TomandQing

Chinatown in Chi-town is easy to find in the sout of Chicago. And we love bringing home live lobster!

So nice. After two years of waiting, my wife and step-son came two months ago. He is 9 years old and very excited to start school next year and we are lucky that the school has two ESL teachers and is a five star school. His english is rough so I worry but he was a very good student in Beijing. I pray that he enjoys this new school. He is a little sensitive and likes to hold my arm or hand when we go out. He runs to the door when I come home from work and my wife tells me he has been waiting all day for me. She does the same and kisses me when I come home. What a wonderful feeling!

iTalkBB is working fine. I was recently in another state to visit my family. I forwarded all calls to my mo0thers home. When my wife called me, it rang there... and it was a free local call for her. Love it!!!! 206163[/snapback] bellsouth and all the other major phone companies i think will have there hands full trying to compete with these prices.... even AT&Ts vonage is like 3 times the price of the little guys ie iTalkBB... Lingo... etc etc 206167[/snapback] I can call 23 countries for free. That alone is great. But my wife can call me for free because I have a Beijing phone number. That is more than great. And when I go to work, I put a forward in to my work number (or any other number) and she can call me there for free. That is astounding! $24 per month... no extras, no taxes, no fees.

iTalkBB is working fine. I was recently in another state to visit my family. I forwarded all calls to my mo0thers home. When my wife called me, it rang there... and it was a free local call for her. Love it!!!!

We're thinking of subscribing to italkBB too. Does this service support 911 calls or do you need to keep your local number for that? Also, I assume it doesn't work if there is a power outage. Thanks, Peter 197687[/snapback] They provide 411 and 911. So far used 2 hours of talk time. You can monitor your account on the website. It gives a call history also for those that will want calling records for GUZ. It would work even in an outage if you add a battery back up. But I wasn't worried about that since I would probably use my cell anyway. Remember if you have a phone that needs a power source like most today the land line doesn't work either. I emailed out the China number and am real curious how that incoming China line will work. If someone is interested in trying italk would you mind giving our referral number. It would give us credit on the monthly charge. You know compensation for being guinea pig just give them referral BB#8991032067. Thanks 197736[/snapback] I ordered iTalkBB two days ago and I'm waiting for the package. My wife is excited that she will be able to call me anytime she wants. I also ordered KylinTV. I will let you know how well it works. 197819[/snapback] Tom, how did this work out for you? 200507[/snapback] Hi, I got my iTalk phone modem last week and it workds great. There were some problems initally. The failed to give me a local phone number. Their support department is very bad with almost no one who speaks english. But once I managed to get a semi-english person on the phone, the problem was resolved.My wife now calls me whenever she pleases and when I go to work I put on the call forwarding so she can call me at work. The KylinTV is also great although I don't speak Chinese. I was relatively simple to hook up and you get all broadcast stations in China as well as first run movies. A first run movie will cost you $1.00. Other movies are free. Between the telephone and KylinTV, I feel like I have China right here at home. It will be great when my wife comes, as she will be able to watch her regular tv shows and talk to her mom anytime she wants.

We're thinking of subscribing to italkBB too. Does this service support 911 calls or do you need to keep your local number for that? Also, I assume it doesn't work if there is a power outage. Thanks, Peter 197687[/snapback] They provide 411 and 911. So far used 2 hours of talk time. You can monitor your account on the website. It gives a call history also for those that will want calling records for GUZ. It would work even in an outage if you add a battery back up. But I wasn't worried about that since I would probably use my cell anyway. Remember if you have a phone that needs a power source like most today the land line doesn't work either. I emailed out the China number and am real curious how that incoming China line will work. If someone is interested in trying italk would you mind giving our referral number. It would give us credit on the monthly charge. You know compensation for being guinea pig just give them referral BB#8991032067. Thanks 197736[/snapback] I ordered iTalkBB two days ago and I'm waiting for the package. My wife is excited that she will be able to call me anytime she wants. I also ordered KylinTV. I will let you know how well it works.

Yes supporting your sweetie counts, however Western Union is expensive. show Her and the VO you really trust her and send her a debit card then she can with draw the cash from the bank when se needs it and its cheap about 1.00$ per transaction. Then she can save the recieptsfor her interview 195519[/snapback] I am not quite sure how you came up with $1 per transaction? That is really cheap! Where do you bank? I got charged $3.00 per transaction from using Washington Mutual and Bank of America through an international ATM where $3000RMB was the max I can draw at any given time. So overall, it'll end up costing about the same as Western Union at that rate. Western Union is still cheaper than wire transfers for amounts less than 2,000 USD. If I remember correctly, the fee to send $2000 USD is $17USD. Not too bad, and the conversion to RMB is maximized. I have heard from others to not mention anything regarding money if not asked. But I really, do not know what is wrong with helping your girl out if she can not fully support herself just yet. My girl started her own nail care and makeup business with another girl, and it really breaks my heart to see how hard she works, and for so little pay from my point of view. Any help I can give her is better than doing nothing. The way, I see it, it would be more costly to pay for medical expenses if she burns out and gets sick after working so hard everyday, than for me to just support her until she can do so herself one day. At least with the free time, she can do some advance preparation such as learning English before she gets here. I told my girl that she should use her time to learn some useful skill, so that she can always get employment in the US. This would be way more useful than working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day for $3000 to $4000 RMB a month in China at the moment. You can make that same amount within 1 week in the US with minimum wage + tips. So the time exchange does not add up. I figure, she has time now, and she has time later. If she had to exchange her time for money, it better not be done in China. It is just not worth it in my opinion. Instead, it would be more useful to brush up on your skills during that time instead. Some people mentioned that sending money is seen as "negative", because the VO will suspect the girl is using you for money even when she is clearly not. In my opinion, eventhough if you know that neither of you have anything to hide, I'd play the safe route, and not mention the money part. Why make it more difficult for yourself when you don't have to? But if you are already married to the girl, then showing a merged bank account may be useful evidence. Since during marriage, bank accounts do tend to mingle during your daily life together. 195595[/snapback] Hey TheDon, I like what you said, and though I have confidence she will have no problem, it is good to hear the "wise Don" suggest it also. =) 195687[/snapback] I send my wife money every monthand I use Western Union. You can do it online using your debit card and it is not too expensive. It costs about $20 for a few hundred bucks. I also like to let her buy her own presents for birthdays and such as things are so much cheaper than here. "She can get more bang for the buck" and express mail is expensive.

Wow, I'm right behind ya Dan! I have Voneage but I'm getting ready to switch to iTalk and also get KylinTV. We can guinea pig together... hehehe. My wife is in Beijing and coveting that china phone number so she can call me anytime and keep track of me.

I have Voneage, which I have been very successful with for over a year. But I still often have $60-$75 phone bills from calling China. Before Voneage, my bills were $200-300! But I just looked over that iTalkBB service and I think it looks very good. I will probably try it. I like that it gives you a Chinese number so your SO can call you for free. It will cost you 2 cents per minute but that is nothing. I pay 6 cents with Voneage when I call her and she must call me regular long distance. This way, I can call her for free and she can call me free to her and 2 cents a minute charged to me. I know she will like that. You can also have her calls forwarded to your work phone while you are at work. What do you think?