As Bruno Mars once said, “Today I don’t feel like doing anything.” We all have those lazy days when we do absolutely nothing but stare at our phones, hoping that the black hole of technology will swallow us up and never let go. And yes, using WeChat to pass the time has become overrated. Nevertheless, after some intense digging into the lives of Beijing’s teens, these are the top apps we use to practice procrastination at its finest.

开心消消乐 aka the Chinese Candy Crush

This is a classic elimination game in which players knock out rows of three or more animals of the same color by connecting them in a straight line. There are four templates for the game: score clearance, specified elimination, golden pods, and cloud levels. There are also special tools such as bombs and firecrackers that can eliminate larger groups of animals. With endless levels, weekly and monthly competitions, and special themes for specific holidays (like Christmas and Valentine’s Day), this crazy addictive game is the perfect way to kill time.

Wordscapes

Unlike classic word-based games, Wordscapes is the perfect fit for fans of crossword, word connect, and word anagram challenges. It combines the best of all of them, making it the ideal choice for any logophile. What’s more, there’s also a seemingly endless amount of levels set in gorgeous landscapes and a progress tracker. Competitions kick off at the start of each season, and you can even form a team with your friends and compete with other anagram fanatics around the world!

快看漫画 aka the Chinese Webtoon

With an extensive library of comics to scroll through, KuaiKan is the perfect app for avid readers. It has comics in English, Chinese, Korean, and even Japanese covering a variety of genres including Chinese dynasty comics, idol drama comics, youth comics, and even mythological comics. It’s worth noting that some comics and authors require a KuaiKan membership that runs RMB 15 per month, however, most of the mangas are free. Lastly, the platform has a floating comments feature that allows you to see what your fellow manga addicts are saying about the story. Just watch out for spoilers!

Taobao

Window shopping definitely applies to e-commerce as well, as teens are known to spend a large chunk of their 24 hour day simply scrolling through stores on Taobao. With a variety of retailers, items, and products, Taobao is super user-friendly and is fantastic at recommending products tailored to the items you have in your shopping cart. Whether you’re a video gamer, fashionista, or aspiring visual artist, there’s a world of stores on Taobao to suit your cravings. Even if you don’t end up buying everything in your cart, you’ll manage to snatch up something super-cute and super cheap!

Sudoku

Despite the fact that this is an age-old Japanese logic-based math game, its popularity endures across generations. Sudoku puzzles consist of a grid with nine squares subdivided into a further nine squares, with the numerals 1-9 appearing once in each horizontal line, vertical line, and square. It’s then up to the player to insert numbers one to nine to complete the puzzle. If you’re someone who falls hard for numerical challenges, Sudoku is a must-try. And no, this game is not just for nerds. After a few rounds, you’ll get the hang of it and before you know it, you’ll be playing religiously.

What’s your favorite way to procrastinate? Let us know in the comments!

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Images: Pexels, Baidu Baike Images

On Feb 2, The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that students are not allowed to carry cell phones into local Beijing primary and elementary schools, in order to protect against internet addiction and promote the physical and mental health of students. If a phone is required for a practical reason, the parent must acquire written permission from the school. Even if permission is granted, the phone will not be allowed to stay with the student during class time, according to the new policy. Additional requirements are for schools to install public phones and also decrease the amount of homework given to older students on their phones.

These regulations come two years after laws that limit online gaming time for children and excessive homework time for younger grades, a move specifically implemented to decrease eyesight problems in children such as nearsightedness and myopia, thought to be caused by excessive screentime. Phones in the classroom have been a hot topic around the world since a cell phone became as normal to teens’ lives as rebellion and standardized testing, but is often left up to each school to decide their own rules. As it stands now, this new policy only applies to local schools and not international private institutions.

According to the MOE announcement, if students bring their phones to school then they must give them to teachers who will keep them in lockboxes. But how does that work in practice? Jennifer Sachs, Administrative Principal of Hyde Academy which teaches Grades 1-12, says they’ve implemented a policy like this for the last five years. “If they absolutely need to use their phone for a specific purpose,” she explained to beijingkids, “they may ask for permission. Otherwise, they are dropped off at 8.30am and picked up when they leave the school.”

Sachs says the key is “to help students develop habits that do not require phones or other electronics. Now we find that students read, chat, play cards, play chess, and of course, go outside when the weather is good. This is really only an issue during break times as they are quite busy the rest of the time!”

Hyde Academy has found the practice very effective but Sachs admits it might be difficult for schools to transition to such a change right away. Even now, “If students are found with a phone at any point during the day, it is put into the locked box [that each homeroom teacher had], and any staff member (teacher or support staff) have a right to do this. Generally, our students are very aware of the policy now and do not try to ‘cheat’ the system.”

What do you think about the policy? Do you use a phone to communicate with your child(ren) when they’re in school? Will it matter if you can’t talk to them during the school day? Would you support the policy if it comes to your school? Sound off in the comments below!

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Photos: Jonathan Tsao, Canva

When I first landed in China this July, I was in disaster mode. When preparing to come to China for my previous stay in Beijing, my research showed that my phone would be unlocked and ready for use with a Chinese SIM. Though this should have still been true this past July, it was far from the reality of my situation. When I landed not only was my phone not ready to use with a Chinese SIM card, I ended up returning to the store three times before the gates of tech paradise opened and allowed Uncle Xi’s censored data to flow through to my phone.

