Comment by pasiaj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pasiaj | Hacker News Reader

I just came from 14 day trip to Shanghai-Beijing-Shenzhen. Here's a couple of more pointers:

- DiDi is the Uber of China. Wonderful UX, English language UI with automatic two-way translation of messages and support for western credit cards.

- AliPay & WeChat wallet are the primary methods of payment in China. You can enable a WeChat Wallet using a western credit card, but in most cases that card cannot be used for payments. You can have easily exchange cash for WeChat RMB, as other users can transfer RMB to your account free of charge. AliPay requires a local phone number & bank account (and no, the one you use for AliExpress does not work for mobile payments.)

- The subway system in Shenzhen, Shanghai & Beijing is really well maintained. You can use cash or Alipay/Wechat to pay.

- All foreign cell contracts pipe traffic through their local servers, so they automatically VPN through the Great Firewall.

- ProjectFI recently lost 99% of LTE coverage in China. T-Mobile cancelled their contract with China Unicom, and Nexus phones do not support the LTE bandwith China Mobile uses. You're stuck on the EDGE network 99% of the time.

- China Construction Bank opens up accounts for foreigners without Visa.

- One thing that was not mentioned in Karim's post: advanced manufacturing facilities. Try booking a tour: they can significantly alter what you think is possible.

Yes, if there is any advice I could give it is to get familiar with the local tech ecosystem as soon as possible.

After spending a few month in Shenzhen, seeing people coming and going, you realize that everyone has the same ideas about the same things. How to get around the firewall, catalog hqb, build their own pcba etc. Those things are of course harmless enough, but also missing the point.

Shenzhen is all about doing things and talking to people. Which is something a lot of western hackers seem to have forgot how to do in favor of fantasizing about things in various ways. The sooner people can get past that and start doing things the more they will get out of the experience.

Thanks for the pointers.

How would I book a tour with advanced manufacturing facilities? Which ones you would recommend to start with?

"China Construction Bank opens up accounts for foreigners without Visa." - do you mean bank accounts that don't include a VISA credit card? Like anyone can show up and open a bank account? I've heard it's easy in HK but not a given, especially with more recent strict KYC laws.

Tell us a bit more about the tours of advanced manufacturing facilities if you can, I'm fascinated.

> - do you mean bank accounts that don't include a VISA credit card?

He means a VISA, not Visa the brand. In China Visa does not exist and everything is local banks. In many places, except an Apple Store (so I found out), US credit cards cannot be used.

Some upscale hotels also accept foreign credit cards. There's rumor Discover cards can be used just the same as local credit cards, but I never get a chance to verify that.

I never thought about using my Discover card either. I will have to try this on my next trip.

You can use Mastercard and Visa in many high end ish places like Starbucks, upscale shopping centers (like Cocopark in Shenzhen), nice restaurants. Virtually all ATMs also support these cards.

Thanks. I will try more mainstream places. I found that even in some brands I still have to use my China Construction Bank debit card. I never had a problem getting out cash with my Visa debit card from an ATM. I just couldn't use the debit card at a lot of stores.

What would you classify as "advanced manufacturing" today and localized to the area? I'm consistently impressed with the quality and cost of machined/prototype parts that come out of Shenzhen – even the "traditional" manufacturing can be mind-blowing.

Worth noting AT&T has great partnerships in these areas and I get 5 bars of LTE in all of these cities for 10 bucks a day when I am here. Also there is plenty of places to buy sim cards if your phone is unlocked.

> China Construction Bank opens up accounts for foreigners without Visa.

You need a passport and in my case I asked a local co-worker to go with me for translation purposes just in case. This was good because they had issues with the length of my name and address info that needed to be worked around.

> - ProjectFI recently lost 99% of LTE coverage in China. T-Mobile cancelled their contract with China Unicom, and Nexus phones do not support the LTE bandwith China Mobile uses. You're stuck on the EDGE network 99% of the time.

Do you have any more info on this?

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