In China, in order to be allowed to drive a car you will need a local driving license. Indeed, your home driving license is not enough as you will be required to obtain a Chinese license as well. Below you will find all the information you need to obtain this license in Chengdu and you can download it in pdf format.

For getting the driving license in Chengdu the Traffic Management Bureau has the following regulations:

Preconditions:

Foreigners should bring the driving license from their home country; if the driving license is not already in Chinese, the applicant should also provide the Chinese translation. For translations, please call local translation agency: 028-86283116.
Have your original driver’s license scanned(both sides) or photographed, send the pictures to

ClC lnterglobal:
E-mail: clc@clc-interglobal.com or quote@clc-interglobal.com

The Vehicle Management Bureau will execute the Vehicle License Protocols Signed with other countries and other related Agreements.

For the foreign driving license holders:

You need to have:

-physical test form filled and verified by hospital staff

-residence verification form by local police station 境外人员住宿登记表

- a visa which is more than 6 months from expiration

-your passport and one copy,

-four 1-inch photos;

-your driving license, one copy of the driving license and the translated version of the driving license from the Notary office, foreign affairs office or local translation agencies

-application form

Note: You can only apply to local driving licenses for the same kinds of vehicles, providing that you meet the application requirements. This means if you drive a car in your home country you will only be able to apply for a car license here, not one for large trucks or motorcycles. If you want to get a license for trucks/motorcycles you will need to attend driving school and complete all of the steps listed in the next section.

For those who do not have driving license:

You need to register in a local Driving School and get the training from the School before passing the examination.

Note: A Translator can be provided for those languages that are not available in the data bank;

Available foreign languages: English and Japanese

Getting the local driving license:

At the Vehicles Management Office, ask for the Driving License Application Form and Vehicles Driver Physical condition Form and fill them.

After that, you will take the physical examination. Hand in the two forms from the exam, and the required documents mentionned above before paying the related fees at the counter.

Hand in the bill in the hall and reserve the date for the examination;

Then, obviously, pass the examination to get your Chinese driving license.

Examination Fee:

Applying Car Driving License: 280 RMB / Person (Can take written test two times before having to pay again)

Applying Motorcycle Driving License: 140 RMB / Person / Times

Retake Examination Fee for Car Driving License: 140 RMB / Person

Retake Examination Fee for Motorcycle License: 70 RMB / Person

Driving License Issue Fee: 10RMB

Note: A translator can be provided for those languages that are not available in the data bank;

Available foreign languages: English and Japanese

Contacts:

Vehicle Management Dept, Traffic Management Bureau, Chengdu

Tele: 028-87850133/134

Information on how to obtain a Chengdu Drivers license –

First of all, making sure you are single and older than 22 if you are male or 20 if you are female, before you decide to get married in China. And you are not supposed to be the close relative of your soon to be bride or groom.

Getting married in China can be easy, if you really think it’s time to do so: appearing together for registration at the relevant authority (usually, the civil affair department) with the required certificates and documents. You should present a certification certifying that you do not have a spouse at the time of marriage, which shall be issued by a notary institution or competent governmental authority in the state of your origin and be authenticated by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that state.

From the date of your marriage, you are “half Chinese”, as some people usually say. You enjoy rights hereafter, and you hold responsibility at the same time. Briefly, they are as following:

Right of Equality: Husband and wife have equal status in the family. Both husband and wife have the right to use his or her own surname and given name, and have the freedom to engage in production and other work, to study and to participate in social activities. And either husband or wife has the power to dispose of the community property for their daily needs of life without having to obtain the consent of the other, but on the other hand, the couple shall have to, through consultation, reach an agreement on significant disposition of the community property for non-daily needs of life.

Duty of loyalty: One spouse owes a duty of loyalty to the other. A serious breach of this duty, for instance bigamy and cohabitation with any third party, will entitle the other to claim damages upon divorce. Damages are generally granted by courts to compensate the emotional distress and material losses suffered by the non-breaching spouse.

Duty to Support: Husband and wife have the duty to maintain each other. If one party fails to perform this duty, the party in need of maintenance shall have the right to demand maintenance payments from the other party.

Right of Succession: Upon decease of one spouse, the surviving spouse has the right to inherit the properties of the decedent spouse at the time of death.

In China, one of the most important principle about marriage is that all the assets gained before marriage are individual property, and all the income gained after marriage are community property if there is no marital property agreement stipulates otherwise. Therefore, a couple may enter into an agreement in writing providing that properties acquired during or prior to marriage are separately owned by each, or concurrently owned by both, in each case, in part or in whole. In absence of such agreement, properties shall be owned by spouses according to statutory rules.

May you always have everything you wish for a rich life together!

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.

