Post: #26

It's not that much money for some guys here, but for me it was quite a sum. But money come and goes, the thing that hurts the most is one's pride.

The curious thing about the way we were scammed was that the scammer's didn't exactly approached us the typical way scammers do (specially tea girls). I got carried away wanting to practice my chinese and they lead on. They didn't say "lets go drink at blah blah blah", they say "do you guys want to go check out blah blah blah". It had a different touch to it and its what caught us off-guard basically.

Post: #27

I know it's been discussed before, but I wonder how to fuck with these scammers. I'd like to waste their time and laugh in their faces if I could get away with it without being beaten up by their 10 buddies. Maybe go to the tea rooms and refuse to drink anything except the bottled water you pull out of your bag, saying it's for religious reasons. Combined with extreme sexual crudity and propositions if they are female.

Post: #28

(04-16-2013 11:53 AM)RawGod Wrote:  I know it's been discussed before, but I wonder how to fuck with these scammers. I'd like to waste their time and laugh in their faces if I could get away with it without being beaten up by their 10 buddies. Maybe go to the tea rooms and refuse to drink anything except the bottled water you pull out of your bag, saying it's for religious reasons. Combined with extreme sexual crudity and propositions if they are female.

it would be funny if those were hot females that approached and you made them put out before you would buy them any tea, then left without getting anything.

Post: #29

算了吧，it happens, you learn and adapt. in china you ALWAYS have a target on your back. everytime random people approach me i throw out some bullshit and walk past him unless its someone i know will be okay, ie another student on campus. remember that despite claims of chinese being friendly, its a country that calls foreigners "foreigner"

Post: #30

Despite all these scams, rudeness of some people towards foreigners, I really love Beijing. I don't want to leave this place at all, I am having a really good time, and at the same time I feel there is still so much to do and I have so little time, I won't be able to figure this place out the way I want to.

Anyways, a few days ago I went to meet with the manager of the Cigar Shop I mentioned earlier. We sat down for around an hour and a half and just discussed how this business works in China. I gave him a Honduran cigar called Humo Jaguar, which won 1st place on a Cigar event in 2011 in Honduras.

He told me that the first thing you gotta do if you wanna get in the Cigar Business in China is to visit a company that controls all the tobacco in China. This company is responsible for registering your brand and adding it to the list, or "menu" so of cigars in the market, so to speak. Otherwise, it is not possible to insert a brand into the market and start making the cigar shops sell your cigars. If what this guy says is true then visiting other cigar shops would be a waste of time, so I am planning on visiting this company this coming week and see what happens.

He also mentioned that if one is really interested in entering the China market, you have to have a very strong supplier. My supplier is not a huge company back in Honduras like others, so he suggested forming an alliance of many small suppliers who might be interested in entering the market. This sounds like a good idea, hard, but a good idea.

I have visited 1 or 2 other cigar shops from the list and they didn't even want me to talk with the manager, so I guess I can cross those from the list.


Regarding the language, its a funny thing. You realize that speaking is actually, the easy part.

Post: #31

Most people are so afriad to talk, network, probe. That's why I love this forum. Like-minded men doing great things. I love this thread Fret. Hopefully the younger players pick up and learn what you are learn. Your experiences are our experiences.

Post: #32

The tea scam makes me think of when you walk into a new strip joint, some chick comes over and you start macking with her, then: "would you like to buy me a drink?" comes out.

Fuuuuuck. The old, $25 cocktail trick. Leeches.

Post: #33

(04-20-2013 04:10 AM)TexasMade Wrote:  Most people are so afriad to talk, network, probe. That's why I love this forum. Like-minded men doing great things. I love this thread Fret. Hopefully the younger players pick up and learn what you are learn. Your experiences are our experiences.

Thanks man. It is very possible that to get this thing to really get going one will need to do many trips to China and it might take a few years.

For example, when talking with the manager, I asked him about Nicaraguan cigars (I asked because Nicaragua is right next to Honduras and I was really curious how these cigars were doing in China). He told me that they entered the market a few years ago, it was hard but they helped them alot with promoting the product and apparently they are doing pretty good. Now they are right along the Dominican Republic and the Cubans in this market. He says it took them around 5 years to get into China or so. That is really crazy and might not be true but that is what he told me.

Now a little bit regarding girls...

I have been experimenting with a couple of ways to start getting to know girls. The two most effective I have found so far are:

1. Asking for directions to get somewhere. After she helps you ask her if she has Weixin, then tell her you arrived in Beijing a few days ago and want to meet chinese friends and practice your chinese. Proceed to build comfort with her over Weixin and try to set up the date.
2. Using Weixin, there is a feature called Look Around which shows you the people who are very close to you and also have Weixin. Filter this to girls and start spamming greeting messages to all of them. There is a high chance most of these girls don't speak english though.
   

