In our May 2017 Home and Relocation Guide we listed some laws, rights, and scams that every person new to China should know about. Below, we have written up some of the information in greater detail, and have also included some information which didn’t make it into the print edition.

Your Rights
Maternity Leave
Salary
Mothers on maternity leave will receive a maternity leave stipend rather than their usual salary. Chinese mothers will receive a stipend from the Social Security Bureau (SSB). The stipend is calculated by considering the employee’s monthly salary and the average monthly salary of all employees over the last 12 months. The SSB will then pay the higher amount, as long as that amount is no higher than three times the monthly salary in that SSB’s jurisdiction. In some places in China, if the amount is three times the average monthly salary, the stipend must then be paid by the employer. Foreign workers on maternity leave will also be permitted this stipend if they have contributed to maternity leave insurance. Both foreign and Chinese employees that have not contributed to the maternity leave insurance will receive their regular salary.

Scams
Teatime with New ‘Friends’
If a new ‘friend’ approaches you on the street and invites you into a tea house, watch out, because you may leave with a hundred dollars or more missing from your wallet. Often the person that approached you initially works for the tea house and has led you into a scam.

Black Taxis
Beijing streets are teeming with private cars looking to drive unsuspecting persons around. These unlicensed drivers pose as accredited taxi drivers and mark up their fares. These cars are usually operated by private persons and have a red light in the front window, but no taxi cab licensing. The drivers will stop and solicit rides, negotiating prices with those that fall into their snares. However, while there have been stories of successful black cab rides, these drivers have also been known to take their customers miles outside of their destinations, and demand hundreds of dollars before they agree to take their customers back to the city.

Ordering from the ‘Foreigners Menu’
At foreigner-heavy, tourist restaurants, foreigners may be given a different menu than locals that lists higher prices than the ones on the usual menu. To prevent falling into this trap, it may be helpful to look up the average price for meals, or take a Chinese friend with you on your outing.

Overpriced Hotels
At airports, train stations, and other arrival spots, you may be approached by salespeople who will offer you discounted housing arrangements. Often these arrangements can turn out to be shoddy accommodation with abysmal service, for a high (or just not worth it) price.

Scalpers
Scalpers may be lurking in the shadows outside performance halls, hoping to sell fake tickets to unsuspecting tourists. To avoid falling into this ruse, purchase tickets from ticket booths/boxes and reputable online sources only.

Beggars
Often beggars on the street (especially children) may be part of a systematized group of beggars across the city. While it may be hard to look away, it might be better in the long run for you to keep your money. If you spot a child beggar, please take their picture and post it to www.baobeihuijia.com as they may have been kidnapped and forced to beg.

Art Gallery Scam
If a student or someone you just met invites you to an art studio or gallery, it may be a scheme in play! These individuals will claim that they deal in rare Chinese art or that it’s the last day of their art show and then overcharge you for one of their art pieces.

Card Swipers at Secluded Stores
When paying at a store that is out of the way or in a secluded location, try to avoid using a card. Some of these stores have been known to use card swipers in lieu of credit card machines.
Rental Issues
China does not have unified legislation dealing with landlord-tenant relations. The laws that make up this relationship generally vary based on localities. In most cases, Chinese property law favors landlords, but there are still some general rights that renters retain and others that they should be aware of that their landlords retain. It should also be noted that while these may be laws in some places on paper, the actual practice of landlord-tenant relations may be different at times in reality.

Lease Termination
A landlord that wishes to prematurely terminate the lease agreement must pay double the down-payment (usually one month’s rent) and double the security deposit (usually two to three month’s rent). This is roughly eight-months of rent. Tenants that prematurely terminate the lease agreement forfeit both the down-payment and the security deposit.

Subleasing
Subleasing is usually not permitted. The landlord is entitled to three month’s rent if they find the tenant subleasing the apartment without approval.

