Instead, we ended up going a bit further to YunMengShan (云蒙山) for a brief hike up the valley. Unfortunately yet another Chinese style country park (i.e. buy ticket, not wild paths) it was nonetheless quite pleasant considering. There were no camels waiting for posers, nor old ladies selling souvenirs. There was a drinks station – but beyond that, the zip-line, and the other people (not too many, mind) it was actually a nice walk through fairly natural paths with running streams and watering holes nearby (note: water still very cold in mid-June). Entrance tickets currently ¥35 RMB.

To get there, or the closed ZiYunShan which is en-route, one can take the 936 bus directly from the old bus terminus at DōngZhíMén (东直门长途车站) – but be prepared for a slow journey and you might have to change to another 936 mid-route. Faster would be to take 916 from the new DōngZhíMén terminus, getting off at NánHǔaShìChǎng (怀柔南华市场) in HuaiRou, then switching to the 916 WàiHuán (外环) for a few stop hop to YúJiāYuán (于家园) where you can catch the 936 destined for TāngHéKǒu (汤河口). Sounds complicated, but it’s quicker. If you can’t be bothered – once getting off the 916 initially initially in HuaiRou, you will no doubt be stalked by black cab drivers. Make sure you haggle. Returning to Beijing, beware the last 916 bus departs HuaiRou at 7pm sharp.

Long distance busses in China often share the same number – as is the case above. Make sure you get the right one. Yes it’s stupid, but that’s just how it is.

A final note: whilst YunMengShan is actually in MìYǔn County it’s closer and more convenient to access from HuaiRou.

In a recent trip through Changsha in Hunan Province (湖南长沙) I stumbled across this shop, only some few hundred metres away from the Clio Coddle itself. I didn’t see a Crocodile or Lacoste in the vicinity however. I suppose by now i’m hardly surprised, though it does amaze me how shoppers can fall for such blatant rip offs unless, that is, they don’t care about branding at all – in which case what’s the point to copy? I do wonder.

The english (NuoManDiEYu) is basically Chinese pinyin for “The Romantic Crocodile” (诺曼的鳄鱼). Notice the logo is also a crocodile, pointing in the same direction as that of Clio Coddle’s.

Not far from NuoManDiEYu I noticed Kobbo. Looks disturbingly similar to Italian clothing company Kappa, which had an official store only some 50 metres away. Kappa, who also own the Robe di Kappa brand, were a little known brand in China until brought into China in 2006 by the China Dongxiang Group. Now listed on the stock exchange, owner Chen Yihong is now amongst the 50 richest men in China.

I don’t suppose Kobbo would ever get that far.

Changsha South Station is some 25mins from the city centre

Bridging half the gap between bustling Guangzhou in the South and capital Beijing in the North, the WuGuang Passenger Railway (武广客运专线) now brings some serious competition to air travel.

My journey started in Changsha (长沙), capital of Hunan Province (湖南省). The station was 20km and ¥50RMB away by taxi from the city centre: no subway yet or convenient bus. It seemed far. Somewhat a magnificent structure (though frankly just a carbon copy of what appears to be standard design for most high speed stations in China like Beijing South and Tianjin), the ticket machines are still cash only and (unlike Beijing South) there were no shops for last minute snacks or a pre-departure coffee.

The train interiors were nice, but not that exciting

An army of cleaners appear from nowhere immediately upon arrival

At prices similar to a discounted air ticket it’s perhaps all not worth it at the moment. However once everything is in place, including proper connections within the cities, I can see the high speed rail networks becoming a viable alternative to domestic air travel.

Further to my previous post on Apple Mac alipay / taobao support, it turns out there is now a way to make online purchases in China using a Macintosh computer. Using China Merchants Bank and a WAP enabled mobile phone, it’s possible to action a payment without the need for browser restrictions or installing pointless plugins.

