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I ordered the Chinese version in my February Taobao haul based on @Lu and @matteo's posts. It's quite interesting to hear about the life of a migrant worker. There were a couple of times where a package I ordered while living in China was too big for the local package delivery point/shop to hold, and I wasn't always available to accept the package. Now I feel really bad knowing that the delivery guy is paid per delivered order and makes less money if people aren't available to accept packages. The book is a series of non-sequential vignettes written by a migrant worker (Hu Anyan). He's self aware that he's nice to the point of being a pushover who doesn't always advocate enough for his own interests with employers. He tried entrepreneurship a couple of times and that mostly didn't work out either. Halfway through the book he starts mentioning how he's reading and learning to be a writer in his spare time. - This book has been a pretty big hit in China, I'm glad he now has the financial freedom to be a writer.

The meaning of the tattoo is correct, and the brushwork is pretty good if you ask me, though it has been done in a typically Japanese style (not particularly important, just interesting to note). The size of the characters and the oldness of the phrase will perhaps raise a few eyebrows, but that's about it id say... could be a good conversation starter, you never know!

It would help to know about what HSK level you are at and what kind of things you usually read. But let me tell you a story that might put things into perspective. I lived in China for 7 years. Before I left I was taking advanced level classes. We were studying things such as the Analects. About two years before I was in these classes I took a look at a practice HSK 4 exam (the old one) and felt like I could pass it with just a little study. Before I left I went to the Great Wall. While I was there I met a woman from Guizhou who owned a hotel there and was in Beijing to study the hotel business there. We met in the afternoon at the Great Wall and hung out for the rest of the day. We even went to go eat together in the evening. But before we left the Great Wall I noticed a foreigner who was struggling to speak with a worker. Having experienced that situation I went over to help. Turns out she wanted to go to a certain stop around Dongzhimen but wasn't sure if the train she wanted to take was going there. So I asked the worker for her and the worker explained to me which trains to take, where and when to get off to change trains, etc. I relayed this to the foreigner and made sure she understood where she was headed and she was on her way. Now I had a plane ticket that was for a day after my passport expired. I went to the local police station to ask if that would be a problem and they told me that matter was beyond their purview and gave me a number to call regarding immigration. I called that number and spoke with the woman who answered. She very professionally yet sternly notified me that catching a flight like this was a violation of Chinese law and that if I tried to leave the country I would be detained and not allowed to leave before facing official consequences. Having been there 7 years I knew the on the ground reality. More than a few times I had been to renew my residence permit on a Friday and the worker told me I was missing a document and to get it and bring it back Monday and assured me that it wasn't a big deal and would be fine, and it always was. This is how I knew that woman was just spouting the official line. It was also mid-autumn festival, so I knew the folks at the airport didn't want ant extra work. On top of all that I was absolutely certain that Chinese people wouldn't choose to punish a foreigner who wants to leave China for good by making them stay lol. So with all that in mind I concocted a story to tell the agents at the airport when the time came. I had missed a flight before so went to the airport like a day early and happened to meet two women from Eswatini who were stranded and had no way to communicate with their family or the Chinese workers. I helped them contact their family and translated between them and the Chinese workers. When it was time for me to leave the first agent called his supervisor over when he saw my passport was expired. I was about 15% into the story I was telling the supervisor when he cut me off and said "that's enough." They had me sign a form acknowledging I broke that law, made me pay like 200 kuai (about $60) and let me be on my way. I've been back in the US for about a year and a half. I've been studying Chinese since I've been back, and I've just recently begun to be able to watch shows with just Chinese subtitles. I recently ordered a kids book series which is intended for Chinese kids 3-6 years old and I can't get through any of the stories without having to look up words I've never seen before. When I look up some of these word from these kids stories they turn out to be like HSK 5/6 sometimes 7 level! So after those advanced classes, doing all that speaking in Chinese with natives, border agents, etc, I still can't even read a children's book to completion. I'd suggest watching things like Xi Yang Yang (available on Youtube) and read books meant for children to learn. 十万个为什么 is a good series. My gf at the time in China told me if you can read one of those books all the way through you're basically good to go.

