What to Pack for China

If you're moving to China, and you are going to be in Beijing, there isn't a lot you need to bring. First of all, if you're lucky enough to be going on the company dollar, your housing, kid's tuition, moving expenses etc are going to be covered by the company. Diplomats, service people, Management of large companies--you're sitting with your heinie in tub full o' butter. If you're going to be in a large expat compound or up in the "foreign ghetto" of Shunyi, you may not even realize you have left the States, except that your neighbors will probably be better cooks than the ones you have now. Expat packages can include that all-important 35,000 USD (US Dollar) PER YEAR tuition at your child's international pre-school, food allowances, tax-free salary (for the first 85,000K)cars and drivers and more.

For the rest of us, however, there's a very different story. Yes, you can buy your own ticket and find a job doing something like "playing with kids" at a local kindergarten. The hours are long, the work is semi-illegal (if not totally illegal) but you can pull in enough to survive. If you're teaching English as a university, you will have housing of some sort, and you will have legal working permission. You won't have a big salary, but as long as you give up cheese, you can do quite well. This is a good step for someone who is in early retirement and wants their savings to mature a big. There are limits to how old you can be to get a legal working visa, but your wai ban (foreign affairs office) know the laws and are responsible for your visa anyway. Think twice about accepting a contract for 4,000 RMB per month that stipulates teaching hours plus "office hours" of a total of 40 hours per week--you will get stuck in the office holding impromptu English lessons that someone has arranged for free (and they're pocketing the tuition they charged) and you will also be writing curriculum that you have no business writing--ARE YOU TRAINED IN EFL AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT? I DIDN'T THINK SO!--plus you won't get paid for it.

Trust me--no matter what you do, someone along the way is profiting from it. The only exception to this rule is the lovely Mr. Ding--worthy of a thousand posts--whom I will get to later. You won't be lucky enough to meet him, most likely, so just decide how much exploitation you can take and then relax and go with the flow.

What to pack: so, you have two suitcases. Gone are the days when expats loaded up their suitcases with pie pans and vanilla extract (although I did pick up two special bread pans on request for my dog-sitter.) In Beijing, you can get just about everything, eventually. There are some chains like Carrefour (French supermarket chain) that can import a certain small percentage of foreign goods, like their own brand of ready-made pie crusts, cheese, and other items. Yes, you can get Nacho Corn Chips everywhere. You can get Cheetos, but unless you shop at Jenny Lou's and buy imports, they won't be cheeze flavored--they will come in a variety of flavors including Hot Dog. I did once find Chinese-made Cheetos in an airport that advertised on the package as being cheese-flavored but they were the "cheese flavor" that Chinese people think of as cheese. So, in other words, not salty orange-colored powder but a sickly white tasting of powdered milk and sugar. There are 7-11s, which have surprisingly good food, but no Icees. Jenny Lou's is a small chain of stores owned by two different people, sisters no less, and there are bets as to how to pronounce it--Jenny Lou, as in "Skip to my Lou" or Jenny Low, as in "Load." Anyway you say it, they eventually have everything, but not all the time. If there's something you want--say, Black Forest Tim Tams--and they're in, scoop them up. Prices between all the stores fluctuate wildly and in general the cost of everything foreign has doubled. Occasionally politics has an impact on what's available--What? You won't accept our powdered milk enhanced with plastic? Screw you, we're cancelling your import of Dr. Pepper!--but in general, it's all there eventually, if you don't mind Bubble Gum Flavored Candy Canes in time for Easter or chocolate rabbits at Halloween.

There are people who specialize in catering to the foreign crowd, such as Mrs. Lejen Shanen of Mrs. Shanen's Bagels. She has an emphasis on fresh and healthy that alarms me--I like my vices left undisturbed--but you can get killer "artisan" pizza there. (Shop and store in Shunyi county.) She also leases organic land for farming and you can even take your kids out to the farm to pick cotton, IF YOU HAVE A CAR and can get there. If you're like me and don't, you're pretty much screwed. Or you can take a taxi. My driver is very nice--I've employed him for years for the occasional outing--email if you'd like his number. I "rent" him about once a month to go to Jenny Lou's and Ikea and the like-- so much easier doing one big shop than scurrying about town with a lump of cheese wilting in my Coach bag.

