chinadave2001

Mark - welcome to 1000 club. You are truly inspiring. Happy New year.... CD

So can a nice little trip to Guantanamo, at the liesure of your American hosts... To exercise in the Cuban sunshine! Why not?

Happy Birthday Old Man! Glad to see that all is well with "peach." Hope you guys make your way out here to the East Coast this winter/spring. My Best, CD

High School history teacher for 11 years - I also coach High school football and study Tai Qi Quan and Aikido.

Cut your losses now. Cancel the cards, cut her her off completely. Do not make excuses for her nor accept any silly ideas about lack of power, etc. If this was a real relationship she would find a way to contact you. Under no circumstances should you send any more money to "fix things." Just my two jiao from a fellow victim. cd

While this is not directly related to Chinese gals, I thought some might find it useful/interesting. CD Russian Gal Seeking Comrade? No, It's an Internet Scam By C. J. CHIVERS Published: November 3, 2004 James Hill for The New York Times These photographs were sent from Russia by e-mail to men in the United States, supposedly from a woman named Nadezhda Medvedeva. After exchanging romantic messages, she asks for money, then evaporates. MOSCOW, Nov. 2 - As she sends e-mail with her photograph to men around the world, Nadezhda Medvedeva calls to the lonely in just the right voice. If circumstances were different she might make a fine wife. She is young, brown-eyed and curvy, a pediatric dentist who quotes 19th-century poetry and cooks delicious meals. She lives near the Caspian Sea in southern Russia but is eager to travel. Her Russian is fluent; her English, not bad. Ms. Medvedeva is also cautious, even demure. It is only after she grows comfortable with a suitor that she will reveal the depth of her longing. Then nothing can hold her back. "Hi, my Lion!" she wrote to Steven Rammer of Denver, Pa., as they planned a passionate rendezvous at his home. "Hi, my soul!" That rendezvous never happened. Nor did another she arranged for two days later with George Palin, who waited in vain in Montana. No matter how long the trail of the jilted, Nadezhda ("call me Nadia") Medvedeva is neither a tease prone to second thoughts nor an overbooked online tramp. She is not even a person. She is bait. Ms. Medvedeva is one of scores, perhaps hundreds, of fictional characters in a resurgent Internet hustle that has become a Russian boom industry this year. Using fake names, forged visas and snapshots of young Russian women, a new crop of on-line swindlers is luring Western victims into highly successful confidence games. Each is an escalating flirtation between an unsuspecting man and a Russian grifter masquerading as a young woman. It typically ends when the victim wires money to Russia to pay for visas and airfare for a consummation of the affair. Then the beloved disappears. The con first surfaced in 2001 but then subsided, Russian authorities say. It has recently returned with vigor and new sophistication. The targets are men in the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand who have posted personal advertisements on the Internet. The crime has become so widespread that the United States Embassy here is receiving between 5 and 10 inquiries from American citizens about it every day, an American diplomat said. "Some of these guys were literally left waiting at the airport with roses," she said. Most victims lose from $300 to a few thousand dollars, although one man was defrauded of $11,000, the diplomat said. The number of men duped is at least in the hundreds, but it may be much larger. "We only know about the victims who are willing to talk about it," she said. Modern Russia is in many ways an incubator for such crimes. It has a highly literate population that suffers from low wages and soaring unemployment, conditions that can breed hustlers. It offers them an environment in which they can work, including uneven law enforcement and barriers to outsiders - a language many find impenetrable, strict visa rules and vast geographical spaces - that all but ensure that few fooled Americans could ever find the people who tricked them. Mr. Rammer and Mr. Palin both gave The New York Times the correspondence they had received from the person pretending to be Ms. Medvedeva. The string of e-mail messages provides an example of how the game works. In June the correspondent sent an e-mail message to Mr. Rammer, replying to a personal advertisement he had posted on match.com, an online dating service. It seemed a normal query, offering basic personal information - I'm 29, 5 feet 6 inches tall, a dentist - and then following the rituals of new acquaintance. Do you like your job? What is your favorite film? A long-distance conversation began. More e-mail followed, each message with an attached photograph. The character of Ms. Medvedeva was slowly revealed. She is educated but of limited means. She knows popular Western films and classical Russian music. She provides dental care to orphans. She had a boyfriend, but he beat her. Now she is alone. As the exchange intensified the grifter accepted pictures from Mr. Rammer, sent back compliments and answered questions he had posed. Two e-mail messages included pictures of Ms. Medvedeva in a bikini. On July 13 Ms. Medvedeva's character admitted it: she had fallen in love. "In my soul, I feel contentment and joy when I think of you," she wrote.

