toy_rn65

No need to declare, just pack those ginseng roots (whole, not sliced) airtight in your luggage. My SO and her family loved it. I brought about 2lbs with me last time and didn't have any problem, didn't declare neither.

"You might be a Chinese if........."

Oh com'on Rog., that is the best part! Taste great too. That thick juicy steak is still a must though, let it bleed.

WOW, this guy on ebay is making some serious bucks selling the tea pot and different kind of tea leaves. Seems like he has over 200% mark-up on most of his stuff. Can't tell if the tea pot he sells is the real McCoy but the instruction he shown is at least in traditional Chinese meaning it's either from Taiwan or Hong Kong. You might get lucky and find them in one of the larger Chinese supermarket in your city.

I brought 2 back with me last time I visited my SO. One large and one small. I think they were no more than 80 RMB each. They were great, no mess no fuss. Just dump the tea leaves out when you are done. The glass beaker is of laboratory grade, very thin and strong. Anyone who likes tea should get one. You won't use anything else again!

Seems like there are going to be plenty of opportunities in China for them lawyers here in the states!!!

We have been having this discussion for some time. It took forever for her to give the measurement as the circumference of 55 mm. I don't have to tell anyone here what it is like trying to get a woman from China to do something that we consider as simple. Right now I am trying get her to buy a airline ticket to meet me in Beijing. She keeps saying the price will be less if she waits. I have told her I am paying for the ticket and I don't care about the price, that I want her at the airport on a certain day at a certain time. I have given her the flight number and departure times for both flights. Now she is waiting for New Years to be over. The flight I have selected would put her in Beijing 30 minutes after my flight arrives from the US. Next Sunday I will have to tell her if she does not get a ticket for the flight I have indicated because she waited to long I will visit the Great Wall without her. There are times when it is good to try to save money and other times when it get exasperating. Maybe I will use her statements of "you are the husband and know best" and tell her to just do it because I am the husband, period. That probably won't work either, but it may be worth a try. I hear you man! My SO did the exact same thing last time I visited her. It was 5 days before I arrived in BJ and she still wanted to wait. I got online after I got off the phone with her, bought her an e-ticket, called her back and told her to just get her a$$ to the airport with her ID. That worked out great because by the time she was ready to buy the ticket, they were sold out on that flight. I got my point across and she listens to me now!

Since GUZ is only about 70 miles from Hong Kong, the weather difference between the 2 cities is minimal, the most a couple of degrees ©. The Chinese weather station web sites do not publish weather records from past years that I can find but here is a link for the Hong Kong Observatory. You can type in any date in history and get the complete weather record for that date. http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/climat/specia.../select_e.shtml If you are going to be there during late April into May, I would suggest you bring a couple pair of shorts with you. With the humidity upwards of 85%, you will wish you wore shorts. Trust me, I grew up there.