Late Payments
Tenants can be charged 0.5% each day their rent payments are late. If the renter does not pay their rent 20 days after it is due, the landlord has the right to terminate the contract and retain the security deposit.

Property Removal
Property that is not removed 10 days after the lease expiration date can be disposed of at the discretion of the landlord without compensating the tenant.

One of the most annoying frustrations about life in China when I first moved to Beijing was that electricity needed to be pre-loaded on to our house meter before usage. I understand this is a better control measure than an unending supply that just runs, especially in a city with millions of people who migrate or who want to save money, but inconvenient for many expats, nonetheless.

In the middle of my first winter, the electricity stopped in the middle of the night, and we had no idea what was wrong. Our landlord had initially put electricity on the meter, which we paid her for, but we were clueless about the process of recharging the meter. It’s one of those things that none of your re-settlers know that you don’t know, since they’ve never lived out of China.

I don’t know why we panicked the first time the juice was cut, but we did. We called one of our friends and he got up in the middle of the night to add more money to our meter. As expats from the South in the US, we felt incredibly embarrassed because it’s expected that you “grow up” in our culture. Responsible people can take care of things for themselves, or pull themselves up by “their own bootstraps.” I typically didn’t like to ask for help, and especially not for things I should be able to do on my own.

I was so happy when I learned how to use Alipay to charge money to our electricity, though I did need a friend to help set it up. This prevented almost all further problems not including the instances when the electricity shut off before I had expected, and then in turn shut down our router and Internet. Since I didn’t have data on my phone at the time, I had to ride my bike to school to use the Internet.

I became obsessed with making sure our electricity was always charged – even getting up in the middle of the night due to anxiety. I didn’t want to be stuck with the electricity off during a time when the neighborhood electricity office was also closed.

After we moved to a different apartment, I continued to utilize Alipay to pay for our electricity. I was really proud of myself for noticing one night that we only had RMB 300 and that I needed to put on enough for the next season. We had a big apartment and guests over often, so I guessed RMB 2,000 would be more than enough to last us for a while.

I added the RMB 2,000 to my account and had put it out of my mind until one night the electricity cut off in the middle of the night. Our guests at the time woke up along with us, and I set up a WIFI hotspot using their phone since I still didn’t have data (I finally do, by the way). I added another RMB 2,000, in a bit of shock that it ran out so fast, and went back to sleep since sometimes the system takes a while to adjust.

When I woke up, the electricity still hadn’t been adjusted. I felt sick to my stomach that so much money had somehow not ended up on our meter.

After some investigation, I remembered I had to make a separate house account on Alipay to pay for my new apartment’s electricity since it was not as easy as simply removing our old apartment from the account.

Our friends stepped in and immediately contacted the electricity company to see what could be done. Essentially, nothing. The money was already charged to the account, and they would need permission from the owners of the meter to take money off.

Our friends then called our landlord, who we thought would be reasonable, as we had separated on peaceful terms. Surprisingly, her response was that it was our fault, and that it’s major trouble for her to give us this money back, but we could go ask the people in the apartment.

Our friends took my husband and went back to the old apartment. No one answered, and we were never able to get in contact with them.

Finally, a bold friend called the electricity company. The woman at the electricity company told us every time she had ever contacted the owners of meters in this sort of case, the party who had come into the money unfairly would usually return the money. They completely understood. The mobile apps are convenient, but accidents happen. She was shocked to hear our landlord refused.

Our bold friend then contacted a lawyer. The lawyer told us that with a fapiao from the electricity company and clearly establishing that this was a former landlord, we should sue the landlord since there was no reason for her to keep this large amount of money from us.

At the pinnacle of the conflict, my bold friend told her he was going to sue her in our name, and she yelled back, “You’ll never get a cent out of me!”

