MOVING TO AND LIVING IN NANJING
copyright © 2001-2002 by Kathleen Hartford
All rights reserved.
These pages are for the convenience of faculty, research associates, staff and students at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Others are welcome to use this page, but be forewarned that resources mentioned as available at the Center are available only to those formally affiliated with it.
A Airlines ATMs | B Books| C Calendar China Communications Computers| DDiscussion board
E E-mail Embassies Emergencies| F | G | H  History Hopkins Nanjing Center Hotels
 I Immunizations Internet Internet Access  | J | K | L | M  Maps  M-bagsMedical Money
N Nanjing | O | P | Q | R | S Software | T Time Travel agents | U | V
W Weather | X | Y | Z

 
A

AIRLINES

  • U.S. Carriers flying to Asia: Northwest, United site in USA, United site in PRC
  • Others flying to Asia: Air Canada, Japan Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern (code share with American Airlines), China Southern (code share with Delta)
  • Airlines flying intra-Asian routes: Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air (regional, out of Hong Kong; flies to Nanjing)
  • Chinese domestic carriers: there are what now seem like zillions of domestic Chinese carriers, although ultimately they are all state-owned, and ultimately have the same Boss. However, you may find big differences in efficiency, service, and safety (esp. with regard to age and condition of equipment). My own favorite is China Eastern (based in Nanjing), where the attendants bow to the passengers at the beginning and end of each flight and in between provide cheerful and considerate service; I've also found their airport staff very nice. Friends have also praised China Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, and China Southern. Some, perhaps even all, of the Chinese airlines offer frequent flier programs. Ask at the check-in counter, or in-flight, if you're interested.

ATMs: see Money
B

BOOKS

  • Guides to China
    • in the U.S.: It wasn't terribly user-friendly when I last tried it, but the Globe Corner Book Store in Cambridge, MA has a web site: http://www.globecorner.com, and you could get a 10% discount by ordering online. You can browse their Geographic Catalog for China; or you can go straight to the Lonely Planet China Travel Survival Kit. 
    • in China: You can find a lot of the Lonely Planet, Frommer/Fodor and such series of guides in some of the Foreign Languages Bookstores. The largest selection I've found so far is in Shanghai, up on the 4th floor of the FLB on Fuzhou Lu. 
    • We're all still hoping that somebody, some day, will again publish a good guide to Nanjing/Jiangsu in English. There is one nice little guidebook now out of print; you may be able to find it in a local library or a secondhand book store: Caroline Courtauld and May Holdsworth, Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou and Jiangsu Province (Lincolnwood, IL: Passport Books, 1988). The classic sights won't have changed; the prices and even the names of hotels and restaurants will! And you shouldn't expect accuracy from the maps.
  • Books in general:
    • There's a fairly good selection circulating among denizens of the Hopkins Nanjing Center (literature, history, junk mystery, etc.). Also a decent selection at the Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore, and some at the Nanjing one on Hunan Lu. The Center Library also has some pretty good holdings in U.S. and Chinese history and social science, some literature, and some European history and social science.
    • You can now order books online from Amazon or Powells and have them shipped to you in China. Be forewarned: it's slow, and expensive. You might do better to have them shipped to kind friends or family members in the U.S., who agree to repack them and ship them to you book rate or in M-bags.
  • Shipping them: see M-bags
C

CALENDAR

CHINA

  • Basic information and some starting points for browsing: use the China Bookmarks page I put together for my Chinese Politics students at UMass/Boston -- now a bit outdated.
  • Detailed overview of history, society, politics and economy can be found in the "Army Area Handbook" for China: China: A Country Study. 

