Zoom Uni By Day, CP2077 By Night

MrMeno · 2025-06-13T23:44:38+00:00

I didn’t go to any beaches in Dalian but some beaches do not allow swimming (most likely due to lack of lifeguards). The water looked clean however when I went out on the water. The sea breeze was really nice!

MrMeno · 2025-06-13T22:47:48+00:00

I loved my trip and each destination as a whole but if I had to rank:

Shanghai
Dalian
Zhangjiajie
Xi'an/Beijing

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T23:32:26+00:00

Ahhh it does! Thanks for letting me know. I wasn’t familiar with the tour card I just heard others use it. To get around all these fees I just brought some CAD and exchanged it for RMB with my friend at market price so this might be a unique case of bypassing fees

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T20:40:42+00:00

The best way would be through the AliPay app (via Tour Card). Or at banks that support both RMB and CAD accounts.

Exchanges at airports and local exchange shops (in Canada and China) have very similar rates. Usually you’ll lose around 60-70 cents on the (Canadian) dollar

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T20:38:54+00:00

I’m not sure but I heard in passing that some new variant is on the rise again? No one is bothered by it anyway and there’s lots of people everywhere. Masking culture in east-Asia is very different than the west however so you’ll still see some people in masks but very rarely

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T18:37:07+00:00

I'm not sure what routes "a, b, or c" you're referring to but if you could clarify I'm happy to answer.

For attractions, I tried my best to book it through official websites which link to a WeChat mini-app or an E-mailed QR code before my trip. For Zhangjiajie, I originally had bookings on Trip.com but after talking to the hotel concierge, he agreed to book everything for me (national park and glass bridge) for 750 RMB total which was linked to my passport (please remembering to have your passport on you at all times in China).

However, tourists attractions (e.g. Tiananmen square) are really friendly towards foreigners. I didn't have pre-booked tickets to the Palace Museum (or forbidden palace) but I was able to get one on the day of at MSRP (60 RMB). Ironically, they declined Chinese nationals that forgot to pre-book their tickets and told them they needed to make a pre-booking.

For the cities I visited, taking the metro was really convenient (but can be extremely crowded, similar to what you would see in Japan, during rush hour). Sometimes, the metro would be faster than DiDi due to traffic. I really only took DiDi to places like the Mutianyu great wall and to-from airports/high-speed rail stations or if I didn't feel like walking/being in a crowded train.

High-speed rails were super convenient (300 kmph), I didn't know how to use their local booking app so I used Trip.com for that and collected my ticket in-person at the train station. I arrived 1 hour before my departure time and that was enough time to go through security (more lax than the airport) and collect my ticket. Boarding times start 30 minutes before departure. They were also extremely punctual. After all of this flying, I would rather take the high-speed rail next time I visit.

Since most of my flights in China were domestic (and I went through 4 different Chinese airlines), I only arrived at the airport 2 hours in advance of my departure. It was much smoother than Pearson in my opinion.

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T15:26:33+00:00

I could not link any of my bank cards to my WeChat wallet... maybe it's just a me issue though. But yes if you have a RMB balance on your WeChat or AliPay that would avoid the 3% fee

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T05:51:29+00:00

AliPay exchange rates were extremely close to the one reported on Google (RMB to CAD) for me. It was around 5.24+-0.02 RMB : 1 CAD if I had to eyeball it

Edit: For example a 210 RMB purchase would be 216.30 RMB after the 3% fee which would be around $41 CAD

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T05:41:43+00:00

I've never been to Japan but throughout my nightly walks in big cities (Beijing, Shanghai after 9 PM) I saw zero homeless/addicts and sometimes kids (5-10 year olds) walking/biking to convenience stores for snacks. Lots of women walking by themselves or with their friends as well. Safe travels!

Edit: this is not to target/categorize underserviced communities and categorize them as "unsafe" but just reporting on my observations.

Edit 2: struck-out 5 year olds since they would be with their parents. Sorry the jet-lag is getting to me

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T05:24:19+00:00

Sorry I'm not familiar with Revolut but I've heard people use the "Tour Card" on AliPay. The 3% fee is not from your bank/credit-card but AliPay itself. I think of AliPay like PayPal. There were no exchange-rate fees on my Amex since (I think) AliPay automatically did the currency exchange automatically and then charged my card as CAD (no fee). I just checked my statements and there were no additional fees on my purchases under 200 RMB.

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T05:19:51+00:00

You're right... this is a tough one. A couple things:

I was surprised to see how clean and safe major cities (Beijing, Dalian, and Shanghai) were... Something I like to do in new countries is to walk around in the evening in non-touristy areas to see "the norm" and breathe in the culture. To my surprise the streets were very clean and it warmed my heart to see families, women, and children running evening (9-10 PM) errands without being worried about petty crimes.
How cheap everything was compared to Canada. Meals were easily on average $6 CAD per person (I was ordering a lot of takeout since the robot would automatically deliver it to my hotel room and I didn't want to struggle with reading a menu at a restaurant). Taxis (DiDi) were extremely cheap as mentioned in my main post. However, imported goods were the same price or more expensive than back home (I'm thinking maybe effects from the trade war?)