Hello everyone, i'm a 22y.o. student from italy, wanting to apply to the one year study program through the confucius institute. I read about the physical examination and it appears that ultrasound might be required. All my documents say "male" (passport included), been taking testosterone for almost 3 years (have beard etc), had top surgery so my chest is masculine, but i haven't got a hysterectomy as of now so i still have my reproductive organs, which would show in the ultrasound. My question is, what would entail? I already asked the confucius institute through which i'll apply for the scholarship, but i wanted to know if anyone had any actual experience on this (not hypothesis but lived experiences, whether personal or of people you know of). P.s. i'm perfectly healthy otherwise, and easily live as a man in my daily life with no problems

Free VPNs in China are generally a short-term thing. The GFW tends to pick them up pretty quickly once they get popular, and then the service either slows to a crawl or stops connecting entirely. I tried a few before settling on SealVPN, which is paid but built specifically to hold up against active blocking. More reliable for day-to-day use.

Any recommendations for the best VPN to use in China? I've read that many of them suddenly stop working well or get blocked. One website suggested buying 2 just in case one suddenly has problems.

The Astrill refund situation is a real gotcha. I've been using SealVPN as a backup for when my main VPN can't connect, and it's specifically designed to hold up in restricted network environments. Not a full replacement for everything, but for basic connectivity when the GFW is being aggressive, it's worked well for me.

Took a break from lessons during 2Q After 100 LTL lessons at a fast pace, I needed a break to refresh. I noticed during 2Q my control over speaking Mandarin sounds deteriorated quite fast. I picked up another big package of LTL lessons. Will go through their HSK 3+ lessons as much as possible. It is good revision and gets me speaking and listening (with words that I have forgotten) without having to split my concentration on learning completely new words. Every so often, I will also take a HSK 4 class. Of their course, repeating a HSK 4 lesson two, three or even four times isn't a problem for me - Should help really being familiar with the vocabulary. I am dabbling with a bit of Japanese - Hirigana. Not sure how that would go but the aim is to have some really basic conversations when on holiday there. With mandarin, I need to be able to converse

Refreshing their HSK 3+ course was a good move. Definitely there’s a lot I can’t remember but there’s a lot that I do know. I tend to book when I have a free time slot. I keep an eye on what lesson I am taking but not generally bothered if it’s repeating the same lesson. I put more emphasis in having a lesson to encourage revision and regard it as another chance to practice. As expected, my reading out loud was quite poor. It has got better quite quickly though. Listening is improving. I’m more willing to stop the teacher and ask them about a specific word that they just said but which I don’t know the meaning of. Speaking is poor. I am not able to produce full sentences correctly. I tend to produce phrases which can be understood. Will have to practice speaking whole sentences derived from the lessons. At the moment, I am taking lessons an average of just under two lessons per day. This time trying to take notes down and make physical flash cards for vocabulary. Back to more traditional techniques for the basic foundations. Although I can function with getting around using Mandarin, conversations in a social setting are very difficult. I can’t get past two or three sentences.

Same here, working fine for me.

I use Astrill everyday in China and have no problems with it, including from different locations, not just from home. Have you tried adjusting the mode (ie stealth), and the city?

Astrill now is not stable in China, and be aware of their refund policy. "If our product is not working on your computer because VPN service is blocked by your ISP, we are not responsible, no refunds will be provided in such case." which means if it does not work in China, No Refund. After exchange 8 more useless emails, their guys then told the sales are final, no refund, even at the first email I request it. I lost 180 US$. I received nothing but an arrogance support team that kept dodging the issue over and over again.

Astrill is what gets the best feedback from what I hear from people. Make sure to install it before you arrive in China because obviously the site is blocked by the Great Firewall and it is troublesome (though possible via their support) to install once you are in China.

I've been using Astrill for 5 years, phone and laptop. Sometimes need to change the server city, and toggle some different settings, but has always worked fine for me. *Edit: A friend tells me that Astrill is not good on iPhone.

It is good! And Sanmao is a legend. If you happen to read the recent edition, 《撒哈拉岁月》, watch out for the story 亲爱的婆婆大人. You'll be reading along at a nice clip when you suddenly run into this one, which is suddenly much harder than the rest of the book. After that story, it gets easier again.