NO amnisty for illegal immigrants!! Yes i agree!!! Will this happen? God only knows the answer!!! What gets me is HOW do all these illegal immigrants get green cards and ss# so fast??? I know dam well all these illegal immigrants are not going through the same process as we are now!!! SO HOW do they do it and WHY does our government let them keep doing this??? I just don't get it. I woke up today and i felt a little better and more calmer than last night. As i was going to work i noticed gas prices went up 30 cents over night for no reason!!! GREAT!!!!! off to a good start today already. Got to work and yes, You guest it two more new faces and none speak english! OH!! almost forgot, Today is payday, And yes the check was smaller than last week, CRAP!!!! Now the best part of the day, Remember the two new faces. Come to find out, One of them had a SS# that matches one other worker we had a month ago, That worker quit his job last month because he made all the money he needed to live like a king in mexico, He work for us for five years and he was only 25 years old. Like i said, The new worker has the same SS# as the one that is live the life of a king that just retired from our company last month after five years of work in the US. He is living like a king on the money you and I and our government gave him!!! You may ask, What did my boss say about this? NOTHING!! He said do not worry about it!!! and put the new worker to work anyway. Yes, The old saying still applys, America is the place to get rich!!!! But if you are a USC that will never happen! WHY this will never happen, You may ask?? Because as long as the US companys keep hiring cheap labor our pay checks will continue to get smaller. Why give us a rise in pay when they can hire five illegal immigrants at the same pay rate we get now!!! So until our US government stops letting in all the illegal immigrants and giving them amnisty for work, Life does not look good for us trying to do it the legal way!!! You also may ask how did this all happen, Well I'll give you three clues!! The first two do not count??? BUSH!!!!! Just when you might think things might get better our government pulls a rabbit out of the hat and screws us again!!! by raising the fees by 400% so that our SO will not be able to work if they want to. Remeber our SO got here the LEGAL WAY!!!! As for the new Bill that might pass or not??? We all know it will with flying colors!!! We all know that the laws we want to pass never do get passed and the ones we don't want always get passed. It is the American way!!! Man!! This just SUCKS!!!! Well I don't know what YOU are Doing About the Problem with Illegals there at your work site but I knew of a company like yours that was knowingly hiring illegal aleins and had a Government contract . I contacted the INS and made a big stink about it Took them over 6 months to Act but they did finally Bust the Outfit - a Chinken killing plant that makes the chicken in soup they lost almost 200 employees - could not operate for a week 3 ratty trailer parks are empty and Now you can go to Walmart on Sunday and Not be the only English speaking Customer in the Store ! They also Busyed my Local Bank Queensboro national - who was servicing ahy of the Accounts So DO something ! Well lets see, WHAT AM I DOING ABOUT IT??????? THere is not a thing i can do about this problem! Yes i could call the INS and report them as you did. But as you also said it took 6 MONTHS before something happen! In that 6 month time do you have any idea how many more Illegals come into our country??? 200 employees is just a drop in the bucket!! We as USC can and always have voiced our concerns on this problem for years now. This has been an on going problem for many years now and it is only getting worst! We can write letters and E-mail and even make phone calls to our government about this. IMO when we do voice our concrens, It just goes in one ear and out the other. As i said before. Our government does nothing fast and never will. They hear our concerns and i know they are woking on it so they say? Because of this problems we are having with the illegal immigrants it has driven down wages that used to be the American dream. In my line of work the wages used to be 25-30 dollars an hour. Now it is only 10 dollars an hour, I do not know anyone that can live on ten dollars an hour. Let alone try to save money at best! WHY?? you may ask? Because the employers here in the US knows they can and will hire someone for far less than that and still get the same amount of work done!!! IMO. There is no winning this battle. I'm at the age now that if and when something does happen for the better with this problem I will never see it happen in my life time. But i worry most about is my children and everyons elses children in the US. Our parents had it hard during there generation, We have it even harder during our generation! WHAT!!! is it going to be like for our Children growing up now and in the future???? Does not look good for them IMO. As for voicing my concerns to the Federal Register about the fee increase, YOU BET I WILL!!! But we all know that the law will still pass, so the only thing we can do now is call our banks and order more checks. BECAUSE we will need them!!! If I understand you correctly, we are suppose to take it in the a$$ with a smile and ask for second? Yes, it takes a long time for them to react but they did and it takes time to investigate and collect evidence. Yes, it's a drop in the bucket, but if there are enough drops, there will be many buckets. "IMO. There is no winning this battle." you said. I don't know about you but I am not going to throw my hands up and call it. I am not going down without a fight, however insignificant it might seems. Be thankful we live in a nation where we are still free to voice our opinion against anyone and are free to do something about it. FYI, I wasn't born a USC and I know first hand how hard it is to become a USC. I understand how precious freedom is and to protect it is the duty of every single citizen. At least I feel it's my duty to do whatever necessary to do what's right no matter how small or how politically incorrect it might seem. Enough of us doing something about a problem and it WILL be fixed. Here is a link: https://tips.fbi.gov/ For those of you who is in the law enforcement field, here is a useful resource: http://www.ice.gov/about/lesc/brochure.htm toy_rn65: Yes, it's a drop in the bucket, but if there are enough drops, there will be many buckets. Very good point!! Now if we could get everyone on the same page this would work out great!!! As for throwing up my hands, NEVER!!!!!! I never quit at anything and i never will!! I'm a fighter and most of the time i will win!! As for the links you gave us! Already been there and done that last week!! Great, I'm glad to hear you're a fighter and never quit! Not "IF" but we just "NEED" to get everyone on the same page to keep this nation that we love "FREE AND GREAT"!

