Wish I Could Read Chinese
erco
Posts: 20,259
'Cuz I just know there are some smokin' deals to be had here! There's a small English icon that doesn't work AFAIK...
http://auto-ctrl.taobao.com/?q=&searcy_type=item&s_from=newHeader&source=&ssid=s5-e&search=y&initiative_id=itemz_20120630
http://auto-ctrl.taobao.com/?q=&searcy_type=item&s_from=newHeader&source=&ssid=s5-e&search=y&initiative_id=itemz_20120630
Comments
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fauto-ctrl.taobao.com%2F%3Fq%3D%26searcy_type%3Ditem%26s_from%3DnewHeader%26source%3D%26ssid%3Ds5-e%26search%3Dy%26initiative_id%3Ditemz_20120630
I'm sure they have something I can't live without.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Light-Sensor-Module-Optical-Photosensitive-Sensor-Intelligent-Car-Accessories-/330685287668?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cfe610cf4
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=sensor&_sacat=0&_odkw&item=330685287668&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_osacat=0&hash=item4cfe610cf4&_ssn=bosity&_clu=2&_fcid=1&_localstpos=90503&_stpos=90503&gbr=1
-Phil
-Phil
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fauto-ctrl.taobao.com%2Fview_page-205278133.htm
If you go to Mainland China, you have to stay in special tourist hotels that are often double the local rate or more. If you visit the Forbidden City or other significant tourist venues., you have to pay the highest entry fee as a foreigner. But if you happen to be a Chinese American, you will get a special discount for only Chinese Foreigners. Not as cheap as a native, but cheaper than not being obviously Chinese.
Sorry, but that is the way it is. I too wish I could read Chinese (at least more Chinese) after 18 plus years of trying. I suppose Simplified would be a bit easier than Traditional, but then I could never read documents published abroad and prior to the 1040s.
BTW, you can't buy in New Taiwan Dollars either, unless you are in Taiwan. But at least one doesn't pay a premium for being a visitor.
I am sure it has evolved and people are more savvy about buying devices and components, but it was very interesting.
Just like visiting Petra in Jordan (AKA Canyon of the Crescent Moon for Indiana Jones fans). Natives & residents pay 1 JD, visitors pay 21 JD. Worth every penny!
http://www.petranationaltrust.org/UI/ShowContent.aspx?ContentId=70
-Phil
Years ago, here in Taiwan I was buying 3 roses for a girl. I asked the girl that was selling them how much in Chinese.
She in turn asked her mother how much in Taiwanese, too which the mother replied $50NTD.
The girl then turned to me and said $100NTD in Chinese.
Too which I replied in Taiwanese, "Why did your mother say $50NTD?" And one very surprised girl sold me the 3 roses for $50NTD (about $1 USD each).
The Chinese phrase for bargaining translates as 'to kill the price', but the actual pronunciation is the same as 'to kill the family." When in Asia, don't be afraid to bargain. You will actually loose face.
But having to stay in a special hotel that has a person on each floor keeping track of when you come in and when you go out is rather unnerving. If you bring someone to your room, they might even knock on your door and ask why and what you are doing. Some of these hotels are rather dreary, while down the street is a beautiful small boutique hotel for half the price that you cannot stay in.
The last time I visited Hong Kong, I stayed in the somewhat infamous Chung King Mansions to save money after my first choice of hotel claimed my reservation was not valid and wanted to upgrade me to nicer room at twice the price. I was woken up by foreign affairs police at 3am for a passport check. Not like the pre-takeover days when people would let you sleep all night. The elevators are turned off from 10pm to 6am, so why go around and wake people in the middle of the night?
I doubt if I will go back to Mainland China as I actually fear that my permanent resident visa for Taiwan will attract trouble wherever I go. Besides, Taipei has the National Palace Museum with a vast rotating display of the treasures of the Forbidden City. And I even get a Senior Citizen discount.
http://welcometochina.com.au/shenzhen-electronics-shopping-huaqiangbei-and-seg-electronics-market-486.html
including one that sells components.
He's an Anglophile, dislikes most mainland Chinese, and thinks that they should be banned from HK!
