huo shao at pinganli
Can get really busy some nights as it’s close to Wangfujing.
Donghuamen street food market
Chuar here is surprisingly good
HOW TO Go to the Beijing Friendship Store
The “Friendship Store” concept goes back to the days when China was still very closed off. Friendship stores were some of the only places where one could buy foreign goods.
It’s an interesting place to go for the historical aspect, but in terms of shopping experience, it’s since been eclipsed by many other malls. The selling point of the Beijing Friendship store is that it only sells genuine items and no knockoffs.
By bus
Take bus route 120 or 121 and stop at Jian Guo Men.
By subway
Stop at Line 1, Jianguomen station.
By taxi
Taxi drivers will recognize if you say the Chinese name, Yǒu Yì Shāng Chǎng (友谊商场). The street address is 17 Jianguomenwai Dajie (建国门外大街17号).
Here’s the official Beijing Friendship Store site.
HOW TO Find an Apartment in Beijing
Finding a place to live in Beijing is pretty easy even if you don’t speak Chinese. If you do have some Mandarin ability, it’s as easy as walking into the many real estate offices that are scattered around the city.
English apartment classifieds in Beijing
- The Beijinger. If you’re in the market for a new apartment, this should be one of your first stops. An especially great place to look if you don’t mind having a roommate. Local agents who post here usually speak good English.
- City Weekend is not as “happening” as the Beijinger housing listings but is still an important place to look.
- Craigslist Beijing doesn’t get that much traffic, but a lot of people who post there don’t cross-post at the other sites. This results in a lot less “competition” for housing.
Chinese apartment listings
- Ganji is a Craigslist-like classifieds site with a fairly active housing section.
- Anjuke is a real-estate listings website that puts you in touch with agents.
In Beijing, standard practice is to pay 3 month’s rent in advance along with a 1 month deposit. So if you’re looking for a place, be ready to fork out 4 month’s worth of rent when you move in.
As for agency fees, it all depends on the situation. Sometimes the landlord pays the agent, sometimes you have to pay the agent.
Depending on what visa you have, you might need a Temporary Residence Permit.
HOW TO Describe Flavours in Mandarin
Sour: suān / 酸
Sweet: tián / 甜
Bitter: kǔ / 苦
Spicy: là / 辣
Much like English, these words are not restricted to food only. For example, kǔ (苦) can also mean “hardship”, “pain” and “suffering”.
If you combine all 4 flavours, you’ll get a phrase: Suān Tián Kǔ Là (酸甜苦辣). This phrase describes the joys and sorrows of life and the whole range of emotions.
Aside from being mildly poetic, it’s also a handy phrase to remember the flavours, as they are listed in order of tones. Suān (1st, level) Tián (2nd, rising) Kǔ (3rd, rising-falling) Là (4th, falling)
HOW TO Use Bijiao as a Comparative or Adverb
Bǐjiào (比较) can be a tricky concept for Mandarin beginners grasp. On one hand, it’s used for comparison, but it’s also used as an adverb like “quite” or “fairly”.
Bǐjiào for comparison
nǎ yī jiàn yīfu bǐjiào hǎo kàn? / 哪一件衣服比较好看? / which one (of these clothes) looks better?
shéi bǐjiào gāo? / 谁比较高? / who is taller?
zhè ge bǐjiào hǎochī / 这个比较好吃 / this one tastes better
Bǐjiào as an adverb
wǒ jīntiān bǐjiào máng / 我今天比较忙 / I’m quite busy today
wǒmen bǐjiào è / 我们比较饿 / we’re fairly hungry
shàng zhōu bǐjiào rè / 上周比较热 / it was pretty hot last week
HOW TO Find a Job in Beijing
Put simply, getting a job in Beijing comes down to who you know. I know that this is a universal tenet of job hunting, but networks count more in China. Reason being that expats work in smaller circles than they usually do back home, so the “value” of each connection is greater.
Know that you are at a big disadvantage if you are starting your job search outside of Beijing/China. Unless you have specialized skills at the executive level, chances are that there is someone in Beijing who has a comparable resume.
You can get a job by emailing CVs and cover letters, you just have to be very patient and hope for a stroke of luck. Ideally, you have at least an intermediate level of Mandarin skill. With the increasing amount of foreigners in Beijing, Mandarin quickly distinguishes you from the competition.
