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).

There are many cultural things to do in Chongqing. One of the things that is worth checking out are the several theaters located around Chongqing city.

Maxxelli blog Chongqing has made a Google map which shows the different locations, as well as a short description of the plays available.

We wish you good luck!
View

in a larger map

Chongqing Grand Theater
The big futuristic building viewable from Hong Ya Dong, has many different artists and plays.
Check out this earlier Maxxelli blog for more information.

Sichuan Opera Theater
This theater shows performances of the famous Sichuan Opera. A mix of comedy, solos, refined acting and many more.
Classical repertoire:
Legend of Liuyin, Legend of Jingcai, Legend of Fenxiang, Legend of Jinzi

Beijing Opera Theater
Classical repertoire:
Legend of Shisanmei, three Jinshi, Yutangchun.

Bayu Theater
Classical  repertoire:
The romantic story took place in Chongqing.

Chongqing Acrobatics Arts Troupe
Classical repertoire:
Kicking umbrella and Dance Meteor.

Wuhan Han Master

武汉天外天乡村高尔夫俱乐部

No.1 Junshan street,  Wuhan Economics and Technological Development Zone

武汉经济技术开发区军山街长山特一号

Tel: 027-84780458

Style(fairway grass/green grass):green grass

Length:7628 yard

High narural slop:50m

The club members fee :300,000RMB

Price:

Wuhan Jinyin Lake International Golf Club

武汉金银湖国际高尔夫俱乐部

Jinshan Avenue Jinyin Lake, Hankou

汉口金山大道金银湖畔

Tel: 027-83921561

Lenrth:7180 yard

Style:green grass

The club member’s fee:300,000rmb

Price

Oriental Golf Club

东方高尔夫乡村俱乐部

Jiangdi Xiangxin Xincun, Hanyang

汉阳江堤乡新新村

Tel:027-8461 2431

Style:green grass

Length:7157 yard

Wuhan Liangzi Lake Golf Course

武汉梁子湖高尔夫球场

Adress:Wuhan National Eco-tourism resort area of  Liangzihu Lake Peninsula,Wuchang District

武汉梁子湖高尔夫球场

Tel:027-87513377、82944753

Length:10,000 yard

Style:green grass

Course fee:individual members (their spouses and one child under 18 years  to obtain an associate member of qualifications) 178,000 yuan;

corporate members (one unanonymous card and one company VIP card) 338,000 yuan

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.