Good luck!

There are several different fake markets in Beijing. (Silk Market, Yashow market, Pearl market, Zoo market etc.) I’ll be discussing just two of them, as these are the most popular and known in Beijing. Let’s start with the most popular one;

Fake market’s: The Silk Market and the Yashow market

The Silk Market is situated near Xiushui east street in the Chaoyang district. At the moment there are over 400 stalls and about 1000 employees (so you can imagine how big it is). Right, enough with the facts, lets get to business.

Getting there

The Silk Market

If you want to go to the silk market you can get there in several different ways. If you want to go there by taxi, you can simply tell the driver to go to Xiushui (pronounced: Shoeshway). Usually they will know that this means you want to go to the Silk Market, so they will drop you off there or nearby. If they don’t understand you can also name the subway station that is situated next to the silk market: Yonganli station (pronounced the same in english, but station in Chinese is: Zhan). This subway station is situated right beside (or below) the silk market.

So if you want to go there by subway you should get off at Yonganli. Yonganli is a station on line 1.

The Yashow Market

The Yashow market is located on Gongtibeilu in the Sanlitun district. Going there by taxi you can tell the driver to go to Yashow (pronounced the same in English). He will understand.

If you want to go there by subway, you will also have to walk for 5 – 10 minutes from the subway station. The subway station is called Tuanjiehu station. This station is situated on line 10. If you get out at Tuanjiehu you just need to walk west along Gongtibeilu, past the bar street. On the left hand side you will pass an appartment building called ‘SOHO’ and on the right hand side you will finally see a 5 story building labelled Yashow market.

China’s Train System

China has a very good railroad infrastructure and you can take trains to virtually all of the bigger cities and usually also to smaller second tier cities and towns. China actually has one of the biggest and also busiest railroad networks in the world. Taking the train in China is a safe, cheap and comfortable (depending on the class you are in) way of transport. So which classes are available in Chinese trains?

Soft sleeper

The most expensive, and also most luxurious class that is available is the soft sleeper class. Booking a soft sleeper will grant you a 4 bed compartment (2 upper beds and 2 lower beds) a small table with a tablecloth and even a jug of hot water. The compartments have lockable doors and if you are not travelling with 3 other people, you’ll be sharing the compartment with other travellers. I have travelled through China in a soft sleeper compartment twice (about 10-12 hour trip) and I found the compartment very comfortable.

Hard Sleeper

As the name already says, this class still provides you with a bed, but it’s a bit harder to sleep in these beds. If you have a hard sleeper train ticket you’ll be placed in ‘semi-compartments’ with 6 beds (2 lower, 2 middle and 2 upper beds). These beds are a bitt smaller than the soft sleeper beds and also a bit harder. The compartments do not have a door but you’ll still have a small table available. Everything may sound a little harsh, but the hard sleeper class really isn’t that bad and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t take it. I have travelled through China in a hard sleeper bed twice as well (one 7 hour trip and one other trip, which I will tell you about later on in this article), and both times I slept perfectly fine.

Hard seat & Soft seat

These are the equivalents to the first and second class seats you’ll find in european trains. Even though you might not expect it from the name, the hard seats are usually still padded. Taking this class means that you will be sitting upright for the entire trip, there will be Chinese people sitting on the floor, standing in the walkway (because the train is overbooked) and it will be more busy than the sleeper compartments. I have travelled through China having booked a hard seat once. This was a 30 hour trip from the south of China back to Beijing. Me and my friend had to take the hard seats as these were the only tickets available (I was travelling during Chinese new year, more on the availability of tickets later in this article). Halfway during the trip we decided that we couldn’t last anymore and asked for an upgrade to a Hard sleeper. So the second half of the trip was spent in a bed that felt extremely comfortable after having spent 15 hours in a chair in a busy Chinese train.

If you are in an extreme rush and don’t have time to learn more Chinese, then these would be the phrases you could get the most out of in daily life.

In your first Chinese lesson you will learn 15 basic phrases that will help you get around. Besides that you will also learn to count in Chinese. Counting in Chinese is very simple once you get how it works.

Good luck with your first Chinese lesson!

First you will learn the words that you can use to describe your family as well as the other useful words and after that I will show you a few conversations that you can make with the words that you have learnt so far.

