Today…at this hour to be too exact…marks my first week in Jiujiang. This has been a remarkable week! There are so many things I was not prepared for and so many other things I was over prepared for. Before I get too far into today I’ll let you know now that the days leading to today will be added as I find time to flesh out the details of those first days exposure. At first, these posts will be filled with prep work about what I am doing to make sure you can enjoy the blog and maybe even be able to take something away from reading my notes.
If you are planning to travel here, work here, live here…any of these reasons are good enough for me to try very hard to write explicit accounts of my life and what I have come across since my arrival.
Today I spent much of the day reading news from the states, editing photographs, and developing the first newsletter to friends and family. In the afternoon I traveled into the city with my student tour guide – Huang Xiao Kui. She is a volunteer assistant in the international department at the university that helps foreign teachers and students negotiate daily living needs such as banking, shopping, and learning more about the city. OK, the last isn’t a need so much as an interest but are we going to split hairs on this one? We went into the city to get a SIM card for my new mobile [cell phone] which, after arriving at the China Mobile store, we realized could have been purchased on campus. Oops! Well, it was a simple mistake and one that I didn’t mind having happen because I got a great new feature photograph and another trip to city central [shi zhong xin].
A good thing to know…
The Chinese have a unique cell phone system that relies heavily on the SIM card. Unlike the US, where mobile services sell you rate plans attached to a phone they provide either free or for a fee, in China the phone you purchase is not locked and therefore can be used by any of the service providers you choose. That sounds great right? If it were the US this phone could be used with a SIM card from T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon…you get the idea. Here there are TWO service providers – China Mobile [which is a GSM service that covers anywhere in China with a signal] and China telecom [which only provides service in Jiujiang]. Even with the limitation of only two providers, the chance to own ANY phone you like and use it with either SIM card is a great deal, but it gets better! A small number of phones here are designed to house TWO SIM cards! With this type of phone you can have the lesser expensive but range limited China telecom and when you travel out of the area with the push of a button you switch to the China Mobile GSM SIM card. Buy either service or both minute by minute. The SIM cards here do not work on a monthly plan like in the US. Here you add money [time] to the card when the card is empty [or out of minutes]. For most people the card costs about 10Y [yuan] and you put additional money on the card to use the service. China telecom is mobile-to-mobile free . If you are a student [or a university teacher] check out deals the first week of classes where both providers will feature very good deals on rates – new SIM card and 300-500Y in minutes costs 20-50Y.
More to come…
I’m still working on the Picasa albums and some background information to fill in since last Thursday. It will be up soon. A new flyer will be ready for next time.
Thank you for visiting…
CS
