Vaping in China? Well i'm here now so changed the title!

[joeten]

Glad to hear your still enjoying your adventure.

[sydsut]

Great to hear from you again digicig and hear of your travels.

[Deleted]

Good to see your all ok and still about digicig

[digicig]

My List of Strangeness for a Westerner in China

• The Bread is generally almost cake sweet and often comes with free sachets of Tomato Ketchup 1
• Things that look like Zebra Crossings are ignored by just about ALL raod users 2
• Girls (especially) will use umbrellas in the sunshine, and cover their arms/neck, to stop themselves getting a tan (the paler/whiter the skin tone the better - with many cosmetics offering whitening ingredients)
• Drinking is more about challenging others to neck the drink (generally weak 2.5% fizzy beer or Baijiu at 50+%) then just enjoying a social drinkie
• Group or communal eating requires leaving food on your plate to indicate you've had sufficient - a clean plate = you can still eat more!
• There appears to be no real road knowledge required for obtaining a driving licience - and Electric cyclists are 'The silent Killers' - no licience and no road skills (+ alcohol)!
• At least where i am, people will want to take photos of the rare 'White Monkey's' and will do so either 'secretly' or by bounding up and asking - wherever and whenever!
• Eating food is impossible without first taking a picture and posting it on Social Media - must help the digestion
• Individually the Chinese folk are incredibly nice, helpful and polite - but in a crowd will barge, ignore and generally put themslves first!
• Just because you're in a consultants room, doen't mean that random folk won't just barge in and begin a conversation about their issues!

Probably more to follow

And there's more...

1. Asking politely and expecting to get things done doesn't seem work at all (at least at the college) - ranting and threatening, does seem to be the only way to achieve things 1
2. Surprisingly i seem to know more about Taoism, Qi (Chi), Qi Gong and Chinese philosophy then most Chinese i meet
3. Family is not only the core of Chinese society, but also appears to be Mandatory! Grandparents will often be an essential part of raising children, to the extent that the parents often work in the big cities, leaving their kids with the grandparents and only seeing them for maybe 2 weeks (at CNY) each year!

[gill2009]

  I just love your updates digicig...please keep them coming 

[sydsut]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Wot gill2009 said

[digicig]

Trying to get pics etc organised - but going to take a while
Off to Hull next week, and will only know if vapefest might be possible once i arrive - looking dubious to say the least as i still have to head to Pompey to see me Old Man, and possibly Devon to visit me Neice and sister-in-law (the lure of pasties might be too strong! LoL).

[gill2009]

Jul 30, 2016 17:51:26 GMT digicig said:

Trying to get pics etc organised - but going to take a while
Off to Hull next week, and will only know if vapefest might be possible once i arrive - looking dubious to say the least as i still have to head to Pompey to see me Old Man, and possibly Devon to visit me Neice and sister-in-law (the lure of pasties might be too strong! LoL).

  It would be absolutely fantastic if you could make Friday/Saturday/or Sunday at Vapefest digicig...if at all possible 

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

I agree with Gill - it would be great to meet you face to face at vapefest if you can make it.

[digicig]

Would love to attend - but reckon that just the travel costs will be draining me money too fast
Had to buy the flight back to China - and if its a choice between Vapefest and travel insurance (almost £400 for the year) - the insurance will probably win.
With both parents in dubious health the insurance at least helps pay for an emergency flight home if needed

[thebishman]

Another thread lover here digicig

Keep the posts and pics coming

[calnorth]

Jul 31, 2016 14:18:50 GMT digicig said:

Would love to attend - but reckon that just the travel costs will be draining me money too fast
Had to buy the flight back to China - and if its a choice between Vapefest and travel insurance (almost £400 for the year) - the insurance will probably win.
With both parents in dubious health the insurance at least helps pay for an emergency flight home if needed

You'll need to dig up some of that China artifact stuff as seen on Antiques Roadshow digicig. Anything form the Ming, Ding, Dong, Clonk, Clang (whatever) Dynasty's. Suppose you might need to ship it out first...if you can find the stuff?

Thanx for your interesting journals.

[digicig]

Cheers calnorth

The paperwork requirements have also changed for next year in China - so faffing about getting me degree cert Apostilled - adding to me fun
Oh, and me birthday falls a week or so before me first payday - with the National Golden week holiday just before - so smuggling a bit of old crockery might have been worth the effort to make Vapefest

[calnorth]

Jul 31, 2016 16:45:04 GMT digicig said:

Cheers calnorth

The paperwork requirements have also changed for next year in China - so faffing about getting me degree cert Apostilled - adding to me fun
Oh, and me birthday falls a week or so before me first payday - with the National Golden week holiday just before - so smuggling a bit of old crockery might have been worth the effort to make Vapefest

Interesting....who is the accepted endorsement body...UK Govt person like Foreign Office? I guess there's a cost.

As an Independent Systems Assessor auditing B?E in Scotland I asked to see (verify) some engineers Quals. 10 years back. WW3 almost broke out...and that was from the english management. Took them 10 days to agree... and hostilities continued for months. Thought they might have snipers on the motorways? I just wonder what they had to do behind the scenes. Solved it in minutes by viewing docs eventually...but the more formal verification was in my mind. No...I thought!

[digicig]

calnorth
Degree cert needs to be 'legalised' by a UK brief, then it gets sent to the UK Govt and officially stamped as legit - China has now implemented this policy to 'hopefully' make sure they are getting genuine graduates teaching Oral English, rather than more 'creative' types, who just get a certificate whipped up from scratch in Thailand

Not too excessive, but it is another unwanted (and tbh unecessary) drain on somewhat limited resources