Also, many girls will talk to you over Weixin but once you ask them to hang out they will stop messaging you. Just keep plowing with more girls.

Post: #34

@Fretdancer- cancel the charges. Dont feel bad, but this shit happens all the time. Some dude here on the forum got scammed in a similar way. Just ALWAYS ask for the menu WITH prices.

1st rule in Asia.

If they keep saying ma guanxi (dont worry), its time to start checking your pockets for missing shit or possible upcoming scams. Communist China is scam-central for foreigners. Its practically a national sport.

Edit here the other thread..../thread-18824-...#pid331661. This is not the West anymore. Keep your wits about you. Be paranoid and wary, you have more money than 99% of the population there.

Post: #35

(04-20-2013 09:01 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  I have been experimenting with a couple of ways to start getting to know girls. The two most effective I have found so far are:

1. Asking for directions to get somewhere. After she helps you ask her if she has Weixin, then tell her you arrived in Beijing a few days ago and want to meet chinese friends and practice your chinese. Proceed to build comfort with her over Weixin and try to set up the date.
2. Using Weixin, there is a feature called Look Around which shows you the people who are very close to you and also have Weixin. Filter this to girls and start spamming greeting messages to all of them. There is a high chance most of these girls don't speak english though.
   

Also, many girls will talk to you over Weixin but once you ask them to hang out they will stop messaging you. Just keep plowing with more girls.

This is classic Chinese game right here.

Post: #36

(04-19-2013 09:40 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Regarding the language, its a funny thing. You realize that speaking is actually, the easy part.

True that dude. Reading and writing fluently is a whole 'nother ball game.

Post: #37

(04-21-2013 04:26 PM)thebassist Wrote:  

(04-19-2013 09:40 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Regarding the language, its a funny thing. You realize that speaking is actually, the easy part.

True that dude. Reading and writing fluently is a whole 'nother ball game.

Hey man, actually reading for me is easy, writing not as easy since I don't write much anymore. But what I meant was that you might speak really good Mandarin, but when you are trying to speak with someone from here, many other variables come into place that makes it way harder. Like for example: Speaking speed and accent.

People here speak fast and with horrible accent, it's incredibly hard to understand them sometimes, even when you can speak standard mandarin really well. It's a pain in the ass.

On a sidenote, I visited the Great Wall yesterday and the Summer Palace the day before yesterday. I have to say that the Summer Palace is the most amazing place I've ever seen in my life. I was lucky that we had a cool nice sunset that day, something very rare with all this pollution! I strongly recommend anyone in Beijing to check the Summer Palace, its a must see.

Post: #38

if youre in beijing how can people have horrible accents unless youre dealing exclusively with migrants?

Post: #39

Hey Fret, cancel the charges... I NEVER use to do this. But one time in Buenos Aires I got taken for ride on some false charges. I just disputed it with the credit card company and told them it was a false purchase. They cancelled it and didn't even think twice. They even thanked me for letting them know...

Post: #40

(04-21-2013 10:38 PM)clever alias Wrote:  if youre in beijing how can people have horrible accents unless youre dealing exclusively with migrants?

For example, the common change in "shi" pronounciation to "si". Also the ErHua which I'm not used to hearing it. I talk chinese with my chinese friend who speaks very standard mandarin, when I speak with her its easy for us to have conversations, but with people on the streets its way harder.

(04-21-2013 11:19 PM)Dulceácido Wrote:  Hey Fret, cancel the charges... I NEVER use to do this. But one time in Buenos Aires I got taken for ride on some false charges. I just disputed it with the credit card company and told them it was a false purchase. They cancelled it and didn't even think twice. They even thanked me for letting them know...

I haven't notified the credit card company yet, I will try to do this asap. Thank you.

Post: #41

"shi" to "si" is a southern accent. guy is a migrant.
the erhua is standard. literally an erhua accent is described as 标准, standard. almost all news reporters and language 口语 teachers speak with the 儿化
furthermore isfyou have found someone who has both a southern accent and 儿化, holy shit thats crazy

Post: #42

(04-22-2013 10:46 AM)clever alias Wrote:  "shi" to "si" is a southern accent. guy is a migrant.
the erhua is standard. literally an erhua accent is described as 标准, standard. almost all news reporters and language 口语 teachers speak with the 儿化
furthermore isfyou have found someone who has both a southern accent and 儿化, holy shit thats crazy

I really don't know where each accent is from. What I mean is that when my friend speaks I can understand her, even when she is not speaking to me (on the phone for example), but when I am walking on the streets and listen to people speak, I barely can understand a thing. Are they speaking in a different dialect? Could be, but I don't think so.

