The internet here in China has some unique challenges. The Chinese government likes to block sites. The official reason is to block sites that have a direct Chinese counterpart so as to encourage Chinese websites, for example, Twitter is blocked because China has Weibo, Youtube is blocked because China has Yokou. The real reason they do this, in most peoples estimation is to control things, if something offensive to the Communist regime is posted on Weibo, it gets deleted, if a video of Tibetans lighting themselves on fire in protest for the occupation and ethnic cleansing is posted on Yokou then it gets deleted.
The easiest way around the Great firewall of China is to get a VPN or Virtual Private Network. A VPN essentially tricks the internet into thinking you are somewhere else. Forgive me if I don't know the technical stuff behind a VPN all i know is it works. You have a couple options when it comes to choosing one, the main differences are price and effectiveness.
So you have some free ones, but they are super unreliable. The only ones I have personally used are ninjacloak.com and Hotspotshield. Both of these are very slow and very spotty, but they are free.
The other option you have is to pay for it, and they aren't cheap. The positive side is that these work very very well. The site I use is call strongvpn.com they offer a few packages but the basic one is $21 every three months. I have the most basic package on my computer and its fast enough and good enough that I can stream Netflix, or Youtube, use Facebook and Blogger.
Comments? Questions?
ryker.minks@gmail.com
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Thursday, August 15, 2013
6 months in.
Well, Iv'e been a pretty terrible blogger. I haven't posted anything since arriving in China. I'd like to say I've been busy having adventures, or so swamped learning Chinese that I haven't had the time. Unfortunately the truth is when we first got here we didn't know how to get around the Great Firewall, but after we got that taken care of Iv'e just been to lazy to start blogging again.
To get started again, I think ill give you a brief recap of the last 6 months.
1. We got to China, eventually. We left Salt Lake City, had a quick layover in Denver, then made it to San Francisco. We were supposed to go straight to Beijing from San Francisco. However! when we got there our plane was broken. yep broken. We were able to get everything re-routed for the next day but stayed the night in California before flying to Seattle, and then Tokyo, and THEN Beijing. So our total trip spanned two days and 6 airports. Salt Lake City-Denver-San Francisco-Seattle-Tokyo-Beijing. Yikes what a horrible flight. Anyway, we landed in Beijing at about 1am and instead of taking the 30minute train we had to take a 2 hour bus due to it being past the train's bed time. We arrived in Tianjin and drove another 30 minutes in a taxi to finally get to our apartment. Yay we made it!
2. Teaching. The next day we started teaching. We sat in on a few classes while the American teacher before us taught, and I taught a class my self. Teaching is rewarding and frustrating, great and terrible but mostly the best job I've ever had. took us a couple weeks to get the hang of it but now its not a big deal. we teach around 20 hours per week, usually a little less than that.
3. Chinese Class. Taylor and I are both doing fairly well in our goal of studying Chinese. We have class 4 days a week in the morning for 2 hours. Mostly being in China is great because it forces us to practice. I might not be fluent by the time we leave but I can defiantly get around and make my self understood.
4. Living here. So far so good! We live in Tianjin City, Hexi District. its the outskirts of the city but that suits us fairly well, we can take the subway into the city center in about 25-30 minutes. We have a grocery store, street food and everything else we need within a 15 minute walk. If anyone wants to send us some stuff our address is, Tianjin City, Hexi District Si Shuai Street Long Bo Hua Yuan 20-5-101, 天津市河西区泗水道龙博花园20-5门－101.
5. Travel, we haven't been doing as much traveling as I want to. Mainly because summer in Northern China is brutal and the thought of even leaving our apartment before it gets dark is exhausting. But we have had a chance to go two places and are getting ready for a third next week.
-Beijing, the first place we traveled to was Beijing. We had a long weekend so we took the train, which takes about 30minutes we stayed in a youth hostel that was about a 10 minute walk to the forbidden city. we spent the day there and it was AWESOME! also saw Tiananmen square, aside from all the history its pretty boring, just a big slab of concrete with a bunch of communist statues, and a giant picture of Chairmen Mao. They wouldn't even let us into the mausoleum to see Zombie Mao because apparently its disrespectful to one of the biggest murderers in history if you have a backpack with you.
