whome?

Have you thought about "TexasDave"? Would I have to eat grits? No - Texas does not qualify as 'Southern' in that regard. but you would have to eat tacos sigh .. i miss mexican food here

Depends on where you filed (CSC or VSC). See my timeline and those at VJ. 3 months is not standard.

I agree. Somewhere in the picture there is logic, it's just the logic doesn't make much sense from a Western perspective. In the minds of the dry cleaner and hotel, it makes perfect sense that you pay for a service rendered, even though the service didn't meet reasonable expectation. I've witnessed several exchanges between Chinese people regarding pricing, fairness, and so on. From things as simple as buying fruit on the street, clothing, electronics, whatever. Usually, if you accept the first price, first offer, and fail to put your foot down over something unfair, you're considered a sucker. Most of us lao wai, fall in that category. One thing, is it's a good idea to speak up and let them know you're unhappy. If you think the haggling over prices makes you look like a sucker here, I suggest you never go to any South American country -- with the notable exception of Chile -- for more than 25 minutes. They make the Chinese look like total amateurs. I agree that service aboard short-haul flights on Chinese airlines is much better than on US airlines. Even their frequent flyer programs are far, far superior to US carriers. I do not agree, however, that customer service in the US is not as good as in China. As a whole, customer service in the US is much better -- as a whole. In China service is pretty good in upper middle class and better establishments in large cities. In your average stores and restaurants it's hit and miss. And in smaller cities it can still be really terrible. Back home it's usually good, but then if you get off the beaten path and end up at a KFC in the "hood" ... well, just hope you're wearing one of the better-made bullet proof vests. I never really thought of service being better in the north vs. southern China. I have found people as friendly and service as good in both areas. I think the difference is that in the north people just have much more time to talkk to you because of their less stressing lifestyle and their inherent interest in all things foreign. In the south people are used to expats plus they really are pushed to work hard and have no time (or energy) for idle chit chat while working. I would have to agree with you about the difference in south and north china. My wife, who is from the south, says that customer experience is better in the south than in the north for us because (as you said) they are more used to expats and provide a more western style customer service. That being said we always get more information, help, and suggestions on places of interest, things to do, deals, etc. here in the north than in the south. As she says, it requires much hard work in the south just to make a living and pay for the housing.

Don't forget on the translation to follow this advice from DHS in Beijing TRANSLATIONS All documents that are in languages other then English must be translated. The translator must certify that they are fluent in both languages: ¡°I hereby certify that I am fluent and competent in both English and _____ and that I have translated the attached/above document from ______ into English. The translation is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.¡± Signature

Sigh ... these things do not just happen only in China or southeast Asia. I have had clothes ruined by hotel laundry all over the world at international 5-star resorts .... I do agree with one thing they said: "They told me I over paid for the shirts and it is not their fault for this. They said shirts like this are very cheap in China. "

I know a situation like this can be dificult but please dont suggest it was maybe caused to chinese culture .... these type of people are all over the world. I have experienced similar while living and working in Europe. Some people just do not like change, new people, new situations, or different people. Hope all is better now.

I can understand that ... and it is a sad comment on the state of spousal immigration rules and procedures in ta country founded on immigration. Glad to see you finally get her Visa and best of luck!!

I supported what you said. Jackie has the issue with Chinese quality.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-04/...ent_7701451.htm The mainland press started discussing the story now.... Solon So, the chief executive of Chan's company JC Group and his main spokesman, told AP in a phone interview yesterday that the actor was referring to freedom in the entertainment industry rather than Chinese society at large. "Some people with ulterior motives deliberately misinterpreted what he said," So said. And so we see that PR is also the same all over the world ...

Take a good sense of humor and be ready to laugh at yourself and the situations you may find yourself in ... Your very prepared .. more than I was for my first work assignment to China. My own personal viewpoint: a. don't try to hard to bring all the comforts of your home with you but embrace the Chinese lifestyle and way of living. b. you really don't have enough rum Have a great time!!!!!!! If you decide to visit the east coast and get to Qingdao Shandong send me a PM.

Yep. Yes, and affirmative. Good for you for going with the flow. There's plenty more coming... Agreed ... she is is helping me to "go with flow" and learning from me that planning is not always bad. I have experienced the same in business. It is not unusal to have most of your meetings be scheduled 0-1 days in advance. If we plan to go eat outside in the evening and I ask her "where do you want to eat" I always make sure to try and get there within 5-10 minutes otherwise the preffered eating establishment will have changed at least a dozen times!! Different is fun!!