Our circle of friends, all Chinese, were absolutely furious to hear that this was happening in their country and felt that such injustices were not acceptable. They said they thought instances like these contributed to the reason “everyone” dislikes landlords. They called her crooked and a shame. I was just embarrassed and wanted to hide in a hole. If only I had humbled myself to have someone help me with the Alipay, this never would have happened.

Since the old apartment contract was in my husband’s name, he had to go through the process of appearing in court, which was kind of like a bank with judges sitting behind windows. Those with complaints or small cases would take a number and then wait their turn to explain the problem.

The judge who saw my husband and friend said it was a simple case. The landlord clearly needed to return the money. Eventually the judge required her to come in person and then required her to pay for both the accidentally added money and then an additional RMB 2,000 as part of the settlement. She went on a payment plan, which is hilarious, considering she was very wealthy with a mansion in the north.

My misconception of a lawless, scam-filled China was corrected. Admittedly we succeeded because we had awesome Chinese friends willing to bear with us through the process. Of course, there was also the fapiao to prove that it was actually our money, and our landlord couldn’t prove we owed her money (since we didn’t). If anything this process made me realize if I wanted to be self-sufficient in China, I would need to learn to read the language, not just fumble through speaking it.

Photo: Flickr

More stories by this author here.
Email: vanessajencks@truerun.com
Twitter: @vanessa_jencks
WeChat: vanessajencks

Often on social media, especially on WeChat Moments and group chats, we’ll see “missing persons reports.” We are encouraged to share them in every group we know and ask our friends if so-and-so foreign national or child has been sighted anywhere.  Even though we’re in Beijing, sometimes we’re asked about residents of Shenzhen or Shanghai, and many ads will continue to circulate even after the person is found. Clearly, there must be a better way.

We’re not discouraging anyone from asking their communities/networks for assistance, but if it’s your friend or family member who’s gone missing, you should know how to get help from authorities.

When can you file a “missing person’s report”?
In the US it’s 36 hours, but in China the police will not open a case until a person has been missing for at least 48 hours.  Foreign nationals can also get in touch with their embassy and have the embassy contact the police on their behalf (especially if there’s a language barrier).

What do you need to file a report?
When you go to police station, make sure you have the missing person’s basic information, such as their name, nationality, eye and hair color, height, and weight.  Bring the person’s photos and clothes. The police will use the clothing to extract DNA, which they will run through their bank of missing persons.

What if you’re not in China, but your loved on might be missing in China?
You can still contact your embassy and have them contact the local police and file the report on your behalf.

Source: Global Times

Photo: Flickr

Beijing is one of the safest cities in the world, but Sunday’s cleaver attack on two women was a salutary reminder that even here it pays to be smart, careful and plan for emergencies. Here’s a round up of the information we’ve provided over the years, so that you can make sure you and your family know what to do, if the worst should happen.

Emergency numbers:

In addition to your embassy’s contact information, have these numbers on speed dial:

• Police: 110
• Fire: 119
• Traffic accidents: 122
• Ambulance (English hotline): 999
• Ambulance (Chinese hotline): 120
• Foreign Emergency Services: 6525 5486
• Beijing Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention: 6777 3512
• United Family Hospital Emergency Services: 5927 7120
• International SOS Clinic and Emergency Services: 6462 9112

The police can in theory respond to emergency calls in over 40 languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Arabic and Spanish, but there’s also an English-language emergency hotline (6525 5486).

Useful information:

Attending hospital in an emergency

Navigating Beijing’s healthcare systems

Tips for staying out of trouble in the city

Situational awareness: avoiding violence

Keeping kids safe in crowded areas

Safety tips for teens

Safety tips from Beijing police

Stay safe, and enjoy the city!

Photo: Michael Coghlan via Flickr

Healthy eating is key to helping our children grow, learn, and thrive, and mealtimes are central rituals which strengthen families: a chance to talk, share, and laugh together.  Many parents therefore put time and effort into planning and preparing family meals.

But what if the food you buy is not what it appears to be?