Based in Hangzhou, MORE magazines are published by Hangzhou Passion Advertising Company. MORE Hangzhou was established in December of 2004, MORE Suzhou in October 2007, and MORE Chengdu in April 2008. It is the longest running, most popular & most widespread English Magazine in Chengdu. Monthly issued with a strict deadline, it has been highly successful in hitting this target through careful hands-on selection of points of distribution (>300 venues in Chengdu), with a focus on international companies (Forbes 500), high class hotels and well-known restaurants/ bars.
The mission of MORE magazines, is to provide English speaking people living in Hangzhou, Suzhou and Chengdu and those traveling to these cities an insight to events and venues of interest within these cities. The core of the magazines is based around two areas: our extensive database of all interesting venues of which a selection, chosen by the editor, are listed each month in the magazines, and our ability to attract venues to advise us of up and coming events, whether they be theatre shows, product promotional parties, special entertainment events etc.

Online Opportunities

MORE Hangzhou website www.morehangzhou.com was established in January 2007, and its traffic  has increased ever since. Our aim is to make the website a core community portal for all English speaking visitors and local expatriates. We have a skilled team working on the site every day, adding content and making the site more accessible to search engines. The work has paid off – for many Hangzhou related searches we are now on the first page, often within the top 5 on Google. In this way we promote Hangzhou, and our advertisers to an audience outside of Hangzhou. We send weekly events email to thousands people on every Thursday, which lists all events in Hangzhou. This is a free service we offer to our venues and our readers. There are also 3 banner slots available for companies to highlight their products or event.

moresuzhou.com and morechengdu.com were established in the end of 2007, they provide the most up-to-date entertainment information for residents and visitors of Suzhou and Chengdu anywhere on the internet. Traffic is steadily increasing and is certain to increase even more in conjunction with the continued publication of our Suzhou and Chengdu magazines.

Contact: sales@morechengdu.com or (+86) 13730871837

MORE Hangzhou Mobile Search

2011 Media Kit MORE Magazines –

i-You was developed by an international team of top-class computer scientists, linguists and Chinese communications experts. It allows you to communicate easily with Chinese speakers across the language barrier. The app can be used in practically every daily situation such as ordering a taxi, asking for directions, chitchatting, shopping and even bargaining for a good price. It also covers many emergency situation. In cases where you do not know how to name or describe an object, a building, some Chinese characters or a dish, you can even use a photo in combination with a sentence.

The combination of dialogues for many situations, voice output and Pinyin transliteration can also help in learning basic Chinese.

Fore more information: http://www.yocoy.com/i-You/

Now, the central government has drafted and made effective the Interim Measures for Participation in Social Insurance by Foreigners Working within the Territory of China (the Interim Measures). Below we introduce the main contents of the Interim Measures:

Foreigners are required to participate in social insurance
The Interim Measures make it clear that all foreigners working in China must participate in social insurance through Articles 2 and 3. Article 2 clarifies what it means by “foreigners working within the territory of China” as person who:
1) hold employment certificates such as a Work Permit for Foreigners, a Foreign Expert Certificate, or a Permit for Permanent Foreign Journalists; and
2) are not of Chinese nationality and are employed lawfully within the territory of China. Article 3 states that any foreigner who, after having entered into employment contracts with an overseas employer, are dispatched to work in a branch or representative office (Domestic Entities) must also participate in basic pension insurance, medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance, and maternity insurance, and the premiums should be contributed by both the employee and their Domestic Entity.

Therefore, it now appears clear that foreigners which currently have an employment certificate, whether employed directly in China or dispatched to China by a foreign enterprise, all fall into the category of people who are required to participate in the social insurance system, pursuant to any relevant and local regulations.

Insurance types and timing of social insurance registration:
According to the Social Insurance Law and Interim Measures, foreigners working within the territory of China shall participate in the following five kinds of insurance: pension, medical, work-related injury, unemployment, and maternity. Further, social insurance registration formalities should be handled within 30 days from the date of completing the formalities for employment permits.

Termination and refund of social insurance:
The Interim Measures also reassure foreign employees that should they leave China prior to reaching the statutory age for pension withdrawal/retirement, their personal social insurance account will remain open, and their years of contribution will be calculated cumulatively if they decide to return to work in China again in the future.
They also have the option to apply for termination of their social insurance account and then the handling agency may make a lump-sum payment of the money deposited in the social insurance account to him/her. However, it should be noted that, in accordance with the law and in practice, the portion of insurance paid by the employer will not be available at the time of termination of the social insurance relationship. Any balance remaining in the social insurance account when a foreigner dies may be inherited pursuant to the law, however, the portion paid by the company is not able to be inherited.