International Labor Day, as they call it in China, was changed from a one-week holiday for all of China, to a three-day weekend a few years ago. China Youth Day, is another holiday that follows International Labor Day. Yes it is for International Labor Day that honors a labor uprising in Chicago USA but yet the USA does not celebrate on this day with the rest of the world. For me this was quite interesting to learn because while I was taught about hte Haymarket Massace in school I was never taught about an International holiday that honored the uprising.

Chinese people really do enjoy their holidays. One of my co-workers asked whether people in the US get such a holiday... Wow! It went by totally unnoticed here. Not only did my son still have school, but we didn't give any time off to our staff that fell within the age range mentioned. did we skip the last 1-1/2 weeks of April? You still have time to give your young staff this holiday.

Great News

Maybe he saw the "light" and went to work for Snow ...

Dish network satellites range from 67.5 degrees, to 130 degrees. North America only. Satellites are geo-synchronous, meaning they are 22,000 miles up, and stay where they are above the equator, so you never have to re-aim your satellite dish. CNN, HBO, and anyone else who broadcasts in Asia (or their distributors) have satellites in that part of the world. It appears that Dream Satellite is the most predominate company used in China when it comes to foreigners. We now have our signal restored, and I also learned a lesson, Chinese style, from my wife about trusting her and others. Small business thrives in China, and the satellite market is a part of it. When the technician came over the other night, I put my wife in an awkward position of having to translate, while I asked questions, like: "If I were to call the Dream company in the Philippines, would they be able to corroborate our smart card number and business?" "I've heard that there are many pirates for Dream in China, are you one of them?" ...and a few more choice direct questions... I did let him know, that whatever his answers were, I just wanted him to be honest, and not cheat us. Of course, not such a good idea to do that sort of thing in China. In this case, he's just a nice guy, trying to make some money on the side. Turns out, he is legit, at least so far as providing us a registered connection with Dream. As for my wife, she says: "Don't do that to people in China. It's not right." Jessie I also learned not to ask too many questions using my wife as translator when there are issues ... it is far more likely to get your issue resolved (or the price cheaper) if the foreigner stays in the background, says nothing, and follows the wife lead (as in yes that price is way too much or the look of "come on .. you can fix this"). I have only put her in a situation like this when our natural gas leak detector alarm went off and the gas company guy kept telling her there was no problem. It finally turned out that he did not measure a leak but that he thought the sensor was bad. He turned it off. We go a new one the next day. As far as your sat. connection I still have to say GZ bill is right. He is probably a nice guy trying to make some extra money on the side but there I do not think the service is legal. It may be a legit/registered signal but that is different from the service you have being legal. Again I am not being the moral police (if I had to do it again I would have gone this route because as GZBill said the legal sa. TV has limited selection) just telling you from my experience and others.

Thanka David. Your concern was also a reason I did not not pull my USa petition in Dec08 or Jan09 when I first found out I would go back to USA in Aug09. At that time I was able to convince my wife that everything would still be ok as long as we got NOA-2 in Mar09 or even latest Apr09. See has recently seen people on 001 (same on here also) who DCF and got the visa in 2 months. She also has seen on 001 the people who filed in VSC in 2009 and already gotten NOA-2 while those who filed in Sep-Dec08 are still waiting. Explaining that Sh*T happens when dealing with govt. does not make her anymore happy. As an aside, my lawyer said that they had hired more staff throughout 1Q09 at VSC to deal with backlog (instead of continuing to load shift between CSC and VSC) and that the new hires were being given the more recent petitions while the older staff continued to work on the backlog.

and you won't, not from that article. The linkage I am making starts with Chile, from last year. Peter is stepping into The New Thing. but he has a HK case number...not GUZ

So if I'm reading this right - it smells like the 'original document collection' will occur at GUZ on interview day. My best guess, so far, is that it was used in Chile for some time, and now the program is 'opened up' for I-130's 'handled' at GUZ, RSN (Real Soon Now). Pilot Programs are COOL ! I'd certainly like to learn more, la. My mind boggles, need sugar! But I see no meantion of GUZ

