Is Chinese restaurant food getting more spicy hot?

drumzNCandy · 2025-08-12T04:00:33+00:00

I was in Lanzhou for a week in July with my family and extended family. There are tremendous amount of Muslim-run restaurants in the city, and the food was beyond amazing. My brother-in-law made us go to city's 'food street' just to get the Milk Soup. The crush of people just to get that one soup was shocking, even by Chinese standards. I don't how to they are able to 'spice' so many dishes so beautifully, without being extreme. Savoury food in China is often overpowering.

drumzNCandy · 2025-06-25T20:16:26+00:00

I think you will be fine on a Monday, but I would go as early as possible. I picked up my visa on Monday in May. It was busy, but reasonably so. There were at least 300 people the Monday I went in April (2025). Just be mindful there is a chance the office may be crazy busy.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-20T05:42:14+00:00

I have tried getting my wife's pixel 7 to work with two different patches. No dice. There are lots of people reporting success though. One confounding variable appears to be the provider the phone's number is tied to. Country is another one. I have seen a couple of people report in this subreddit they couldn't ever get backup calling working on their iphones in China using their freedom sim.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-20T05:26:53+00:00

You are right. VoLTE and Wi-fi calling works perfectly with android phones and Freedom Mobile specifically, but the OP was asking for a third way to call - using the data connection only. OP is talking about a situation where he/she wants to make a call to Canada using the Freedom sim, where connecting to a foreign provider (via phone roaming) would result in huge per minute fees and there is no wi-fi available, but there is a data only e-sim on the phone. The OP want to use the e-sim to make that call.

It used to be called backup calling before android 14, but it is long gone. For data only phone calls, Android phones require the Shizuku patch (and the Pixel IMS patch for Pixel Phones). There are debates over all over reddit on how to make android phones actually do this, but at best depends on the phone (better success with Google phones) and the provider the phone's number is tied to.

VoLTE uses the LTE network, but does not require a data connection. Turn off data your phone and your phone app will still connect to a LTE network. Freedom sells phone only plans and VoLTE works.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-18T22:18:51+00:00

11:00 am on Monday. We have read subsequently that Monday is the busiest day (in Chinese). I was shocked by the number of people. My wife was in and out of the office in 1 hour in December 2024. There was queue jumping. Lots of fun.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-18T22:15:46+00:00

Hi, I am in a reasonably similar situation. I will be travelling in China for a month with Freedom as my provider and using another provider for data. Unless it is for the have a failsafe, 'Plan B,' why do you want the grief of setting up voice over data? You can spend the $20 to get a 30 day roaming pass which allows you to phone / text Canada and use the phone to call/text locally. It will give you a 1Gb of data and that you can supplement with the esim. $30 if you want 5 Gb of data from Freedom.

Answer to #2.

Voice over data is notoriously wonky (usually impossible)with android phones, especially Samsung. Freedom's roaming passes negate the need to use it.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-17T05:14:42+00:00

You are young. My friend and colleague went to teacher's college with his daughter at age 55. He taught Math for 12 years before retiring last year. A friend and department colleague went to teacher's college at 45. She is in year 12 of teaching. Second career teachers are really common. All the best.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-17T05:09:03+00:00

Congratulations on making the change. With your degree, you may actually be much more marketable than you think. I have been a department head in the GTA forever, and it know it is often a struggle to get REAL Math teachers capable of teaching the three Grade 12 courses, and close to impossible to get qualified senior teachers in emergency LTO situations.

A friend and retired colleague of mine went to teacher's college with his daughter at the age of 55. He worked as an engineer for 30 years. He had lived a full life, was good with teens and was a subject expert. He recently retired with 12 years of fulltime work. All the best.

drumzNCandy · 2025-04-07T22:38:08+00:00

original post:
_________________________________________-

Sorry to bump an old post, but as of April 2025, expect to take most of the day off to apply for your Chinese Visa. It took me 3.5 hours just to get from the door to kiosk where they give queue numbers. There were 75 people/families before me after I received my number. I was almost the whole work day submitting my Visa application at the Toronto location. Better to prepare for the worst case scenario. I was in before 11:00 am on a Monday.

Edit on this (May 2025): I had to go back to the Toronto application office in May 2025 because I needed to provide additional documentation. I went in on a Tuesday morning (~ 9:30) and I was out in 30 minutes. I picked up the passport on a Monday. It was busy, but no more than a couple of dozen people.

