western computers and chinese women...

[Brian Mc]

Greetings brothers,

Quick question if I may.  For those who  did not see my other threads I may not be able to go to China for a while.  She has no computer no webcam and no English, well very little english so doesnt want to phone.  So it seems like emfs for a while.  Now she  has access to computer at work but they are not allowed to use it for personal stuff.

So my question is If I bought her a laptop here and somehow it made it through shipping to get to her, how much trouble will she have getting it to work.  Obviously the keyborad would be different so thats a concern need a universal power supply possibly, but what about software etc.  Are there any restrictions about sending computers to China?  Any othe issues I havent thought of?  Also would it be easier for her to just send the money (GASP!! yea I know never send money but the options are slim at this point), and get her to buy it there?

Any thought, suggestions, advice, severe beating over the head with a limp noodle?

Oh and why is the letter E so important?

Regards

Brian

[Peterjb]

brian, not sure about sending computer if she doesnt know/speak english.
when my GF visited in 2007 i bought her a laptop, but she speaks and writes english (works as a translator) and is computer savvy, so no problems, best investment ever.

[daghoi]

Not sure but, my first thought is to sending her money. In addition you probably have her to go to  a shop were they deliver/install the SW so the pc is reday to use. You will also have to make arrangement for the internet connection also ?

Not much help im afraid...

[David E]

Brian
I reckon you would get in a world of hurt if you sent a computer to her...so many different and unknown variables...freight, insurance, security, plus she would still have to get set-up, connected and software installed....almost certainly not going to be sucessful.
Yes...to send money is a risk...but it is not a huge amount of money for an entry level machine, and they get much cheaper computers that we can buy...plus she can do the bargaining for it,  which would take the cost well below anything you could achieve
Ask her to get a price for the whole shebang and see how you feel about it when you know what you are up for cost-wise
David

[RobertBfrom aust]

Brian , all answers are valid but a couple of simple questions , just to save me going bananas looking at your posts what area is Hong in , and as she is computer savy commercially she probably has a girlfriend who can help with setup . My Ying on her home computer has a terrific Chinese to English program , and reverse that has made me learning Mandarin almost obsolete , almost as fast as I send her a message on Messenger and viewing her on webcam , she has converted the sentence and is typing an answer , very rarely does a word come out wrong and her system also speaks out the words in English for her to learn , and as you go along the path if you do ask her to price a system make sure she is prepared to barter , for minor things my Ying will barter , but she is reluctant to in larger establishments without the big bad wolf in close proximity , good luck , regards Robert .

[Willy The Londoner]

Brian,

There is no love without E  it is just lov.

I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm Brian BUT!!!

No point in sending her a western computer. Even those that can speak English will have difficulty in reading it and the instructions will be in English. Before I had broadband connect in China a friend loaned me a desk in her office.  The Chinese computer was a nightmare and I thanked her and left and your girl will find the same.

Has she said that she will converse with you by using the computer?  

Only conversing by EMF with no other contact - be careful before sending money - you probably know the score.

Not wanting you to meet her until you are free in a years time!   That is a lot of EMF's in the meantime and good earnings for the agency.

For example you may be writing to a translator - who receives the money for the laptop and then just uses the agencies internet to set up an email address and continues talking to you for a while that way having pocketed 6000 or 7000 yuans for a laptop she has not had to buy.

You complain eventually about the agency and they just tell you the girl is no longer registered with that particular agency!

Some time back I read about a guy on Chnlove who spent a lot of money on EMF's and eventually went to China to visit the girl only to find that the girl he had met on arrival had only just joined the agency a week previous and the one he thought he was talking to had in fact married 6 months ago.

Just take care Brian - would hate to see another Brother get hurt.



Willy

[wilsbrough]

Hello Robert.
Out of interest, can you tell me what the software program your lady uses for translating is called? I'm kinda thinking of the same thing as Brian, as my lady is pretty much in the same boat, I have heard of a translation program called Kingsoft, which i have been told is the most popular in China, but i have spoken to a lady who uses this, and although i can kind of work out what she is trying to say, i do notice many mistakes, and often have to say it has not translated into understandable English.Also sometimes it can be pretty slow. The program your lady uses sounds better. Any help would be great.
Cheers
Andy.
p.s Brian, definitely do your research 1st, as having been to China, the electronics can be very expensive due to China having a very high import tax on foreign goods. In Hong kong, Maccau, Shanghai the electronics are cheaper, but not in the rest of mainland China. (as i found out when my digital camera broke out there!) But Chinese brand computers are cheaper. The brand i saw that seemed pretty good was a company called Lenovo, The laptops they produced were good quality and cheaper than you would get over here for the similar laptop ie processor speeds, ram, hardrive, etc.

[ahkiwi]

A quick note about Lenovo.

Lenovo Group Limited (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: Liánxi?ng Jítuán Y?uxiàn G?ngs? SEHK: 0992, OTCBB: LNVGY) is mainland China's largest and the world's fourth largest personal computer manufacturer (the latter since its 2005 purchase of IBM's PC division), after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the U.S. and Acer of Taiwan.

Pretty good computers

[Danny]

I don't know much about computers but what I do know is you have to buy it from a local shop, with a good, long warranty period, so when it breaks down they can come around and fix it on-site.

Don't anyone ever ask about the time I bought my first computer from a shop on the edge of Melbourne. I must have driven about two thousand kilometres (I kid you not!) delivering my computer to the shop to be fixed and then picking it up again. Every time I drove out there I remember how smart I was to save $50 on the price of $2,000 computer. A real bad move *laughs*

[RobertBfrom aust]

Wilsbrough , , Andy is easier, I will ask her tonight , but I will let you know as soon as .