-Xiamen/Kinmen, The second place we went was Xiamen in Fujian Provence. Xiamen is an island on the Taiwanese Straight. It is governed by the PRC (mainland China) about a 20minute ferry across the channel from Xiamen is Kinmen which is controlled by the ROC (taiwan). We had to do a Visa run so we flew down to Xiamen, took a boat over to Kinmen and technically left China. Then we came back and spent the weekend eating seafood and exploring an old fishing village full of nicknack shops and smoothie stands. It was an awesome weekend.
To wrap up this wrap up Taylor and I are having a ton of fun. Living in China really is an adventure everyday. I will keep posting blogs about some things iv'e learned that may help other expats in our situation, also any fun stuff I see or do and maybe some general rambling about travel or China.
Questions? comments? ryker.minks@gmail.com
To get started again, I think ill give you a brief recap of the last 6 months.
1. We got to China, eventually. We left Salt Lake City, had a quick layover in Denver, then made it to San Francisco. We were supposed to go straight to Beijing from San Francisco. However! when we got there our plane was broken. yep broken. We were able to get everything re-routed for the next day but stayed the night in California before flying to Seattle, and then Tokyo, and THEN Beijing. So our total trip spanned two days and 6 airports. Salt Lake City-Denver-San Francisco-Seattle-Tokyo-Beijing. Yikes what a horrible flight. Anyway, we landed in Beijing at about 1am and instead of taking the 30minute train we had to take a 2 hour bus due to it being past the train's bed time. We arrived in Tianjin and drove another 30 minutes in a taxi to finally get to our apartment. Yay we made it!
2. Teaching. The next day we started teaching. We sat in on a few classes while the American teacher before us taught, and I taught a class my self. Teaching is rewarding and frustrating, great and terrible but mostly the best job I've ever had. took us a couple weeks to get the hang of it but now its not a big deal. we teach around 20 hours per week, usually a little less than that.
3. Chinese Class. Taylor and I are both doing fairly well in our goal of studying Chinese. We have class 4 days a week in the morning for 2 hours. Mostly being in China is great because it forces us to practice. I might not be fluent by the time we leave but I can defiantly get around and make my self understood.
4. Living here. So far so good! We live in Tianjin City, Hexi District. its the outskirts of the city but that suits us fairly well, we can take the subway into the city center in about 25-30 minutes. We have a grocery store, street food and everything else we need within a 15 minute walk. If anyone wants to send us some stuff our address is, Tianjin City, Hexi District Si Shuai Street Long Bo Hua Yuan 20-5-101, 天津市河西区泗水道龙博花园20-5门－101.
5. Travel, we haven't been doing as much traveling as I want to. Mainly because summer in Northern China is brutal and the thought of even leaving our apartment before it gets dark is exhausting. But we have had a chance to go two places and are getting ready for a third next week.
-Beijing, the first place we traveled to was Beijing. We had a long weekend so we took the train, which takes about 30minutes we stayed in a youth hostel that was about a 10 minute walk to the forbidden city. we spent the day there and it was AWESOME! also saw Tiananmen square, aside from all the history its pretty boring, just a big slab of concrete with a bunch of communist statues, and a giant picture of Chairmen Mao. They wouldn't even let us into the mausoleum to see Zombie Mao because apparently its disrespectful to one of the biggest murderers in history if you have a backpack with you.
-Xiamen/Kinmen, The second place we went was Xiamen in Fujian Provence. Xiamen is an island on the Taiwanese Straight. It is governed by the PRC (mainland China) about a 20minute ferry across the channel from Xiamen is Kinmen which is controlled by the ROC (taiwan). We had to do a Visa run so we flew down to Xiamen, took a boat over to Kinmen and technically left China. Then we came back and spent the weekend eating seafood and exploring an old fishing village full of nicknack shops and smoothie stands. It was an awesome weekend.
To wrap up this wrap up Taylor and I are having a ton of fun. Living in China really is an adventure everyday. I will keep posting blogs about some things iv'e learned that may help other expats in our situation, also any fun stuff I see or do and maybe some general rambling about travel or China.
Questions? comments? ryker.minks@gmail.com
Monday, February 18, 2013
5 days left
Well today we moved out of our apartment, in 5 days we will be out of this country and flying over the pacific. I'm so grateful for this last year of my life. Not only have I been blessed financially with a good job and decent opportunities but I've also been blessed spiritually, I married my wonderful wife and now I'm flying to China to live out my dreams and really take control of my life.
I'm exhausted from moving and whatnot so this probably isn't the most coherent post but stay tuned and we will have cool pictures and cool stories from our adventures in China.