COMMUNICATIONS

COMPUTERS

  • Buying: If you want to try improving your or your children's Chinese, you might consider buying a computer while you are in Nanjing. There are some high-quality Chinese brands; some come with a prepaid 6 months or year of Internet access. There are many small stores and a couple of huge computer "supermarkets" (mostly, a building that concentrates small shops peddling many different brands of hardware and software) in Nanjing, on Zhujiang Lu. Prices are quite reasonable; I've seen many good systems that run under US$1,000. You can buy plenty of other types of equipment in these places as well. I found a portable 30-gigabyte hard drive in spring 2002 for about $140. Bargaining is almost always called for, and a lot of the vendors speak a bit of English. 
  • Laptops (also see Internet access): If you are bringing your own and it doesn't have LAN or ethernet capability built into it, try to bring a network card that will work with your computer (T10/100 is best; there are many brands). For days when the network is down (it happens, it happens) it's handy to have a modem to fall back on (see Internet access).
  • Software
  • For some background on the industry itself, you can see the short article "Building China's Information Technology Industry."

CONSULATES: see Embassies

CREDIT CARDS: see Money
D

DISCUSSION BOARD

  • The discussion board is here. Read and post as you like. If you find good online resources for the rest of the group, I'll be adding the links periodically to the main information page.
E

E-MAIL

EMBASSIES AND CONSULATES

EMERGENCIES

EXCHANGE RATES (see Money)

EXPRESS SERVICES
H

HISTORY

  • Kerk Phillips' handy capsule history of Nanjing to 1949. Kerk taught at HNC 2000-2001, and prepared this for visiting family members. The ?? marks are placeholders for the characters that I'll put in if I ever get a round tooit.
  • If you haven't already read Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking, you can order it from amazon.com or wordsworth.com. Or read the library's copy once you get to Nanjing.
  • Another book, by Zhu Xiao Di, is a wonderful narrative of his family in Nanjing (his father was the leader of the CCP underground in Nanjing during WWII). Thirty Years in a Red House; order thru amazon.com. It's beautifully written, and provides some fascinating insights into the lives of political families from the revolution through the early post-Mao era.

HOPKINS-NANJING CENTER

  • English-language home page
  • HNC students (2001-2002) created their own web site, with stories, discussion, information, in both English and Chinese. Email me an inquiry if you have a bona fide reason for wanting to visit this site, and I'll send you the link.

HOTELS

  • For bookings in Nanjing or elsewhere, see Travel agents to get your reservation, or try Asia-hotels.com or Sinohotel.com to book online (Sinohotel, based in Beijing, will also reserve over the phone, usually without requiring a credit card number)
  • Nanjing: to get away from the maddening crowds, get a decent buffet dinner or brunch, or get a nice room when you're in town and no other digs are available. Whenever possible, the links here are provided to the relevant pages of an online booking service that had the forethought to provide you with a printable copy of the name and address of the hotel in Chinese characters.

    •  
    Hilton Nanjing International Hotel Zhongshan Dong Lu no. 319 025-480-8888 Very near the Zhongshan Gate and next door to Nanjing Museum
    Jingli Hotel Beijing Xi Lu no. 7 025-331-0818 Nearest to Hopkins Nanjing Center. Convenient and friendly drycleaner/laundry (the work seems to be done off-site) entered through the giftshop/newsstand
    Jinling Hotel Hanzhong Lu no. 2 025-471-1888 Small bakery counter; very helpful hair salon in basement. There is a small travel agency located on the first floor, where you can make air and train reservations (domestic) and buy tickets; make hotel reservations; and buy one-way tickets for the air-conditioned bus to Shanghai -- a better idea than the train if you have much luggage. 
    Ramada Plaza Yihua Hotel Zhongshan Bei Lu no. 45 025-330-8888 Also fairly close to HNC; reasonably priced and very ample dinner buffet. Often referred to as "Jiari Fandian" -- Holiday Inn, because that's what it used to be.
    Shangri-la Dingshan Cha Ha Er Lu no. 90 025-880-2888 Way up at the northwestern end of town; fancy, but we sometimes wonder whether it's worth the schlepp
    Sheraton Nanjing Kingsley Hanzhong Lu no. 169 025-666-8888 2 km. from HNC. Roomy and well-equipped athletic club, though a bit pricey -- includes large swimming pool. We also like Danny's Irish Pub, and there's a pretty decent weekend brunch buffet in the coffeeshop.
    Suning Universal All-Suite Hotel Guangzhou Lu no. 188 025-323-2888 Fairly near HNC; pretty inexpensive athletic club membership card, and you get what you pay for.
     By the way: in case you're wondering why so many of the phone numbers have so many 8's in them, it's because 8 is supposed to be the luckiest of all numbers. By those standards, looks like the Shangri-la has the most clout with the phone company. Although, 6 is also lucky, which might put the Sheraton out ahead.

