But if you have entered a new land for good then why rush back? You can live where you prefer and still create a home. You can always show concern and keep in touch with your family, even if you choose to live in another country. If home is about belonging, then there are ways to create a sense of belonging. Getting connected to your loved ones or hearing a bit of reassurance from home is always a way to combat loneliness or homesickness.

Earlier, with the few yet costly calling services it was tough to connect to your loved ones or hear from home. On the contrary, today the need for international communication is growing with changing pace of time. As the requirement is increasing, means and ways of connecting people are also going high. Due to the heavy expense of international calling, expatriate at times make few calls or speak for few minutes. Thanks to the progress of modern technology, international calling services have become a great medium to bridge the gap. Many companies have introduced calling services offering cheap international call rates.

Feeling at home means living in a comfortable environment with the sense of belonging.  Involving yourself in work will enable you to keep your mind active so that it does not grip itself with thoughts of home. If you have moved to a new city, take the time to get to know your new environment.

One of your necessary attempts should be to start making friends with the folks around you. Maybe you can select a nearby coffee shop to meet up with them on weekends. You can attend social functions; join sports teams or religious groups associated at your work place. The local newspapers are the best source to tell you about the current events in your area. If you are interested in reading, become a member of a local library or join creative classes based on your hobby. This will give your morale an enormous boost and considerably decrease the amount of time it takes to feel settled.

Don’t just work at a charity group, instead get involved and take up certain tasks. Invest more in the local community, and simply enjoy living in an environment which you can call a home. If you are a reserved person and don’t like meeting people, then attending night classes in a subject you are interested in. If in a foreign country, make try to learn the language and immerse yourself in the new society.

Feeling homesick is like feeling loss for the life you left back home, but family and friends are no more than a phone call away. Sometimes, people feel emotional to call up their loved ones abroad, incase it disturbs them. You can combat this with careful and reassuring discussions with friends and family. But most of all you need to accept that the place where you are at the moment is your ‘home’.

Written by Karen.

Lots of foreigners own a precious phone that is called iPhone. Unfortunately, this phone has not been officially released in China for now.

In the meanwhile, you can still get an imported iPhone. However here is what you have to consider :

Coming with the phone that you’re using abroad or buying an imported iPhone might let you face to a problem : the simlocking. Basically, it’s the manufacturer operator lock that avoid you to insert and use the mobile services from another operator.

However here are some solutions :

Both cards inserted into the sim location

Hardware unsimlocking : You buy kind a card that you will insert with your sim card in the sim location. That will make the phone to not know that’s it’s not the original sim card that you’re using. This unsimlocking only work with the current firmware that you’re using. Upgrading the firmware will probably make the card not usable anymore and you will have the card to work with the latest firmware version. This piece of card is called in Chinese “Ka Tie” 卡贴.

Software unsimlocking : This method required some technical skills : you will have to jailbreak your iPhone in order to install third-party program (from the Cydia library) like the yellowsn0w program (for iPhone 3G FW until 2.1.1) or ultrasn0w for iPhone 3G FW 3.0+

Getting connected everywhere in China

Some more nice cool things that you can do with your iPhone is to enjoy the cheap GPRS cost to have your emails and surf on the Internet.
If you don’t already have a GRPS package, you can enable one with the China Mobile operator.

Set the Access Point to CMNET

The basic package is :
30MB package (*) | 5RMB / month | Yearly subscription

To enable this package (In Sichuan) : send KTWAPQ to 10086. You should then receive a SMS confirmation in Chinese with the beginning date of the package subscription.

Then, configure your iPhone and set the Access Point in the Cellular Data to CMNET

SMS showing your phone balance with China Mobile

How To check how many GPRS data usage you have left :

In Sichuan: call 1008611 and immediatly get an SMS with your balance. In the following screenshot, I can read that : this month I have already used 36.20 RMB and there is still 67.11 RMB credit left on my account. I have 93 local minutes + 5 MMS remaining in my subscription plan. At the end of the SMS you should see something like “剩余GPRS流量合计5377KB” which means 5377KB GPRS data remaining.
(*) Be carreful : When your 30 RMB quota is over, you will be charged 0,01 RMB / KB (10,24 RMB / MB)

Post written by Nicolas Gies (One Web Solution).