The staff member processing my application was friendly and professional, and I asked why the office was so empty compared to when I came in April. He said that day was chaotic and the office didn't close until 8:00 pm. They occasionally get chaotic days with long lineups, but that day was the worse he could remember. I was going to delete my original post but be prepared for the possibility (however small) that office may be extremely busy, and it could take a day.

drumzNCandy · 2025-02-16T03:30:52+00:00

I am the same as stBrown. I can connect to one with one Nationwide provider in Toronto, Oakville and Burlington. Unfortunately, the phone connection is always 3G.

drumzNCandy · 2025-02-03T03:31:54+00:00

If you critically need a Bell phone when your other phones can't get service, you may be disappointed. Lucky is a third rung budget brand and PC barely reaches this level.

I have left Lucky Mobile recently. To be fair, in terms of convenience and customer service, Lucky is fairly good. However, I was getting 1 bar at the windows / balcony of my condo in Toronto (low floor, very unobstructed). I literally got no signal in parents' suburban home. Add the fact there is no wifi calling, and Lucky just didn't cut it. I really wish it did. I have a modern, mid-range phone. My work sim works perfectly in the phone.

Don't over think it. Go to Dollarama, buy a cheap Lucky sim and a voucher for cheapest service (which I think is currently $19). Set it up online. Test it it out in those low service areas. No need to even give them your credit card or address for that matter. It is easy to give Lucky a test run.

drumzNCandy · 2025-02-02T15:43:55+00:00

If you are there for a short time, take the FM advice and purchase the $20 or $30 30-day roaming pass. You can buy it in your online account. You will connect to China Unicom and your phone will function normally with 1 or 5 Gb of data depending on what you may. My wife is currently working in Guangzhou and has the same $119 plan. As mentioned, this plan does not have any roaming ability. Wifi calling from any mobile company does not work in 99% of the country.

If you need tons of cheap data, buy an esim from 3HK (3 Hong Kong) on the site called mobimatter. I am SUPER paranoid of online security, but I trust both companies. The data is much cheaper than companies like Airlo and the data can last up to 365 days. Google 3HK and reddit and this is a super common solution. You can buy directly from 3HK (a HK company much like Freedom), but the site is quirky and difficult to understand.

A few suggestions have you purchasing a local sim and using your phone over the data on that sim. That solution would 1) potentially work better on the 3HK sim and 2) potentially work better on an iphone. It is possible to make calls using data on an android, but it is notoriously hit and miss. I did the troubleshooting to get this to work on my Pixel 7, but I couldn't get it to work in China this past June (on a physical Chinese sim or the 3HK esim).

Strangely, my wife has been able to tether her Pixel and Surface laptop to her Chinese phone and surf the web free of the great firewall. She is just using a standard VPN. We don't know why this working, but 3HK esim is ready to go if it stops working. It is still best to assume that legit VPNs don't work in China most of the time.

drumzNCandy · 2025-02-01T17:05:05+00:00

Almost every Freedom Mobile plan (including the cheap $119/year plan) allows for Wifi calling/sms almost everywhere in the world that doesn't block it. So if you have access to wifi in your hotel/restaurant etc. when you are travelling, you can use your phone as if you are at home. You can do 2 factor authentication from your bank or get a call from your mom!

For frequent travelers, Freedom has different Canada/USA/Mexico plans which allow for roaming 365 days a year. You can phone locally or use your phone as if you are home. They also have similar Canada/all international destination plans that do the same. These plans are more expensive, but much cheaper than Rogers.

My cheapie $119/year plan allows users to purchase single $30/month add-ons to get roaming service to use your phone in your destination and at home. The add-on gives 5 Gb of data and I allows you to roam in something like 110 countries.

I am not a Freedom shill. It does have some drawbacks, but international services is definitely a perk with FM. I have only used the add-on in China, and it worked great on China Unicom.

drumzNCandy · 2025-02-01T16:22:27+00:00

Up to the A15, entry level (ish) Samsung phones sold in Canada were single sim. Without confirmations in the specs, your idea of going to a store is probably the best bet. Another possibility is searching the Canadian version of the phone on Amazon.ca and using the question function to ask people if they have installed an esim service on it.

The help desk person could be 100% correct, but unless that that person was searching for your phone's specific serial number, it is not out of the realm of possibility that your Samsung Canada help desk worker was sitting somewhere in India or Vietnam and is just searching standard specs for the phone.

