Sorry to hear that. Mainland China is not the place to be to deal with mental health issues.

So you are still in China

The only negatives I can think of are that the foreign teacher market isn't as good there, due to the supply being far greater per capita than Mainland. Are there others?

This might be an awful and offensive take for multiple reasons....but whatever this is the travel forum

China is like the bad boyfriend you don't want to leave despite all the fights and trouble, Taiwan is like the too-perfect boyfriend you get bored with and instigate fights with only for him to immediately apologize and show up with bubble tea.

Ha, I haven't lived in Taiwan enough to testify to that.

I have to limit my bubble tea intake. That **** makes you fat fast.

I've had three jobs in Taiwan and feel I've been ****ed over to some extent in all of them.

I've never felt that way about any of the jobs I had in China. If anything, jobs i had in China were too comfortable.

Wow, people are usually complaining about schools or recruiters in china screwing with them

In fairness, I never had a long-term job in China that was at a training center, just at a university and a high school international program. But even under-the-table jobs I did on the side or for short periods of time never messed around with pay and were straight up about expectations and whatnot.

Meanwhile in Taiwan, two of the jobs I've had have been in training centers. One was the first job I had in Asia. I was 23 and it was a small-town cram school that had every element of a bad situation.

Second is the job I've been at now for six months. Its actually fine in terms of the work, but when I signed the contract I was told I'd start out at 17 hours and be working over 20 soon after. I have yet to have a single 17 hour week and needed my day-to-day boss to beg the management not to fire me when I insisted they at least give me the legal minimum number of hours required (14).

My wife has been in Wuhan since December for business stuff and her apartment finally being built. Hopefully the visa situation will open up within the coming months.

So you haven't seen her since December? Sucks.

I'm trying to think of a Halloween costume. I thinking of either something from a Stephen Chow movie:


Or Geyou's character from 让子弹飞 (let the bullets fly, and awesome movie)


Any other suggestions (particularly ones from Chinese movies) are appreciated.

In other news....I'm **** at poker.



granted, according to GG's poker craft I've been running pretty badly, but still.

Looking at my stats and using their leak buster, I think I've identified the problems:





I think my opening ranges are good, but I'm generally being way too aggro for 5NL.
Going forward I'm gonna work on:

-3b less
-let them steal my blinds more (and don't 3b bb as often)
-cbet less (like 75% is optimal right?)
-lower AF
-more ABC, less GTO
-when recs raise turn or bet river ****ing fold!

I'm re-reading blackrain79's books and going through ZenithPoker's (apparently free?) course. Boring as **** watching a two hour YouTube of renewing someone's PT4 database, but whatever it takes.

Poupou update:

he's happy, wagging his tail a lot. He doesn't understand how to play with the rubber chicken that squeaks when bitten, but he understands how to play with my old knotted up sock. The SPCA people said we could take him outside briefly as long as he doesn't come into contact with other dogs. There are plenty of stray about so it's a real risk.



If you're familiar with dogs you can definitely tell he didn't grow up in a loving home. Dogs who do have a natural trust of humans and assume no one is trying to do them harm. If you suddenly try to pick him up he'll dart back or failing that lie on the ground. Also he doesn't go bounding into a new room but approaches it cautiously, looking and sniffing everywhere. It's so strange to be playing together when when you put a hand around him he flinches. I'm confident he'll get more confident and trusting as time goes by. He trusts me enough to come sit in my lap, and if I'm slow to pick him up.

Poker update: in the middle of this juicy hand


and my wife calls me, disconnecting my hotspot (often I get a better connection using my phone than home wifi) and causing me to time out, reconnected in time to see the pot being shipped to him.

Action was BTN raise, I 3b, c-bet flop and plan to check/jam turn. Given the board and action I think all his lower pairs are still in, as well flush draws random bluffs and of course QQ+ (but he didn't 4b so he's capped right?). ugh.

Funny, I had the exact opposites experience you had. Cram school experience always been pretty good for me in Taiwan.

Note all my experience in China and Taiwan always have been under the table gig.

I suggest you invest into a Microsoft Surface that support LTE cards, much more convenient than hotspots.

Since this is the travel section, I might as well share some things about travel. These pics are from my August trip to Yunnan.


Riding the fast train (250km/hr) through Guangxi. From Guangzhou to Kunming takes about 7 hours and costs about 700 Rambos.