NO amnisty for illegal immigrants!! Yes i agree!!! Will this happen? God only knows the answer!!! What gets me is HOW do all these illegal immigrants get green cards and ss# so fast??? I know dam well all these illegal immigrants are not going through the same process as we are now!!! SO HOW do they do it and WHY does our government let them keep doing this??? I just don't get it. I woke up today and i felt a little better and more calmer than last night. As i was going to work i noticed gas prices went up 30 cents over night for no reason!!! GREAT!!!!! off to a good start today already. Got to work and yes, You guest it two more new faces and none speak english! OH!! almost forgot, Today is payday, And yes the check was smaller than last week, CRAP!!!! Now the best part of the day, Remember the two new faces. Come to find out, One of them had a SS# that matches one other worker we had a month ago, That worker quit his job last month because he made all the money he needed to live like a king in mexico, He work for us for five years and he was only 25 years old. Like i said, The new worker has the same SS# as the one that is live the life of a king that just retired from our company last month after five years of work in the US. He is living like a king on the money you and I and our government gave him!!! You may ask, What did my boss say about this? NOTHING!! He said do not worry about it!!! and put the new worker to work anyway. Yes, The old saying still applys, America is the place to get rich!!!! But if you are a USC that will never happen! WHY this will never happen, You may ask?? Because as long as the US companys keep hiring cheap labor our pay checks will continue to get smaller. Why give us a rise in pay when they can hire five illegal immigrants at the same pay rate we get now!!! So until our US government stops letting in all the illegal immigrants and giving them amnisty for work, Life does not look good for us trying to do it the legal way!!! You also may ask how did this all happen, Well I'll give you three clues!! The first two do not count??? BUSH!!!!! Just when you might think things might get better our government pulls a rabbit out of the hat and screws us again!!! by raising the fees by 400% so that our SO will not be able to work if they want to. Remeber our SO got here the LEGAL WAY!!!! As for the new Bill that might pass or not??? We all know it will with flying colors!!! We all know that the laws we want to pass never do get passed and the ones we don't want always get passed. It is the American way!!! Man!! This just SUCKS!!!! Well I don't know what YOU are Doing About the Problem with Illegals there at your work site but I knew of a company like yours that was knowingly hiring illegal aleins and had a Government contract . I contacted the INS and made a big stink about it Took them over 6 months to Act but they did finally Bust the Outfit - a Chinken killing plant that makes the chicken in soup they lost almost 200 employees - could not operate for a week 3 ratty trailer parks are empty and Now you can go to Walmart on Sunday and Not be the only English speaking Customer in the Store ! They also Busyed my Local Bank Queensboro national - who was servicing ahy of the Accounts So DO something ! Well lets see, WHAT AM I DOING ABOUT IT??????? THere is not a thing i can do about this problem! Yes i could call the INS and report them as you did. But as you also said it took 6 MONTHS before something happen! In that 6 month time do you have any idea how many more Illegals come into our country??? 200 employees is just a drop in the bucket!! We as USC can and always have voiced our concerns on this problem for years now. This has been an on going problem for many years now and it is only getting worst! We can write letters and E-mail and even make phone calls to our government about this. IMO when we do voice our concrens, It just goes in one ear and out the other. As i said before. Our government does nothing fast and never will. They hear our concerns and i know they are woking on it so they say? Because of this problems we are having with the illegal immigrants it has driven down wages that used to be the American dream. In my line of work the wages used to be 25-30 dollars an hour. Now it is only 10 dollars an hour, I do not know anyone that can live on ten dollars an hour. Let alone try to save money at best! WHY?? you may ask? Because the employers here in the US knows they can and will hire someone for far less than that and still get the same amount of work done!!! IMO. There is no winning this battle. I'm at the age now that if and when something does happen for the better with this problem I will never see it happen in my life time. But i worry most about is my children and everyons elses children in the US. Our parents had it hard during there generation, We have it even harder during our generation! WHAT!!! is it going to be like for our Children growing up now and in the future???? Does not look good for them IMO. As for voicing my concerns to the Federal Register about the fee increase, YOU BET I WILL!!! But we all know that the law will still pass, so the only thing we can do now is call our banks and order more checks. BECAUSE we will need them!!! If I understand you correctly, we are suppose to take it in the a$$ with a smile and ask for second? Yes, it takes a long time for them to react but they did and it takes time to investigate and collect evidence. Yes, it's a drop in the bucket, but if there are enough drops, there will be many buckets. "IMO. There is no winning this battle." you said. I don't know about you but I am not going to throw my hands up and call it. I am not going down without a fight, however insignificant it might seems. Be thankful we live in a nation where we are still free to voice our opinion against anyone and are free to do something about it. FYI, I wasn't born a USC and I know first hand how hard it is to become a USC. I understand how precious freedom is and to protect it is the duty of every single citizen. At least I feel it's my duty to do whatever necessary to do what's right no matter how small or how politically incorrect it might seem. Enough of us doing something about a problem and it WILL be fixed. Here is a link: https://tips.fbi.gov/ For those of you who is in the law enforcement field, here is a useful resource: http://www.ice.gov/about/lesc/brochure.htm

No, funding really need to come from taxing the moneys that are sent abroad by illegals.