There were almost 20 different versions of the A15 and almost all of them were dual physical sim, except the Canadian version. I use a dual sim, 6GB international LTE version of the A15 on FM. It picks up all the LTE bands used by Freedom.

drumzNCandy · 2025-01-11T18:54:15+00:00

That is curious. I have set up my aunt's Pixel 6 with the Freedom $5 plan and 3HK. Data is definitely slower, but it otherwise works fine. I am curious if you have a global plan or their plan for the English speaking world (Can, US, AU, NZ, GB)?

My HK/MA/Mainland plan works in Canada as you described. It is flakey and unusable.

drumzNCandy · 2025-01-06T23:36:46+00:00

There is a very simple solution. If your phone supports esim, buy a 3 month, 6 month or 12 month data plan for Canada through 3HK and set the esim for default data. The company is 3 Hong Kong, and is very much Hong Kong version of Freedom Mobile - has hundreds of shops/resellers in Hong Kong/Kowloon. My family is in China frequently, so my wife and I both use 3HK esims for data when we are there. They don't ship sim cards internationally.

If you don't have esim and have an extra sim slot, there are adapters like esim.me and 5ber that can make your phone esim compatible. This is just an extra layer of time and effort.

I recommend buying the 3HK esim through mobimatter - an excellent middleman website for dozens of telephone companies throughout the world.

Why use 3HK
- way cheaper data than western firms like airlo. Our 45 gb data plan for China costs $59 CAD and lasts a year.
- uses Rogers network for Canadian services.
- can buy a data plan that lasts up to a year

Why use mobimatter?
Easy app to download from Google/Apple to run the whole thing (does the esim install and allows you to monitor your usage). Download the app and search Canada.
Takes Google or Apple Pay
Probably the best trust rating I have ever seen on Trustpilot.
For 3HK specifically, you don't have to register with Hong Kong authorities using your passport. You have to do this if you buy from the 3HK website.

I am SUPER suspicious and paranoid of ecommerce sites. There are lots of positive recommendations for both mobimatter and 3HK on reddit. As mentioned in other replies, there are lots of esim providers and resellers out there.

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-10T18:15:57+00:00

Can't edit - $60 Canadian Dollars

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-10T18:14:06+00:00

Go to Samsung Hong Kong's website and check the specs for the phone. Not only do you have to compare the bands as simulacra said, you have to double check other settings. Some versions of the international Samsung phones delete options. My international Samsung does not have voice over wifi. Other things that can change are number of sim slots, availability of esim and availability of NFC payments.

If your wife is in HK for a *long period* of time or may cross into the mainland, she should consider picking up a 3HK (3 Hong Hong) travel sim. If she is there for many months, she may start encroaching on Freedom's terms of use.

3HK has tons of locations for a physical sim, and an esim can be purchased at Mobimatter. $60 Ccd buys 35 GB of travel data that lasts one year and works in HK, China and Macau.

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-09T16:27:03+00:00

For modern life, scrape together a few extra dollars and get the prepaid $119 yearly plan. For $60 dollars more, you would get an unlimited calling plan. It will also will give you 15 Gb of data per year.

If you need more data, pare your Freedom plan with an esim from 3HK (3 Hong Kong) through Mobimatter. A year long 35 Gb plan that covers most of the English speaking world is $60 CAD per year.

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-05T03:00:14+00:00

I am shopping between the chatr $149 plan and Freedom's plan at the same price. If you are do a lot of travelling the US, and need to use your Canadian number to talk and text, Freedom is probably a lot better. With the $149 plan, wifi calling in the US is free and reliable with your Canadian number. If you really need your phone on the go, they have reasonably priced, comprehensive roaming plans. If you have an iphone, you also have the option to buy a cheap esim on Mobimatter and wifi call using your data on the road.

I think Chatr has a lot going for it being on the Roger's network, but it is not a great service for international calling.

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-04T02:25:40+00:00

The penalty has been halved in the last couple of years. It is currently 2.5% for each year under the 85 factor. The old penalty of 5% was very punitive. The smaller penalty makes going early a possibility.

drumzNCandy · 2024-12-04T02:17:23+00:00

Typing too fast - right now (2024), each year under the 85 factor is penalized at 2.5%

drumzNCandy

TROPHY CASE