SeeedStudio Shenzhen 2 U
DealExtreme Product Request
I also stayed in a very good hotel out in the countryside, a couple of hours away from Beijing by car. It couldn't possibly have been a 'for foreigners only' hotel, it was the only hotel in the area, nobody spoke a word of English, and it was full of Chinese visitors (and a small minority of European and American travellers. Bicycle travellers, some of them!). Food was all Chinese style, except that it was possible to pay a little bit more and get 'western breakfast', which was just fried eggs.. so who would want that?
The pricelist in the bar was all in Chinese, and I paid what it said there so I don't think they operated with separate prices. It may well be true that I paid more than the Chinese when I visited the Forbidden City though - I couldn't check. I do know that the practice exists, a colleague (originally from China) told me that where she came from foreigners would have to pay three times more for meat than locals. But then again the price was 1/100 of meat price in my own country to start with.
All in all my stay in China was more or less like anywhere else, the only exception was that the hotel had to be paid in cash (in Yuan), and that you paid in advance when checking in plus a bit extra (which you got back when you checked out).
-Tor
In Guang Zhou, I stayed in two different hotels. The Guangdong Tourist Hotel by the Old Railroad Station and at the youth hostel on "Sand Island" on the Pearl River. The Lonely Planet guide for China explained that I must stay at these, but I did try to register at a nice little hotel with prices posted in Chinese near the Youth Hostel and was vigorously refused - "Bu yao wai guo ren!" Admittedly, these were budget hotels, mid-range and top-end may be more hospitable, or video camera take over the monitoring.
I have been told that in the southwest, Yunan everything is more of a village life style and less official.
Food was never a problem. I ate everywhere I pleased. Walking across the city was informative. Mostly I was approached by people wanted to exchange Yuan for US. dollars and that had a rather seditious feeling to it. One woman wanted me to practice English with her daughter, but suddenly got very self-conscious and walked off.
Of course, if you were with a tour, things may be substantially different as someone is responsible for you. And people have mentioned that things are less obvious in Shanghai and Beijing. But if you take a good look at the Guang Zhou city map, you will see that the freeway that rings it is actually doubled and has what appear to be big toll plazas. The outer ring by-passes the city, the inner ring keeps people in it. These 'big toll plazaa' are actually check points for people to show that they are allowed to travel beyond the city limits and into the cross-country freeway system. The railway station have the equivalent of customs/immigration to check that people have papers to travel far from home.
I suppose having two prices - one for citizens and one for foreigners is quite common. But there are exceptions, the British Museum is world class and free to all. Still, it is nonetheless rather annoying when there is a special discount that Chinese Americans qualify for and other Americans do not -- tacitly racial.
Frankly, I have traveled in and out of several countries in Asia, to Mexico, and to Canada. The ones I have least enjoyed are the ones where I've been most watched and most handled, especially when the local police are notoriously corrupt. Mexico would head that list, not China. Japan is just about the most delightful place to visit even though they really struggle at English.
Hong Kong after the takeover is certainly not what it used to be. Street life in Kowloon is much more subdued. And upon taking the Star Ferry over to the island, a rather desperate Falun Gong member slipped me a CD about them and rushed off. Nothing like the old Hong Kong.
For the simply bizarre, visit Phuket, Thailand and stay at a beach hotel in Patong Beach.
At one time I considered working in China, but the reports from teachers that went were very consistent in disliking how restricted they felt compared to teaching in Taiwan. In some cases, one had to live in an isolated community of foreigners and not interact at all with local people unrelated to your employment.
Also, I spent a day trip into a border town in Myanmar that was extremely 3rd world.
5 Star hotels are like international airports, the same everywhere and very captive of the traveler.
Chinese remains a huge barrier in computing, though I do get some good translation of Chinese with it. Shorter is better and images of text will not be translated as it only works on Unicode.
Once a document is in PDF form, there is software that might convert the western alphabet back to a generic text file, but nothing seems to work right with Chinese characters as they are much more complex, have many font styles, and one has to search through 7000 or more for a match, rather than just matching 26 letters and verifying spelling.
If you wanted to translate "Bu yao wai guo ren." It simply means "No foreigners".
If you really want to study Chinese, Pleco Dict on an iPad or PDA is probably a lot better. I have used it for about 8 years.
If you are really interested in shopping items from Taobao. you should check some professional Taobao agent service for you. such as Buychina.com or beltal.com;
Both of them are very professional in translation service after I contacted with them. and their stable relationship with Taobao vendors or sellers really surprise me after our smoothly commucation. they also told me that Buychina.com has serviced more than ten thousand foreigner buyers and gather abundant shopping and service experience.