There are jobs here for non-senior foreigners who can’t speak Mandarin; they’re just extremely rare (outside of teaching English) and you usually get them through networking and luck.
Beijing job classifieds
Here are a few websites you should be glued to and checking semi-daily during your Beijing job search.
Job search engines
The below sites are great for tracking down hard-to-find corporate job postings. Set the job search city to Beijing and make sure to check the posting date(!) as sometimes they will pick up outdated job ads.
Teaching English
Teaching English in Beijing is as close to a sure thing as you can get. Despite the fact that the city is teeming with foreigners, the demand for English teachers continues to rise. Yes, a white face makes it easier, but as long as you graduated from the UK/Australia/New Zealand/USA/Canada you should be okay.
Most of the advertised jobs are for teaching kids, so if you like working with little ones, you’re in luck. There are well-paying jobs out there teaching adults, but the standards are a little higher and there’s more competition for them.
If you’re teaching English at a private company in Beijing (or another tier-1 city like Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc) you should be making at least 8000 RMB (gross) for a full-time position. Universities and colleges should be paying you at least 6000 RMB since you won’t have to pay for housing. Anything less than these figures and you’re being taken advantage of.
Craigslist and Beijinger should have enough job listings to get you a few leads, but you may also want to increase your chances by checking out Dave’s ESL Cafe.
If you go this route, I would strongly recommend teaching English in Beijing or Shanghai. Make sure that you use your free time to network and meet as many people as you can. It’s very easy to get stuck in the ESL circle because it’s a comfortable lifestyle, so make sure you have some direction.
Interning
If you want to increase your chances of getting work in Beijing, offer to work for peanuts (or in some cases, for free). You’ll book the plane ticket and pay for housing on your dime, but the company you intern for should cover your visa costs.
A search for “Beijing internships” should keep you busy for a while. You can also try contacting companies directly. Small-to-medium sized companies are usually more eager for interns.
From what I’ve seen, heard and experienced, you’ll want to end up in a Western company if you choose to intern in Beijing. Foreign interns at Chinese companies usually don’t end up with worthwhile internships. Typically, they become de-facto English teachers, translation polishers or “token foreigners” that get paraded in front of clients. Either way, once you get in the country, make sure that you use your free time to learn Mandarin or to meet people.
Always remember that the value is being in China and being able to build connections with people who have established networks.
HOW TO Get YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in Beijing
In order to get access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc in China, you have two options:
1. Pay for a VPN
Put very simply, a VPN (“Virtual Private Network”) secretly connects you to another computer outside of the country. You then browse the web through that foreign computer, allowing you to access all of your evil western websites and bypass the Great Firewall of China.
There are some free VPNs out there, but they’re usually down because of everyone hunting for a way to get YouTube in China. If you want blocked-site access that badly, you’ll have to pay for it. Below are some paid VPN providers:
Witopia - Seems to be the China expat’s choice.
Ivacy - had an account with these guys for a little while. Really fast servers but a bit expensive.
Strong VPN - lots of servers all over the world, which is helpful for accessing country-specific content (e.g. Hulu or TSN.ca)
Torrents and P2P application access vary for each provider, so if that’s a deal-breaker for you, make sure to read the terms and conditions.
You may be wondering what the difference is between a proxy and a VPN. TUVPN has a great explanation over at their blog. Bottom line: VPN > proxy.
2. Use TOR
TOR is a bit more complicated. It works similar to VPNs in that you browse the web through other computers outside of your country. I consider myself fairly tech-savvy so I gave TOR a few tries. I got it to work a couple of times, but I found the reliability too low and the configuration/tweaking time too high so I just went for a VPN.
The advantage of TOR is that it’s free (and makes you feel like a cool anti-establishment type). If you’re still interested, keep reading at TOR Project.
HOW TO get to the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City (Gù Gōng / 故宫) is really cool. So much history and culture in one place. The whole city of Beijing is built around it, making it very accessible. Expect to spend at least 1 hour there; if you’re really into Chinese culture it can easily take your whole afternoon.
Get there by subway
By far the easiest way as it stops right on Tiananmen Square and at the gate of the Forbidden City. Take subway Line 1 to Tiananmen East, this will cost you 2 RMB.
Get there by bus
Take bus 101 / 103 / 109 / 814 and get off at Gù Gōng station (故宫站). Generally the bus ride will cost you 1 RMB.
Don’t bother taking a taxi unless you really, really need to.