“Fake food” is a term often associated with China, but it’s used to describe a range of different issues: from low quality products packaged as famous brands, to foodstuffs which are adulterated or altered, and even completely artificial commodities like the legendary man-made eggs. How widespread is the problem really? And how much truth is there in the more outlandish stories? We decided to find out.

A Taste of Honey?
Of the numerous food scandals which have dogged China in recent years, the most notorious, and best documented, concerns honey. In 2013 an investigation by Jinan Times revealed widespread malpractice in the Shandong honey industry. Song Xinfang, Chairman of the Shandong Apiculture Association, told the newspaper: “Presently up to 60 or 70% of honey on the market is fake.” Tests on four brands of honey purchased from a Jinan supermarket found that two of them had been diluted, one with beetroot syrup, one with rice syrup.

Sugar syrup is cheap, and the resulting mixture is difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Meanwhile honey has become more difficult and expensive to produce. Bees in China, as in the rest of the world, have suffered a catastrophic collapse in their numbers, due to pesticide use and land clearance. Climate change has also led to a surge in the population of Asian Giant Hornets, which prey on honeybees. The problem has become so bad that in some areas farmers have taken to pollinating apple and pear trees by hand.

The poor reputation of Chinese honey has spread worldwide. It’s banned in Europe, and exports to the USA are often “laundered” by being repackaged in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Taiwan, according to the American Honey Producers Association. Yet the authorities struggle to get a grip on the situation: testing is expensive, and because honey can be sold as a medicine or agricultural by-product, it can evade food regulations.

Rat and Peas
It’s easy to understand how honey became the faker’s favorite. It’s a high value foodstuff, and to the unwary the adulterated product looks more “pure” than the real thing, since the natural product often contains crystals, specks of pollen, and so on. However it may be less obvious why anyone would want to produce fake peas.

Nonetheless this is a recurring problem in Hunan and Guangdong. Dried snow peas and soybeans are soaked in water, food coloring, and sodium metabisulfite (an antioxidant and preservative). The results of this process are sold as fresh green peas, although they don’t soften properly when boiled, instead turning the water an alarming chemical green; and the coloring used is a dangerous carcinogen.

Meat is of course a lucrative area for faking, and there have been numerous cases of cheap pork being “turned into” more expensive beef, by treatment with anything from beef extract to paraffin wax. In 2013 police in Xi’an seized more than 20 tons of “fake beef” from six workshops. The meat is often sold for use in rousong (meat floss), where the tampering is less obvious. Even more disturbingly, in the same year a gang was arrested in Wuxi for selling rat, fox, and mink meat as mutton, for use in chuanr.

Going Nuts
Sometimes the tampering is so brazen that it’s hard not to feel a sneaking admiration for the chutzpah of those responsible. In 2012, a Zhangzhou resident bought a bag of walnuts from a street vendor. When the unfortunate man got the walnuts home, he found that they had been carefully opened, the kernels removed, and replaced by lumps of concrete. The shells were stuffed with paper to prevent the concrete rattling, and then glued back together.

The police helpfully released pictures showing the thin white line of glue visible in the tampered walnuts, but it’s hard to imagine this scam being replicated. The effort involved must have been considerable, the reward limited, and the possibility of repeat customers nonexistent.

Cardboard Pork and Plastic Rice
Whatever the truth behind man-made eggs, there’s one fake food tale we can safely dismiss as fiction. In 2007 a Beijing journalist invented a story about a restaurant owner who replaced the pork in his baozi with cardboard soaked in fat and flavoring. The authorities began an investigation, but soon revealed it to be a hoax. Many Beijingers however refused to believe them, and claimed it was all a government cover-up. The meat in street baozi, they said, tastes so much like cardboard that it must be true.

