar. c'mon admit it

I will be traveling to China arriving Feb 2nd and staying for about 1 month on an F Visa that expires Apr 15, 2010. But my visa has stay duration of 90 days. Will I have any problems due to the possible duration being after the expiration date? I thought I read somewhere awhile back that this was the case but I cant seem to find anything about it now. TIA y'all

C'mon post some pics for our entertainment.

Right on. Nor was he an expert in the energy business, fast food industry and so on. But what he does seem to excel in is finding entities that are cooking the books and are ripe for fall. With that being said, I have the utmost confidence in the opinion of Jim Rogers. I think the conditions are there for this to play out sometime in the future, but I think China has a fairly solid footing now and has plenty of good years ahead before this happens. His call might be even more premature than Greenspan's infamous 'irrational exuberance' call.

I say go for the gusto and try to get your parents to visit China. It might not appeal to them in the beginning, but I bet they would appreciate and enjoy the experience tremendously. Then, not only would they meet your girl, but also maybe some of her family and most importantly her country and her environment. That could be priceless. And as someone else pointed out, HK and Macau are fun fun fun. I am sure your parents would enjoy spending some time there and your SO should easily be able to get visa there. Besides, I dont think you have many other suitable options.

Have a good trip.

Sounds worked fine for me about an hour ago. Very interesting watch.