Hello everyone. Sorry I don't check in more, it would be nice to revive the forum, maybe a WeChat or WhatsApp group would be better than a forum? Maybe there is one and I'm not cool enough

Anyway, what's making me happy right now?

I have two.
1. I moved back last year and was in university accommodation where MeiTuan was this hassle where the guards complained and the delivery guys didn't like me so I didn't use it. Now I live in a private apartment so it's not problem. I know that this is one of those things that was cool for most people about 15 years ago, but it's a novelty for me.
2. A bit of self promotion but hopefully fun. My hobby has always been electronic music and in Covid I got into making videos. Last couple of weeks I got pretty much all of them uploaded to Bili. It's quite niche, but I'll post it on here

https://space.bilibili.com/3546702720011103

Once you have the GC, wandering across the border is simpler.  Make sure to register for echannel (usually somewhere just after China checks your passport heading in).  Once you do that, your next trip in or out should be far simpler.

Make sure you are inside of China for at least 3 months each year.  There's a way to get a special exemption if you have a pressing need to be out longer, but reports on how easy that is to get are mixed.

1.  Beijing recently made it VERY clear that there are NO "foreigner" hotels, despite persistant beliefs in rules that ended over 20 years ago.  ALL licensed hotels can accept foreigners (limited exceptions for areas where foreigners are forbidden to enter or require special permits).  Note that this may not apply to AirBnB equivalents.  If you encounter a hotel claiming it can't accept forigners, contact the police and also the National Immigration Association.  In some cases, you may be forced to give up, but always DARE them to try to scan your green card into the hotel registration machine.

2.  Depends.  Does a bamboo raft on a river work for you?  If so, Guangxi has multiple candidates.  Do you prefer mountains, deserts, grasslands, forests, or something else?

3.  Pick a province and use your favorite search engines to look for "Best tourist places in _____".

4.  Xizhang is one area where you'll need the same special permits as other foreigners.

For a start: Great Wall (anywhere along it), Southern Wall (in FengHuang), Moutai town , Xishuangbanna, Yangshou (take a raft to see the back of the 20 rmb bill).

And in other cat news:

No rest for the wicked.  Two nights ago, one of the outside kitties (Pear) followed my daugter all the way down to the village pond and then got chased away by another cat.  He didn't come back. Last night, my lovely wife went down to the pond to look for him.

She found him, but he was hiding under a car and didn't want to come out.  I really wanted to go to bed due to nearly fatal jet-lag, but instead had to get some cat food, cat treats, and a carrier and bring those down to the pond.

Happily, the food was enough to get Pear to come out, so he got shoved into the carrier and brought home.  Mango popped up when we were a few blocks away and escorted us the rest of the way home.  This morning, both kitties were waiting by the front door for their breakfast.


Also, sadly, I was out of the country for Pandora's birthday party, but I did make it back in time for her adoption day party tomorrow.  It will have been 5 years since her impressively loud squeaks got my attention and she was brought home to live with us.

Just over 26 hours to go and then I get to fly to LA, San Fran, and finally Hong Kong.  Then it's a taxi to the border and my wife will (hopefully) summon a car to bring me home.

glad you're happy here. You are an inspiration.

Oh my.  If I'm an inspiration, the world is in trouble. 


Dolphins were fun.  I wanted to take one home, but they wouldn't let me.

There was also an underwater walk (yes, walk) with helmets (heavy enough to keep me on bottom with enough negative boyancy to walk slowly).

And, the snorking area had tons of fish and rays.  I'm guessing the sting rays had some minor surgery to make sure that no park guests not stung.  Now I just need to get the pics out of my underwater camera.