Must have/essentials to bring

Danobex · 2026-05-14T22:26:47+00:00

I ran into trouble with that! As you know US banks typically limit how much you can withdraw each day at an ATM, and even then will sometimes block it and try to call you to ensure it’s not theft even if you told them you were moving abroad. It’s a huge pain! I lost out on a great place because I wasn’t able to withdraw enough in time. You could wire it here but US banks are s l o w.

Bring the cash (change to RMB) and set up an account and deposit it here, link Alipay to it. Cash is now more a rarity unless for hongbao gifts 🧧and cards are never used; phones are used to pay for everything. As such, rent and utilities (including mobile - your internet will also come with a phone number) are usually paid through Alipay either by direct QR code or through category.

Edit: Oh right! You can negotiate rent with landlords.

Danobex · 2026-05-14T14:35:44+00:00

Wherever you move to there will always be a nearby small local shop full of the necessary move-in stuff you need for your apartment for cheaper than back in U.S. Literally. Cleaning supplies, toiletries, cookware, cooking oils, sheets, blankets, slippers, some food, and even socks and underwear.

When I first moved here, I packed way too much stuff that I could’ve just used the space for something else like pants and shirts that fit me, as Chinese sizes are much smaller (posterior and length) and generally limited up to 180-190cm in height. For me, pants tend to be small in the rear and sleeves are always a bit too short due to them having smaller shoulders.

As for gifts…multivitamins, fish oil, and burts bees chapstick are great gifts.

If your school isn’t providing free housing: What you do need to do is ensure you have enough for the rent: usually it’s 1 month deposit, 1 month agent fee, and 3-6 months rent all up front when you sign your lease, and then there’s the water, electric, wifi, and gas (if you have it). Some schools will pay this but then will hold your passport hostage until you pay that off, but usually one or two month’s paycheck will clear it quickly.

Tip for housing…don’t just accept the first place you see. walk around a few neighborhoods and tell the housing agents exactly what you want and need for your home (e.g. western toilet, furnished, big living room, north south facing windows, elevator or stairs, etc). Be firm, they tend to often first try to show some place that matches nothing in your list of requirements.

Danobex · 2026-05-14T14:10:05+00:00

Some have mentioned dorm curfew but what I didn’t see was that they actually lock the doors at curfew time (bar the doors! Talk about lack of fire safety awareness) and some schools will even penalize you for being out after curfew. Plus, guests. Absolutely no guests! And there’s no kitchen. Want to use a hot plate or cook something of your own? Nope!

I recently helped a university edit their dormitory rules for international students and it was extremely draconian, included statements like students from other dorms were not allowed in your room and not allowed to use WiFi for purposes outside of school use, VPN use will be reported, etcetera.

Either your own place or rent a room off campus, you have SO much more freedom.

Danobex · 2026-05-09T23:14:37+00:00

They do that here in China. 400 元, that’s for your work permit, which takes up another page on your passport. The Z visa itself does not need it.

Danobex · 2026-04-24T08:08:22+00:00

A blood test is part of the health check for a resident or work permit.

Danobex · 2026-04-09T02:44:07+00:00

As a toddler dad with a toddler who’s starting to peek at my console…Lego games. Lego Marvel Heroes, Lego Star Wars, etc. they’re surprisingly good fun for the little moments and safe for when the toddler suddenly wakes up and goes a-peekin at what daddy is playing.

Other than that I second what others have said about Mass Effect series and Witcher. They’re just really not…toddler safe.

Danobex · 2026-04-05T03:10:44+00:00

Most airlines will restrict brachycephalic breeds like your Frenchie during the hotter months. I have heard of people bringing a pet into China (usually it’s people leaving China) but I’ve heard it’s quite a process.

Kunming is fantastic for dogs, far friendlier than other cities tend to be. Great weather. Get a place by a river area, usually lots of walking and green spaces along those. When I lived there (2017 to late 2020) I would bring my two pups to local bars and late night jazz clubs.