And therein lies the difficulty of assessing the extent of China’s fake food problem. There have been so many scandals that it is easy to become cynical and trust nobody. In this environment rumor thrives, and the internet is a fertile breeding ground. The latest story concerns “rice” made from potato and plastic, being exported around the region. It’s been widely reported all over the world, but I was unable to find a single substantiated case of fake rice being identified. However, “plastic rice” is a term used in the plastics industry to describe resin pellets ready to be melted down and shaped. Perhaps this is the origin of the rumor.

Rotten Eggs
Strangest of all perhaps are the tales of man-made eggs. These stories continue to resurface every few years, but when followed back to their source lead only to a twilight zone of rumor and deceit.

The eggs themselves are supposedly made from industrial chemicals. The shell, like natural shells, mainly consists of calcium carbonate, while the white and yolk are formed from alginic acid (a substance derived from seaweed often used as an additive in food), gelatin, potassium alum (a naturally-occurring mineral used in traditional Chinese medicine), calcium chloride (another food additive), and food colorings. The ingredients are mostly harmless, but of course have little to no nutritional value.

The internet is full of helpful hints on how to identify fake eggs: apparently, the shells are shinier, the white is less sticky, and they give off a faint chemical smell when cracked open. Some people claim to have bought them, although from the description it’s not always clear they haven’t simply got a bad egg.

Others though are more skeptical, and insist the whole story is fake. The website hoax-slayer.com lists it as “Unsubstantiated,” and comments “until more evidence is forthcoming, I’d be consuming this particular egg tale with a grain of salt.”

The claim that it’s possible to make RMB 400 a day attracts particular scorn. On chengduliving.com biotechnologist August Pamplona calculated the costs, and concluded that it may be possible to earn RMB 25 a day by this method. While not exactly a road to riches, that’s just about a viable income in rural China. Even so, if one has the capital to buy industrial chemicals and the equipment needed to process them, surely a better profit margin would be found getting some chickens and feeding them scraps.

However, there may be one sure way to get rich from the fake egg business. A Shandong journalist tracked down an anonymous figure who called himself “the Father of Man-Made Eggs.” This man demonstrated his process, apparently producing a very convincing shell, then injecting it with a white and yolk which were essentially identical except for food coloring.

Of course the Father of Man-Made Eggs does not make a living from producing them himself; he teaches others how to do it, at RMB 800 a time. Ever helpful, he will also sell you manuals and equipment. “Chickens will be made redundant!” claims one advertisement. “Regular consumption can prevent cancer, diabetes, obesity, reduce blood pressure, and enhance the immune system… Our secret technology is not to be copied without permission.”

“In a word, our new technique will help you to get rich quick!” So the advertisements promise. However, the only people getting rich quick and eating well with the profits are the ones selling the dream of easy money.

Staying Safe
What do you do if you’ve eaten something that isn’t what it should be? We asked Dr. Gao Peng, Chief General Practitioner at Hong Kong International Medical Clinic, Beijing. Dr. Gao has nearly twenty years of clinical experience, including nine years in the emergency department of one of Beijing’s top public hospitals, where she dealt with many cases of food poisoning.

“Vomiting and diarrhea are the most common symptoms if you eat contaminated food. At moderate levels (fewer than 5 times within 24 hours) vomiting or diarrhea without fever can be acceptable. Don’t worry too much. Your body has treated itself correctly by expelling the bad food. You can even try to induce vomiting by stimulating your throat with cleaned fingers. Strong antiemetic or antidiarrheal medicine should not be taken too quickly after ingesting bad food. Sometimes you can go through the discomfort smoothly by yourself. But if you have frequent vomiting, diarrhea, a combination of both, serious abdominal cramps, or fever, seeing a doctor will be necessary. You also need to see a doctor if you become thirsty, fatigued, or dizzy, which all indicate the possibility of dehydration.”

“For people who have certain chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes, heart disease, hypertension or kidney disease) and for children, diarrhea or vomiting can be very dangerous. Higher blood glucose and acidosis, heart attack, unstable blood pressure, and electrolyte disorder can be induced suddenly. It’s much easier for children to develop dehydration, which may be even life-threatening, especially for a baby. In those cases, please do not delay before seeing a doctor.”