I share it with all of you. hope it is helpful.
No, there was nothing, not in the hotel in Beijing and not in the hotel in the countryside. I was staying for quite a while in both places (actually twice in the Beijing hotel), so I believe I should have noticed if there was anything or anyone at all visible.
The only issue I had, and that was only in Beijing, was a more-or-less constant approach of couples, always a young man and a young woman of apparently the same age, and the man was always a 'teacher' and the woman was always his 'student', and they wanted to practice English, or for me (or us, if we were two) to go with them and attend some "study circle", or, failing that, insisted to the extreme of doing (needless) guiding service. It all appeared very suspicious to me and it could be very difficult to get rid of these persons. Sometimes I tried to never speak a word of English to them, instead answering in some other language, but it was still hard to get away.
But that was the only problem - as long as one could manage to not run into these people it was just a great experience walking and travelling around Beijing.
I was there for business, so there was nobody else (except my colleague). After the business part was over I stayed a few days to play tourist.
We did travel along the freeways in and out of Beijing. We were informed that only residents were legally allowed to drive cars there, so I couldn't rent a car as I usually do - so we had a driver. I never noticed anything looking like toll plazas, we didn't have to stop during the drive. BTW, this all happened in 2005 (I just checked the date on a restaurant receipt I still have glued to my office wall).
Oh, absolutely. It's sad to say so, but Mexico is the only place in the world where I have actually been forced to bribe a policeman. In fact it's the only place where all the warnings from wikitravel really happened to me, well, almost all of them.. and I'm a seasoned traveller, I've been nearly everywhere except Antarctica. The military checkpoints were good exceptions, unlike e.g. the police the military were always polite and correct and decent. China was very different from Mexico. There was a single taxi driver who tried to overcharge me. And the Beijing hotel always took note of the license plate of any taxi I took from the hotel front, they told me that if I got into any problems with the taxi they would take care of it (well, a suspicious mind could think that this had a more nefarious purpose, but there's just nothing else useful they could have done with that info than what they (or actually the porter outside of the hotel) told me. And it looked like the taxis approaching the hotel knew they were monitored for behaviour, they all behaved exemplary. The bad apple was one I hailed for going _to_ the hotel).
I couldn't possibly agree more! It's wonderful. That's one of their good points!
-Tor (will go to Japan again in the near future)
I am sure that Beijing and Shanghai are more welcoming of foreigners. A lot was done to improve hospitality in the build up to the Beijing Olympics. My own visit is now 10 years in the past. At that time, I was working with a lot of other English teachers in Taiwan and would get a steady stream of feedback about travel in China. But I retired 7 years ago and not so sure about travel there.
The only thing I am sure of is that Yunan is nicer to visit as the air is clean and the skies are blue. People have regularly complained that travel from Beijing to Shanghai to GuangZhou is all perpetual grey skies.
Almost nowhere is out of the way any longer - unless you want to visit Syria or Uzbekistan.
FYI, I found this website for LCsoft from seeing the name printed on the PCB on the Ebay sensor below. So even if prices aren't listed or direct purchase from the manufacturer isn't possible, you might be able to track down those parts on EBay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Infrared-sensor-switch-module-Smart-Car-Accessories-/170760140210?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c218f5b2
http://www.lctech-inc.com/Hardware/Detail.aspx?id=725bda92-6df2-48c6-8b98-e9b4e653d4c7
The one book that stood out was an Arduino textbook. It is quite informative and interesting.
I've been saying that Chinese tend to study electronics just for a career and have very little interest in it as a hobby, but I am beginning to see changes as publishers translate books to Chinese these day.
There were also a set of 4 books about Make. These I have a bit of difficulty in believing everything they introduce, but they too cover the hobby aspect of it all.
I am even considering going back and getting the Arduino book to help me in my Chinese studies. I am finding that I am able to read more than I thought.
It seems all the action is in web sites as the local retail electronics are a bit behind the times. The real test of my Chinese is to be able to order online from Chinese language websites for deliver here. To do so, I just might have to get a major credit card issued in my Chinese name from a Taiwanese bank. Do I dare?
I'm on learning English, finding this forum very well.
Anything unclear about Chinese you can ask me for help.