Questions? Comments? Blogminks@gmail.com
I'm exhausted from moving and whatnot so this probably isn't the most coherent post but stay tuned and we will have cool pictures and cool stories from our adventures in China.
Questions? Comments? Blogminks@gmail.com
Thursday, January 24, 2013
31 days, the countdown begins
Well it's been about a week since my last post, life has been busy. We have 31 days until we leave and the clock is ticking on all the things we need to do to wrap up our life here. Work of course is still going on, getting everything together to move out in 3 weeks, trying to sell our car, not to mention the weather has been lousy and I'm feeling pretty ill.
The last piece of our China plans I haven't finished yet is our visas, filling out the paper work Ive done, I just need to get some passport photos taken and send everything in. Hopefully I'll get that done by Saturday.
We move out of our apartment 2-18-13 and don't fly out until the 24th so we are gonna be homeless for 6 days, we have a couple options of places to stay but need to nail that down still. I really would rather not be camping for a week in below freezing temperatures.
Our work gave us our W-2 forms so we can start our taxes, hopefully we can get our refund before we leave. But I guess we can't Efile until the 31st which is frustrating.
All in all I'm really excited but I wish I could just get on the plane and go. Wrapping everything up and organizing things , makes me tired and stressed out. One day ill just go to the airport and take the next available flight wherever it's going, but for right now I can't be quite that spontaneous.
The last piece of our China plans I haven't finished yet is our visas, filling out the paper work Ive done, I just need to get some passport photos taken and send everything in. Hopefully I'll get that done by Saturday.
We move out of our apartment 2-18-13 and don't fly out until the 24th so we are gonna be homeless for 6 days, we have a couple options of places to stay but need to nail that down still. I really would rather not be camping for a week in below freezing temperatures.
Our work gave us our W-2 forms so we can start our taxes, hopefully we can get our refund before we leave. But I guess we can't Efile until the 31st which is frustrating.
All in all I'm really excited but I wish I could just get on the plane and go. Wrapping everything up and organizing things , makes me tired and stressed out. One day ill just go to the airport and take the next available flight wherever it's going, but for right now I can't be quite that spontaneous.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Things I will miss about the U.S.
No doubt, I am very excited to go to China next month. I've been planning it and saving for it for what seems like forever. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss things about America.
Of course the biggest thing will be my family. My parents and my sister are all back on Oahu, I've been in Utah for a year now and it's been hard being that far away from people I care about so much. Another year away from them is going to be hard. Tay's family is all here in Utah and we usually see them at least 2-3 times per month. I'm going to miss them, especially Tay's younger brothers who are a ton of fun.
Another thing I'm going to miss even if my health won't is western food. In n Out burgers and Cheesy Gordita crunches from Taco Bell are sadly unavailable in Asia. The weirdest thing, in my opinion, that I missed last time was americanized Chinese food, there is no such thing as orange chicken in China.
Netflix, because of copyright laws Netflix isnt available outside of the US and Canada. China makes up for it (almost) by its cheap selection of bootleg DVDs but its a pale comparison.
I'm going to miss how easy it is to communicate at places like the grocery store, things like "where can I find the salt?" And "can you tell me where the bathroom is?" Are incredibly difficult when your mandarin is about as good as an 18month old baby.
In general I couldn't be more excited, but its human nature to miss what you can't have. I'm sure I'm going to have a great time, but I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers until they build a Taco Bell in Beijing.
Questions? Comments? minksblog@gmail.com
Of course the biggest thing will be my family. My parents and my sister are all back on Oahu, I've been in Utah for a year now and it's been hard being that far away from people I care about so much. Another year away from them is going to be hard. Tay's family is all here in Utah and we usually see them at least 2-3 times per month. I'm going to miss them, especially Tay's younger brothers who are a ton of fun.
Another thing I'm going to miss even if my health won't is western food. In n Out burgers and Cheesy Gordita crunches from Taco Bell are sadly unavailable in Asia. The weirdest thing, in my opinion, that I missed last time was americanized Chinese food, there is no such thing as orange chicken in China.
Netflix, because of copyright laws Netflix isnt available outside of the US and Canada. China makes up for it (almost) by its cheap selection of bootleg DVDs but its a pale comparison.
I'm going to miss how easy it is to communicate at places like the grocery store, things like "where can I find the salt?" And "can you tell me where the bathroom is?" Are incredibly difficult when your mandarin is about as good as an 18month old baby.