If you wanna see a nice sunset, take the 21 line bus to Da Hai Yan (it's the last stop).



Surprisingly not crowded even at rush hour. and the weather was fantastic! God I wish I lived in Yunnan and not Guangdong.


Aforementioned sunset.

The village you need to walk through to get to the lakeside. Basically just keep walking away from the main road that brought you there and you'll find it eventually.




It's become a bit popular. so don't expect to be alone.

That night in Kunming we got to a hotel near the train station (taking the train next day to Dali) and they said "no foreigners". My wife wanted me to sneak in (past the front desk somehow) but I said no thanks, ill just call some hotels and find someone who wants my business. About 200m away there was a hotel happy to take a waiguoren. Slept with the windows open and it got down to about 20c, such a nice change from humid GD.

Can't make out the sign in the picture of the doorway with the red star. What's the significance, local party HQ or something?

Historic Building.

Somewhat annoyingly, there were many of those, but they gave no details about what that history was.

Dali

China's hippiest city IMO. Very relaxed, laid back. A lot of bars in the old city (though they couldn't play music because the students were testing lol)

Perfect temperature, blue skies...but the UV index is off the charts. Wear sunscreen!

Rent an bike an get around easily.







These jeeps were actually put there intentionally-a group of tourists came up and got their pictures taken one by one posing on them.

Lunch. If anyone wants more details about this just ask.









The guesthouse. Unfortunately not directly on Lake Erhai, but those are like 3x the price.





Great little brew house. the owner has been making beer for 18 years. The stout and the mead where both great in my opinion, and not ridiculously overpriced.

This is a very unique church.

One weird thing: there are so few outdoor activities in China compared to the US. In a place like Dali in the US there'd be dozens of open hiking trails, guided hikes to sign up to, rock climbing, hang-gliding, kayaking. Hard to find anything like that. There was a rock climbing website but it seems they've closed down.

You just need to walk random roads / paths and find something interesting.

Did that in Hangzhou at West Lake. Down the mountain trail the masses, on the trail almost nobody as tour groups don't go there.

Yeah, the best hikes aren't on official trials.

Classical/traditional Chinese music is the nuts for study/work music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NayxJ1KJoao

I forgot to say how we got to Dali. Another high speed train from Kunming to Dali, about 2 hours. It takes about 5-6 hours by bus.

Our second day there we took the cable car to the top of Cang Shan. There is a hiking path I would have preferred, but we were a bit pressed for time as we wanted to be moving on in the afternoon.

It's not overly expensive, maybe 200rmb a person? Of course there was a bit of extra hassle with me being the foreign, had to sign in and show the health QR code (actually had to do that before getting out of the train station in Dali and Kunming). The lines were very manageable, not more than 5 minutes each way.



Keep in mind you're going on top of a mountain-it's cold, even in summer. If you lack the foresight to dress appropriately, you can rent these ugly red coats.



It certainly was gorgeous and the views of Dali were fantastic.




Of course no black bears or clouded leopards were to be seen.

After we got back into town we got a bus to Shangri La (yes a bit of a whirlwind tour but my wife's vacation time was limited and I'd rather be in Shangri La than almost anywhere else).

The bus were mostly Tibetans-could tell from their language and their constant fingering of their japamala (buddhist rosary beads). We stopped about halfway at the filthiest little rest stop. The toilets were of the long trench variate with half walls between each "stall" and to wash your hands there was a giant bucket of water. For this privilege you were supposed to pay 1 yuan by WeChat. I don't think so!

While we were there some road crew trucks pulled up. What's the over/under on the number of people I saw climb out of the back of this one:

One of the most pathetic dogs I've ever seen was hanging out at the rest stop


When we got off the bus it was past 10. We got to see one of the funniest translations I've seen in China


独 means independent or lonely, 宗 means religion. 克 I don't think has any particular meaning here, but to see them translated as
was pretty lol.

And here's the gate to Shangri la old city, 独克宗古城

So one pic I forgot from my last update:


this is the high speed rail being built to Shangri-la. I'm not a fan. If you think it's too touristy and busy now, just wait until people can come in by the thousands per day.

We arrived pretty late, this was the view when we woke up at Kersangs Relay Station


That's the largest prayer wheel in the world. I learned that the reason you see these kind of little flags everywhere is that scriptures are written on them, and they believe that every time it flutters in the wind it's like the scripture/prayer is being written/said.