Receiving benefits abroad:
As foreigners may choose to leave China when they retire, they are still eligible to receive their benefits while
living abroad. Foreigners who reside outside the territory of China and may receive their monthly social insurance benefits as long as they, on a yearly basis, submit a certificate proving their continued existence. Such a certificate should be issued by the relevant Chinese embassy or consulate, or the certificate can be notarized or certified by the relevant authority in the country of residence, and then certified by the relevant Chinese embassy or consulate. If the foreigner chooses to re-enter China, he/she may go to a social insurance handling agency thus proving his/her existence and such certification of existence will no longer be needed.

Settlement of disputes:
If a situation should ever arise when there is a dispute between the employee and the employer about social insurance, foreigners participating in the social insurance system may apply for arbitration, or file lawsuits and the dispute shall be governed by PRC law.

Bilateral agreements:
Foreigners whose home countries have signed bilateral or multilateral social insurance agreements with China have the right to participate in the social insurance system in accordance with those agreements. Where a bilateral agreement has been signed, he/she may avoid dual social insurance obligations.
At present, only Germany and South Korea have signed bilateral agreement on social insurance with China. However, it should be noted that these treaties only exempt the said foreigners from dual responsibilities, as the measures are new there has been definition yet as to which parts will be declared dual and thus exempt from participation.

Nonpayment of premiums
If an employer fails to register a foreign employee in the social insurance system or fails to contribute the mandated social insurance premiums for such a foreigner employee, then the labor and social security administration may order such employer to correct the situation. If the employer refuses to make corrections according to the order, or refuses to abide by any decision on dealing with the matter by administrative means, a fine of between RMB 2,000 and RMB 20,000 will be imposed on the employer.

Summary:
The Interim Measures will become effective on the 15th of October, 2011. From experience we know that local authorities will gradually implement these new changes over time and thus it is very important to stay in close contact with them. Further, the strength of any enforcement will certainly differ in various regions. Therefore, attention should be focused towards learning the attitude of the local labor authorities in regards to the
enforcement of the Interim Measures.

 
History of Chinese wine

In China, wine could also be called the “Water of History” because stories about wine can be found in almost every period of China’s long story. The origins of the alcoholic beverage from fermented grain in China cannot be traced definitively. It is believed to have 4,000 years history. A legend said that Yidi, the wife of the first dynasty’s king Yu (about 2100 BC) invented the method. At that time millet was the main grain, the so-called “yellow wine”, then rice became more popular. It was not until the 19th century that distilled drinks become more popular. Traditionally, Chinese distilled liquors are consumed together with food rather than drunk on their own. Although China has a 6,000 year history in grape growing, and a 4,000 year history in wine making, it was not until this century that Chinese wine was recognized in the West.

Wine and Chinese people

Without a doubt, wine occupies an important place in the culture and life of the Chinese people. Wine was intimately connected with most Chinese men of letters. It was also an inseparable part of the life of ordinary Chinese people. The banquets of ancient emperors and kings could not take place without it. Every sort of wine vessel thus became an important kind of sacrificial object. Inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells as well as bronze inscriptions preserve many records of Shang-era people worshiping their ancestors with wine. There were many famous Chinese poet or artist who crafted their masterpieces after getting “drunk”. The famous poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) is known as the “Immortal of Wine” because of his love of alcohol. Guo Moruo, a modern scholar, compiled statistics about Li’s poems and found 17 per cent of them were about drinking. Early writers liked drinking and thought it an elegant way to pass the time. Apart from the taste of the drink, they also concentrated on the process of drinking. They created many games to go with drinking sessions involving a knowledge of history, literature, music and poetry. In ancient times, before a battle, a general would feast his soldiers with alcohol and meat. If they won the battle, they would be rewarded with good wine. If a warrior fell in battle, his fellows would scatter wine on the ground as part of a memorial ceremony.

Wine culture in China today

Ordinary Chinese people today have always just used alcohol to help them celebrate the happiness in their lives. In China, a banquet known as “Jiu Xi” means an alcohol banquet and the life of every person, from birth to death, should have pauses for drinking banquets starting a month or 100 days after a baby’s birth when the parents invite people in for a drink. When someone builds a new house, marries, starts a business, makes a fortune or lives a long life, he should invite people in for a drinking session. In modern times it is a pity that the games that go with drinking are not the elegant ones of the past that involved poetry or music. Today, drinkers just play simple finger-guessing games along with a lot of heavy drinking. It also seems today that friendship depends only on the volume of drink being consumed. “If we are good friends, then bottoms up; if not, then just take a sip” is a common phrased exchanged during gatherings.

Chinese wine gerneral classification

Chinese wines can be generally classified into two types, namely yellow liquors (huangjiu) or clear (white) liquors (baijiu). Chinese yellow liquors, are fermented wines that are brewed directly from grains such as rice or wheat. Such liquors contain less than 20% alcohol, due to the inhibition of fermentation by ethanol at this concentration. These wine are traditionally pasteurized, aged, and filtered before their final bottling for sale to consumers. Yellow liquors can also be distilled to produce white liquors, or baijiu (see below). White liquors (baijiu) are also commonly called shaojiu, which means “hot liquor” or “burned liquor”, either because of the burning sensation in the mouth during consumption, the fact that they are usually warmed before being consumed, or because of the heating required for distillation. Liquors of this type typically contain more than 30% alcohol in volume since they have undergone distillation. There are a great many varieties of distilled liquors, both unflavored and flavored.