In general I couldn't be more excited, but its human nature to miss what you can't have. I'm sure I'm going to have a great time, but I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers until they build a Taco Bell in Beijing.
Questions? Comments? minksblog@gmail.com
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Product Profile, Pacsafe Anti-theft bags
Last time I was in China I had both my wallet and my phone pick pocketed. Both of these could have been avoided by me being careful and less naive, keeping things in my front pockets not the back and leaving expensive electronics at my apartment not out in plain sight in a busy market. Anyway, that experience has made me just a little bit paranoid about getting my stuff lifted.
Introducing, Pacsafe!
Pacsafe makes bags specifically for travelers and Tay and I have each purchased one. They makes a bunch of different models for all kinds of occasions, Im using this back pack the Venturesafe 25l as my carry on, on the plane. Here is a list of the safety features that sold me on this bag.
1. Slash proof material.
Every Pacsafe bag is made out of material that is laced with a metal mesh, this stops people from being able to cut into your bag and grab your stuff! How cool is that? its like chain mail for your valuables. I've also been assured by different reviews online that the mesh does not stop this bag from being able to be a carry on, it goes through security just fine.
2. Locking Zippers
If a sneaky pickpocket tries to carefully unzip this bag without you noticing they will be in for a surprise. Thats right, zippers that lock once they've been zipped. Such a good idea, I would have been sold on the bag even if this was the only safety feature they included.
3. Detachable locking straps.
you can unhook the strap from the backpack, wrap it around a pole or something, and then lock it back on to the backpack. This means you can prevent someone from grabbing your bag and running if you are sitting down somewhere.
4. RFID pocket
Your passport and your credit cards contain something called an RFID chip, that identity thieves can scan and then steal your personal info. Pacsafe bags contain a special pocket for your sensitive information that keeps it from being read electronically.
Now the bag Tay is getting is a little different style but still has the same safety features,
This is the Slingsafe 150 Gll, its a smaller bag but still made out of the cool "stuff armor material", and with the same locking zippers, this is going to be our Ipad / Camera bag.It is also nice because its small size lets it be worn under a jacket to really deter opportunists looking to steal our electronics.
For more info on these great travel items check out, http://www.pacsafe.com
Questions and comments, blogminks@gmail.com
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Packing list
To help anyone out there who may be planning a trip to China, here is my packing list and the reasons behind it.
1. A warm coat.
China is cold, colder than the US, also indoors in China is very often cinderblock with no heating to speak of, pack a good coat
2. A weeks worth of Tshirts.
In America I am an XL, the most common size in men's shirts. Conversely in China I'm a 6-7XL. Unless you have your shirts made for you it is impossible to find larger American sizes in China.
3. Hiking boots, walking shoes, sandals, casual sneakers.
I'm a US 13 in shoes, that's a Chinese 46. They stop selling shoes at a 36. Bring shoes from home or go barefoot.
4. 2-3 good pairs of jeans.
I like Levi's 511 commuter jeans, they are water proof, double stitched, and last forever.
5. 2-3 pairs of cargo shorts.
Just like China is colder than the US, China is also hotter than the US. With 80% of the population on the coast, chances are if you are in China, it's going to be humid. Pack accordingly.
6. A 1 year supply of the following items which are either, hard to find, not available, or really expensive.
Deodorant
-China is smelly
Tylenol
-China is loud
Imodium, Tums, Pepto
-Chinese food is spicy
Hand sanitizer
-China is dirty
Birth control/ contraception
-idk about you, but I'd rather not have a baby in a Chinese hospital
Tampons
-do not exist, if you are a girl, or traveling with your wife like I am plan accordingly.
7. Socks, underwear, under shirts.
Again Chinese sizes are small
8. MacBook
Chinese Internet can be touch and go and the Great Firewall of China makes things like Facebook and Google difficult, but any amount of time without Internet access is a pain and buying a computer in China is going to be expensive, and also in Chinese.
9. iPhone
I'm going to be taking the SIM card out and just using Wifi, international roaming charges are insane. Plus my phone is my camera. WATCH OUT FOR PICK POCKETS.
10. A good backpack.
I recommend a bag made by pacsafe, they are anti theft travel bags with locking zippers and slash proof material to keep thieves out of your stuff. (More on this in a later post)
11. Lonely Plant phrase book/travel guides.
Get the general China travel guide from lonely planet and then which ever big city you plan on exploring ( Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are available at Barnes and Nobel). Having a little book that lets you ask where the bathroom is, can save you the embarrassment of miming that out in bad sign language.
