The latest update for Uber’s China app is now completely different from the one the ride-sharing service uses worldwide – making it difficult for expats and visitors to use in China.

Unveiled Sunday, the newest version of the Uber China app requires all users to create a new account using a local phone number as well as a valid Chinese online payment system such as Unionpay, Alipay or Baidu Wallet. Also, it’s completely in Chinese; “English language” is not currently an option.

Expats in China who haven’t yet made the leap to using mobile wallets will now be forced to do so; however, new visitors to China won’t be able to hail an Uber car at all.

Uber had previously distinguished itself by not requiring such information, making it more enticing to expats than its former competitor, Didi Chuxing.

The update basically means there are two Uber apps: one for the rest of the world, and one that is exclusively used in China.

Following Uber and Didi’s merger after years of heated competition, an update for the Uber China app appeared in October that contained some of these expat hurdles. At that time, Uber said these features will be corrected in future updates.

“We apologize to our users for any inconvenience may be caused by this transition. The Uber China team has been working hard to make the new version faster-responding and more user friendly,” said the company in a statement.

The post Uber China Doesn’t Play Nice Anymore With Worldwide Uber App appeared first on The Nanfang.

On Sunday, an unidentified expat mother was seen putting her two children onto the back of a 600 year-old statue at the Ming tombs in Nanjing. And yet, seen together in the same photograph, a sign posted nearby asks visitors to refrain from climbing onto the historical relics.

Poor behavior by Chinese tourists has been popular in the news lately, with a few tourists even being blacklisted. And, as if to punctuate its own pointed criticisms, reports of the disobeying expat mother have included photographs of Chinese parents at the same statue, doing the same thing next to the same sign.

What does it all mean? If we were to take the answer from the heated discussion from this popular post, it means that even the most benign behavior by expats can lead to heated rounds of soul-searching by Chinese.

As seen in the comments that follow, no middle ground exists between those that say expats exploit a double standard afforded to them in China, and those that say Chinese are in no position to occupy the moral high ground.

Here’s what some had to say:

伱媽脸色吥呔好：
Foreign trash has flowed into China.

脂舞先森：
So many complainers. None of you Nanjing residents have ever ridden on it when you were young?

还算幽静的胖子：
It’s common for people to have ridden on it when they were younger… what’s more, it’s been climbed upon for hundreds of years without any problem. If you honestly want to protect it, then put up a fence around it along with posting bilingual signs in Chinese and English along with regular patrols arranged by the management. Not paying attention to rules is human nature.

-fishliyan：
I think the pictogram (on the sign) is fairly easy for everyone to understand…

世界的heaven：
Chinese should be the first to pay attention towards correcting poor morals.

00要自强不息：
You retards! You say that foreigners follow the example of Chinese parents who put their children on the statue because there are no English signs. You say that even if it’s her own fault, foreigners are always cultivated people! And yet, besides not being able to read Chinese, she also can’t understand the pictures?

不捉老鼠的黑猫：
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. We can only blame our own countrymen for not setting a proper example.

南京笑笑生999：
That foreigners are shown to be “cultured” really makes people blush!

飞机飞远了：
Some people have kneeled for so long that they’ve forgotten how to stand up. And yet you say this isn’t inappropriate? Hehehehe

L刘宇翔：
Double standards are nauseating.

小D飞蛾子：
It sickens me to see people kissing up to foreigners. Those Chinese who get ridiculed when you travel abroad to places where you don’t know the local customs: Do you also ridicule your countrymen for lacking proper etiquette?

The post A Foreigner Disobeying Rules in China Starts Passionate Online Soul-Searching appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Beijinger reported the attacks were committed by the same woman Sunday morning. She apparently made disparaging remarks about the victims’ nationalities immediately before attacking.

The victim of the first attack was a French expat cycling on Xinyuan South Road northwest of the Capital Mansion residential high-rise. The Beijinger quotes a person who talked to the French victim who said the assailant yelled “American! American” in Chinese as she attacked with a knife.

The second attack occurred as a Jamaican expat was departing a Sunday church service for foreign passport holders at Capital Mansion Athletic Club. As the victim was exiting the parking lot, she was approached by the attacker who asked in Mandarin, “Do you speak Chinese?” Before the Jamaican expat could answer, she was attacked.

Both victims sustained wounds in the attacks, and were treated at the nearby Raffles Medical Clinic for non-severe injuries.

The knife-wielding assailant was last seen in the back of a Public Security Bureau vehicle, in which she was whisked away (shown above).

Although rare, violent crimes targeting foreigners have occurred before in Beijing, sometimes resulting in fatalities.

On the first day of competition during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the father-in-law of the US volleyball coach was fatally stabbed to death while visiting a local tourist attraction. Todd Bachman died from his wounds while his attacker, a 47 year-old Chinese national named Tang Yongming, killed himself by immediately jumping off the balcony of the 130-foot tall Drum Tower.

Other violent attacks targeting foreign nationals have been blamed on mental illness.

In 2012,  62 year-old American Howard Thomas Mills was stabbed to death in Beijing’s Xicheng District. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau released a statement saying the suspect arrested in Mills’ stabbing, 35 year-old An Libo, was believed to have suffered from a mental disorder.

An American was one of two deaths that occurred from a knife attack at Beijing’s Joy City Mall in 2013. Xinhua reported the 27 year-old assailant from Shandong, who was immediately captured by police, suffers from an undisclosed mental illness.