On top of all these illegal immigrant issues, they put two of our Border Patrol Agents in jail for doing such a fine job! All I can say to those two great men is "Hang in there brothers, we are doing everything we could to get you out. We are on your side!" Sorry about being a little off topic. Just need to vent a little!

There should be NO amnisty for illegal immigrants. We should NOT reward those who broke our nation's laws from theie very first step on our soil!

WOW!!!!!!! is not the word i would have used!! Once again our wonderful American government thinks we are made of money!!!!! We work longer hours, And our pay checks get smaller every week!! Not only do we go through the LONG and STRESSFUL process of getting our SO here with us in hopes of a wonderful life together!!!! During this process we endure blue slips if not many of them!!! White Slips!!! Pink slips!!!! Red slips!!!!! and what ever other coler slips they might have!!!!! All in hopes to have our SO here with us to enjoy a happy life together here in the US. Some of us might slip by this incress in fees for there SO are here now!! But some of us are still waiting and waiting and waiting and still spending a ton of money!!!! Some of us might have the money to spend and and not have a problem doing so!!!! But i know that there are many of us that barely make the 125% lavel. There are also many here that have had to get the help from other family members just to make the 125% level of income. It seams every time we turn around there is a new fee for something!!!!!!! This is a bunch of CRAP!! WTF!!!! I have been busting my Ass for, God only know how long! Just trying to make a simple life for myself and my SO. I can see it now!!!! Sell the dog, Sell the cat, Sell the birds witch cost a ton of money too!!! And maybe even the fish will get sold just to make ends meet!!! This visa process is long enough, Let alone having to continue this long process after our SO get here with us and the money keeps going UP!! and UP!! Plus to top this whole thing off, They say it will speed up the process, BULL SH@t!!!! We all know the US government does nothing fast!!! and never will. It's like when you drive down the street ever where in america you see road work being done. You see five guys watching one guy diging a hole!! Now we know why it take a year to fix one city block!!! Once again!! This is a bunch of CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry to everyone here on CFL for the rant and rave, But this just PISSES me off!!! I work my ass off everyday and i work hard for every penny i make. At this point, My CR1 is looking better everyday, I much rather wait a month or two and my wife feels the same. We all know how our Chinese SO like to save money and they are very good at it. With each passing day, Life in China is looking better and better. Once again I'm sorry to everyone here on CLF!! For getting so upset!!! And to top it off, if you are married to a foriegn national, she is liable for taxes in the US. CRAP is putting it lightly. YES, This is just a way for our wonderful land of the free to steel money from us and our So the legal way. This fee hike is just an easy and simple way to cover the resource drain from the illegal aliens. That is why a lot of us are soooo pi$$ed off at the way our gov handles the illeagl aliens issue. We don't need any more damn law but just enforce the ones that are on the book and the problem will go away.

You are right. I agree with everything you said except the flies part. I think "crap" does a lot better job in attracting flies! Just kidding.

Wish I could spend CNY with my SO in Jinan too. She was born and raised in Harbin which is about the same latitude as Shenyang. Make sure you bring enough clothes, it's mighty cooooold there. How long are you planning on staying? My reservations are for returning the 25th but if the P4 comes and the interview is within a week of that I'll stay. If the reservation is any later (most likely) I'll come home and get some work done before going back. I'm self-employed and work solo so I can't be gone tooooo long. Boy that's going to be tight but GUZ has been on a fast track lately. Who knows... Wish you two the best and enjoy your time there. Watch out for all that new year food, you could put on some tonnage if your not careful! Don't say that!!!! I've already worked my arse off (well actually my stomach) losing 20lbs since christmas...... B) I hear you bro. But trust me, your SO's family is still going to feed this future son-in-law until he pop during a regular visit, let alone during CNY "and" a family "wedding". You better fast for a week before you head our and you can proof me wrong after you come back!

Wish I could spend CNY with my SO in Jinan too. She was born and raised in Harbin which is about the same latitude as Shenyang. Make sure you bring enough clothes, it's mighty cooooold there. How long are you planning on staying? My reservations are for returning the 25th but if the P4 comes and the interview is within a week of that I'll stay. If the reservation is any later (most likely) I'll come home and get some work done before going back. I'm self-employed and work solo so I can't be gone tooooo long. Boy that's going to be tight but GUZ has been on a fast track lately. Who knows... Wish you two the best and enjoy your time there. Watch out for all that new year food, you could put on some tonnage if your not careful!