[David5o]

Brian,

Your really in a rare old pickle aren't you!! ...I've gone over and re-read the relevant post you have made regarding her refusal of you visiting China, before your a totally free man. I can see your racking your brain thinking about how to get more contact with her.

From everything else she writes to you, it's all full of encouragement, and telling how much she looks forward to meeting you. You said that she understands, and that she knows that your an honorable man, and that your committed to her etc,etc... Yet, she is reluctant to use an Internet cafe in order to get closer to you....

....My question is, why is she so adamant that you can't visit her before having this paperwork tucked under your arm?? I can understand this on one level of thought, but when your talking about 12 months or more, those thoughts get kicked into touch. If she thought that much about you Brian, she would be only too pleased for you to come visit her. Your not after all wanting her to stay in your hotel room while your in China are you?
It's as if she is encouraging you on the one hand, but closing all the doors on having  a closer relationship together (apart from EMF's) on the other....

I think that you should think about the possibilities of what Willy has posted above, This could end up costing you a great deal of your hard earned cash. Seriously Brian, you need to start using your head on this one, rather than just the heart. So before i would be sending any money over to her, I'd be doing a hell of a lot of research, to find out exactly where i stand.... Have you ever asked if you can have her agency email address??  That is actually a part of her contract Brian with the agency, where the agency translates emails sent to her, and from her, ...and it costs you nothing.  The EMF thing is just an added income from clients of chnlove to the agency. If there is a flat refusal from Hong, on using the agency email route Then i would have some serious doubts about her authenticity Brian.   If you want to know what i would do in this situation, PM me and I'll tell you.

Oh, and what the others have told you about sending a laptop from the states is correct, for all the reasons they have stated and a couple more that i can think of!! .....So that should be a non-starter for you.

I guess you have lots to think about now Brian, but these points do need to be thought over, before you go sending money to China....

David.....

[maxx]

Brian the best thing to do in this situation is go to China and purchase the computer while you are there.Some of the operation hardware we use here won't work in China.Plus what Danny said about matinence and warrnties.Without that you and the lady could end up with a expensive paper weight.

Yes I do remember what you wrote about not being able to go.Till you get things handeld.SO your only option is to send her the money for it.You and the lady are the only ones that realy know if you trust each other.The rest of us can guess about that all day long and not come even close to the truth.

Myths and falisies Chine keyboards are not any different then the ones we use.Martin Ed and Me were talking back and forth on coputers.While we all three were in China.I think Martin and Ed were ussing laptops they had brought with them.I was ussing the hotel computer.Or My motherinlaws computer.And the keyboard is the same.

[David5o]

Maxx,

Not myths and fallacies, ....Ed and Martin would have no problem using there own computers in China. The hotel computer was probably pre-programed with all the right stuff for westerners to use. As for your mother in-laws PC, maybe your wife had installed stuff on there for her use. It's the same with some of the Internet cafes in China, some westerners, would have difficulty using, while the better more sophisticated Internet cafe's, the westerner would find no problems at all..... Keyboards is just one issue Maxx, an off the shelf laptop bought in a western country has it's keyboard programed for that country. Sure if your computer literate you can reprogramme the keys yourself, but if your not..... No-ones saying they won't work in China, there saying that things need to be changed and or adjusted for a western purchased Laptop or PC to be used by a Chinese national with little or no English. There are other problems that may arise also, but the general feeling here is, that is far better and cheaper too, to purchase in China. They will also install all or most of the programs you ask for free of charge. .... yes, there pirated versions , but hey, who cares your in China, the capital of the worlds  ''knock-off markets''......

David....

[feisnik]

But again, I recommend using the ChnLove rule, do not send money to someone who you have not met in person. If you were to buy a computer, Lenovo would be the way to go and you could order a Chinese version through them easily.

[Brian Mc]

Greetings brothers,

Thanks once again for the advice and thoughts. Also to David5o, thanks for the severe beating over the head with a limp noodle.  Seriously David you do raise some very valid points.  As far as if she is real or not well as always we will never know until i go to see her for a face to face.  However a few weeks back I wanted tosend her a small surprise gift, so I asked the agency if I could send it to their address addressed to Hong and they see it delivered to her.  Well the transaltor went and asked her if that was ok!!  Totally screwed up teh surprise part for sure.  Naturally I was ticked and somewhat suspicious so I contacted CHNlove and had them check out what was going on.  Well they seemed satisfied that teh translator just screwed up trying to be helpful and he apologized so I figured ok damage done non biggie.  However I would think that after that incident if it was the agency/translator writing the letters and /or scamming me things would have cooled of and ended by now, since they already had CHNlove on them once.  SO I personally think she is legit and it is her words that I read in teh letters she sends.  I will add a clip from a recent letter so you can read for yourself what she is telling me about visiting but basically she wants me to come to her as a free man ready to commit.  She thinks its wrong to have a relationship with someone who is technically still married.....
So there it is.  Now everything I have read about how chinese women view relationships, how so many were dumped for other women or husbands who cheated, plus everything I have read here from all the guys who have already gone through this and I have to think she is following her concience and morals and traditional upbringing.  Just so you know she is 41.
 However having said that perhaps I will ask again about the non emf email address and also the internet cafe and see what she says in reply.

Thanks again to all for the great advice as always  and also for the reality checks too.  Nice to know we all have so many friends out there looking out for our interests.

Brian