Batmaniac

If you do Mexican, do whatever possible to get jalapenos. And breakfast tacos. Get breakfast tacos.

I get enough! She's the smart one for having the letter with us.

I wish that big block of text was in paragraph form! It made me blind!

Doesn't seem like anything can stop the iPhone though, and now there is talk Verizon will get a version. I saw on Gizmodo that the Palm pre may have only sold 800,000 units. Guess that was supposed to be the closest competitor.

How about an oxygen bar? Remember when those were all the rage?

We decided not to bring my wife's collection just in case. Didn't want any possible problem going through customs so we gave them all to her brother. Between Netflix and my collection there is no shortage of movies to watch anyway. If you simply must take them, I'd buy a zippered carry case /notebook for them and ditch the flat clovers. I did that with all my CDs years ago to save space. looks nice. Four will fit on a page usually. I believe that would look less suspicious. Anyway, don't claim them on any customs form.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...25.story?page=1 Found this article today. We had a border patrol encounter on vacation that I thought was a little silly. My opinion at the time was "come on! they aren't looking for Chinese girls!" Well maybe they are. Careful driving that southwest route, boys, or going into South Texas which is specifically mentioned. Take her visa, I-94 or Green Card. Iin our incident, our AOS appointment letter worked for the officer, fortunately. Don't be like Batmaniac who thought that good stuff would be safer at home rather than on a 2.5 week road trip.

Don't know about that one. I'll try to get a hold of my friend mentioned above to gain insight on all of this, and get back to you. I do know that she does buy most of her ingredients from the nearby Metro supermarket. Robert S, may be right though about the cheese. I'll ask around and get back to you. My wife likes pepperoni pizza Buy a Peking duck restaurant - I'll bet that'll be a good combination Chinese cheeses first time I went to California Pizza Kitchen in 1988 Peking duck pizza was on the menu. Don't believe it's offered now.

There's a great place in SheZhen called NYPD pizza. I believe I mentioned them before. Normal sized pizzas. Better than Papa Johns and Pizza Hut (that's not hard I know). Pizza's were generally 20 RMB less than the big chains. I talked the Chinese American running it and he told me he brings a lot of the ingredients over from the US. Unfortunately, it was a little far from us in ShenZhen, and we went over there rarely. It was basically a storefront and couple of seats and tables outside. What I think would be better for you would be like the pizza place i saw in YangShuo. Pizzas were smaller and less expensive and individual sized but very good. Pizza was cooked in a traditional brick oven. Didn't taste corporate at all. More like home-made, but not on the level of an indie-pizza parlor in the US. Probably 6 booths inside, but very Italian looking. There was a similar set-up in FengHuang but with more eclectic decorations and couches and wifi that didn't work on my Mac. I understand your desire to do this. I had fantasies about opening a hamburger place in ShenZhen with a fresh toppings bar like Fuddruckers. Or even a Buffalo wing place. Now that we are in the US I fantasize about opening a hot pot restaurant or Guilin noodle establishment.

Same experience. Ying's parents were trying to give us money before the wedding! We let them pay for a bit of the wedding and buy jewelry but I told Ying NOT to allow them to dip into their savings and give us a bunch of cash that they can't afford. They (including Ying) already gave quite a bit to her brother when he married. Now we have left a little money "hidden" for them when we have visited because we know they wouldn't accept it otherwise. I don't mind helping when we can. I'm sure we will send something for New Years.

My wife claims the further out in the country, the bigger the payment that is expected. We do know a guy who paid his future in-laws around 10K.

My wife made friends with a 001 girl online who just went back to China after her fiancee didn't want to marry her. She began looking again and a few weeks ago encountered a man who said he loved etc etc . . . then he tells her he is sending $13,000 cash through the mail. Ying kept asking me why a guy would do that and then reporting my opinion back to her friend. So finally the friend gets a call from a "shipping company" in hong Kong who wants her bank account information to deduct $800 in tax for receiving the $13,000 which will be released to her after the transaction. My wife told her to walk away immediately. Haven't heard anything since, but I hope she did. I guess I was surprised the scammers went for the Chinese too.

Someone did a survey once, I believe it was skewed towards the Guangdong province.

A user comment under the original article says there was a "fryer fire."

We have a Big Lots nearby. I'll have to see if they have it.

Hell, how were guys meeting the girls before the internet! More opportunities to meet girls, more girls coming over, more girls bringing family over, more staff needed, more paperwork? B) Of course there was 9/11 too. I'd imagine with Homeland Security paperwork evolved. Anyone on CFL who went through this pre-9/11? Met a British guy on the plane back from HK to LA. He'd been a PR for 25 years since he married his American wife. He made it sound like it was just a form or two back then.

Here's how my registrations have gone, Robert. 1st visit - travel around China and stay in hotels, never register. 2nd visit - Stay at Ying's apartment outside of Shenzhen for 2 weeks, attract the attention of her landlord who makes a thing of it, mentions the police registration needed that we didn't do, he's "concerned" for my safety, Lao Wei's need to stay in Shenzhen, yada yada. so we spend the last 3 days in a hotel which was the plan anyway. 3rd visit - Ying and I rent an apartment (the owner is a policeman LOL) in her name in Shenzhen. I register at the police station since this is going to be a lengthy stay. Traveled to her hometown in the north of China and stayed with her parents for a month and never registered. Nobody said anything. Went to the small village she was born in and made to register before even being allowed entrance into the police station. Exact same form as I filled out in Shenzhen. Weird. 4th visit - Only 3 weeks after I leave for the US, I return to Shenzhen and reregister. I went in and out of HK 6-7 times and they never asked for any of this paperwork. Surprised me.

if you are staying in a hotel that officially takes Lao Wei then I wouldn't worry about. They collect your info and register you.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/c...ts_60th_an.html Some interesting images to peruse. Sexy Chinese lady PLA pics too. Girls with guns never gets old.

We found some moon cakes at the Chinese grocery store. They are in nice little tins with pictures of Chinese girls on the lids and packed 4 to a box. We split one already. They even had special bags for them.

Yep liquor is good. Bring the liquor with you if possible. Beware the duty free shops selling American liquor between HK and Shenzhen. I've heard a lot of it is fake. Johnny Walker Black Label was a big one faked a couple of years ago. How old is the brother? NBA is huge in China. How about a jersey?

The Coach outlet has a quarterly sale. With coupons online Ying bought a pink bag recently for around $70-80 that was stickered for around $400 orginally. That's perfectly fine with me. LV has never come up. Hope it stays that way.

At first from the title, I thought she wanted LV luggage for the trip! I never understood buying expensive luggage for the airlines to throw around.

Thats exactly my least two favorite types of food I had in China lol. I thought they were gross but I am a picky eater. Maybe, we've been to different restaurants. I have been to both types that were subpar: Especially in tourist towns, like Hangzhou. You have to be willing to spend the big bucks in order to get quality in those cities. We have our favorite places in her hometown that are reasonably priced and ROCK! BTW: How do picky eaters from America survive in China? The only times I thought hot pot and Korean BBQ were on the gross side were the two different restaurants that served the meat buffet style. Everyone was handling the tongs piling raw meat on their plates then letting the tongs drop back INTO the buffet's meat. That's when you drink some extra beer and don't think about it. Stick to Little Sheep for hot pot, IMO.

I'd be happy with it. I paid a $100 more for one way tickets the 4 times I bought them. Of course there's always going to be someone come in and tell you they got a RT ticket for $400.