Chengdu re-visited

[Jason B]

Maybe Shenzhen girls are different then.  When I was there in July/August one of Xia's friends took us to the beach for the day so the night before Xia showed me what she wanted to wear as she wanted my opinion as she had never been to the beach before and wanted to know if her swim suit fitted.  I was expecting the old one piece head to toe number as many have mentioned on the forum but Xia wore a bikini it was a one piece and it fitted in all the right places and revealed exactly what it was supposed to.  I had to pinch myself a couple of times to stop staring at her like a little boy looking at a bay watch babe. 

[David E]

Here is a little story.....Chinese families strike again !!!!

We used a Migration lawyer to organise our visa application, and it went in to the Aus Consulate in Shanghai about 3 weeks ago.

When you use a Lawyer (in Aus anyway) you both sign an approval that agrees that all communications about the visa application will go through the Lawyer/Immigration Agent........it keeps a central contact point and makes life a bit easier for the Consulate.

At the time, mindful of the Chinese "impatience" I stressed this point with Ming.........dont talk to the Consulate, leave it to our Lawyer.

On Thursady last, I got a call from my Lawyer who had recieved a "terse" email from the Aus Consulate in Shanghai, pointing out that all communication about the visa application made on behalf of Evans and Zhang was to be conducted via him........the Consulate took a dim view of numerous attempts by Ms Zhang to short-circuit this protocol and directly contact the Consulate with attempts to influence the timing of the process !!!!

As you can imagine I was a bit disturbed about his as I know that these beaurocrats can make life hell if you upset them !!!

Mindful of the 24 hour rule, I waited one day and then blew my stack with her.........

The story goes...........

"Sister told her that she must telephone the Consulate several times each day and put much pressure on them to hurry with our visa. Sister knows of a friends, aunties, husbands , dentist's cleaning lady who heard it from the local grocer that this is the best way to get some quick actions on visa...and...get this !!!...if she was to offer them some money, they may even do it quicker !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Shaun...I know what you are going through with Sister being the font of all knowlege, and me being the clown !!!

So...for any Aussie going through this process...be SURE that you firmly close off this "communication" backdoor, you can do untold damage to the application by this sort of stuff.

I am still boiling over it all...Goodness knows how far back in the queue they have put us due to this.......I could not get a straight answer from her as to whether or not she had actually attempted to offer them money...by this time she was too scared to admit it I think, because she realised how big the "crime" was.....I just hope that she did not go quite that far !!

Heaven preserve me from Chinese families 

[Martin]

I had similar concerns with my wife...and all the people who are experts in the field of how to deal with the Canadian Consulate.  I had to remind her almost daily to not phone or email the Embassy.  I explained that if she bothered them, and they got annoyed, she might find that her application would make its way to the bottom of the application pile.  As far as I know, she only emailed them once.

[maxx]

David E ouch.I think your wife needs a intervention.I wouldn't freak out to much about it.I'm sure that this has happened before.And by this time the Aussie consulate is probably used to it.The only reason they sent the email.Was to make you aware.And your attorney aware of what your wife was doing.

slow down a little.and when you cool off.Tell your wife next time she hears something like this about the Aussie immigration process.She needs to contact you or your attorney.To make sure that what she is planning to do is ok.It is going to be tough.To break your wife from listening to the Chinese know it all.It will evetually come.But it can take some time.

[shaun]

David,  I do sempathize.  But like Maxx said chill out because you will make things worse.    So you do not want the sisters, friends, aunties, husbands , dentist's farmers daughter...    Wait, that is Peggy.  Wrong person.  So you do not want the sisters, friends, aunties, husbands , dentist's cleaning lady...  to lose face in all of this.

I think maybe she got the message now.

[Arnold]

As I know David , he will know exactly what is best for both of them . What this shows Me .. is that the SHoe is now on the other Foot for a change .
Don't we all go over there and put our Foot in our Mouth's plenty of time's ourselves and the Lady comes to our Rescue .. as we are not familiar with their Customs ? So now they make a mistake of our ways to handle certain things ( some are more important than other's ) , so we also must show the same kindness/respect in these situations as well .
I know some of you think .. that is easy for him to say ! Well , of course it is .. since it's not me waiting for the darn Visa Approval .. but I just had to make this point .

[Jason B]

Mate, cool down and do not do anything you may regret later.  I am sure that although she is getting all the info second hand from everyone, who has probably never done a visa before anyway, at the end of the day I am sure that only the best interests were in mind and at no time was there a thought that this may jeopardize the visa application.  As for bribery this is China we are talking about, although the Embassy staff may be Australians maybe she could have used beer coupons instead.

In all seriousness, I sincerely hope that this issue has not impacted on your application at all.  I am just about to start the process so I am fully aware of all the time and effort put in up to this point let alone having the papers given to the embassy.

Thanks for the heads up about this issue all the same, although Xia and I will not use an immigration lawyer as we both believe that there is no outside issues and our application will be as simple as possible, I still think that I will not even mention to her about contacting the embassy.  Just tell her it will progress as required and they will contact her when they want to see her for the medical and any other interviews, so until then just have some patience and faith that the application will progress through as quick as possible.