You can also get frozen Leander's Bagels and the like at City Shop--if you can afford the prices. (I first need a foot massage to give me the courage to shop there.) And yes, there is Ikea, where you can get your household goods. Ikea delivers, by the way, and they assemble too, very important if, like me, your tiny hands were never meant to hold a hammer. Just take the goods you've paid for to the "Delivery counter" and talk to the nice man there. ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION, INCLUDING ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER, WITH YOU. Much easier to show a piece of paper than to stammer, "Uh, my address, my, uh, dizhi, is uh, a university for money, uh, a Daxue for uh, economics, I mean qian...) There's also Metro,not the subway line but the store in Haidian district. Metro is sacred, as they have big bunches of everything--a mini-Costco--and at very good prices.

Book lovers--there is the Bookworm, the Foreign Language Bookstore (check out the bulk of foreign books, including kids' books, on the third floor) and Amazon, which, bless their hearts, delivers. Sadly, the days of M class mail are gone--you could mail yourself a bunch of books from the US for roughly a buck a pound---but there must be other ways to send. Surface mail? Must find out.

A note: Lands' End has all your cold weather needs, they ship to China, and they are extremely polite about any screw ups. Missing shipment? They replace it, for free, ONCE. They're on line.

Usually, if a package has a value of over 50 bucks it goes to Customs, who will email you if they have an email address or call you if they have your phone number. The person contacting you may or may not speak English. They try to call you,in my experience, ONCE. Too bad if you don't understand the call. Basically, if your package hasn't shown up, ask a Chinese-speaking friend to call Customs. It's usually there. You will have to sign a form in Chinese which is basically an apology note (I'm sorry I imported something instead of buying it locally) and show ID--passport, please--and they will hand it over. There is a time limit on how long they hold the package before "destroying it" as unclaimed. Be nice to the people there--once they know you, they are especially efficient and helpful to deal with. Note the careful wording of "once they know you." Don't go in high-handed and arrogant shouting about your rights. This is not good manners and is not effective in the US or Canada, either.

So, what to bring? If you have wide feet or big feet (for women, anything over a seven) bring shoes and socks. Big ass? Your own long underwear and tights. (Although Lands End has good long underwear.) Boobs? Of any size? Bras, unless you want to track down something at the Russian market to fit. Deodorant. (You can get it now at Jenny Lou's but in limited amounts and limited types.) Note: Watson's Sundries and Drug Store sells deodorants such as Fa but they don't work for most foreigners. Cosmetics: these are REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE in China--a Wet and Wild lipstick can set you back ten US dollars. Imagine the price of Creme de la Mer (about 300 bucks for a 125 buck jar) or Estee Lauder. You can get everything at Sephora, but the clerks are bitches and they have insisted on typing my name into the system as something ridiculous like czaxen boobsre and refuse to acknowledge that I might know the spelling on my own damn name. Sephora is not the only place where the clerks are bitches--most of them are. Stores are overstaffed with so many sales staff that it's sometimes impossible to get into the aisle to pick up the item you want. There will be, however, a shortage of clerks to ring up your purchases. (Watsons, I'm looking at you!)

Prescription medicine is ridiculously cheap there--the heart pills my Dad takes run 20 bucks a month there as opposed to about 600 here--and they're THE SAME BRAND, SAME MANUFACTURER, SAME PLACE OF ORIGIN. (Michael Moore, darlin', get your heinie to China.) Be prepared for this: in many big shops, such as Carrefour, you might show the clerk what you want to buy--she'll write a ticket for it--you take it to a cashier and pay for it--then come back to the clerk, show your three receipts, and finally get the item--then move on to the next aisle. Thus shopping can take ages. In smaller shops, you will be shadowed by a clerk who frantically grabs products out of your hands, throws them into a basket s/he insists on carrying, and you STILL have to take those receipts to the cashier--pay--then hand over a copy of the receipt number two to the clerk before receiving your goods. This is being phased out slowly, but it's still there, even in Beijing.

Expect this: personal comments from fellow shoppers, cashiers, and sales staff of the most lurid nature, namely comments on the quality and quantity of what you're buying--on the size of your ass--on the outfit you're wearing--on what your salary might be--your hair color and texture--the person you're shopping with--the nature and quality of that relationship... Twenty years ago these comments ranged from wondering/fawning/slightly hostile/curious but now they are mostly scornful. It's a trade-off: my blue eyes no longer make small children cry, but they no longer crowd around me hopefully shouting, "Hello, what is your name?"

This is Beijing-centric, and I know that. Major cities have major markets--Hypermarkets, they're called, but if you're in the sticks, baby, you are on your own. While I travel frequently to smaller cities I'm not there long enough to shop.