I

INTERNET

  • For general information (now slightly out of date) about the Internet in China, see "Cyberspace with Chinese Characteristics." (Current History, Sept. 2000)
  • There's also a very informative piece by Nina Hachigian, "China's Cyber-Strategy," in the March/April 2001 issue of Foreign Affairs. You can see a short summary online.
  • Can you get at anything you want? Not really. Fewer sites are blocked than used to be the case; in the course of 2001-2, for example, cnn.com and washingtonpost.com became available again. Odd things are still blocked, though: the Altavista search engine, for example, which appears to be blocked on both the CERNET and ChinaNet networks, though not on Golden Bridge (a business-oriented network). Recently I have learned that some of the web sites for Yahoo-based discussion groups may also be inaccessible from China. A certain banned faith-based organization's sites are blocked, as are plenty of know pornography sites. If you try getting to a blocked site, you will simply wait a long time and then get a message telling you the server could not be found, or possibly "connection reset by peer." 
  • Regulation and control. You've probably seen plenty of news stories on it. Most of the control is exerted behind the scenes, so you won't be directly aware of it. Recently, over a hundred Chinese ISPs signed a "self-discipline pledge" to control use in line with state objectives. This merely further systematizes practices that began with earlier regulations making ISPs legally responsible for user behavior, and ICPs responsible for all online content, even if provided by third parties.

INTERNET ACCESS

  • "High-speed" network. Internet access for faculty and associates resident at the Center is available as part of the CERNET (China Education and Research Net), which all educational institutions in China connect to. Access in offices should be working when you arrive. If you want to access the network from your apartment, you'll need to get an IP address from the system administrator. Kate's email message to incoming faculty and research associates explains how to deal with that. The network sometimes is quite fast; other times it closely resembles molasses in (Minnesota) January.
  • Dialup access. At any time, you can use dial-up access by connecting your phone line to your laptop's modem (if it has one), and get online by using the ChinaNet (commercial Internet access network owned by China Telecom) generic access number. In Nanjing, that number is 163. In Beijing, when last checked, it was 169; in Shanghai, 8163. In each case, the dialup number, the "username" and the "password" are identical. If you are phoning from a location (like the Hopkins Nanjing Center) that requires use of a local access code, you'll have to put that code in, followed by a couple of commas to induce a pause for dialtone, and then 163. Works like a charm. Usually. You get charged about 0.4 mao (ca. 5 cents) per minute for using this service, in addition to whatever per-minute charges apply for the local phone service.
  • Other high-speed access. Those living in certain parts of Nanjing may now also get high-speed Internet access through the ADSL service now offered at fairly reasonable rates by China Telecom. Theoretically, China Netcom is also authorized to provide cable-based Internet service in some parts of Nanjing, but I haven't met anyone yet who has gotten this service yet. Expect the same kinds of problems with ADSL that many have encountered in the U.S. Both ADSL and cable are supposed to be flat-fee, so you don't have to deal with per-minute charges at all. The networks they use may be more reliable, and reliably fast, than CERNET's.
  • Net cafes. In China, these are called "net bars" (wang ba, and watch how you say it; with the wrong tones, you're calling somebody a very nasty name). Usually they don't serve alcoholic drinks, or any at all. They tend to be clustered near universities and colleges, because they are heavily used by students. They are often crowded and smoky (you may recall hearing about fire safety issues too), and sometimes operate outside the law, and therefore periodically are forced to close when the local government decides to crack down on violators. Usually, however, they are a good and cheap way to get online. We're working on a little inventory of net cafes in Nanjing. Some public libraries also offer low-cost access; if you go to Shanghai, the main branch of the Shanghai Library is one such (computer "instruction center" on the ground floor). 
L