I'm not sure whether the guy is legally licensed with Dream or not. Dream offices are based in Beijing, and there is also a big office in Shanghai, so they do provide service in China. Impossible for him to be licensed. No Sat TV is legal unless provided directly by the government. Try asking him for a valid fa piao that specifically states the concept as Sat TV. In Guangzhou, Shanghai and now Beijing I've seen the Sat dish raids following months of warning notices on compound bulletin boards. They simply use window-washing equipment to scale even the highest buildings and pluck Sat dishes off your balcony. Some hotels obtain special licenses, though. And in Beijing the diplomatic compounds get legal Sat TV and special cable services. I agree. Most likely a pirate. No legit fa piao here. Thankfully, so far no warnings. I've heard that this is done in some places, but have heard that most foreigners are excluded from the practice. Time will tell for sure. I guess if they pluck it off, we'll just get another one.... I am not trying to bust your ass or anything because I thought about getting one of these illegal ones also ... but sure they maybe sometimes let expats have a little more freedom but also they can decide to prosecute and make this an issue. Not sure if they could decide to throw you out of China for it but why risk it. My legal Sat through the Cable TV office (licensed by Govt) only cost 2,800 RMB/year. I'll wait until the right moment to mention that to my wife. I don't know if that moment will ever come, because she doesn't much like me following behind her pointing out what she coulda and shoulda done, or even should consider doing next time. So, I take the easy way out, and say; honey, thank you for your hard work. Maybe when it comes time to renew, I'll just mention: "Hey honey, why don't we check with the cable company about getting a legal satellite? Good plan

I think the thing to keep in mind about quality of Chinese products is that while modern concepts of quality control have been adopted by a large number of western/Japanese/Korean companies, these concepts are really just beginning to be adopted by a lot of Chinese companies. I say this from the perspective of someone currently doing business in China as part of a large U.S. company, who has had some "interesting" experiences with aspects of quality control from Chinese/Taiwanese corporations over the past few months. This isn't to say that Chinese goods are inherently dangeous, but some companies are far ahead of others when it comes to quality control and other manufacturing practices. It's much more hit and miss than in the U.S. I made my comments as an American running two German-Chinese joint ventures in China using domestic China raw material supply companies. I fully understand and can appreciate what you say. We do many more supplier audits thant we would ever do in Europe or NAFTA and have a list of good, ok, and bad suppliers (only take from in an emergency). My point was that saying you are scared of a Chinese TV blowing up is an asine and crazy statement to make. Chinese quality is not that bad and actually their electronic industry quality is rapidly approaching global standard. The statement was way off target plus within the context of his other statements it makes no sense at all. China is the first place I've ever been where they will actually take a new electronic device out of the box, plug it in, and check to ensure that it is fully functional and operating, while you're standing there. As a consumer, I rather like that, though it caught me off-guard at first. You have the option here to buy the top of the line, name brand product, and after market stuff, depending upon how much you wanna spend. The cheaper stuff of course isn't as reliable and may not work out of the box, so you just keep opening boxes until you find one that does. Exactly .... although the reason for the practice of checking the electronic device is because the chinese people are used to poor quality and do not trust anything ... so it kinds of defeats my statement They also check memory sticks, etc. I was also surprised when they cut open a plastic package containing the memory stick and make the sales eprson plug it into a computer, copy a file on to it, and then re-open the file. I rather like it too.

I think the thing to keep in mind about quality of Chinese products is that while modern concepts of quality control have been adopted by a large number of western/Japanese/Korean companies, these concepts are really just beginning to be adopted by a lot of Chinese companies. I say this from the perspective of someone currently doing business in China as part of a large U.S. company, who has had some "interesting" experiences with aspects of quality control from Chinese/Taiwanese corporations over the past few months. This isn't to say that Chinese goods are inherently dangeous, but some companies are far ahead of others when it comes to quality control and other manufacturing practices. It's much more hit and miss than in the U.S. I made my comments as an American running two German-Chinese joint ventures in China using domestic China raw material supply companies. I fully understand and can appreciate what you say. We do many more supplier audits thant we would ever do in Europe or NAFTA and have a list of good, ok, and bad suppliers (only take from in an emergency). My point was that saying you are scared of a Chinese TV blowing up is an asine and crazy statement to make. Chinese quality is not that bad and actually their electronic industry quality is rapidly approaching global standard. The statement was way off target plus within the context of his other statements it makes no sense at all.