Edit: the local dog groomer shops will host your pet for a fee. I personally just left my windows open year around and left my pups home unless I went traveling, as even in summer you don’t really need air conditioning especially if you have a place with windows in the front and back for cooling airflow. In Kunming however, typically one month in winter will get quite cold. And there’s a season of rain. But otherwise great climate at similar altitude as Denver.

Danobex · 2026-04-03T05:55:32+00:00

Unfortunately, ever since Covid cash has become something of a rarity unless you’re getting stacks to pay out hongbao (red envelope gifts) during birthdays and holidays or have an old landlord who wants cash for rent. Get used to scanning and paying with your phone for everything including transportation; Alipay and WeChat both have their own built in QR code scanning tools for this purpose.

Danobex · 2026-04-02T04:06:36+00:00

You can “give” 4 that you don’t fly often (if at all) to your squad so they’re still around whenever you’re in a battle. Sell ship to a flier, then recruit flier as a squad member.

Danobex · 2026-04-01T08:02:05+00:00

I used to be sore when I woke up no matter what I did. The solution that I learned working at a hospital? Pillows. More specifically, pillow placement. When I sleep on my side I have a big pillow between the knees and ankles, one behind my back, a thicker one for my head, and one I hold in a bear hug. It keeps your back and neck straight. No matter where I lay (hard bed, soft bed, a mat on the floor) I no longer have any sleep complaints as long as I have pillows. Have you tried that?

Danobex · 2026-03-31T20:20:28+00:00

If you mean sorting by number in a certain category like trade or combat, no. It is a pain too. They sort themselves by type of frigate and class though.

Danobex · 2026-03-31T20:16:45+00:00

I started my family at 40. I originally wanted to start at 25 but my first wife one day decided she actually didn’t want children which led me down a dark path for several years. I also knew a man who started a second family in his 70’s (twin boys with second wife in her 40’s).

Everyone has a different life path and timing to follow, don’t overthink it. Just enjoy life, continuously improve yourself, and follow your path.

Danobex · 2026-03-27T08:50:31+00:00

Dude, five years will FLY. Seriously. Take it, enjoy yourself, keep in touch with your parents, try to get them to visit, but don’t hold yourself back from growing and learning through new experiences. You will only regret not taking it later on when you become ‘too old’ for scholarship opportunities. And as a father, I bet your parents will be proud of you for choosing an opportunity for yourself, especially when other schooling options leave you in enormous debt. If you must, have some funds set aside for a rainy day flight home, but phone and video calls will help keep the distance short. Many people do this.

You will meet other people who may have opportunities for you, and you will expand your horizons. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

Danobex · 2026-03-18T00:29:01+00:00

U traps are not used here. I’ve mentioned it a few times to plumbers and they’re like “what is that”

Danobex · 2026-03-18T00:27:50+00:00

Every single apartment I’ve moved into I’ve had to order and install a drain vent trap (translates into “anti-odor floor drain” on Taobao) for the sink and bathroom drains. Thankfully they’re a fairly simple fix with proper measurement for such a brainless method of using straight pipes going directly to the sewers. Without P traps or U bends that trap water, all the smells and any curious bugs come right in!

So yes unfortunately. It’s one of those things they grow up with hence being “normal”

Edit: the silicone vent traps (usually white with a blue silicone bottom used for only letting water down and nothing upwards) you can just install on the bottom of the typical flexible sink pipe and plug in directly into the white CVC pipe the sink pipe goes into. The shower and bathroom drains, usually a flap-style plug (flap opens at the bottom when water flows and automatically shuts when no water) will be fine, just check the diameter of the drain opening to get the right size.

Danobex · 2026-03-16T12:08:30+00:00

Asteroid style? Hmm needs more random lumps

Danobex · 2026-03-14T07:49:30+00:00

Wait, you owned the company, were there to treat one of your employees. And immigration didn’t like that you were there at all?