LAPTOPS (See Computers)

 
M

MAPS

M-BAGS (for large mailings of books or printed matter)

  • General information and regulations are in the International Mail Manual (online: http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/Imm/Immidx.pdf). Click on "M" on the online manual to find the M-bag section of the manual. Short version: total of 66 pounds can be shipped per bag, including the weight of the bag.
  • Country information for mailings to China (including some additional stipulations on M-bags) is online at http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/Imm/Immctry.pdf.
  • Packing: Material in the bags has to be packed in boxes, each of which must be fully addressed, before it goes into the bags. (The info I downloaded from the USPS site doesn't even mention this!) At some point, the stuff may all be taken out of the bags before it is delivered to you, so you want to make sure those boxes are sturdy -- they really take a beating, in the bag or out -- and well sealed. It looks like nothing bigger than about 9X12 or 10X10 will fit through the top of the bag. The white boxes that I bought from the USPS arrived in Nanjing in complete shreds, except for where I had triple-wrapped with packing tape. Assume the M-bags travel in the cages with the large animals intended for the zoo collections.
  • Costs: Assuming the information found in the USPS "Country Information" pages for China is correct: minimum charge is for 11 pounds per bag, $1.00 per pound for books, $1.65 per pound for most other printed matter. Books and printed matter should go into separate M-bags or you pay the higher rate for everything in the bag. There is also an airmail rate for M-bags: $3.50 per pound. These are called the "blue" M-bags, as opposed to "gray" for the surface mail ones.
  • Where? Smaller post offices in the U.S. often have no idea what an M-bag is or how to deal with it. So before you run over to get M-bags, phone ahead to find out who has them, and whether they have enough for your needs.
  • How long? Optimists can expect arrival of the (surface) bags after about two months. Realists know it usually takes more like four.  Airmail presumably gets there a lot faster. But not always -- especially if your dispatching post office forgets to mark the bag for Airmail after you paid all the extra postage, like mine did.
MEDICAL MATTERS