Prerequisites:

1. You will need an account with China Merchants Bank and have activated online banking. Unfortunately there is currently no English version. Furthermore you must have a mobile phone number registered, activated online payments, and raised your payment limit beyond zero.
2. GPRS / WAP activated mobile phone. Through the payment process, you will be sent an SMS containing a link. Click through to confirm your purchase with your PIN code on the resulting webpage opened on your phone.

Procedure:

1. At checkout, you will have a selection of banks to choose from. In some cases, you may need to first select payment gateway. Pictured is Alipay’s (支付宝) bank selection page. If shopping outside of Taobao, selection of payment gateway will usually result in a new window redirected to the payment gateway. Of course, you must select Merchant’s Bank here followed by, in this case, the big yellow button below.
2. Typically a second page by the payment gateway will simply confirm your bank choice. If no problems, click to proceed.
3. You should then be redirected to China Merchants Bank payment screen. Note the third tab on the right (手机支付) – this does not require any plugins, and therefore works on the Mac. If you are already registered for this service, choose between Credit (信用卡) or Debit card (一卡通), enter your registered cellphone number (手机号码), the last four digits of your card (卡号后四位) and finally the code displayed on that page. 确定 to submit.
4. You will receive an SMS with a URL. Click through to access payment screen on your mobile – this should work both with a smartphone browser, and WAP. You will need to enter your online payment PIN (支付密码) and captcha shown (验证码). Upon confirming, payment will be completed if there are no problems. Look for the words 支付成功.

Realistically, this is still too complicated if you don’t read any Chinese. However, for existing online banking users who wish to pay using a Mac: once setup, this should be a breeze.

To adjust your online payment limit, login to Merchants Bank Online Banking (on a Windows PC, unfortunately) then find “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付额度管理”. Here you can enter a new limit.

Your mobile number record can be found at “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付联系信息修改”

If you have not yet registered for Merchants Bank Online Banking, you must do so at any bank branch.

在中国大陆的苹果用户现在终于有途径进行网上购物啦！所有招行用户如开通了一卡通手机支付功能可通过手机验证确认支付。流程简单：只需先选用招行支付，然后在招行弹出的窗口内点击手机支付。最后把您注册的手机号输入，加上招卡后四位和显示的验证码输入提交就可进行手机支付，苹果电脑无需要安装任何插件。当你手机收到招行短信后点击短信内的连接，再通过手机输入注册的支付密码确认支付。

虽然此方式不能全算是苹果电脑支持，但起码大陆苹果用户终于有途径支付了。

注意：使用手机支付必需提前开通网上支付功能并调好足够的支付额度。招行专业版支付额度和一卡通额度是分开的，你可通过招行网银“网上支付”目录找出“一卡通支付额度管理”调整额度。

如需修改注册手机号可点击 “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付联系信息修改” 调整

详细流程可参考本博客英文文章。

This is of course nothing new: original plans were initiated in 2006 by China’s Ministry of Railways with 2008 seeing the opening of the dedicated high speed link from Beijing (北京) to Tianjin (天津). In December 2009 the link from Guangzhou (广东广州) in the south began whizzing passengers to Wuhan (湖北武汉) and back at average speeds of 312km/h – currently the fastest long distance rail line in the world.

In fact, several similar high speed lines are now in operation with more coming, in addition to many semi-high speed (250km/h) railways. Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the China high speed rail situation.

What caught my eyes are the ambitious plans to extend high speed rail travel to Europe: at just over 8,100km that comes to a little over 24 hours, though of course straight line is not possible. It’s a hugely ambitious plan, not least because of differences in track gauge (both S.E. Asia below China & Russia / Far-Eastern Europe to the West are on different gauges), but financing, planning permission, and operation logistics are all issues to be resolved. And then there’s visa’s.

China is already in discussion with 17 nations regarding this very issue, having reportedly already reaching basic agreements with Myanmar and Russia, the former to be funded by China in exchange for vital resources. There’s much debate over the imperialistic tendencies of China here with its ever-increasing dominance in Asia – but there’s no arguing that such a railway connection would provide a huge boost in logistic capability for all involved.