We didn't eat breakfast here, but across the street. If you go, look directly across the street. We also went here for dinner a couple days later.



I can't remember what it's called, but actually a really good and filling bread. We kept some and ate a bit as a snack.



not a huge fan of noodles for breakfast, but these were quite hearty and better than Guangdong's breakfast noodles.



yak milk yogurt



some kinda omelet/fried eggs



We found a place called Thangka Center. Thangkas are a kind of religious art very common in Tibetan Buddhism. They're amazingly intricate and take hundreds of hours to paint. Naturally, they're pretty damn expensive.

We got to talking with a guy in his 20s that has studied painting Thangka for ten years. He said in training they had to meditate every morning for an hour before classes.



He recommended a book he was reading in Tibetan that sounded pretty interesting. The author is quite famous Bhutanese monk.



Nothing particularly special about this guesthouse, except that to advertises itself as being run by Party Members. So if you're hankering to hunker down with some CCP members this is the place for you.

That brings us to about lunch, that'll be another post.

Stumbled upon your blog a couple weeks ago and enjoying the read so far. China is a fascinating country that I'd like to visit again sometime in the future. I was there in 2015 just passing by from Hong Kong to Laos by land: visited Shenzhen, Guiyang (for less than one day, in between trains) and Kunming.

Keep the trip reports and pics coming and gl in your poker journey too.

Thanks for reading! I'll try to update more.

After lunch we went to one of the coolest places: Sumtseling monastery. It's over 300 years old. According to wikipedia:


The place where you buy your ticket to the monastery is actually about 1.5km away from it. You can choose to take the bus there (extra) or walk. We chose to walk. This allows you to get quite a few pictures. The above is the village that's beyond the gate of the tourist attraction, so I imagine closed to the general public.


View as we got closer. Of course we took some selfies but I'm trying to get this semi-anonymous.



two deer kneeling next to a dharma wheel are a traditional feature of Buddhist iconography, from this site:


View from the monastery out into the city.


On top of some of the hills around you could see stupas with prayer flags.

Just an incredible atmosphere, scenery and architecture. I've been before and I'd always wanted to go back. My wife is an art teacher, and while we were there we saw a monk sketching the begining of a Thangka. My wife started sketching him sketching. This attracted the attention of the other monks and she drew them as well. We chatted with him for awhile. He had gone to India and stayed in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery there for I believe 5 years before coming back. I thought that was very interesting because India was where quite a few persona non grata had fled to-I didn't know they'd be allowed to come back.

Dinner was a place recommend by the Thangka painter I mentioned.






Overall very good. The mushrooms were not the best mushrooms we ate on our trip though (no, not the magic variety).

Is it worth it to learn Chinese?

That's a question that comes up a lot. I usually ask "what do you mean by 'worth it'"? Is it the best way to spend 1,000-2,000 hours of your time to make money? of course not. From a monetary perspective, there's no reason for an English speaker to learn any other language. But think of how empty our lives would be if that was the only measure of whether something was worth doing.

But if you view it was a hobby or pastime, is it worth it? To be clear, I don't mean like video games or watching movies, more like gardening or woodworking. In that case, sure it's worth it, if you enjoy it.

Try it out, if you like it, keep going. If you don't, find something else. Is it worth it to me that I can go about my life in China fairly normally, without ever having to worry whether language is gonna be a problem? Is it worth it that my father in law can explain to me who was buried in the graves we were burning incense at yesterday for Chong Yang Jie and what they meant to him and I could understand? yes, I'd say so.

Granted, you could do what most foreigners do and get an interpreter/girlfriend, but I have always liked to be independent. It's mindblowing to me that there are foreigners who have lived in China for years without even the most basic Chinese knowledge. One of my friends shared a joking t-shirt that said "I am not American" in several languages, including 我不是美国人. I was kind of stunned that my other friend asked what it meant. I guess that really puts the lie to the idea that you just "pick up" languages by living somewhere. You really don't, and certainly not to a high level. I've learned not to judge them though-they've chosen to spend their time differently. Sometimes they've done things that others would consider more worth it-starting a business, building a YouTube channel, bodybuilding. We've all chosen different ways to spend our free time, and if we're satisfied with those choices, why bother comparing ourselves and judging?

Want to second PE's discussion of learning a foreign language.