[Irishman]

I cant believe the time-scales involved outside of Europe, I think I'd go nuts. David, you need to just let it slide, I'm sure shes got the message now.
I find the phone thing a big difference to here. I mean, the Chinese at the drop of a hat will pick up a phone to call customer service, even if the website probably answers the question.
They just don't seem to trust anything not spoken by a person, especially a Chinese person. Any time Sunny and I go to a train station or airport, she always wants to ask some person for how to find a or b despite the fact that the signs or notice boards post the way already. I said to her, what would you do if there was nobody around to ask?, she thought I was being silly! What people say in China has far greater importance than anything read on-line or printed on a notice board is the message I got!

[David E]

This is the time that weighs most heavily...the wait for the visa !!!

How do you keep it all going in this part of the process ??

Both of us just want to be together and get on with our new life, so much we have to do, so much we have planned !!

Here are some things we are doing to keep from going stir-crazy in the meantime 

Ming has access to Google Earth and has spent many hours "virtually" walking the Streets (no...I dont mean it that way !!!) of Perth.
So every day, I give her a new place to look at and next day we talk about what she saw and what she did or did not understand.

She also downloads each day one of the examination papers that are needed for the test to obtain a driving license, they are to do with the road rules etc,  I am often in stitches over some of her answers to the questions...........Chinese road rules dont compute in Perth !!!

She also looks every day on "BBS"..(this is what she calls it, but I'm not sure what it is)...it seems to be an internet place where she can converse withe Chinese women in similar situations
She has actually spoken with women in Perth.

After these conversations, there are always some points of "cultural" difference that we need to straighten out between us.....

a few examples......

Medical treatment in Perth is very bad, people need to wait all day to see a Doctor....even if they are very sick.

It is not difficult to see why Chinese Nationals in Perth have this perception......if you want free medical treatment, you go to the casualty Department of a Hospital....where you wait, and wait and wait, unless your problem is life-threatening, then you are attended to immediately.

If you want to see a private Doctor, then it is not free, the Doctor visit costs about $40, but $38 is rebatable through our Medicare system.

Guess which one the Chinese Women choose ??


Shops in Perth often sell bad food

Last week, a butcher shop was prosecuted for having a pack of Chicken legs for sale that was 1 day past it's "recommended use-by-date"...I saw meat in Chengdu that was probably 2 weeks old, covered in flies and hung out in the open...people were buying it with no worry...go figure !!!

Everything in Perth is too expensive

We dont go in for bargaining for every cent...we have recommended retail prices and sometimes things are on sale....Chinese people hate this !!!

Perth is so short of water that you can only shower for 2 minutes every 2 days

We have just had the driest Winter on record, and our average rainfall in a good year is only 300 mm, this year it was 120 mm. Our Water Authority has asked all of us to be careful with water, and has given us many suggestions how to cut back on usage...one of the ways is "reduce the time of your shower by 2 minutes and try to wash your hair every 2 days.

Not difficult to see how this message got twisted !!!

So...we still find enough to have great conversations every day, and every conversation adds some more to Ming's English skills

[David E]

Interesting Mike

That is a question that Ming often asks..."can get it in my size" ??

I guess Ming would be about Aus size 6, and our "average" womens size here is 10 to 12.

Ming has some idea (not without some firm foundation, I might add) that all Western Women are huge, and therefore the clothing shops would not stock smaller sizes that she would wear.
With the typical women she sees around the Streets of Perth in her "Google walks", it would be easy to assume that all Perth women are size 20 !!!!!!...because despite whatever the clothes shops stock...I reckon the average size IS nearer 20 !!!

Of course, I assure her that she can get everything she needs....from the Children's shop.....that brings on a noisy response for sure 

[RobertBfrom aust]

David E , not sure about Perth , but here in Melb , driving licence questions and answers are available in Mandarin , Sujuan already had her Chinese licence , but needed driver under instruction lessons so she kept to the lhs of the road ha ha and I bought the book so she understood our road laws , regards Sujuan and Robert .

[David E]

Yes Robert, I can get the road rules book in Mandarin also

But I am being a bit mean and making Ming download the English version so that she has to wade through and get to understand the English words....

I keep telling her that she should read, read, read anything in English, because that is one good way to get better language knowlege.

She reads stuff to me every night, and of course, there are new words all the time. But now she is very comfortable with word sound and word structure (syllables) that she can pronounce words perfectly even though she does not know the meaning of the word. So when she gets the pronunciation right, we go to a translator program for the meaning...and she has a perfect new word in her vocabulary !!!

I am teaching her English based on the format my Daughter gave me, she is an English Teacher and specialises in ESL Students. The results in 6 months have been unbelievable, Ming has worked hard on it, the method works and we can have real good conversations now

Cheers...David

[Rhonald]

Of course, I assure her that she can get everything she needs....from the Children's shop.....that brings on a noisy response for sure 

You said that!!!!   You got to be kidding me  Well I will not take a Go at responding to that good ribbing. 

[shaun]

When I was selling medical clothing we would sell more 2X and 3X than any other size.  I took some clothes on my first trip to see if I could have them made cheap enough to buy in China and cut out the middle men that jack up the price way to high.  I took a 2X and a 3X and you should have seen the looks and the laughs we got.  The man who ran the sewing shop asked me how many women were in it at one time.  He got quite a laugh out of it.

[David E]

You said that!!!!   You got to be kidding me  Well I will not take a Go at responding to that good ribbing. 

Now dont start THAT again Rhonald...you know we cant match your sartorial wordsmithing discombobulation

It seams that you may not comprehend that my Little Pet does not get hemmed in by joking with her Capra aegagrus hircus, In her eyes I am a Licensed Good guy !!!!