I’m more interested to see how this pans out in Europe. Just yesterday the UK Government announced a high speed link from London to Birmingham, stretching eventually to Manchester and Leeds. With construction slated to begin in 2017 and considering that it took eight years to obtain planning permission for Heathrow’s T5, that’s a huge contrast to China which is aiming for 10,000km of track by 2015. I can’t condone forced evictions nor balk at due process, but sometimes it takes a powerful government to think big and actually achieve something.

I hope China pushes hard with this. It won’t be easy.

Apple users in China have long been treated as second class citizens when it comes to surfing the web. Quite simply, many sites just don’t work well. Often one is confronted with buttons that don’t click, pictures that are misaligned, or login boxes that don’t allow you to login. Alipay (支付宝) and Taobao (淘宝网), China’s biggest online payment platform and auction site respectively have long required special Active X / Javascript plugins to work properly – typically these are released exclusively for Internet Explorer only. Now, however, it’s possible to download a Mac version of this plugin.

Note: This only works on Safari at present.

Upon entering Alipay or Taobao, you should notice a link (请点此输入密码) in lieu of the password prompt at the login form. Click this link, and you will get an inline popup. If you do not see a link but are able to enter your password in the form, you might have already installed the plugin or Alipay might have finally come to their senses!

Otherwise, now click the button (立即安装) to download the plugin.

The plugin will work for both Alipay and Taobao sites (they are both same company), though may require a restart of your safari browser first.

That Apple users are finally gaining some recognition in China is excellent news, though there’s still a long way to go. Unfortunately even after your purchase on Taobao you will be faced with a payment problem as most online banking platforms are not Apple compatible. Nonetheless it’s a good beginning, and at least payment is still possible via pre-deposit into Alipay or through other methods such as mobile phone topup card.

Lots of PRC flags on display throughout Tibet

I put this issue to my guide: apparently some Tibetans have been harassed in the past for not being patriotic enough. So there you have it – the secret to a harmonious society: coercion and forced patriotism.

Surely the local party chiefs can’t be this stubborn?

This is alongside updated pricing plans (linked tariff for non-iPhone users), promising greater data quota’s than previous packages and China Mobile’s current offerings. The higher the service plan used, the cheaper the iPhone is sold for. This offer requires a 24 month service commitment.

Details of pricing and service plans available on China Unicom Online Store (or in English via Google Translate). There are slight differences over the standard packages, notably increased data quota and free SMS bundles.

Note: Chinese iPhones have WiFi disabled, but are not carrier locked. For a full featured unlocked phone, consider purchasing from Apple Store Hong Kong. Or wait for a WAPI/WiFi release in China.

Some basic background: due to foreign currency restrictions in China there is no free flow of currency in or out of China. Each person has a USD$50,000 limit they can use annually for purchase/sale of foreign currency. Therefore, purchase of USD would generally require registration with SAFE (国家外汇管理局). Many credit cards issued in China have statements separated into RMB and a foreign currency (usually USD) – all foreign purchases are converted and invoiced here. The “foreign” portion of the card works like any credit card overseas.

Typically, my credit card is repaid through direct debit. Once setup, I need do nothing apart from ensuring I have sufficient funds monthly, and both “accounts” (RMB and USD) are repaid automatically. USD repayments here fall outside of the USD$50K annual limit. Apparently telephone instruction are also outside of the limit. Going in person to the bank, however, requires you to carry out the foreign currency purchase procedure – which is troublesome and uses your quota.

- all for a matter of US$20, in my case.

This inconsistency appears to be a fault in logic for me. Despite the forex restrictions in place, there are so many ways to escape it – purchases abroad and repayment through direct debit being one. ATM withdrawal using foreign card is another. For those looking to get larger amounts of RMB into China, you can consider an RMB account in Hong Kong: you can purchase 20,000RMB daily and transfer 80,000RMB per batch to China with scrutiny. Then of course, there’s the underground banks – extremely fast and efficient.

While on the topic of banking restrictions… why can I replace a passbook in any BOC branch but to replace ATM card I must return to the opening branch? why, why?

They really don’t like to make things easy here.