MONEY

  • Exchange rates. You get considerably better exchange rates for traveler's checks or ATM withdrawals than you do for cash dollars. So don't bother bringing dollars in cash with you. Standard exchange rate for TCs, ATM or credit card transactions is approx US$1.00= 1 yuan renminbi. This means that 1 yuan of Chinese currency is approximately equal to US$0.12. Some people still go to the black market to change money, but it seems unwise given the legal risk, and quite a few folks have been cheated by receiving counterfeit bills or wads of paper surrounded by a few bills. There was a higher incentive for such dealings when there was a 100% difference between official and black market exchange rates; now the difference is very narrow.
  • Getting cash. You have several options:
    • cash and traveler's checks: in any major hotel that you might be staying in
    • travelers's checks: in designated Bank of China branches (not all of them, by any means) and a few other authorized foreign-exchange handling banks' (e.g., CITIC in Beijing) designated branches; at many Friendship Stores or other stores catering heavily to the tourist trade
    • personal checks, backed up with American Express card: generally, in the same bank branches that can cash TCs. Usually you go to the "Credit Cards" window. If you have a Gold or Platinum card, you get a fairly high limit for how much cash you can get this way within each 21-day period. For the regular green card, it's $1000. 
    • credit card cash advances: ditto.
    • ATMs. Bank of China branches and, in Nanjing, some branches of the Guangdong Development Bank, will allow you to withdraw up to 1500 yuan at a time from their ATMs, using your American bank's ATM card. The ATMs, be forewarned, are often down or out of cash. You will have a service charge from the Chinese ATM, and your American bank may add another one. Do the arithmetic before you decide on using this option regularly.
  • Receipts. Whichever way you get cash, you may want to save some or all of the exchange receipts. If you need to change money back when you leave the country, you need to show a receipt for at least the amount of renminbi you want to change.
  • Credit cards. These still aren't so widely used in China as in the U.S.. Some travel agents will accept them, but slap on a 3-4% surcharge. Some stores claim to accept them, but only at a few designated registers, and finding the card-swiping apparatus and calling in for authorization can use up a lot of your time. Likely to work better in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou than in the rest of the country. Still, it's better than it used to be. MasterCard and Visa generally get more widely accepted than American Express.
  • Currency. Officially, the currency in China is called renminbi ("people's currency") with the main unit being the yuan, and subdivisions of jiao (1/10 yuan) and fen (1/100 yuan). Generally, in naming prices or costs, people say kuai rather than yuan, and mao rather than jiao. The largest note available is 100 yuan/kuai; there are also 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 kuai notes; 1 kuai, 5 mao and 1 mao coins, and some tiny fen coins that you only seem to get when you change money at the bank. You can't even give those away; nobody wants them. To help confuse the poor foreigner, a changeover in the bills and the coins is also taking place. The colorful figures of various national minorities, old revolutionary leaders, and workers-peasants-soldiers-intellectuals on the older and more bills are gradually being replaced by the lone visage of Mao Zedong on less colorful schemes. The 1 mao coins are also changing over. The older one is just about the same size as the 1 kuai coin, though lighter in weight and duller silver in color. It's gradually giving way to a smaller mao coin, which is heavier and shinier but is also just about the same size as some of those useless fen coins. The 5 mao coin, blessedly, is a nice bronze color to help you tell it apart from everything else.
N NANJING
  • Nanjing has gone by many names in the past (thanks to a long and interesting history). Many of those crop up in the names of companies, stores, hotels, etc. It wasn't even called Nanjing for the first time until relatively late, in Chinese terms: the Ming Dynasty. The earlier names that you are most likely to encounter in businesses include Jinling, Jiangning, and Jiankang.
  • Chinanow.com has an online Guide to Life in Nanjing.  Provided for expats living or thinking of living in the city. What could be more appropriate for you? Other than these pages, of course.
  • Background: Encyclopedia Brittanica's entry on Nanjing
  • See also History
S SOFTWARE
  • Caveat emptor: some vendors will offer to install software on your computer. Often this is pirated (especially beware if they won't or can't provide you with the original CD), and often pirated software is infected with nasty viruses. (Standard American antivirus software often won't protect against these.)
  • There is commercial shrinkwrapped software of many types now available in China (in Chinese, for Chinese users), and there are some major retailers vending the stuff. Federal Software is probably the biggest, and can be found in most major cities, usually right there in the computer supermarket.
T

TELEPHONE: see Communications

TIME

  • If you want relatives and friends to call you from elsewhere in the world, you probably don't want the call at 3 a.m. Tell them to check first online for What time is it in Beijing? (which is the same time it is everywhere in China).
  • If you want to phone relatives or friends, you may want to avoid waking them up at 3 a.m. So find out What time is it in _____?
TRAVEL AGENTS
  • SAIS' agent: Embassy Travel
  • China International Travel Service: US office; Head Office; Hong Kong office
  • A local Nanjing travel agent, English-speaking and with a history of responsible, helpful work done for HNC faculty: Claire at Golden Holiday. (phone: 025-226-4488; email: golden-holiday@sohu.com) Like many travel agents in China, they can arrange prepaid reservations for you that give you very substantial discounts at some very nice hotels. It helps if you have a tourist guidebook that gives you some notion of what the places are like, though.
  • Do-it-yourself hotel reservations: I've had very good luck with AsiaHotels.com. Most rates are heavily discounted from rack rate, and specials arise as well. You prepay, generally, and must print out your email confirmation to present at the hotel reception desk when you check in. (In a couple of cases, those proved vital; hotel management, even at 4-star places in China, is still in a process of becoming....)
W WEATHER