The smartphone has transformed expat life, giving us access to information and services wherever we go. Here are a few of the most useful apps to help you survive and thrive in Beijing.

WeChat

Forget Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp – in China, WeChat is king. Beijingers use it for networking, sharing and gossip, and even pay their bills on it. Get used to the idea of scanning QR codes instead of exchanging phone numbers. It also has WeChat Wallet (click here for a set-up guide), a portable payment system where you can top up your phone, pay utility bills, order a taxi, or book a table for dinner.

Alipay

WeChat may dominate social media, but when it comes to website payments, the competition is Alipay. It’s more than just a Paypal equivalent — you’ll see more locals paying for their shopping and dining with their smartphones than with cards. Go to pg 43 for details on how to set up Alipay.

Pleco

Whether you’re serious about learning Mandarin or just want to get by, Pleco is an outstanding language app for Chinese. The basic package is free, but you can buy and download other added functions. Particularly useful is its feature to read characters with your phone’s camera. Pleco even indicates the tones for characters, with a crafty color coding system.

Baidu Translate

Need to translate short words or long paragraphs? Baidu Translate is a must have for that. Its handy camera function can help you decode daily things in a world full of Mandarin, from operating your washing machine to replying to messages sent by your Chinese contacts.

Air Matters

Brace yourself for polluted days in Beijing. If you want to know how dirty the air you breathe is, Air Matters is the harbinger of bad news. You can opt to put the current air quality index reading as an app notification.

Apple Maps

From simple searches to transport options, Apple Maps is a viable tool to help you survive daily commuting and traveling in the city. Just don’t forget to close the app after using it, or else your mobile data might be drained by the app’s real-time use of Global Positioning System (GPS) location services

MetroMan Beijing

This handy subway app includes a search function and will tell you which stations are close to you, as well as a map of the whole subway system. It also gives users estimates about travel time and distance, number of transfers, and prices.

Three apps we wish were in English

Baidu Maps

Even if Google Maps can bypass the Great Firewall, it just isn’t accurate in Beijing. GPS location is “offset,” meaning that it’s out often by hundreds of yards. Baidu Maps is an up-to-date counterpart of Apple Maps, and offers 3D searching, traffic information, street view, and more – as long as you can read Chinese.

Taobao

Taobao, its upmarket sister site Tmall and wholesaler Alibaba are at the heart of the Chinese obsession with e-commerce (though newcomer JD.com is taking them on in the cities at least.) But while the Taobao app is less intimidatingly busy and complex than the website, it’s still for the fluent and/or determined only.

Didi

Just a year ago, we had Uber cars circulating the city. But after a mega merger between Uber and Didi, the car-hailing game in Beijing has changed, making taxi hailing a much more difficult way of traveling compared to just riding a bus or taking the subway.

This  article originally appeared on p 32-33 of beijingkids May 2017 Home & Relocation Guide.
Download the digital copy here.

It’s quite common nowadays to hear people, and even your newfound pengyou, saying their recent purchases are bought on either Taobao or JD – or the most popular online marketplace apps in China. Even if those apps are fully in Chinese, you can actually get over the language barrier by remembering several steps or using clever strategies just like what other well versed expats do.

Online shopping in China is truly distinct, and most of the time a learning experience. But a word of caution: it can be addicting and a real cash drain once you learn the how-to’s.

So first, let’s have a quick rundown of the top three online marketplaces you should know:

But Here’s the Catch…

Success! Your item will be delivered but you think you’ll be in the office by the time the courier arrives at your home. 

Just add your office address as your second shipping address so that your item will be directly sent there. Remember to select that before paying an item.

“The delivery of my item is taking too long!”

It could be because of the shipping location or other issues like public holidays, the famous November 11 sales day, and severe pollution (yes, because it affects air freights). You can also track the courier, but remember everything is in Chinese so you need to translate it using an app or asking help from a Chinese pengyou.

Okay, you bought a cheap quality item and it’s ready for shipping … but you changed your mind and want to replace it with a different colored one, if not, get a refund.