Most likely, it is my Mandarin Hearing level. This is my first time speaking Mandarin outside my home country where I only have a few people to speak with. I think I need many more months here to understand people perfectly. The downsides of speaking really well is that people think you are fluent or something so they speak really fast and it's hard to understand 100% of what they say.

Anyways. So far my experience in Beijing has been awesome, I really don't want to leave. There is so much stuff still left to do and I only have a couple of weeks left. I am thinking on staying more, but to do this I have to

1. Extend my Visa (only got 30 days)
2. Re-schedule departure flight with United
   

Number 1 I think I can do no problem. However I have no experience with #2. Can anyone give me a few hints on this one? Is it possible to re-schedule my departure flight for one more month? How much does this cost?

I will give United airlines a call soon, but meanwhile It would be nice to hear a fellow forum member's experience with that.

Post: #43

Call United, sometimes the person will change it for you free of charge. Sometimes, they will charge you a fee. So it is kind of up to them if they want to charge you or not. For domestic flights, United usually charges like $40 to change the flight. For international, I have only had experience with Korean Airlines, and they gave me one schedule change for free.

Edit: By the way, you might get better service if you call the United number in China, but speak English with them.

(04-23-2013 08:24 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Number 1 I think I can do no problem. However I have no experience with #2. Can anyone give me a few hints on this one? Is it possible to re-schedule my departure flight for one more month? How much does this cost?

I will give United airlines a call soon, but meanwhile It would be nice to hear a fellow forum member's experience with that.

Post: #44

I'm a 1K on United (which means I fly over 100k miles a year with them), and I can tell you you're not changing any flight with United for $40. Maybe fifteen years ago you did. Changing an international flight is $150, plus fare difference, which is where they'll really gouge you.

Your best bet is to tell them your grandma died, which will get them to waive the $150 fee, but they'll still expect the fare difference. Getting them to agree to overlook the fare difference will be very tough, not impossible though.

EDIT: Actually as of a few days ago it looks like United change fees are $300 plus fare difference for international flights, according to WSJ.

Post: #45

I look forward to seeing how your business goes. I'm currently looking at some import/export options myself.

Here are the details of what claims to be the first cigar lounge here in Chongqing, if you ever feel like coming out this way:

http://www.cqexpat.com/i_forum/show.asp?id=50218

Post: #46

(05-07-2013 03:44 AM)chinadawg Wrote:  I look forward to seeing how your business goes. I'm currently looking at some import/export options myself.

Here are the details of what claims to be the first cigar lounge here in Chongqing, if you ever feel like coming out this way:

http://www.cqexpat.com/i_forum/show.asp?id=50218

Thanks for sharing chinadawg.

It's been a while since I've updated this thread. I've been going out alot here lately and just having lots of fun.

The place I mentioned earlier is the 国家烟草专卖局 (The Tobacco Monopoly Bureu in English). I tried searching for it on Google Maps and got a few places as results.

So today I decided to go look for Option B, which seemed the most logical one. After arriving at the closest Subway Station, I managed to find my way to the place indicated by Google Maps, luckily I didn't get lost this time. After asking around to people walking on the streets, it seemed that this place is no longer located here... Tough luck.

I might try Option A or Option D tomorrow, as they are a little close to Option B. Hopefully one of these is the correct place.


On other news, I was surfing through a Beijing website called The Beijinger, which has many activity articles of stuff happening in Beijing, as well as Employment, Housing, Volunteering ads and other stuff. I came across and add of some people looking for aspiring entreprenurs to interview foreign entrepreneurs in China. It seemed like a cool idea so I started exchanging in emails with the ad poster.

After exchanging a few emails, I mentioned him that I am a Computer Systems/Software engineer and he mentioned that he is working on a project regarding Sina Weibo (which is like China's Twitter) and that he is looking for people in similar tech areas. He summoned me to a meet up in the company's office yesterday and I went to see what was up. I will hold the company's name as anonymous for now.

At the meetup, he explained me what the project was about and we talked about it. It seems like a really cool project, and he is looking for people to work on it full time/part-time, which sounded like a very nice idea to me. I asked him if they would provide a Work Visa arrangement and he told me he would look into that and let me know.

To test my skills and review my skills, he wants me to build a small application that interacts with the Weibo API and extracts information from a Weibo user, like number of followers, number of tweets, etc. It doesn't seem a hard thing, except that the Weibo API is all in Chinese, and it has lots of very very specific terms and vocabulary, of course...

Just thought that little experience might be useful for someone here. I might share more details on it later.