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Travel to China: Tips and Resources

May 20, 2013 by 2 Comments
 

Travel to China

This guide contains pretty much all the info that you’ll need to prepare your trip to China: VISA requirements, travel insurances, vaccinations, guidebooks, planes and trains, hotels, internet and phone cards.

Also, you’ll find tips on where to eat, what to bring to China, when to travel to China, how to avoid the most common scams and how to bargain.

p.s. At the bottom of this post you can download a Travel Phrase Book Chinese/English in PDF format. You’ll find the most common greetings, the most common food and drinks, numbers, how to ask for help or directions, as well as some useful sentences for taking a taxi and shopping. You can print the PDF e-book and use it during your trip to China ; )

[Read more...]

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Interview with John Pasden, the founder of Sinosplice and AllSet Learning

May 13, 2013 by 4 Comments
 

John Pasden

While I was editing the interview that I did with Julien, the founder of Marco Polo Project, I was fascinated by the problems one needs to solve in order to grow an online project to the point of having enough human and economic resources for investing even more on software and content development and create a great product.

Hence I asked to myself:

“Who else was able to realize something amazing on the field of online Chinese learning?”

And I thought about John Pasden. A couple of days after I contacted him. John was kind enough to accept to answer to a few questions. This is the result of our conversation! [Read more...]

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The challenge of the Chinese dumplings

May 9, 2013 by 3 Comments
 

Chinese dumplings

One of the principal features of the Chinese school is competition: no matters which grade you can get, the important thing is how is your grade compared to the others in your class; never mind how fast you can run, the important is to be the fastest in the school; never mind whether your class is clean or dirty, the important is that it’s considered cleaner than the others. Following this flow, the last idea of my school has been a cooking competition. [Read more...]

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How to rent a room or an apartment in Shanghai

May 6, 2013 by 8 Comments
 

rent an apartment in Shanghai

This is a complete guide to rent an apartment, or just a room in a shared flat, in Shanghai. You will learn:

  • The best websites to rent an apartment in Shanghai (both in English and Chinese language).
  • The pros and cons of looking for a room or an apartment on the internet.
  • A nice trick to get a better price if you are looking for a room in a shared flat.
  • The pros and cons of using an agency, how to spot an honest agency.
  • What are the expenses beside the monthly rent (security deposit, agency fee, electricity and so on).
  • Why you must ask for a regular contract.
  • The most common scams while renting an apartment in China.
  • Which is the best zone to live in Shanghai if you want to have a social life without spending hours in a cab.

[Read more...]

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Hotel and hostel booking in China

April 29, 2013 by 3 Comments
 

hotel in china

The purpose of this guide is to show you how and where to book an hotel (or an hostel) in China, especially if you are traveling on a budget.

If you can afford it then just book at the Hilton or at the Marriot and you will find everything you need : P

First at all, keep in mind that Chinese hotels must register all the customers at the police station. Thus you will always need to show your passport when you arrive at the hotel.

Which type of hotel should you choose?

[Read more...]

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Alibaba VS Aliexpress: How to import from China through the web

April 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
 

So you dream to set up your online shop or your import business? In both cases the best way is to begin your research on the internet.

But how to get started?

Well I’m not an expert. This is why I asked some advices to my friend Fredrik, who’s been helping Western companies to import from China since 2008. Here’s what he has to say!

Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com are well known among importing business worldwide. Both websites are owned by Alibaba Group, based in Hangzhou, China. The difference between the two websites can be hard to spot at a first glance, but its two very different business models with equally different strengths and weaknesses. This article will help you to choose which one you should use. [Read more...]

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Chinese VISA application: a complete guide

April 15, 2013 by 9 Comments
 

Chinese VISA

This article is a complete guide for getting a Chinese VISA. You will discover:

  • The requirements and how long it takes for obtaining any type of Chinese VISA.
  • Where to get a Chinese VISA (either in your country or abroad).
  • The different kind of Chinese VISAs (Tourist, Business, Student and Work VISA).
  • How much it costs to obtain a Chinese VISA.
  • How to convert a Student or Work VISA in a Resident Permit (it’s compulsory).

[Read more...]

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What’s Marco Polo Project? Interview with the founder Julien Leyre

April 8, 2013 by 2 Comments
 

Marco Polo Project

World is small. And the internet is even smaller.

In early February I joined the Hacking Chinese Characters Challenge.

One of the rules decided by the guy that proposed the challenge, Olle Linge from Hacking Chinese (check it, it’s one of the best resources out there to learn Chinese), was that we had to connect via email with the two people that joined the challenge before and after us.

This is how I got in touch with Julien Leyre who, after we introduced ourselves and our goals with Chinese language, followed up with this email: [Read more...]

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Impressions from Mongolia

April 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
 

Mongolia

This story is a present from Pietro Acquistapace, the author of the blog Butterflies and Foxholes (sorry, the website is in Italian language).

Uchka’s point of view

My travel in China began in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. The Mongolian capital was the arrival point of a trip in Fiat Panda through East Europe, Iran and Central Asia.

Once arrived to my destination the goal was to meet up with my friend Alfredo, who lives in Mongolia since a couple of years, let him my Panda and then… who knows. [Read more...]

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Skritter Review: Learn how to write Chinese characters

March 25, 2013 by 16 Comments
 

UPDATE: If you buy a Skritter‘s subscription through one of the links on this page and uses the coupon “FURIO3952″ you get a 20% discount for the first six months.

What is Skritter?

Skritter is, in my opinion, the best way to learn how to write Chinese characters.

Since I started to use it ten minutes per day (about two months ago) I’ve learned how to write 492 characters and 169 words (composed by two or three characters). I’m also learning the meaning and pronunciation of those characters.

Why do you need a software to write characters?

If you watched the video at the beginning of this post you already know that the software is pretty cool.

But the real reason for using Skritter is the algorithm behind the software, which allows you to remember more than the 90% of the characters that you are studying (in the photo below you can see that in the last 30 days I was able to remember the 92.9% of the characters that I studied, [Read more...]

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