This article originally appeared on page 46-48 of the August 2016 Issue of beijingkids magazine. Click here for your free online copy. To find out how you can obtain a hard copy, contact distribution@truerun.com.

Photo: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, libraryidol (flickr)

If your family intends to visit an area with mammoth crowds over the weekend or wishes to participate in an event such as a festival or concert, then it’s good to have a plan in case you and your kids get separated. The joys of summer can soon become nightmares in a split second when kids cannot locate their parents or parents cannot locate their kids. Sometimes technology can pick the most inopportune time to fail you and if that happens when you are separated, fail-safe measures set in place should help.

Here are six tips for when you and your children get separated, according to Parenting.com:

Write Your Number on Your Child’s Wrist 
This might sound a little hazardous if you are unsure about which chemicals you are introducing to your child’s body. Check for natural dyed pens or ink that you can use to write your phone number and then use liquid band aid to apply over it to make it permanent. This is recommended for young kids who are not likely to memorize their parents numbers.

Take a Photo of Your Kid(s) that Morning
Parents have lots of photos of their kids on their phones but it’s advisable to take a photo of them that morning if you intend on going to a crowded place to help them be easily identified.

Help Kids Memorize Your Phone Number(s)
In the event of any emergency, it’s a good rule of thumb to have kids memorize your phone number and those of close relatives. Even, the ayi’s number would be good to have them memorize in case the ayi is closer to where they are than you.

Show Your Kids People of Interest
At the destination, it’s suggested that you should point out people who work there such as managers, security guards, and more to help them ask for help in the event of getting separated. In China, show them how to clearly distinguish policemen from security guards as they are sometimes confusing.

Pick a Meeting Place
Scope the area and find a landmark that the kids can remember, and tell them to head there if they are unable to find you within a specified amount of time after getting separated. If it’s a familiar area, pick your favorite store or restaurant that they know how to get to easily.

Keep Tickets
If the place you are going to is a concert or a football game then give a ticket stub to your kids and remind them to keep it in their pockets in case they need to show the grounds staff where the seats are again.

Additional advice:
Learn Local Language Phrases
If you are going to a place in China or places where English isn’t the first language, then it comes in handy to teach kids some local lingo that can get them the help they need.

In China learn phrase such as:
Help! (in emergencies) 救命！(Jiùmìng!)
I need your help. 我需要你的帮助。 (wǒ xūyào nǐde bāngzhù.)
I’m lost. 我迷路了。 (wǒ mílù le).
Can I use your phone? 我可以用您的电话吗？(wǒ kěyǐ yòng nín de diànhuà ne?)
Can I use your cell phone? 我可以用您的手机吗？(wǒ kěyǐ yòng nín de shǒujī ma?)

Photos: weightdownweightloss.wordpress.com 

By all accounts, Beijing is a safe city. According to the 2015 Crime and Safety Report published by the US Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), the most common incidents are petty crimes such as pickpocketing, credit card fraud, and other scams. Violent crime involving the expat community tends to happen after-hours in bars and clubs, where factors like cultural misunderstanding, xenophobia, alcohol use, a rarely-enforced legal drinking age, and overcrowding can cause fights.

However, a couple of high-profile cases in the past year have highlighted the need to remain vigilant about safety in broad daylight. In August 2015, a sword-wielding man attacked a French-Chinese couple outside the Uniqlo store in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, leaving one person dead and the other seriously injured. In December, several embassies warned of potential threats to foreigners around Christmas Day in Sanlitun following a yellow-level alert – the highest possible – from the Public Security Bureau.

Situational awareness – the ability to observe one’s surroundings and assess potential threats – is a crucial part of staying safe, but it takes time and training to develop. Some Beijing residents have resorted to self-defense courses such as those offered by Krav Maga Global (KMG), which teaches a self-defense system based on that used by the Israeli military.