Si vous souhaitez visiter différentes régions de Chine, vous constaterez rapidement que le train est le moyen le plus économique pour circuler dans le pays, c’est aussi un excellent moyen de rencontrer et d’échanger avec des chinois.

Pour acheter son billet, il faut s’y prendre a l’avance, surtout si c’est durant les périodes de fête chinoise. Si vous ne parlez pas chinois, vous pouvez le faire par le biais de votre hôtel, d’une agence touristique ou d’un bureau d’information touristique (en échange d’une petite commission mais rien d’excessif). On peut réserver un billet jusqu’à cinq à dix jours à l’avance (selon les lignes). Pour les trajets courts, vous pouvez par contre acheter votre billet juste avant le départ.

Pour connaitre les horaires de train, vous pouvez consulter les sites suivants :

http://www.travelchinaguide.com  (en Anglais)

http://www.echinatravel.net (en Anglais et Français)

Il existe 4 classes dans les trains à longues distances:

1/La plus prisée, les couchettes souples (ruanwo). On compte normalement 4 couchettes par compartiment, qui est fermé par une porte. Elles sont plus confortables et certains compartiments ont même la télé et un petit salon. Ce sont aussi les plus chères.

2/Les couchettes dures (yingwo), c’est ce que la plupart des chinois prennent pour les longs trajets, donc ce sont celles qui sont le moins disponible à la vente. On compte 6 couchettes par compartiment, il n’y a pas de porte et sont moins confortables que les couchettes souples.

3/Les sièges mous (ruanzuo) sont des banquettes à deux places confortables et numérôtés. Les prix sont quasiment équivalents aux couchettes dures mais on peut y dormir assis à peu prêt confortablement.

4/ La classe la moins chère, ce sont les sièges durs (yingzuo) qui comprend une série de banquettes de trois places légèrement rembourrées. Pour un trajet de quelque heure cette catégorie est envisageable. En revanche s’il s’agit de traverser le pays, au bout de quelque heures cela deviens rapidement insupportable.

In this list we’re only considering English-language job boards. Nonetheless, you may find that some of the job positions posted on these boards require fluent- or native-level Chinese — it definitely helps to be bilingual in China.

1) CareerEngine

CareerEngine isn’t the biggest job board but it’s user-friendly and showcases a good variety of job opportunities from reputable employers. Most positions are in Shanghai, but you’ll also find opportunities in Beijing, Guangzhou and other China cities.

A quick glance at the board shows current job postings for Quality Assurance Engineers, Research Analysts, Online Marketing Interns, Human Resources Manager, System Administrator, Sales Consultant and dozens more opportunities.

We provide the CareerEngine jobs feed to our members here at Dragon Business Network. It’s also syndicated via American Chamber of Commerce, British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai Business Review and other major China business sites.

http://jobs.dragonbn.com/

2) Zhaopin

This huge government-licensed Chinese job board mixes English and Chinese postings together. Zhaopin Ltd, founded in 1997, originally started as a headhunting firm called Alliance Executive Search in 1994.

http://english.zhaopin.com

3) Matchdragon

Matchdragon caters to the English-speaking job seeker in China.

http://www.matchdragon.com

4) Monster Hong Kong

Many English speakers already familiar with Monster.com’s user interface may enjoy using Monster’s regional Hong Kong site, which also carries job listings for mainland China.

http://www.monster.com.hk

5) Recruit.net China

This is the China regional site for this jobs aggregator. Nice, clean search facility.

http://china.recruit.net

6) eFinancialCareers China

eFinancialCareers China is part of a global network of career sites for professionals working in banking and the financial markets and those firms seeking to employ them.

http://www.efinancialcareers.cn

7) ChinaHot

ChinaHot is an English language job board for expats/foreigners and bilingual Chinese.

http://www.chinahot.com/

8) Meijob

Meijob once described itself as the “biggest online job search engine in China.” However, this notice recently appeared on the site:

“Dear users, Meijob is being closed at 17th Apr, 2011. From now on we won’t accept any new payment, but we will keep serving our existed users during this period. For users whose services are still valid, we will personally contact you and arrange the refund process before the site’s closed. If you want to keep your profile or information on Meijob, please download them to your PC, we will delete all the user information when the site’s closed and won’t pass the data to any third party. If you have any question, please Email us at: Customer.Service@meijob.com.”

Source: http://www.dragonbn.com/articles/133