I'm not sure whether the guy is legally licensed with Dream or not. Dream offices are based in Beijing, and there is also a big office in Shanghai, so they do provide service in China. Impossible for him to be licensed. No Sat TV is legal unless provided directly by the government. Try asking him for a valid fa piao that specifically states the concept as Sat TV. In Guangzhou, Shanghai and now Beijing I've seen the Sat dish raids following months of warning notices on compound bulletin boards. They simply use window-washing equipment to scale even the highest buildings and pluck Sat dishes off your balcony. Some hotels obtain special licenses, though. And in Beijing the diplomatic compounds get legal Sat TV and special cable services. I agree. Most likely a pirate. No legit fa piao here. Thankfully, so far no warnings. I've heard that this is done in some places, but have heard that most foreigners are excluded from the practice. Time will tell for sure. I guess if they pluck it off, we'll just get another one.... I am not trying to bust your ass or anything because I thought about getting one of these illegal ones also ... but sure they maybe sometimes let expats have a little more freedom but also they can decide to prosecute and make this an issue. Not sure if they could decide to throw you out of China for it but why risk it. My legal Sat through the Cable TV office (licensed by Govt) only cost 2,800 RMB/year.

I think if Chinese automakers can grasp the concept of quality AND price they'll be another automotive powerhouse like Japan. Don't worry they will do that... How long it will take is the question. I remember there was a time when Japanese stuff was call junk and look now where they are. Yea .. now if only the USA carmakers could do it in cars made for USA consumption (not for export to Europe). I'm not sure if US automobiles are of lesser mechanical quality that, say, Japanese cars. At one point they truly were, but over the past few years my family members that own American cars say that they are very pleased with the actual quality. It's the service they say still sucks. The last time I bought a car in the States I had to make the decision between Saturn (GM) and Lexus or Infiniti. I went to several of the GM dealers and met the stereotypical high pressure money grubbing salesmen. I told them I'd like to test drive a car and they first wanted to "pre-qualify" me, have me sign all sorts of releases and then the salesman said he had to accompany me for the 10 minute test drive. Par for the course, right? I went to the Lexus dealer. The guy saw I was wearing jeans and driving my brother's old jalopy and wouldn't even talk with me. I went to the Infiniti dealer. Immediately the saleman asked me if I wanted some juice and whole wheat muffins and asked me what kind of car I was interested in. He gave me a very brief run-down on the differences between the various models and said he'd be back in 15 minutes to help with any questions. I looked around and afrer a while the guy came back and asked me which one I wanted to test drive. Amazed, I told him and he gave me the keys and walked me to the car. He said it had a full tank of gas, but if I needed more just fill it up and give him the receipt. I was shocked that he wasn't coming with me. I told him I'd be back in about 15 minutes and he said, "Why so fast? Take your time. Go pick up your wife and some friends and talk them for a drive. It's only 11 am now and we don't close until 9 pm. If you're gonna be later than 9, give me a call and I'll wait for you." I bought the Infiniti. Easy bargaining process. Very low stress. When it was time for all the preventative maintenance like oil changes, I was amazed that the dealer only charged about 50% more than if I had gone to a fast-food type of place. I brought my car in in the morning, got a LOANER, went to work and after work drove the LOANER back to pick up my car. Not only did they do the maintenance, but they washed & waxed the car and left roses in the car that I could give to my wife. All the while even the lot boy called me by name. I wouldn't care if all US auto manufacturers / dealers went directly to hell in a handbasket. And I wrote a letter to Lexus, too. The moron got fired and is now working for -- surprise, surprise -- Ford. I have to agree with you that overall the quality is better for USA cars but they still never offered us the kind of car/truck I wanted. Before I left the States I had a Toyota Tocoma. This was all the truck I wanted. The Ford F-150 and Chevy fullsize trucks are great with good quality but I would never buy a Ford Ranger or the the Chevy Luv. Also your right about customer service especially the sales pitch from USA car dealers. Where was this Infiniti dealer? I need a new car when I get back.

I think if Chinese automakers can grasp the concept of quality AND price they'll be another automotive powerhouse like Japan. Don't worry they will do that... How long it will take is the question. I remember there was a time when Japanese stuff was call junk and look now where they are. Yea .. now if only the USA carmakers could do it in cars made for USA consumption (not for export to Europe).