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Post by George61 on Jun 29, 2006 5:52:56 GMT 7
Yeah, but at least you have someone gorgeous to take a shower with. She has to stand on the toilet!
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Jun 29, 2006 16:11:04 GMT 7
AJ the apartment sounds really fantastic, well worth waiting for. Without sounding too materialistic, how much is it a month? New job, new apartment and new clothes.
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Post by acjade on Jun 29, 2006 16:22:38 GMT 7
AJ the apartment sounds really fantastic, well worth waiting for. Without sounding too materialistic, how much is it a month? New job, new apartment and new clothes. Hey... you're reading my mind. I'm planning on a new wardrobe as I'll be a little more 'out there' and the trackie daks and jeans need to be upgraded. The apartment costs 1300kuai a month. But this is Xi'an so apartments are cheaper here than over on the east coast. I hope you come and visit me, Woza. You can have the guest room and we can go up onto the roof for a jacuzzi. But that'll be after I visit you to bring you luck at the blackjack table. The Admin here rang me this morning and asked me if I wanted my airfare reimbursment in cash to the equivalent of one thousand USanian dollars so I said that would be lovely. I couldn't be buggered getting a faux ticket for a refund. Not through laziness... it just didn't seem right. PS. When you come to stay you'll be able to bring Tommy as the grounds are like a park so he'll have somewhere to play and do his business.
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Jun 29, 2006 16:56:12 GMT 7
Thanks AJ, I would love to take you up on the offer. God the cats are bloody mean and streetwise around here it is not safe for a dog to walk on the streets, they actually run after him and try to attack him. He is loosing his confidence.
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Post by DollyODear on Jun 29, 2006 19:54:50 GMT 7
PS. I'll keep the last of the faux Terracotta Warrior wall plaques for you. Oh, jade, that is a great kindness. My jealousy is mitigated by your generosity. Hope all goes beautifully, and what is this about a jacuzzi? Whoohoo! can we have a saloon party at Jades? Looking forward to seeing you and yours when I am better.
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Post by Dragonsaver on Jul 4, 2006 19:11:00 GMT 7
I am shipping a bunch of stuff up to Dalian later this week and I am getting conflicting information. My waiban will have them come to my apartment to pick up the stuff. First she said they would put each item in a bag. But today she gave me a bunch of typed shipping labels (she typed them) and said I was supposed to tape them onto each box etc. Tape onto my suitcase? Another teacher has shipped, but he went down to the railway. He said they thoroughly taped each box, put each box in a bag and attached sticky labels to each bag. I am confused and I need INFO. Please help!!
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Post by joe on Jul 5, 2006 6:27:40 GMT 7
Sending stuff by the rail involves going to the station, to the office somewhere off to the side that looks like a loading bay, and having your stuff first bagged and thoroughly taped, probably in more separate bags than is necessary because more bags means more money paid, then weighed, then labelled (with the name of your next train station of choice, definately in Chinese) via provided stickers or tags attached by little tiny plastic handcuffs, and then you go back and forth standing in line with pieces of paper so you can pay for and consign to fate your items. You do your own attaching of stickers, and your own labelling, and they do the weighing, usually on a big in-floor device. You truly need a proxy, aka "student" or "friend", to make it all happen with anything like efficiency. Then you go and have lunch. You need to keep the right slip of paper so you can collect your stuff three to five days later wherever the hell you sent it. Leaving it in the station is okay so long as you're willing to pay storage costs. When you do collect your stuff, it's in much the same loading dock kind of area, and you could do it without a proxy if you had your slip of paper and some front.
If your FAO is shipping stuff for you, is she using a company or arranging for rail transport? If it's rail, someone will be doing that grunt work I described above and they do need the taped labels. Moving compaines I have no experience with. Tell you about it next week.
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Newbs
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Post by Newbs on Jul 5, 2006 9:41:54 GMT 7
Joe, don't want to frighten you but ...
A group I was with had some stuff shipped by train from Shanghai to Beijing, almost certainly on the same train we were on. Total time for journey, about 3 hours.
Total time to find which of the 2 stations at Nanjing (Nanjing and Nanjing West) our luggage was at, which of the 2 storage rooms it could be in, which person had the key to unlock correct storage room, and when said person was in his office and not "out to lunch", about 3 days.