That’s tough because you need to talk to a seller’s customer service representatives (CSRs) or fill up a form. Only a few of these CSRs can speak a limited amount of English. What you can do is to use your translator app… or when they call you, just tell them the following phrases:

• Sorry, I don’t speak Chinese. Can you send me a message instead so that I can translate it? (对不起，我不会说中文。 你可以给我一个消息，以便我可以翻译吗？Duìbùqǐ, wǒ bù huì shuō zhōngwén. Nǐ kěyǐ gěi wǒ yīgè xiāoxi, yǐbiàn wǒ kěyǐ fānyì ma?)
• Hold on, here’s a friend to talk with you. (等一下。 这是一个朋友跟你说话。Děng yīxià. Zhè shì yīgè péngyǒu gēn nǐ shuōhuà.)

“Wow, the delivery was fast…” only to find out the item has defects or different from what you ordered. Worse, you found the item was fake!

Again, this is a tricky part because you need to contact the vendor. Try sending them a message telling:

• • The item I bought was [fake / has defects]. Can I replace it [or have a refund]? (我买的物品是[假/有缺陷]。 可否更换[或退款]？Wǒ mǎi de wùpǐn shì [jiǎ/yǒu quēxiàn]. Kěfǒu gēnghuàn [huò tuì kuǎn]?)

Baopals Around

So when every effort you exerted in using Taobao and JD fails, or if you lose patience, Baopals is another option. On Baopals, most items are priced slightly higher compared to their Taobao counterparts, so if price is not an issue, then you might want to go with Baopals.

Getting your Baopals account is pretty straightforward. In addition, it has a WeChat account where you can do online shopping. You can also find in the account a blog, that contains its famous “The Cool, the Cheap, & the Crazy,” items. Since Baopals is integrated into WeChat, you can for pay items using WeChat Wallet. Baopals also has customer service that responds promptly, so you can direct your instructions like item quantity and shipping location.

Food in a Box

You can also buy food from these Taobao, Jingdong, and Baopals, but beware, there are fakes, and freshness may not be guaranteed.

Other thrift options to set up your home

If online shopping on Taobao or JD.com proves to be too much and you feel Baopals is too pricey for small kitchenware, fret not and remember to use your WeChat. There are several groups like Old & New Deals – Beijing and 2nd Hand Beijing Bargains where you can buy (or sell) items at a much lower price. Below are also some groups you can follow to buy, donate, or sell items. Following these groups will open a lot of possibilities for networking and volunteering too!

This article originally appeared on p 44-47 of beijingkids May 2017 Home & Relocation Guide.
Download the digital copy here.

Photos: Photo-Mix via Pixabay and Yew Chung International School Beijing, (YCIS, Beijing),
Shiyuan Lin, Year 13, Hong Kong

Beijing is grimy, dusty place, but perhaps the dustiest place of all is right under your nose. A few years ago I posted this blog about about how dust mites living in your bed can cause allergies:

These nasty little eight-legged buggers thrive in humidity and love to munch on the dead skin cells that collect in your bed sheets and furniture. Fortunately there are ways to counter these microscopic menaces through the use of air purifiers, encasements, sprays and special vacuum cleaners …

After writing that blog my intention was to buy a bed vacuum and see if it would make any difference. Being the procrastinator that I am, it took me a while to get around to it. So now, after three years, many allergy attacks and another baby later, I have finally done so and care share some initial results.

At the recommendation of a colleague, I went on Jingdong and bought this LG Model bed vac.

Here is what the filter looked like before I used it for the first time:

And here is what it looked like after I vacuumed by sheets, pillowcases, headboard and bedspread:

And I didn’t even touch the mattress (my next target). Bear in mind that the gunk in the photo above doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s been wriggling around where I lay my head – according to this article, only 5% of dust mites are on the surface of your bed: 

Vacuuming your mattress, however, may not do as much to relieve a dust mite problem as you may hope. As it turns out, mites are hearty — not only can they survive a trip through the wash if the water isn’t hot enough, they can also survive your attempts at vacuuming them up. As many as 95 percent of dust mites continue to lead their lives after you’ve tried to vacuum them from your mattress [source: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America]. How can this be? Because they don’t live on the surface; rather, they live deep within the stuffing of the mattress.

So unless I tear apart my mattress and go all in, it seems that my vacuuming can only go so far. Nevertheless I’m still impressed – if not merely for the psychological and superficial reassurance that at least my sheets and pillowcases will be ever-so-slightly cleaner.

What are your experiences with bed vacs?