Krav Maga has a reputation in some circles as a brutal combat sport, but KMG China Director Von Ng is quick to debunk this perception. “Krav Maga is first and foremost about defensive action and strategy,” he says. “For civilian use, it is about preventing, avoiding, and getting out of a bad situation, and not picking a fight or provoking other people.”

He recommends adopting a cautious attitude when it comes to stepping into potentially volatile situations. “In China, it is a cultural and societal issue as much as a legal one. For example, although there are now laws against domestic violence, as a culture the practice is to not intervene in conflicts between family or friends,” he says.

“It is important to understand that getting involved will always have consequences. As such, it is always important to gauge a situation properly before going into it. There is a difference between apathy and caution.”

To complicate matters, the lack of Good Samaritan laws in China means there have been cases where people were penalized for trying to help a stranger. In November 2006, 26-year-old Peng Yu escorted an elderly woman to the hospital after she broke her hip trying to board a bus in Nanjing. She claimed that he caused her fall and sued him; the court eventually ordered Peng to pay RMB 45,000 in damages. Though the facts of the case were later disputed, the news drew widespread condemnation and undoubtedly had a chilling effect on would-be Good Samaritans.

With that in mind, newcomers should familiarize themselves with the local language, customs, and environment in order to make better decisions about their safety. Those who are interested in taking self-defense courses can rest assured that no previous martial arts or combat experience is needed. “The more open-minded and willing a student is to learn, the better they learn,” says Yonina Chan, KMG China’s general manager and a recently-certified instructor.

“Sometimes we have people who come in with a lot of previous experience but who have trouble learning simply because they insist on their way and doing what they already know. On the other hand, we have others who have never done any martial arts before but end up progressing much faster because they actually listen, take in the corrections, and try to be open to what is being taught.”

Classes take place at KMG China’s Sanyuanqiao location and attract a wide variety of students: expats, locals, men, women, high schoolers, parents, young professionals, etc. The second branch in Shuangjing is slated to open this month and KMG China is introducing classes geared towards children and teenagers, partly as a response to safety issues highlighted in the past year.

“We believe that kids and teens have to learn about safety and self-defense at an early age. They have to develop danger recognition, correct decision-making, problem avoidance, calling for help, reporting incidents, and, if needed, fighting and defending themselves,” says Ng.

Instructors will tailor the KMG curriculum and testing process to each age group as well as address special topics such as bullying and staying safe when moving to a new city for university.

“With kids and teens, it is also important that we focus on motor skills, coordination, self-confidence, discipline, social skills, and character development. These are built into the classes in a way that is very different from adult classes,” explains Ng.

One final thing to keep in mind is that self-defense training is not a silver bullet. “From dealing with prevention and awareness, all the way to fighting to survive, we assume that you are at a disadvantage and need to use all the tools you have and the presence of mind to survive and get away,” says Ng.

“Developing your reaction to many possible real-world problems is a long process and not something done in a simple one-hour groin-kicking seminar.”

Resources

● Beijing Municipal Public Security: Visit www.bjgaj.gov.cn to read about public security in Beijing, including police news and articles.
● Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC): Visit www.osac.gov and search “crime and safety reports Beijing” to find the latest reports on public safety.
● KMG China: Visit www.kravmagaglobal.com.cn to learn more about Krav Maga and see class schedules. Trial classes are free.

Important Numbers

Save the following numbers in your phone as well as your embassy’s contact information:

● Police: 110
● Fire: 119
● Traffic accidents: 122
● Ambulance (English hotline): 999
● Ambulance (Chinese hotline): 120
● Beijing Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and
Prevention: 6777 3512
● Foreign Emergency Services: 6525 5486
● Beijing United Family Hospital Emergency Services:
5927 7120
● International SOS Clinic and Emergency Services: 6462 9112

Safety Tips from KMG China
The following tips are condensed from an email sent out to KMG China members in the wake of the sword attack in Sanlitun.