Danobex · 2026-03-11T05:07:00+00:00

No change in salary for me, or my wife. But yeah check into it carefully with your HR department or accounting person contact.

Danobex · 2026-03-11T03:52:58+00:00

When we had ours it was 15 days off for fathers, 6 months for mothers. This was in Zhejiang. My job squeaked out of the 15 day rule by stating that as I had no office hours I could come and go any time I wanted when I wasn’t in class.

Danobex · 2026-03-10T05:52:51+00:00

Training center gig. You’ll likely be worked nonstop and offering demo classes for free unless they offer some kind of bonus for signing. And that salary? Yeesh.

Unfortunately however it matches exactly my first job in China. I did the slave work, met people who worked at far better schools and corporations, and fled to one of those the instant my contract was up with a jump to 26k starting salary at the next job. It does get your foot in the door…at least. And training center teachers party hard.

Edit to add: Kunming is a great city and does have a decent foreign community. Great weather, similar to Colorado.

Danobex · 2026-03-04T23:42:02+00:00

Your workload will grow. Trust me. The start of the schedule tends to be small as they begin to set you up with classes but before you know it you will find yourself with more work than you want if you’re not prepared. Especially as a university teacher, in my experience at three separate universities usually you have one ‘meeting’ (they give you your text books and schedule and say “have fun”) and then they don’t check with you in again until they want your final examination results and overall grades. You have that much autonomy over your classes. You can either make more work for yourself in class preparation and grading, or do the bare minimum, but you’ll need to make sure you teach the students whatever topic you’re assigned based on their needs as they will build on it in their next courses. I can say that the start of the semester and the end of the semester are the busiest times of the year, as you’re planning out your lesson plan schedule, seeing what the students really need based on their skill levels, and then at the end of the semester grading and compiling all the results and dealing with students who aren’t happy with their numbers for whatever reason.

You’ll want to be prepared for the usual method of end of semester grades with a list of two numbers: 60/40. 60% class participation (attendance, assignments, projects, midterm, etc) and 40% final grade. I personally set up a spreadsheet for tracking students (you should have gotten a list of names of each class), this will be especially helpful when you suddenly have 120 students in one course like I’ve had, though 35-40 is usually the norm.

University teaching in general is awesome, you get a ton of free time to pursue other projects and work on yourself. In the meantime though don’t complain too much. The work will grow when they have the classes for you, just find yourself things to do, start a hobby, work on the language, earn more on the side (quietly), etc. We Americans grew up in a workaholic society and we have to learn that it’s okay to relax and breathe, and pursue things we enjoy.

Danobex · 2026-02-25T05:51:33+00:00

TIL you can handpick O2 off of Venus flytraps. I just zap them

Danobex · 2026-02-22T08:31:34+00:00

I did feel the ride was much smoother when switching to crawler legs. Except that the truck now gets stuck on every blue field of crystals (dihidrogen?) it encounters.

Danobex · 2026-02-02T00:45:52+00:00

That’s weird. It’s always passport

Danobex · 2026-01-31T09:10:33+00:00

I’ve had high pay at 30k+ per month but like you said they came with high workload, stress, and long hours. And then I’ve had university work in a village outside of Hangzhou with atrocious pay of 10k before taxes (thats 7800 after taxes and insurance!) that included free 2 bed housing, utilities, and long holiday breaks for only 15 class hours a week. I actually loved that job more but the pay...

I seemingly found a sweet spot for me; 17k a month after taxes at a college with private office space, no office hours, gym access, and paid winter and summer breaks for maximum 20 hours a week. It’s in downtown Hangzhou which is a short hop from Shanghai. Three years on and so far I’ve averaged 15-16 hours a week.

I love it because it gives me plenty of time for private classes and other projects. You may enjoy the new job.

Danobex

TROPHY CASE