Even as just a tourist (as opposed to someone residing in a place), that opens up the opportunity to do non-touristy things. Gives you a chance to get a better experience of how people there live, not just sit at the resort with "otra vez, por favor."

Also, it shows respect for the people living there. I'm coming to your place, I should make an attempt to fit in.

Even if you just know some basic words like please, thank you, "how do you say...", etc, I've found that it makes travel a much richer experience.

To PE, now I will put the only Mandarin I think I know (and probably mess it up): xie-xie.

I totally understand people that have no interest in learning a language of a country they'd unlikely ever get citizenship to and where the working environments outside of English teaching and entrepreneurship (high failure rate) are pretty tough.

There are tons of western born Chinese as well and some of them can read and write.

Any competitive advantage you gain is pretty low.

Even African YouTuber Wodemaya who got fluent in Chinese eventually turned anti China and pro African Union activism.

Any outsiders that generally were pro China ultimately turned against it, either because they were bought out or because they figured they'd make more money that way.

China isn't particularly good at keeping vocal pro China outsiders happy unfortunately aside from those that facilitate government connections and business in South East Asia, but those are just a handful of people who were largely from high level families to begin with.

Same thing happens to me with farangs living in Thailand many years and not speaking a single word of thai. I would feel ashamed if after 5 years I had to pick up a Menu and point at the picture of what I wanna eat everytime Im ordering street food, or tell in english to the 7/11 teller that I want a plastic bag.

Im not as good as you with the no judging part tho lol.

I totally agree that entrepreneurship has a high failure rate-a good friend and I wanted to start our own training center (because we think the teaching in most is so shitty) and just ran into so many problems. To start with, at least in Guangdong, it's flat out illegal for foreigners to own training centers-or any kind of educational institution. So any foreigner you meet here who claims to own a training center? It's actually his wife who owns it. A small chance the rules were different before and he got grandfathered in, but I doubt it. We talked to a lawyer, he said our company could partner with a Chinese company and start a third company which could then buy a training center, but since the whole purpose of such an arrangement would be to skirt the law I had no faith our rights would be upheld.

We had one guy who wanted to be our partner. He had agreed to a 20% share (he was just gonna be responsible for paperwork, dealing with the government, we would be the teachers and face of the company). As we got closer to buying a place he suddenly said he wanted 51%. LOL no. Why would I kill myself to build a company for him?

Even if you get started there are catches: you have to rent a location, do renovations, and apply for licenses all before you can legally start classes. The location must be on the 3rd floor or below, must me 200m2+, and must have two exits. The fire department will come and inspect twice to grant those licenses. All of this can take months, and meanwhile you're on the hook for rent. Of course, 99% of places will start classes before they have all the licenses, and usually it's not a big issue. But now they've got you if they ever want to apply pressure for any reason.

But back to my point about learning Chinese. You only need to spend about 50 hours of good study to get good enough in Chinese for the most basic situations. I was able to deal with basic situations through self-study within a few months. If someone doesn't wanna put in the effort to become fluent, I totally understand that.

I would say that in my experience people who speak Chinese on at least a reasonable level are happier with their lives in China than those who speak almost none.

Of course the competitive advantage is low, I acknowledged that. My whole point was don't learn Chinese to make money. Learn it (or any second language) because you want to cultivate a hobby and understand a new culture better.

I don't worry about whether people think I'm pro-China or anti-China. I'm a Sinophile for sure, but less enamored with the CCP. On reddit I've been called both a wumao (a paid shill for the CCP) and typical Western anti-China hack. /r/China is a weird place.

I don't spend my time on China youtubers in general (even my friend who is one)-if I wanna know about China I read a book by an expert. So here's a few I've heard:

Soldiers of the Dragon edited by CJ Peers. Mostly of interest to military history buffs

The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell -really good and explains how memories of the Opium Wars have been used for propaganda purposes ever since.

This Is China: The First 5,000 Years by Haiwang Yuan-super simple and easy introduction to China.

Accepting Authoritarianism-a really good and thorough investigation into why the Chinese largely accept the political system they have, and why there's basically no demand for a liberal democracy.

That's one of the most useful phrases. Let's say you have a long train ride. If someone next to you seems friendly, say "Hello", point at something and say "how do you say..." in the language you're learning. If the person seems interested, continue (and possibly do the same for him in English). You've just had a unique travel experience and if you remember those basic words you'll be able to impress your friends back home.