Well hello or should I say Ni men hao! Yeah I'm learning Chinese as it's a must to get around and by stuff like food in China. So I'm sitting in my apartment (yes residential apartment not hotel room) in Beijing while the rest of the group is climbing the Great Wall. I am in Beijing, China but won't go to the Great Wall or the Forbidden City... why? No money!
I found out =or I should say my boss gave me permission to go to the conference held in Wuhan, China on a Thursday at 6:30 pm when the flight was leaving at 6 am the following day (Friday). Now, I left lab/work around 7 to pack and get breakfast (had not slept in 3 full days because I had to write a manuscript for publication). Now this sucks because I've been in China without any money. The other people in my trip all have cash and can exchange but not me...
ATM? nope, my bank decided to cancel all my cards and send me new ones because someone stole the numbers from all the bank members or something like that. But somehow I never received new ATM debit cards. So I've been without a bank card for over a month and I need to withdraw money directly form the bank. I have a VISA but they won't let me do cash advance at the hotel or banks here. This is so stupid!
Sorry I needed to vent my frustration. I'm wasting my time here, without money so I can't even go out to lunch which will be around 20-50 CNY so close to 2-3 USD.
Regardless, here's my greetings from China to all of you at MoFo. I'll be home by Friday hopefully. Have a good day (or night).
D: @ Aggie. Do you need someone to wire you money or something?
either way, Hope you have fun out there 
Wire money? I'm trying to figure out how to get an advancement on my visa but my Chinese isn't that good 
I'm gonna head out to walk around after I post some pics.
You're a Westerner in China, accessing your computer while talking about your own personal bank accounts and money?
Bad move. They're probably hacking into your brain right now.
Either way, yeah, good luck and all that. Nothing sucks more than being stuck in a strange place with absolutely no one to turn to. Blech.
Aw hell, sucks to be in a fantastic new country and have no money to enjoy it proper. If I ever visit Europe I'll be sure to win the lottery first.
I'm a little confused. Didn't you bring any actual currency with you or did you decide to use only credit cards for that trip?
Ah, China. The land from which Chun-Li hails.
Win.
I'm a little confused. Didn't you bring any actual currency with you or did you decide to use only credit cards for that trip?
I found out about the trip at 6:30 pm on Thursday and the flight left at 6 am the next day. I have a student visa that allows me to travel to China and my boss has good connections because of some program we have with the Chinese government. So traveling last minute is nothing new to my boss. Anyhow, all I had in cash was $200 that my mom had sent me form home so I could buy something. I had no time to go to the bank since it closes at 5:00 and my ATM card hasn't worked in a month 'cause my bank is stupid. So yeah, last minute trip and there you go.
BTW, I'm back home from China and the first thing I did was get Taco Bell... I missed food and my bed oh and the non-squatty toilets! Glad to be home...
I missed food and my bed oh and the non-squatty toilets! Glad to be home...
I came across squatty toilets in India. 
sitting toilets > squatting toilets
