After coming to China, a story which you can read in my previous post, settling down was a priority since I was going to live there for six months.
Day three – Going to IKEA
I know what you are all thinking; “Huh, do they have an IKEA in China?” Yes they do, I was as surprised as you are. So day three started off with a trip to IKEA to get some useful stuff such as towels, some cloths-hangers and some decoration. Of course we needed to see if the IKEA meatballs in China tasted the same as in the Netherlands, so we ordered the famous dish and were not disappointed.
In the afternoon, me and three others went to go grocery shopping where we quickly realized that you cannot pay with credit cards in most stores. Thus, there began the hunt for an ATM so that we could pay for our food.
After struggling for what felt like hours, we came back to the dorm and just chilled in the garden a little.
Day four – Waiting waiting waiting
After being woken up by the cleaning lady (yes I had a cleaning lady and she cleaned the room three times a week), I decided to go dressed since it was going to be an important day. I was going to get a Chinese sim card, with unlimited data (I then had a phone without any data so this was huge for me)! Thus began the waiting. There were maybe 10 stalls which we all had to go to. Handing in your transfer papers, getting a residency paper, getting a schedule, getting a sim card, checking your papers again and again. But in the end I finally got my Beijing University of Technology student card!
What did I learn?
- The most important thing I learned is that in most stores, you CANNOT pay with your credit card!
- Second most important thing, having unlimited data is amazing and very useful when you are in China,
- Thirdly, Chinese people pay with their phone using WeChat pay. So having WeChat is important since nearly everything can be found in the app,
- Chinese people, even in Beijing, do not like or cannot speak English which makes it difficult to communicate. Tip: learn the language!