● Think of awareness as a choice. This means putting away your mobile device, taking off your headphones, and consciously observing everything around you. Watch how people move and interact, what and where things are around you, what the traffic is like, etc. When you are first practicing this, it will seem awkward and obvious to others. But as with anything, it takes conscious practice over time to become smoother and better at picking up details and subtle changes without looking like a nervous and paranoid person. The act of being aware will then become natural to you, like an app running in the background.

● Determine the baseline. A baseline is the “normal state” of things. In a coffee shop, most people will move in a relaxed manner, talk in a certain volume and tone, gesture in a certain way. A disturbance in the baseline means something out of the ordinary has occurred. This can be as obvious as someone suddenly yelling, running, or moving aggressively, or something subtler, like someone looking shifty or uneasy, or someone constantly staring at you. A disturbance at times means nothing, but other times it could signal something bad about to happen.

● Do not dismiss anomalies. A lot of times, people notice disturbances in the baseline but choose to ignore or discard these signs, even if they indicate possible danger. This is in part because we tend to hope or believe that there is no danger, and also in part because we fear being mistaken or we don’t want the trouble of getting involved. It is always wiser to act defensively than to just hope things will be OK. It does not mean you have to immediately go to extremes (i.e. resort to violence). The point is to act as early as possible to avoid an extreme situation.

● Avoid “focus locks.” Focus locks are distractions that prevent us from practicing situational awareness. While mobile phones are the most obvious focus locks, they also include blasting music loudly into your headphones, being deep in conversation with someone, staring at something that catches your attention, or even eating while walking on the street. If you need to engage in a focus lock, do it in a controlled environment like at work or at home.

● Look up before you look down. If you must engage in a focus lock in public (e.g. taking an important phone call), make it a habit to check your surroundings before looking down. If you frequently take phone calls while outside, consider using hands-free headsets that don’t block out ambient noise (like those made for runners or cyclists). When you are walking and talking with a friend, make it a point to scan your environment; they will understand.

● Know when to seek help. If you see someone with a deadly weapon, alert security and do not engage with the potential threat yourself. Be familiar with the local emergency hotlines or know where your local police station is. In these cases, it is important to get the right people to help and not try to be a hero yourself, which might simply cause a panic or end up with people getting hurt.

Photo: Yun Huang Yong (Flickr)

This article originally appeared on pages 40-41 of the 2016 Home and Relocation Guide. Click here for your free online copy. To find out how you can obtain a hard copy, contact distribution@truerun.com.

In the latest of Beijing scams, two of my friends have recently received a very similar automated voice message phone call, notifying them that they had a kuaidi (or delivery) that they have not yet collected. After the message, they were put through to a person.

In the first case, the friend was told that somebody had tried to apply for a bank card using his details, and asked said friend for his personal details in order to check what was going on. Upon demonstrating that they doubted the caller, a number was given to call which actually matched a Shanghai police branch, however, they never contacted my friend again after he refused to answer the second and third call.

In the second case, my other friend was passed onto the ‘police’ directly following the automated message, who warned him that somebody had applied for a visa bank card with their details in Shanghai before adding that they should move all their money into a security account, to keep it away from the thieves. The caller then said that this could be accessed with a special bank card that they would send to their embassy. However, as suspected, the embassy had never heard of this before, and warned of a scam.

In both cases the police knew their full names, their phone numbers, and which bank they were with.

Some reminders:

• Do not give out any personal information over the phone.
• Do not trust anybody over the phone, even if they say they are from a bank, or the embassy.
• If you have given out your bank information, call your bank to cancel your card.
• If somebody tells you that your embassy is involved, check with them before you confirm anything.
• Don’t learn Chinese, as this all happened in Chinese (just kidding).

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on September 18, 2015