Fu Lai

Exactly. As I wrote in another thread there are many people in China with at least passing English skills that will gladly help out.

Yes, of course then you have many places that don't let you look at the screen to see availability, they just shake their head no at the info you wrote down. My plight twice. Not being able to communicate with them is my fault but it ended with me being out of luck. So in comes the Chinese friend and BINGO they are able to ask all the questions to make it work. Online it is rather easy except it is all in Chinese. Bottom line it is not tough at all and their train system is good but knowing some Chinese or having a friend/helper is a big asset especially when your first choice is a no-go. I think the difficulty in getting a train ticket in China is more the intimidation factor than anything else. First, you're going to stand in a long line with a lot of impatient Chinese people who are also waiting. I am far from fluent in Chinese, but I know to take my passport with me. All one need do is go online and find the train number they want to take, the date, departure time, and destination. Write it on a piece of paper, in pinyin: for example: Train #: G-7371 25/02/2013 Nanjing Nan Zhan > Shanghai Hongqiao When you present the paper, also hand them your passport. The clerk will present the computer screen to you, which is not difficult to read. It shows the train numbers and available times. Hand them the cash, and you get the ticket and any change. After you do it once, you will feel a lot more confident and realize that it's not at all difficult.

If you don't speak or read Chinese it can be hell getting tickets. Besides the links given in the first post I use http://www.chinatrainguide.com/ as a guide. But I always have a Chinese person do the booking for me because I have little language ability and once you get into having to pick another train/time because of availability you really need to see it in English. Getting tickets is not difficult but getting the tickets you want can be.

As we talked about on the phone, I am aware of online monitoring and you know people disappear in countries all over the world including the USA. Great that you worked out a resolution to your issue. Talk to you soon.

I would say China, have the party, cement yourself in the friends and family, maybe even travel around China. There are so many great tourist destinations in the Middle Kingdom to explore that are eye-popping and relatively inexpensive. Just this year we had Guilin, Xiamen and next is Xian. We are looking at northeast China for a summer trip and our friends just got back from Tibet.

Those passport cards work in China? My girl just puts in my regular passport number and as usual, I show my passport when boarding.

http://news.echinacities.com/detail/8237-Hot-Commodities-Tips-for-Booking-Train-Tickets-in-China

http://news.echinacities.com/detail/7137-What-are-You-Five-Chinese-Women-and-Sa-Jiao BTW, my girl admits using sa jiao all the time and I admit it adds so much humor and animation (especially because I know my girl is tough as can be).

awesome

Not to turn this into a "China is more intrusive" debate but the Patriot Act allows the USA to be just as intrusive. That's all I'm saying. Did you find anything about your login issue?

Better bone up on the Patriot Act and the pretty unlimited powers of online surveillance it gives the USA government (and studies prove the govt is using them). (the link is not an exhaustive study, just an example) Every bit of online info (not to mention telephone calls etc.) is available to any law enforcement agency in the USA if they want it, same as China and other countries. So if you are online then don't expect much privacy, maybe hope you fall through the cracks. Not just China but also the USA... and there are a lot fewer people to watch in the USA. I disagree. It would be an unverifiable conspiracy theory to suggest the American government is monitoring all Internet activity. They just don't have the manpower to do it. Further, it is prohibited by the US Constitution. China on the other hand monitors everything, they block, they read, and can open anything according to their law.

Not just China but also the USA... and there are a lot fewer people to watch in the USA. It is pretty silly to be subversive online to their culture and government.

I hope that they are adding a "regular size" at a lower rate and the existing size is the "super size" at the regular rate.

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/45320-site-software-costs/

LOL!!!!!

Funny that just 2 weeks ago I mentioned this to a co-worker after a company lunch. It bugs me to leave full serving plates of food on the table when there are plenty of starving folks all around. Now the govt. is asking places and people to be more aware. As it’s reported by Wuhan Evening news, complying to the instruction of president Xi, about 10 more selected restaurants such as taizi, hujing, xiaolanjing and so on gathered together and had a conversation about how to prevent the extravagance in 76 restaurants in Wuhan on January 28th. It’s said there are four policies advocated: offering free packing boxes for the dishes left after the meal, serving dishes in small plates or with less portion, lessening the dishes for group customers(for example: 9 dishes for 10 people), catering the dishes one by one instead of serving them all togethe

I think David's question and your answer are fine. Gainful employment to support yourselves is a strong reply. Preparation!

Almost forgot, the hotel neighborhood restaurant we ate at afterwards (see the gallery) brought my girl's dishes and I waited for mine... and waited, we asked when they would come. They said soon... bottom line is THEY NEVER CAME! And it was only a simple vegetable dish. We left complaining loudly and all they did was laugh. Some of these tourist places have a captive audience they don't always care about very much, apparently. BTW you can open the gallery front page and just mouse-over the thumbnails to get the comments if you don't want to play the entire slide show.

Finished the day 2 gallery, Y98 Tulou Tour Day! http://ralphwallace.com/wei101/albums/Jan-24-2013-Xiamen-Vacation-Yongding-Tulou/slides/15.JPG Damn impressive! The tour lunch was terrible though. Funny how you can get so sensitive to how the rice is prepared.

Slogging through the thousands of pics we took on the vacation, a very great vacation! So many pics that we decided to put them in galleries by day... here's the first day: http://ralphwallace.com/wei101/albums/Jan22-23-2013-Xiamen-Vacation/ Day 1 we traveled late at night to south Xiamen and woke to start a day of sightseeing while shopping. We tramped the very cool hotel neighborhood and then hit the downtown shopping strip... eating all the way. Our hotel: http://ralphwallace.com/wei101/albums/Jan22-23-2013-Xiamen-Vacation/slides/03.JPG

my icbc bank just texted me an air quality alert, gotta love that!

I tested this using the latest IE, Chrome and FF. The logoff function and cookies work properly in the tests. I would advise: 1. update your browsers to the newest release. 2. update and run your virus/adware software to the newest release. 3. delete all cookies associated with this website. 4. set an admin password to logon to your computer. 5. observe if the problem persists, if yes then clear all the browser's cache. This is a start.

I have to pipe in here and say all this stuff bugs me a little... spitting, ultrawet bathrooms, yelling into mobile phones, stopping and just standing in front of doors / escalators / elevators and pretty much bottling up others everywhere ... but my girl has helped me just ignore it. She says these people (especially the older ones) are not removed far from the "country" where anything goes, so whenever I start to say something she just blurts out "country" and I get my mind back. She also says most of these folks (especially the under 30 crowd) are single kids so they were pampered so much, especially the boys, that they never really had to think of anyone but themselves. I've found the more educated the people are, the less they endanger others with unsanitary behavior.

I give it an "E" for effort and exquisity!

We are now planning our wedding (we got our books on 12.12.12) and we want to do it like this: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDQxODQ3ODcy.html