Been to China?

[edro]

I'm going to China (close to Shanghai) for work for a week.

I doubt my ATT iPhone will work there, and I have heard that Google is blocked... so will any Google Apps work there?
I have heard about unlimited data SIM cards you can swap in while you are traveling, but not sure.

Anything else I should be aware of besides the smog and chemical explosions?

 

[Mayne]

I hope you are tall.

 

[Anubis]

this is relevant to my interests

ill be there next week as well

 

[edro]

I hope you are tall.

Everyone is tall in China.

 

[edro]

So I'm reading you need to unlock your cell phone to use a different SIM.
Maybe I should jailbreak my old iPhone 4S and use a Chinese SIM in it...
I think I will need a translation app...and I would want to Facetime/email, which will probably require data. I probably won't have wifi except at hotel.

 

[maddogchen]

don't drink the water. drink beer or soda without ice.

and bring diarrhea medicine just in case

 

[Elixer]

Anything else I should be aware of besides the smog and chemical explosions?

Smile at the people that will be following you, and throw in a few waves.
They like that!

Bonus points for wearing a Tiananmen Square protest T-shirt.
Then you can bring back the new malware with you on the phone... :ninja:

 

[Humpy]

Try to avoid torturing any dogs.

 

[Mayne]

lol at tiananmen square t

 

[Anubis]

don't drink the water. drink beer or soda without ice.

and bring diarrhea medicine just in case

Our company sends us with Cipro when we go to Asian countries lol

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I'm going to China (close to Shanghai) for work for a week.

I doubt my ATT iPhone will work there, and I have heard that Google is blocked... so will any Google Apps work there?
I have heard about unlimited data SIM cards you can swap in while you are traveling, but not sure.

Anything else I should be aware of besides the smog and chemical explosions?

As a former ATT employee your iPhone should work most major places in China it will be expensive. Facebook and such were blocked even for foreigners years ago now I'm not sure.
T-Mobile has the best international rates, I heard from a Chinese student that facebook was not blocked on T-Mobile phones in China for some unknown reason.

**you need to call ATT to have international service added to your account**

 

[edro]

As a former ATT employee your iPhone should work most major places in China it will be expensive. Facebook and such were blocked even for foreigners years ago now I'm not sure.
T-Mobile has the best international rates, I heard from a Chinese student that facebook was not blocked on T-Mobile phones in China for some unknown reason.

**you need to call ATT to have international service added to your account**

Yeah, it's like $30 for 120mb of data,
No way in hell I'm paying for that "service".

 

[Anubis]

Yeah, it's like $30 for 120mb of data,
No way in hell I'm paying for that "service".

pretty sure Verizon is the same price

last time I was over in Taiwan I was on WIFI 90% of the time and only used the data to send some texts

 

[Mayne]

but think of all the upskirt photos you can post to us?

 

[Stopsignhank]

They do not have orange chicken over there. The food is completely different than what you see in our Chinese restaurants.

Yes you have to eat with Chopsticks.

Are you gong to stay in Shanghai?

Is someone meeting you at the airport?

 

[Savij]

Phone - Just call your provider, they'll probably unlock it if you've been a customer for a while.

Food - Check out breakfast. Most major hotels have a nice western breakfast buffet that you can load up on. Pizza Hut and Burger King tasted strange to me, but McDonald's and KFC were exactly the same as anywhere in the US. Otherwise, the only times I got sick involved beer, not food and water.

Smog - It's bad but you'll survive.

Other stuff - See if you can get something with your hotel's name and address in Chinese and keep it with you. It's comforting to know that you can always hop in a cab and hand them the card to get yourself home if you need to.

I'm assuming you've already got a visa. It's an annoying process compared to other places.

 

[Belegost]

Phone - Just call your provider, they'll probably unlock it if you've been a customer for a while.

Food - Check out breakfast. Most major hotels have a nice western breakfast buffet that you can load up on. Pizza Hut and Burger King tasted strange to me, but McDonald's and KFC were exactly the same as anywhere in the US. Otherwise, the only times I got sick involved beer, not food and water.

Smog - It's bad but you'll survive.

Other stuff - See if you can get something with your hotel's name and address in Chinese and keep it with you. It's comforting to know that you can always hop in a cab and hand them the card to get yourself home if you need to.

I'm assuming you've already got a visa. It's an annoying process compared to other places.

^Pretty much this

As with most places, water should be bottled or boiled before drinking (or brushing teeth)

For the phone, I just bought a cheap android when I got there and grabbed a SIM from a street market vendor, band support issues made it more trouble than it's worth to try to use my personal device. I recommend having a stateside VPN to connect through to get around the firewall restrictions - if this is for work your company should be able to hook you up.

As for the food, go wild. I ate just about anything that looked interesting, definitely recommend asking locals to take you out for good chicken and duck blood soup, and xialongbao (though probably not together.)

 

[John Connor]

Been to China?

My money has.

 

[UncleWai]

You are best just buy a cheap ass phone to use in china, chances are it will get stolen by a filthy Chinese.

The prepaid sim has cap and pretty much block all the foreign websites (yes include your usual porn sites). Get a VPN account if you want to get in touch with the western world.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I'm going to Haikou and then Hong Kong in January.

Is the water really that bad? My kids went there last year and never caught any bug.