wild china

Ninjadmin · wild china

awesomest tv program i've seen for ages

awesome

DrCarnage

the mongolian/xinjiang one on Sunday was really cool. makes me wanna go back

Ninjadmin

the tibet/silk road one was brilliant as well

i have to see north china

i thnk my new plan is to save up and go and see places

then when i'm 40 i will be justified in sitting and drinking

bbob

i'm seriously thinking about going to n china this summer. because i planned to go to far russia years ago and thought i might finally do so and china's like just next door.

i thought it might be boring tho. what can one do in n china

?

renegadedog

Ninja, you can come to China, and then sit around and drink dirt-cheap beer and rocket fuel

Ninjadmin

sad as it sounds, the ability to buy weed in china is a very important factor in my decision about jobs

renegadedog

In that case, I would advise you to look SouthWest. Yunnan is full if it, but the jobs down there aren't very well-paying, cos every whitey 'backpacker' ESL teacher wants to live there (I wonder why

)

Ninjadmin

is there any risk of cops etc?

i would be very disappointed in myself if i made a big decision based on that tbh...

renegadedog

One thing that is very good about China, compared with other places in Asia (well I can only speak for India and Thailand) is that the cops give foreigners little to no hassle. I've been here for 5 years and have never had a single cop stop me for any reason whatsoever, and I don't know one single other person who has had it happen to them either. It's partly because there's much less of a drug scene (amongst foreigners I mean) here than in those two places, but even so. There are a few people getting stopped and asked to show their visas at the moment, but that's purely to do with Olympic B.S.

I reckon weed is available anywhere in China though. Takes a bit of legwork to find in most places. I'm not really sure TBH as Mrs RD is very against it so I haven't had any in years. It's a piece of piss to get it in Dali, Yunnan. You just have to walk down the street and you get all these old ladies in minority clothes shouting 'ganja ganja ganja'...

renegadedog

There's a surprisingly open drug scene in clubs in China, amongst Chinese people, IME... Some places have private rooms which are hired out for parties, and if they see you, as a foreigner, you will be invited in there and often given E, ketamine, etc for free. It's good to see their tradition of hospitality extends to the drug culture

Ninjadmin

i forgot about the olympics

i probably awit till they are finished if i do go

renegadedog

Yeah you should wait til the games are done. There's a whole thread about the visa hassles here: http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=1950.0

(A very good forum to read if you are thinking about coming here, they have some secret folders too which you can read if you join)

They are making it more difficult to go to China generally though.

You do have a Degree, though don't you?

I think part of it is that they are trying to enforce the Degree requirements. Previously any old white face could turn up and get a job...

Ninjadmin

i have a degree but no tefl i've been offered jobs there before but kept ending up back in korea....

my brother was refused entry just to visit shaghai for a day last week cos of the earthquake

renegadedog

TEFL isn't that important in China. It's the all-important Degree which most schools notice.

The earthquake may be a factor but the main thing is security/the games/tibet/etc.

DrCarnage

Weed is a piece of piss to find in China... well, at least it is in Beijing. Just walk behind the police station on the main bar street and you can get whatever drug you want (except mushies

) in about 30 seconds. IME the expat drug scene in Beijing is just as big, if not bigger than that of the UK. Most bars and clubs have a no drugs policy but the clubs are full of them and there are many bars which will turn a blind eye if you spark up a joint or rack up lines on a table.

Ninjadmin

i feel ashamed that that makes me want to go there

weed does help me tho

i'm not interested in any other drugs except weed, i've already exceeded my quota of uppers and been as high off mushrooms as i ever want to be. i did used to like taking about 25 liberty caps and talking about philosophy etc but they are dangerous and i don't know where to pick them anymore

renegadedog

Ninjadmin

i will be hitting you guys up for contacts if i go to china

renegadedog

Sure, dude. Especially if you go to Wuhan or Dalian. TBH I reckon you'd like Wuhan more. It's a bit of a dump, but the foreigner scene is much better, and it's more central (so good for people who want to travel) and not as cold. Dalian is a much nicer environment but arctic for six months of the year. Depends what you want really.

Ninjadmin

i prefer cold places to hot places

renegadedog

Ah right... you'd probably prefer Dalian then.

Also, thinking about it, it's probably easier to find weed here. I mean there's a park where what I thought was weed grows, but it turned out to be hemp. (I know as I picked some, dried and smoked it and it tasted like weed but just gave me a headache :embarrassed:) But there must be the real stuff somewhere reasonably accessible.

Just I never go to bars so can't find out.

Ninjadmin

what are the big cities like shanghai and beijing like?

i'm quite intrigued by them, but i have a feeling that they would be a bit too crazy to enjoy

renegadedog

DrCarnage's your man for beijing info. I've been there once, for 48 hours. It was big, sprawling, a bit like an asian London minus the parks and multiculturalism.

Shanghai's meant to be great - IF you've got the money.

Thing is it's one of those places where the locals and expats have got a lot of dosh, yet the ESL jobs there are still often paying the same pay as the provinces. So I'd be wary of teaching English there. When you go to somewhere like Wuhan and get 5000 RMB a month, you feel, well, not rich, but comfortably well off, but in Shanghai you would feel really poor, I reckon.

I wouldn't work in Shanghai for less than 20,000 RMB per month (1400 quid)

DrCarnage

Beijing is a strange place. From an inital glance it looks like a functional, cold, soviet, concrete jungle with the few bits of history that survived the Cultural Revolution scattered around the place. If you live there long enough to dig deeper you'll discover that it is a budding international city with a million things happening at once, whether it be opera, modern art exhibits or underground D&B parties.

Beijing became to much for me. It was too easy. I had a great flat in the centre of the city, worked 18 hours a week, got paid 12000 RMB a month and blew it all on drink, drugs and expensive restuarants. It may sound good, but this was the reason I came back to the UK, got married and (am in the process of) trying to sort a career out for myself.

If you're seriously thinking of going there then leave it for 6 months. The visa situation is out of control (e.g. they're doing things legally) and most of my friends there are having to come back home until the Olympics are over.

Ninjadmin

god

you're 24 and you're getting married and sorting a career out

i'm 28 and i have fuck all except a suitcase full of clothes and a broken laptop

DrCarnage

doesn't matter how old you are. it just matters what you feel is right.

i may be married and on the career path, but i haven't slept in a bed i can call my own since January, and i'm still a boarderline alcoholic.

Ninjadmin

yeah i know

are you arranging a wedding already or 'deferring'

DrCarnage

It's been done... twice! Once in China, once here. We wanted to keep it low key, but i'm sure that i can post some pics if forced to

DrCarnage

i've been married for 6 months but dont feel it.

i keep reffereing to my wife as a girlfriend and she keeps calling me her boyfriend.

DrCarnage

its as if we've been married all along

renegadedog

You still thinking of teaching DrC? Do you know you might get funding trouble if you've defaulted on your student loans.

hiccup

I watched this last night. It was pretty cool. Baby pandas ftw.

I liked it how all the old blokes took their nightingales or whatever birds they were out to socialise with other birds

Ninjadmin

did you see those pandas shagging?

scary

DrCarnage