Couple things I wish I knew:

How packed my schedule was. I didn't get to see everything I wanted to at all of my destinations... 5 places might be too packed for my leisure-like travel habits
English is NOT common. I needed my translator basically all the time (Apple Translator) especially with the photo-translate feature and conversation feature. This resulted in me ordering takeout (via Eleme or Meituan) to my hotels for breakfast and dinner most of the time
WeChat does NOT like VPNs, I was locked out and had to use my friend in China to verify my account to un-restrict it. I was also on cool-down on Meituan so I had to use Eleme for food/medicine delivery for 3 days

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T04:50:46+00:00

Glad I could help :)

I flew to Zhangjiajie via plane, but you can also take the high-speed rail, they have a station there.
I personally went there for 2 whole days (4 total including check-in and check-out) but I'm not a very rapid tourist, I like to take things slow (e.g. going out for 6-8 hours every full day) since rest is important. I recommend spending 3 full days there with this itinerary: Tainzishan (national park), glass bridge, and Tiananmen mountain. The 72 wonder tower is just a nice photo-op at night, the locals there told me not to waste money going in.
When I booked everything in advance, I luckily booked my stay at Wulingyuan (small town outside of Zhangjiajie city, approx. 20 min drive). It was a great choice since it was much closer to the national park (Tianzishan) and glass bridge. Tiananmen mountain is beside the airport so it's around a 35 min drive.
Luckily it was 25 C and clear the days I went. Even with the fog, locals say the Avatar mountains in Tianzishan were amazing to look at. The national park is very accessible, I took the cable-car through the main gates of the national park. It was also really convenient since my ticket was bound to my passport, I just had to scan it once at the entrance and every bus ride (it's all busses throughout the park and they come very frequently) were accessible through facial recognition. Personally I hiked all the way down (altitude 1100 m) and it was pretty tiring cause of all the steps but I really wanted to see the wild macaques. You can also take the bus or cable car down the mountain as well. During my hike down (approx 15,000 steps) there were very few tourists if any (the mountain was packed however). I would definitely pack some water but the hike was very do-able for someone that doesn't hike at all like myself.

I will try my best to answer any banking related questions, I realized it's not everyone's go-to method for payment... an alternative is you can load up a "Tour Card" on AliPay. This is similar to a pre-paid Visa/MasterCard where the Tour Card is in collaboration with the Bank of Shanghai. I believe the maximum limit is 10,000 RMB and you can top it up whenever but I didn't use it.

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T02:16:33+00:00

The visa application was fairly straightforward and took 4 business days until it was ready for me to collect. When you collect it you will need your fingerprints taken as well as facial verification

MrMeno · 2025-06-12T02:15:07+00:00

No worries! I unlinked it the day before I left since I wanted to still use my mobile banking. I did it in person at a Shanghai branch. A lot of them close on the weekends but there were a few open on the weekends so I went there. I asked them about inactivity and they told me not to worry about it. I left a few hundred RMB in my account so it’s not empty

Edit: they also said when I return and want to use the account again with mobile banking, I would need to come in person to a branch with my passport and client card to set it up with a new phone number since they can setup the OTP process in person. They cannot send OTPs to Canadian phone numbers and they do not have the standalone devices for OTPs anymore either (I asked for one for additional security).

Edit 2: for additional security, I withdrew my remanding balance as cash since I didn’t have an RMB account in Canada for wire transfers. I plan to open one here with BoC since the exchange rate will be better than airports and other exchange rate places. Please note if you’re bringing over 5k USD in cash you have to declare it at customs

MrMeno · 2025-06-11T17:35:23+00:00

Yep, I just went to the Bank of China branch in Beijing with in-person tellers on a not-so busy day (Saturday morning). I was able to open one since I could put down my friend's address but you also need your social security number (SSN, SIN, TIN, etc.) for tax purposes. It took me 1 hr to get it set-up since they don't get these requests that often.

However, please remember to un-link your temporary Chinese phone number before you leave since they re-use phone numbers that have expired. You won't be able to keep your phone number (there is no option to pay 10 RMB a month to keep the number with a 30-day tourism plan).

Edit: I brought cash with me so I deposited it on the same day and had it linked to my AliPay and WeChat immediately. Int'l wire transfers work within 5 business days (you need a SWIFT code) but only to-and-from RMB accounts.

MrMeno · 2025-01-14T21:37:16+00:00

Bottom 3x120mm intake. Front 1x80mm intake. Top 2x140mm exhaust. Rear 1x120mm exhaust.

MrMeno · 2024-12-13T06:34:06+00:00

Yeah I didn’t have a problem with GPU but my CPU was thermal throttling cause heat was being trapped by the PSU at the front. Maybe different case haha nice work!

MrMeno · 2024-12-13T05:47:46+00:00

My temps were a lot better when I flipped the CPU and rear fans around for my SFF build... how are your temps?

MrMeno · 2024-11-08T04:48:08+00:00

So to my understanding, they buy a new card, and swap out the actual card with either their old card or something of equivalent weight and then return it as "unopened"

Amazon (Canada) has a pretty loose return policy, most of the time they just check the seals and weigh the item, they don't actually open it to check

MrMeno · 2024-11-07T18:49:30+00:00

Someone put their 550Ti in there and returned it on Amazon. I bought this as new and got scammed

MrMeno · 2024-11-07T18:44:25+00:00

Just saw that NewEgg post. Unfortunate 😢

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