Wish I could spend CNY with my SO in Jinan too. She was born and raised in Harbin which is about the same latitude as Shenyang. Make sure you bring enough clothes, it's mighty cooooold there. How long are you planning on staying?

I see what your saying. In another word, there is no way exiting the US to China using a US passport without a Chinese visa unless he uses his Chinese passport but in it would indicate he over stayed since his last US entry. Correct me if I am wrong, it seems to me that there is no way to exit the US without using a US passport?

I spent the last CNY with my SO in China last year. That was the best time I had in a long time. When you are there, make sure you try out those BIG A$$ fireworks they have over there. What a "blast", and they are cheap too! Enjoy you trip and good luck in GUZ.

Here is the senario before I ask the question: A Chinese American want to go back to China for about a year. He still holds a Chinese passport on top of his new US passport. He uses his US passport to exit the US and after he landed in China, he stuffed his US passport in his pack before immigration and used his Chinese passport to enter. All is well and it's time for him to come back to the US after a 11 months stay in his hometown. Now he's got a problem. When he exit China, which passport should he use? He won't have a US visa in his Chinese passport to show Chinese IO and if he use his US passport, there will be no Chinses visa and no prove as to how he enter China. Does that mean he is stuck in China?

The dish dryer is called a "sterilization cabinet". I assume it's cheaper to heat air for sterilization than it is to heat water, plus, with hot water, you would still want to dry the dishes. If you are going to heat air to dry them, why not just heat the air enough to sterilize them as well and skip the hot water part with the attendant complexity and cost, no? I have also wondered if maybe people are concerned about water quality? Lao Po won't drink tap water and I've never tried it. I hate to sound stupid but... is tap water safe to drink over there? I wouldn't think so... Mike, I believe the ones in China (the so called sterilization cabinets) use ultra violet light to sterilize, not heated air. It would be much too expensive to use headed air to sterilize for most people or businesses in China. Regarding water, like the US, it very much depends on where you're talking about in China. I've lived in Guilin and Shanghai. The water is Guilin is infinitely better than Shanghai. I personally always drink bottled water in China but it's entirely acceptable to drink the tap water in Guilin. Shanghai's water is nasty--absolutely nasty--yet many local people still cook the tap water and drink it. I've been to Sanya many times, and the water there is also quite clean and would be very drinkable straight from the tap. I'm amazed at how crappy the water quality is in Shanghia--considering the city is relatively so wealthy in China. You have a lot more faith in tap water in China than I do. Everywhere I went in China, I was told (even by the locals) to only drink bottled water. Even that, you better be really careful because there are even bootleg bottled water and beverages on the market. Ask your SOs, they would sure agree.

WOW, with those kind of insurance premium, it sure feel like being a teenager all over again!

I will have to agree with you on the case of most Western food in China tastes horrible. I found an exception during the few days me and my SO spent in BJ for the New Year (I am sure there are more decent Western food in BJ that I don't know about). We were walking around one night trying to decide what is for dinner when we came across an Out Back Steak House and I remembered she told me she never had steak before so in we went. After spending some time explaining to her what all were in the manual, we ended up ordering well done prime rib with salad for her and rare rib eye with potato soup for me (I had to explain to her no one eat soap ) I wished they had 18oz. instead of only 10oz. She liked the salad but didn't like my potato soup with cheese. She said it looked like...... When the steak came, I would say they killed that prime rib but my rib eye was perfect. And so, that was her first encounter with steak. I told her, "Wait till you try the steak at Texas Road House back in the states without spending a fortune!" When we got back to her hometown, she was telling all her friends that she is marrying a mountain man from America. The fact that I was in need of a hair cut badly did not help. She was tell them how I was chomping on a cow while it was still bleeding That was the first time I saw such expression can be done on a person's face from their reactions.

If you have 220 and ground I think you can pick off either hot wire and ground to get 110. Perhaps an electrician can verify that. Go out back and look inside your breaker box. That's how it's wired. My old house that was built in 1952 carried 220 volts through the attic - then each socket was fed by 2 wires, one from a hot wire, the other from ground. The 50 cycles won't affect lighting. Then, on the other hand, you could simply buy new bulbs in China if they fit the socket. Ha...you think an olde house was built in 1952??? Try 1910... Randy you lost me with the first sentence... I need the "for dummies" take on this...You seem to be saying I can just screw Chinese bulbs into my lamps and badda-bing...light??? Your right Roger, if your light fixtures don't involve any transformer inside them, yes, just screw a Chinese light bulb into the socket, splice a Chinese plug onto the wire, plug it in and... badda-bing... thou shall have light!!!