Yi lu ping an.
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Post by George61 on Jul 5, 2006 10:04:16 GMT 7
This frightens me. That's a m'kayin' fast train!!
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Newbs
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Post by Newbs on Jul 5, 2006 10:10:44 GMT 7
George, haven't you heard about the Maglev?
Orright, orright, it was to Nanjing, not Beijing, but everything else about the story is ridgy didge. (ie. True)
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Post by George61 on Jul 5, 2006 10:38:44 GMT 7
Oh, I believed the rest of the story!
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Post by Lotus Eater on Jul 5, 2006 21:47:33 GMT 7
George - Newbs is back in Oz, these little slips of the mind are common for those who are unlucky enough to live south of the Q'ld border - it's the dull minds bored as hell bad weed poor education systemsoporific air down there!!
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Post by George61 on Jul 6, 2006 1:58:53 GMT 7
....and right next to the Sewerage Farms, too!!
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Newbs
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Post by Newbs on Jul 6, 2006 4:16:05 GMT 7
Lotus, I'm a Mexican (Victorian) and damn proud of it, but I was a Banana bender (Queenslander) last night. Well done Maroons. Most people in Victoria would have barracked for Queensland last night as, in all honesty, none of us could ever bring ourselves to barrack for those cockroaches (NSW).
George, our sewerage farm is so well known that we have hosted visiting delegations from China, who are here to study our water purification techniques. Can't wait until they implement the technology back home in the middle kingdom.
But Joe, all the best with the removals. Let us know how they go.
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Post by joe on Jul 17, 2006 11:49:20 GMT 7
This whole thing started with me looking for a way to protect my lovely oversize LCD monitor. As a result I have to say that you should avoid Hau2 Yu3 moving company. I repeat,
Don't use Hua2 Yu3 moving company.
They are well-known in China and have offices everywhere. But aside from their 3-4 quoted days for delivery of goods having become 8 days, my monitor was never even sent. My goods were boxed up in custom wooden crates by them and sent, and looking through the crates there never was enough room for the monitor. It was never packed. Of course it was stolen at the point of departure, and is now sold elsewhere.
That and the m'kayers did stupid little things like removing, and keeping, the valves from the wheels of my bicycle, and somehow managing to make the handlebar extenders disappear, a feat no train station agent has managed in the last six moves I have made.
The head office in Shanghai is concerned, and reports and reciepts have been faxed to them, but basically the company functions through a network of small agents and collection points. They cannot be trusted. The train station remains the safer, more professional option for relatively small amounts of material.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Jul 17, 2006 17:59:40 GMT 7
Thanks, and sorry to hear it. Do they have insurance for that, or is that a forlorn hope?
When we were sort of preplanning a possible move to Guangdong, my wife mentioned that getting a truck to drive the lot isn't too expensive - plus someone can travel with them. Since we didn't move to Guangdong, I didn't investigate further, so have no hard data.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Jul 17, 2006 18:41:18 GMT 7
This is absolutely inexcusable. You should definitely be going Krushchev on them. Give us contact info and we'll help. I'm sorry, Joe.
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Post by joe on Jul 17, 2006 20:11:43 GMT 7
I did several things wrong. First, I let them pack the stuff. If I had put it in crates myself, there'd be no possibility of theft. Theft from a movers collection site needs portability of the item and some guarantee of return, like an expensive monitor would provide. Second, I signed without inspecting the crates when they came to my house. I should have cranked them open and complained on the spot (as if the tricycle guy could do a damn thing about it, but the complaint would have some chance of being registered early). If you've ever had a competent Chinese help you with this kind of crap, you'll know the contempt they can have for people who trust to the reputation of a company.
Right now the head office promises investigation with a view to finding and returning the item or reimbursing. I bought insurance at the time of dispatch, but what kind of insurance I don't know. For example, they specifically said the bike couldn't be insured, and as I remember everything else was insured to one fifth of the supposed value. And frankly, the head office might be acting only because my intermediary is both scary when she gets her anger up and is right next to being the local manager of a multinational that is located right next to Shanghai itself.
Luckily my new school bought some monitors back in the 70s, and I can squint my way through writing this tale.
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Post by con's fly is open on Jul 25, 2006 15:35:59 GMT 7
Ouch. This should be in the Library.