This was not true when I went through the process two years ago. My Senator contacted GZ without any consent form whatsoever. CD

what's the problem? It's a family restaurant afterall....

Congrats! :lol CD

Any evidence of abuse, such as a police report is enough "evidence" to get a green card. There are internet sites in Chinese that explain how to do it. Go to an abused woman's shelter, get a free lawyer there, claim and file a police report, etc...you are on your way. There is nothing the husband/fiance can do about it. Period. I believe there are millions of Chinese woman who would do anything to get out of China, despite their recent economic prowess. I was in China a total of four months, and during that time four different women suggested that I was the one true love of their life. You do the math. At the same time, I believe that true love can be found there and that many have. The many successful couples on this board are testament to that. But let's not be naive and believe that everyone out there has honest and good intentions. CD

seems like Hu has finally won control of the military, no? NYTimes reported yesterday..... CD

Exactly. We need to get after that one as well. Other countries can secure their borders - why can't we?

Personally I think its a good idea. Too many of these countries are very lax in their approach to documents. Far too easy for a terrorist to get a French passport. We need to more vigilent than ever. CD

My ex-fiance declared that she had been a member of the party on her visa application and got her visa anyway, as have many others. This story is inconsistent with past practice. CD

Congrats! Best wishes to you guys for a happy life together. CD

DITTO. Hell yeah.

I agree. In fact. i do an exercise with my studenst where they have to identify which country is the most socilaist by listing the socila programs and protections that are given by the government. US wins every time over China. I think that China is now a one party system which manages the transition to a capitalist economy very carefully. But they are in no way "communist" as Karl Marx or even Stalin would have understood it. CD

You mean cheeto dust? CD

Generally speaking "materialism" refers not to the need for basic things of living, but rather a love of things bigger, newer, better than your neighbor's, etc. Such a desire often comes at great expense in terms of your own family life, spiritual development, intellectual development, etc. As country we suffer from great materialism as we are constantly bombarded with advertising getting us to upgrade, get the latest, get bigger, etc. The USA is about 5% of the world's population yet we consume something like 40% of the world's resources. How long can we sustain that? Gross consumerism/materialism is, in my opinion, the source of many of our country's problems. CD

Hmmm, where to start? 1. I agree with those that suggest that stereotypes are a bad idea. For example, I have met many american and chinese women who are not materialistic, or completely so. I don't think either side has any bragging rights here. Remember our visa-gold digger Chinagirl? 2. There are predators on both sides of the equation- I met one guy in Qingdao who was close to 60 dating a 21 year old chinese girl ....who the predator was I am not sure. Likewise, there some Chinese women whose main purpose in life is to find the foreignor who will help them get out of china - 3. IMHO, There is no way to know if she is the one. Sorry. Time together, frequent visits, meeting the family, etc. can all help but until you actually live together and deal with the stresses of real life, neither of you will know what you you have. Hopefully you guessed right. 4. Finally, I think there is something deep within the American male psyche that resonates with Chinese women. Our roles, as males, in modern American life are increasingly under attack and vague.....I am unable to explain this further. (no, it has nothing to do with subservient women...) CD

I always found the easiest way was to get the initial 30 day tourist visa and then extend it as needed. There is rarely any problem with this,. There were some who had some this three times..... All you have to do is go to the police department before your 30 day visa expires and ask for an extension. very easy. CD

Congrats! Very happy for you both. CD

Congratulations to you, Li and Salina! You are very blessed! I am very happy to hear that everything turned out well. Dave

Sorry to hear you are still having so much troubles...... Do you want to rent a room from me? Hartford is very fast on such things.... Your baby should be arriving any day now right? Stilll hoping for the 16th.... CD

HI all, having endured a failed attempt at k1 visa last year, maybe these are just the rantings of a jaded man..... It seems to me that we have seen a few of these types of posts in recent months....I am a bit surprised that there isn't more anger at these folks who seem intent on beating the system. If anything, some of you seem rather sympathetic to them. It is because of those who want to cheat the system that your fiance visa process takes so long. It is because of those who cheat that you cannot invite her family over without extreme difficulty. Everytime one of these folks beats the sytem, and many do, our state department makes it harder for those folks who have legitimate reasons for immigrating..... If she has no intention to marry the petioner, she has no business using a k1 visa. Having waited for one year to come here, having told her family and friends that she was doing so, losing face...etc...do not collectively justify what she is intending to do. And if she succeeds, it just becomes harder for everyone else. Just my thoughts. CD