12.Kindle.
I don't know about everyone, but for me books are essential, and I don't want to spend long flights, and long train rides bored. The selection of English language books is so limited it may as well be non-existent in China so my Kindle is coming with me.
13. Ukulele
Last time I brought a guitar and it was to big and heavy and just generally inconvenient. I grew up in Hawai'i and my Uke is a good, travel sized alternative.
14. Rolls of pennies
I'm bringing a few rolls of pennies to give to my classes, Chinese kids will think they are cool I promise.
15.photojojo lenses
Attachments for my phone's camera.
16. Taco seasoning.
Western food is hard to come by, but Mexican food is impossible, unless you make your own.
17. Herbal Tea
Everyone drinks tea, but with the diet restrictions that go along with being Mormon carrying your own tea is safer.
18. Business Clothes
A least one set of nice clothes may come in handy, plus it's better to pack it and not need it then need it and not have it.
19. Sunblock
Hard to find, and essential.
20.Business Cards
A card with your name, address and where you are from in English and in Chinese will save you, especially useful for taxi drivers.
Questions or comments? Did i miss anything? Blogminks@gmail.com
1. A warm coat.
China is cold, colder than the US, also indoors in China is very often cinderblock with no heating to speak of, pack a good coat
2. A weeks worth of Tshirts.
In America I am an XL, the most common size in men's shirts. Conversely in China I'm a 6-7XL. Unless you have your shirts made for you it is impossible to find larger American sizes in China.
3. Hiking boots, walking shoes, sandals, casual sneakers.
I'm a US 13 in shoes, that's a Chinese 46. They stop selling shoes at a 36. Bring shoes from home or go barefoot.
4. 2-3 good pairs of jeans.
I like Levi's 511 commuter jeans, they are water proof, double stitched, and last forever.
5. 2-3 pairs of cargo shorts.
Just like China is colder than the US, China is also hotter than the US. With 80% of the population on the coast, chances are if you are in China, it's going to be humid. Pack accordingly.
6. A 1 year supply of the following items which are either, hard to find, not available, or really expensive.
Deodorant
-China is smelly
Tylenol
-China is loud
Imodium, Tums, Pepto
-Chinese food is spicy
Hand sanitizer
-China is dirty
Birth control/ contraception
-idk about you, but I'd rather not have a baby in a Chinese hospital
Tampons
-do not exist, if you are a girl, or traveling with your wife like I am plan accordingly.
7. Socks, underwear, under shirts.
Again Chinese sizes are small
8. MacBook
Chinese Internet can be touch and go and the Great Firewall of China makes things like Facebook and Google difficult, but any amount of time without Internet access is a pain and buying a computer in China is going to be expensive, and also in Chinese.
9. iPhone
I'm going to be taking the SIM card out and just using Wifi, international roaming charges are insane. Plus my phone is my camera. WATCH OUT FOR PICK POCKETS.
10. A good backpack.
I recommend a bag made by pacsafe, they are anti theft travel bags with locking zippers and slash proof material to keep thieves out of your stuff. (More on this in a later post)
11. Lonely Plant phrase book/travel guides.
Get the general China travel guide from lonely planet and then which ever big city you plan on exploring ( Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are available at Barnes and Nobel). Having a little book that lets you ask where the bathroom is, can save you the embarrassment of miming that out in bad sign language.
12.Kindle.
I don't know about everyone, but for me books are essential, and I don't want to spend long flights, and long train rides bored. The selection of English language books is so limited it may as well be non-existent in China so my Kindle is coming with me.
13. Ukulele
Last time I brought a guitar and it was to big and heavy and just generally inconvenient. I grew up in Hawai'i and my Uke is a good, travel sized alternative.
14. Rolls of pennies
I'm bringing a few rolls of pennies to give to my classes, Chinese kids will think they are cool I promise.
15.photojojo lenses
Attachments for my phone's camera.
16. Taco seasoning.
Western food is hard to come by, but Mexican food is impossible, unless you make your own.
17. Herbal Tea
Everyone drinks tea, but with the diet restrictions that go along with being Mormon carrying your own tea is safer.
18. Business Clothes
A least one set of nice clothes may come in handy, plus it's better to pack it and not need it then need it and not have it.
19. Sunblock
Hard to find, and essential.
20.Business Cards
A card with your name, address and where you are from in English and in Chinese will save you, especially useful for taxi drivers.
Questions or comments? Did i miss anything? Blogminks@gmail.com
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