Conversations

Conversation 1

A – Nǐ hǎo ma? (你好吗?) (How are you?)

B – Wǒ hěn hǎo, nǐ ne? (我很好，你呢?) ( I’m very good, and you?)

A – Wǒ yě hěn hǎo. (我也很好.) (I’m very good too.)

B – Nǐ bàba, māma dōu hǎo ma? (你爸爸，妈妈都好吗?) (How are your father and mother?)

A – Tāmen yě dōu hěn hǎo. (他们也都很好.) (They are both doing very good as well.)

Conversation 2

A – Nǐ lèi ma? (你累吗?) (Are you tired?)

B – Wǒ bù lèi (我不累) (I’m not tired.)

So how do you get settled in China?

If you’ve already started working then you will have the opportunity to meet new people at your job. Meeting new people is the first thing you should be doing, as you will have someone to talk to. At first you will probably feel a bit lost, so meeting new people will help you get settled a lot. Since the people that have been there longer (or their entire life) will be able to help you out with any questions you have.

Join the community

But if you haven’t started working yet and haven’t met any people yet then you might feel a bit lonely, irritated and frustrated. You need to be proactive, once you do this you will find that it is extremely easy to meet new people in China and get friends. A tip is to join local communities, whether it’s an expat community, a soccer club, a gym or anything else. Go to a place where people get together on a regular basis. You’ll find that when you join an expat community that there are people who have been through exactly what you are going through. Talking with these people will help you out a lot.

Learn Chinese

If you haven’t yet, start learning Chinese! Speaking Chinese will greatly help you to get settled and will just help you overall. You might have noticed that I keep on mentioning that you should learn Chinese, this is because I think this will do nothing but benefit you, both in the short and the long run. You will approach people a lot faster knowing that you can speak and understand some Chinese.

Try things

When you are walking around outside, or even in your local supermarket, you will find things that you would probably never have found back home. Try new things. Instead of thinking “Ugh, that looks disgusting” just buy it. You might find that it’s the most delicious thing you have ever eaten. Or you might find that is indeed as disgusting as it tasted, but then at least you know you shouldn’t buy that particular product again. Trying new things will introduce you to experiences that help you get settled. Getting into new situations will help you grow into the Chinese mindset. Just going around and doing basic daily things will help you get into the Chinese mindset, so try to get out as much as possible.
Finally, as I’ve said before, try and remember that you are in a different culture and that things in China are probably going to be done differently than you are used to. Just remain open minded and keep that thought in the back of your mind and you will be able to get settled a lot easier.

China is a VERY big country (4th largest country in the world, with the largest population in the world at 1.3 billion), so naturally places and cities in China will be very different from each other. It depends on everyone’s personal preference what kind of city they would want to move to and live in. You might be looking for a big metropolitan city, with a big expat community. Or you might be looking for a rural village, to come to peace and really experience China’s culture. So how do you decide where you should move to in China?

How to decide where to move

First you should decide on what YOU want. This is of course the most important; do you want to live in a big city, where you can still find English speaking people, other expats, western products, and western restaurants? When you are moving to China and you are going to live in a bigger city such as Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen then you will not experience as much of a culture shock as you would when you move to a second tier city in China. However, when you move to a bigger city the cost of living will be higher (still very low compared to Europe and the US). Another thing you might experience is that you will mostly be connecting and networking with the local expat community, or Chinese people who want to be more like foreigners. Of course this isn’t a problem, but if you’d rather not live the expat life in China and you want to really experience China’s culture then it might be a better idea to move to a second tier city or even a more local city.

Smaller cities in China

When you decide to a second tier or even smaller city in China, you will be able to experience more of China’s real culture. The cost of living will be lower, you will find less expats, less people will be able to speak English and you won’t find that many (or any) western products/restaurants. A few examples of second tier cities to move to are Xi’an, Chengdu or Kunming. You’ll find foreigners here too, but a lot less often. Now if you look to even smaller cities, in inner provinces are along the coast line, then you can land up in cities where the people have not had the possibility to connect with foreigners. You can count on getting a lot of stares and curiosity when walking around there. It will be harder to get settled in these smaller cities, as you won’t find that many people that are able to speak English (so you will HAVE to learn Chinese); you will also not find that many western products. So you will end up in a totally different environment.

