September 2, 2006
Alarmist headline from the Shanghai Daily, Dozens of jobs now need certificate:
The first batch of 28 government-licensed occupations includes food quality inspectors, mechanics, cosmeticians and Chinese cuisine chefs. People who currently hold such jobs, but don't have a work certificate, are to attend training to acquire a certificate within one year. Otherwise they will be fired.
Looks like it affects both expats and nationals, but I wonder who it's targetting specifically.
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September 5, 2006
Public transportation staff are a combination of tough exterior and heart of gold:
Hehe, I once tried to tip a bus driver. The bus was 2 RMB, but I only had a 5 RMB note. He had no change, but as soon as we arrived at the next stop, he got out of his seat, took some RMB from a guest who got on, walked all the way through the bus to me and gave me my three RMB back - that was so emberassing, since then I tip no more.
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September 11, 2006
From Wanbro's post "Blonde children and Golden Retrievers", a comment by Balong:
I was invited to a dinner party in Yosemite once – three hours of conversation consisted entirely of (i) who had the laziest ayi, and (ii) why Unit “C” houses were better than Unit “D” houses (they all look the same, so much so, that it took me the best part of half an hour to find the right one). We may be atonal mediocrity here in the city, but trust me, the slick marketing campaigns of these luxury compounds cleverly disguise a diaspora of boring expats.
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September 21, 2006
Sound travel advice from Jon on the Oriental-List:
Weirdly, lots of people accept international credit cards and there are loads of ATMs in Shanghai; no one's even heard of a bank in most of western Tibet. Adjust accordingly.
Context, context, context.
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