First, go to www.baidu.com.

How to download MP3 with baidu –

The second one is to open a Chinese bank account, fed by international transfer from your foreign bank. This solution allows to pay fees only during international bank transfer, no more for each withdrawal. Moreover, you can receive your salary if you have a local contract. Fees depend on the local bank and according to your foreign bank, so take time to compare the tariffs.

Please click on the picture below for the complete bank account opening procedure.

Ever thought about never doing housecleaning ever again? In China, your dream can become true thanks to an “Ayi”. For those who (still) do not speak Chinese, Ayi means maid and in this article we provide you all the vocabulary needed for conversing about housekeeping and more. And –one of the good things about being an expatriate in China– their services are less expensive than in Western countries, so enjoy!

What kind of services do they provide?

The basic services they provide are housecleaning, laundry and ironing. But with extra payment they can also go shopping, babysit, and cook if needed.

Do all the Ayi agencies provide the same type of services?

No. Some provide very local Ayis that only do cleaning and some cooking. Other agencies will have ayis that can speak some English and may even be able to help children with their homework.

Do I have to sign a contract with an Ayi? With an agency?

If it’s from a professional agency, the agency may provide a contract template. But most of foreigners find an ayi from friends, not an agency. In this case it’s not required to sign contract.

What should the contract state?

Basically:
- Salary and conditions for increasing salary;
-Chinese Holiday Taking-off;
-Contract term;
-Shift-working conditions and requirements;
-working content;
-The behavior requirement for the ayi during working time (like not to take ayi’s friend to apartment);
-The condition and compensation for early-termination of contract from both parties
-All you think that should be added! Do not hesitate to share your own experience by posting a comment on our site.

Payment: How do I pay? Shall I pay per hour?

It depends on what kind of service you need.
If you want your Ayi to be working full-time or part-time but on a long-term basis, then it is better to pay by month.
If you just need her to come occasionally for a few hours, then you can pay her by the hour.
In any case, discuss it with the agency if you are using one.

How much does it cost?

This varies greatly, but for a one-time cleaning it will probably cost around RMB30-40 per hour. If you have a full-time ayi the cost may reach up to RMB2000 per month. It is best to ask the ayi what she wants to receive and go from there.

How to find an Ayi?

Ever noticed a business card stuck in your door? Well, most of these are from Ayi agencies. You can call them, but there is no guarantee that they speak English and you can’t know whether their services will be good or not. It is always better to ask your friends if they know a qualified Ayi.
Or, if you are a customer of Maxxelli, just give us a call. Our staff will be pleased to give you some contact information!

Vocabulary

What are the Chinese words I need to say to hire an Ayi in an agency?

I would like to hire a maid … -> wo xiang zhao yi ge bao mu. 我想找一个保姆。
I would like a maid to do … -> wo xiang rang bao mu zuo …… 我想让保姆做。。。
- The housecleaning -> qing jie 清洁
- The laundry -> xi yi fu 洗衣服
- Food shopping -> mai shi wu 买食物
- Baby sitting -> zhao gu xiao hai 照顾小孩

The latest cheap international calling services have made the life of people more convenient, easier and much faster than before. This service aids you to be in touch with the whole world involving a very simple procedure and at low international calling rates. It primarily involves the Internet telephony services that use the VOIP technique or calling over the Internet, for which you just need to have a mobile phone or PC to access the Internet services. There are no more communication bills, contract deals or set-up fees, you just need to subscribe on line and get the prepaid recharge to use the benefits of this Internet calling services. This facilitates you with a friendly service indeed, with sound networking, voice clarity for 24/7.This employ the use of certain softwares like Net2Phone, Gizmo, Skype, etc. Further, it also has an added advantage of exclusive offers viz; unlimited calls, bonus minutes, trial accounts, Free minutes and so on to get the maximum of the technology.
The cost of living overseas is definitely more than your native country. But cheap International calling services could help you save the cost of living and also help you to stay connected with your family and friends at very low calling rates.

Written by Peter

Contact Information

Sichuan Haowei Horsemanship Club 四川省豪威马术俱乐部

Room 1908, JinJiangXinYuan Mansion, 36 Zhimin Road

成都市致民路 36 号锦江新园 19 楼 1908 室

Tel: 028-8888 2666 or 028-8545 6438