In an attempt to both bring meaning to my suffering and hopefully help a lost soul, here is my quick guide to problem solving phone issues for Verizon travelers in China. (Note: this guide is for post-2013 Verizon Samsung Galaxy LTE Smartphones. The process might work for others, but this blog is structured for mine and other shabby Galaxy S4 phones).

Problem 1: If your phone does not allow you to use data when a Chinese SIM is initially inserted.
Verizon users should use China Unicom. It provides Verizon LTE users with 3G-4G data speeds while the other two providers cap at 3G (when I tried China Mobile it only allowed me on the E network….E!). If your phone does not allow you to use the data when you’re using a Unicom SIM that has data on it, your phone may not be on the right mobile network. How do you fix this?

1. Insert the SIM, turn on your phone, and go to ‘Settings’
    a. Note: You must have a SIM in your phone to be able to access the ‘Mobile Networks,’ which you will need to use to complete this step.
    b. Be Advised: When figuring out how to use your phone in China, always use another Unicom’s
user’s SIM to test that the steps work before buying a SIM. Representatives at the Unicom store will usually let you use their SIM cards to test your phone’s capabilities.

2. Once you’re in ‘Settings’ go to ‘More Networks’ and then ‘Mobile Networks’

3. Click on ‘Network Mode’

4. Set your ‘Network Mode’ to ‘LTE/GMS/UMTS’ – this allows your phone to work on the same wireless standard as your desired carrier (in this case Unicom)
    a. Since I’ve been here, my phone has changed to ‘Global Mode’ on its own and is working perfectly
fine so it may be that either works

Problem 2: If you changed your Network Mode but still can’t use data.
At this point in your life, after attempting to achieve phone stability and failing, you might be feeling like the Universe’s guinea pig. I definitely did. But, determined not to buy a new phone, I scoured the internet for answers. After another half a day of searching the internet I stumbled across Access Point Names (APN). A phone’s APN basically creates a wireless antenna that allows your phone to pick up a mobile carrier’s mobile and internet networks. So, to the good stuff:

1. Just as in the previous scenario, insert a Unicom SIM that has data on it and go to your phone’s ‘Mobile Networks’

2. Once in ‘Mobile Networks’, choose ‘Access Point Names’ and click on the ‘+’ to add a new APN

3. Each carrier has a different APN, but Unicom’s APN for Samsung Galaxy LTE phones is shown below (The APN can be found here. If you have another type of phone, you can also search your APN settings on here as well).

4. Enter the information exactly as shown. Every period, space, capitalization, etc. should be entered exactly as it is shown. The places that say ‘Not Set’ you should simply leave blank.

5. After adding your APN, make sure that your Network Mode is on LTE/GMS/UMTS and that you’ve selected your newly added APN

6. At this point, your phone should be working!
    a. Note: You may need to restart your phone after changing your Network Mode and selecting your newly added APN before everything works accordingly.

If your phone is still not working after these steps, you will most likely need to buy a new phone. But on the bright side, at least you know the Universe is paying attention.

Last week’s announcement by a Swiss-Scandinavian group of researchers in America’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute downplaying the risk for small children of developing brain tumors from cell phone radiation certainly sounds reassuring, but serious questions still linger:

For one, the study didn’t take into account the latency (that is, the amount of time between exposure and cancer diagnosis) in any potential cases of cell-phone induced cancer, secondly, according to webmd.com, the group itself was "supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and the Swiss National Science Foundation, as well as the Swiss Research Foundation on Mobile Communication, which counts several European communications companies among its founders and supporters." And thirdly, it seems that the time-frame used in the study was based on the time of ownership of cellphones, rather than actual hours spent each day by the kids on their cellphones.

The Huffington Post has a follow-up report raising many of these same issues:

"It’s ridiculous to think that because you didn’t find a significant increase in brain cancer among kids that now cell phones are safe," [says Devra Davis, president and founder of the consumer advocacy group Environmental Health Trust]. She likened the study to looking at 16-year-olds who smoked as children to see if they had lung cancer. “You’d find nothing,” she said. Dr. Keith Black, a brain tumor expert at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, agreed. "It usually takes decades of exposure for a person to be at an increased cancer risk," he told The Huffington Post, adding that the extent of the exposure observed in the study was extremely small. "It’s interesting that most of the studies that have shown a correlation between brain cancer and cell phone use have tended to look at long-term exposure — at least 10 years — and at higher doses such as using a cell phone for 60 minutes or more each day," said Dr. Black. "Studies that have tended to not find a link looked at short-term use — maybe an hour or so a month."

Perhaps some equally important questions to consider was how a study conducted under these conditions (particularly one so blatantly funded by the cell phone industry) could have come out in the journal in the first place and in what ways certain media organizations might have initially misconstrued the results. See more on this topic on The Atlantic here.

Faulty research aside, I’m still really, really tempted to give my daughter a cellphone when she comes of age (basically as soon as she’s old enough to walk outside unsupervised) – which makes me the target market for phone-makers like Firefly, a company that manufactures and sells cellphones for small children (and their overprotective parents).

Nevertheless, giving a small child their own phone has its downsides – ranging from the potential for out-of-control phone bills and any long-term psychological effects on both child and parent(s) to the still-undetermined threat of radiation poisoning from holding a handset to one’s head for prolonged periods of time. Indeed, it would seem rather disconcerting to see a six-year-old walking around our living and jabbering away into a real handset (as opposed to the pink, toy cell phone with which my three-and-a-half-year-old is so fond of imitating her mother’s phone conversations).

So the question remains – how young is too young for a child to receive a cell phone? What do you think? You can share your thoughts here.

Kara Chin contributed to this post.