What do YOU want?

In the end it all depends on what you prefer. Do you want to move to a big city, where you can find people that speak English, where you can find western products if you need them, where you can network with foreigners if you want to? Or do you want to move to a city where you might be the first foreigner a person has ever seen in real life, where you can only get around with speaking Chinese, where you can really experience a different culture.
Think about what you want before making rushed decisions. Why are you moving to China? Answer that question for yourself before deciding where to live in China.

General

Chinese are concerned with being in a business relationship that is based on mutual respect, realism, and flexibility and that can evolve over time.

From a Chinese point of view, if situations change during the course of your business relationship, naturally you’re not going to be bound to the initial agreement. That would be rigid and unrealistic, so they don’t respect that point of view. They believe that if you’re going to be business partners, it’s not about the rule of law, it’s about the relationship.

Know that Chinese are not going to respect you unless you spend some time showing them who you are and who your company is. If you want a real relationship, you need to show them who you are, as an individual.

The Chinese do not separate their personal and professional lives, because it’s “we know where you live” capitalism.

Being in a relationship means sharing more information with them, involving them in product development, giving them better terms, helping them finance their raw materials. If you’re their real partner, and give them what they need to grow their business, they will stick with you, thus expanding your network.

You don’t just need a single person that knows how to do business in China, to successfully do business in China. You need a whole team, it takes a whole network.

When you are exposed to such circumstances it will be very feasible for you to experience what is called a ‘culture shock’. Most of you might already know what that means, but for those of you that don’t: check out this website.

Everyone’s experience of a culture shock might be different, some people might have a very heavy culture shock and some people might not even experience one at all. When you are planning to move to China by yourself, without having found a job or a school to study/teach yet then you might have a harder time to get settled. However if you are being sent to China by your company, or you are doing an exchange with a university in China, or you have found a job already, then it will be a lot easier. Reason for this is that many things will be taken care of for you. The first tip I provide you with is: Preparing to move will greatly help you cope with any potential culture shock.

So how do you prepare to go to China?

When you are planning on moving to China you can do several things to prepare. Preparation for moving into a new culture will greatly help decrease the severity of a culture shock. Depending on the time frame in which you will be moving to China, you might have the possibility to go on a (short) ‘vacation’ there. Having seen and been in the country before moving there will help you prepare significantly. If you have the opportunity to make this ‘vacation’ definitely do that.

Learn Chinese

(or at least start learning Chinese)

This is another very important preparation phase for moving to China. Depending on the city or village you are relocating to, you will find that not a lot of people can speak a sufficient amount of English (of course this is different for some areas in China). Being able to express yourself, ask for help, ask questions, understand when people are asking you questions; doesn’t that sound great? In your usual daily life you are used to being able to express yourself instantly, and ask for help instantly. When you are moving to China, getting settled will go a lot easier if you speak the language.

Guanxi

Guanxi is a cultural term that describes the interpersonal and interorganizational relationships a person has in Chinese society. Guanxi is a relational network which contains mutual obligations, assurances and understanding. Guanxi is a very important aspect of the Chinese business and overall culture, it is therefore very important to understand and be able to utilize guanxi in order to do get good business deals or get ahead of competitors.

Guanxi is deeply embedded in the Chinese culture, with more than 5000 years of history. Guanxi operates with close family members as a core circle, around that there are classmates, relatives, friends, coworkers, relatives and acquaintances. When a certain event happens that the individual isn’t able to solve itself, then the guanxi network will come into action.

It is often said that with doing business in China, success is equally divided into two parts. One part is the actual quality of the product or service, and the other part is the network, also known as guanxi. Reason being; guanxi gives access to information, influence and in the end also financial profit.

We foreigners don’t have a similar term in our business world; we don’t have guanxi, and probably will never have it in our countries. A few key principles for guanxi:

• It is too simple to translate guanxi into relationships.
• Guanxi is personal and not transferable. It’s not possible to hire an employee and have him hand over his guanxi to the company; you need to keep the employee in your workforce if you want to keep making use of his guanxi.
• Guanxi can die out, guanxi is in constant need of regeneration, repair and re-creation, it’s not forever.
• The people your employee or partner knows may not be the best people for the job, but that’s the people they know and thus use.