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Post by joe on Sept 15, 2006 10:28:51 GMT 7
And over two months later the company claims it will cough up 1000 yuan compensation. Hasn't been sent to my bank account yet.
If you must use a Chinese moving company, crate up your stuff yourself, in big boxes not readily walked off with; or hang around the collection point while they crate it for you. I screwed up and left things too late.
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Sept 15, 2006 22:36:38 GMT 7
I'm glad this thread has been resurrected as I just found out yesterday I'll be moving in the near future. Well, I've got over three months to prepare, but still...
Vowed three years ago when we were selling most of our possessions in preparation for our new lives in China that we were going to live more simply and not be possessed by our possessions. Didn't take long to break those vows. We've made three trips over here now, with loaded suitcases each time. That doesn't take into account all the toys we've bought here - printers, laminator, scanner, multiple kitchen gadgets - and a huge TV set. The anticipated move is to the extreme other end of the country. What am I gonna do? The train idea sounds like the best option, and I have a friend checking into that, but how will the TV set endure the trip?
I'm really good at moving. Done it lots. Typically rent a U-Haul. Somehow I don't think that's going to be an option here.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Sept 16, 2006 3:23:38 GMT 7
Where you going to? South or West? You off to Guangdong?
I just found out that they love me here and want me to stay another year. (I mean, they said that before, but this time we are talking contracts.) So I will be here for a while yet. When Mrs N's contract finishes (hers is 3 years, 2 to go) we think we will be off to HK.
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Post by joe on Sept 16, 2006 3:55:13 GMT 7
The train station broke a laptop secured deep inside a bag of clothes. The removal company "lost" my monitor.
Were I thee, I'd follow the advice I was given and ignored--find someone who works for an international company and box your crap in the boxes they use when they send something international. The box the tv came in is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for transit inside China. You have to factor in dirt, transit crap, poor handling, throwing, being stacked underneath other crap and so on.
Put it in a wooden crate plus whatever international movers recommend for padding. Something that will absorb shock without transmitting it to the inside.
For everything else, the crappy tartan plastic bags you can buy everywhere are useful only if you sew up the zipper and are then willing to consign to fate whatever you had inside--except that the train station usually handles them basically okay, granted a degree of dirt when you find them later at their destination.
A moving company of sufficient reputation probably will be trustworthy if you provide them with sizeable wooden crates of stuff well-packed. And if they can come to your house, it'll be easier than the train station. I'd say, given preparation time, I'd still go with a moving company.
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Non-Dave
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Post by Non-Dave on Sept 16, 2006 6:56:14 GMT 7
I wish I knew the name of the m'kayers who moved my stuff from Harbin to Dongguan - sounds a lot like the same company as Joe, judging from the results.
They stole everything of value and had a good look through everything else. I also made the mistake of not packing things securely enough, and the insurance that I paid extra for is a joke!
I made the big mistake of not unpacking everything at the depot when I picked it up. It looked okay and I was in a hurry, couldn't communicate with the depot guy and so didn't discover anything was missing til I got home.
Because I didn't check it at the depot the company wasn't interested in my complaints about stuf being stolen (DVD player, 100's of DVD's, computer software, clothes, lots of small stuff).
If I had to do it again I'd go along with Joe's advice - big wooden crates, steel band wrapped, full inventory (English & Chinese) signed in the consigning office, unpack everything in the receiving office, go there with lots of time and a translator (a police officer in uniform would probably be a good idea at both ends) - and a baseball bat.
Live and learn...
Ruth, I'd be sending the big fella in the truck with the telly.
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Post by Dragonsaver on Sept 16, 2006 8:10:18 GMT 7
I used the train. I received everything sent. Nothing was broken, except a bit of the edges of the plastic boxes I put breakable stuff into. I wrapped the breakable stuff in clothes, put in the plastic box then put the plastic box inside a cardboard box. I also put clothes and towels etc around the plastic box. The train put everything inside big blue bags which were sealed with a large metal band at the top. My computer printer was not put in a blue bag but had written 'Fragile' in chinese all over. The cardboard box was intact as well as the plastic box and of course the printer box. Yeah. One suitcase inside a blue bag had a hole in it from being dragged. I would definitely recommend the train.
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