Last year, a man wielding a sword attacked a French expat and his Chinese wife at Taikoo Mall in Sanlitun, resulting in the wife’s death. Unlike other the attacks, the assailant was not said to have suffered from mental illness; instead, Beijing police said the attacker, a man named Gao from Jilin, “randomly” chose his victims and attacked them for “no reason”. However, the People’s Daily quoted a friend of the French victim who said he was asked if he was an American citizen just before the attack.

Last Christmas, the UK and US embassies warned of a possible threat against foreign nationals in the Sanlitun area, although no threat ever materialized.

The post Two Foreigners in Beijing Attacked with Knives Near Sanlitun appeared first on The Nanfang.

English teacher Chris Blair was walking home during the early morning hours when an attempted shortcut over a fence surrounding a residential compound went horribly awry. Firefighters used a pneumatic cutter to free Blair, who was then sent to hospital while still attached to the fence.

A preliminary operation removed the fence from his arm, but a more costly procedure is now required to give the 29 year-old the full use of his arm.

“The surgeon had to peel back all of my skin from the whole arm and they had to cut half my arm to get it open to take the spike out. They couldn’t pull it out in case they caught an artery,” said Blair.

Blair said he was worried about the upcoming surgery. “The next operation is so they can work on my tendons and nerves because they’re a bit knackered.”“The next operation is so they can work on my tendons and nerves because they’re a bit knackered. I can hardly move my fingers and I’m worried because I want to be able to play guitar again but I’ve just got to take it one day at time,” he said.

Blair explained that he decided to climb a “horrible, jagged fence” because he “couldn’t find any other way out” out of the residential complex which he described as being “very big”.

Blair said the language barrier hindered his rescue. “And obviously everybody speaks Chinese so I was trying my best Chinese that I know to ask for help,” he said.

The Daily Record reports that Blair’s family members describe him as being “accident prone”. He recently recovered from a broken neck he sustained in Malaysia.

“I need to be less stupid.”“I need to be less stupid. I thought I was insured by my school that’s why I didn’t buy any but it turns out that is not the case,” lamented Blair.

A JustGiving page that has been launched to raise funds for his operation has surprised Blair. “I can’t believe how giving people have been even though I’m in another country,” he said. “The first thing I’m going to do is definitely have a McDonald’s cheeseburger and get some insurance.”

The preliminary report about Blair’s accident had described him as a 30 year-old British expat. Doctors had said Blair, who was drunk at the time, will eventually regain full use of his arm.

[h/t r/China at reddit]

The post “I Need To Be Less Stupid”: Scottish Guy Reflects After Awful Injury in Shanghai appeared first on The Nanfang.

The survey included 14,000 respondents living abroad in 67 countries. Taiwan ranked first in a host of categories including Friendliness, Quality of Life, Job & Career, Quality of Medical Care, and Medical Finance. Over a third of expats living in Taiwan said they were completely satisfied with their jobs, double the global average of 16 percent.

Taiwan ranked second among the best countries for working abroad. Comparatively, China ranked #21, and Hong Kong came in at #33.

Taiwan also did much better than other countries when it came to “Ease of Settling In”. Many foreigners in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong complained that it was hard to fit in with locals due to language and cultural barriers. Foreigners in Taiwan rated it 10th for Ease of Settling In, while foreigners in Hong Kong and China rated their new homes much lower in the same category (#48 and #60 out 67, respectively).

Hong Kong, which ranked 10th overall in 2014, slipped to 26th position last year, and fell to a dismal 44th position this year.

The malaise expats have with Hong Kong has a lot to do with money. The city’s ranking in the Personal Finance index dropped from 24 to 42nd position this year.

China ranked 48 out of 67 countries. The majority of expats in China are enjoying their careers, with over two-thirds viewing their professional prospects positively while another two-thirds say their disposable income was “more than enough“. However, foreigners in China say the cost of living is rising faster than salaries, and that working hours are long, coming in at 45 hours per week compared to the 41.4 world average.

Foreigners in China and Hong Kong say they are largely content with issues of personal safety and transportation; but, foreigners in China are concerned about pollution. 84 percent of respondents rated China’s environment was bad or very bad, while none rated it as “good”. Foreigners in China also said that quality healthcare in the country was unaffordable and of poor quality.

Check out the infographics comparing China and Hong Kong below:

The post Taiwan Named Top Destination In The World For Foreigners appeared first on The Nanfang.

The assault took place outside a Shanghai bar near Yan’an Middle Road on June 6. A foreign exchange student from Eastern Europe, identified only as “Rov”, punched another foreign man from Western Europe, identified only as “Kleibrink”. The court determined that Kleibrink had been punched in the face with such force that he was knocked out.

The full identities of both men, as well as their nationalities, were not revealed.

Rov claimed Kleibrink made obscene gestures towards him at the bar, while Kleibrink claimed  talking to Rov’s girlfriend had made him angry.

Rov’s family has offered $27,000 in compensation for the assault.

The post Foreigner Jailed Three Months in Shanghai for Bar Fight appeared first on The Nanfang.

The 30 year-old impaled his arm around 4am Tuesday after attempting to climb a fence at the Huatingrong Garden residential complex in the southern Shanghai suburb of Songjiang.

It took firefighters 20 minutes to cut through the fence using a pneumatic cutter. As one firefighter described it, “This laowai was in a lot of pain at the time. Our noble firefighters used simple English to ease his anxiousness while trying to cut him free.”

With a piece of the fence still embedded in his arm, the man was sent to hospital where it was eventually removed. Doctors said the man, who was drunk, will eventually regain full use of his arm.

Last May, another drunk man had to rescued by helicopter at Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak after falling down into a ravine and getting lost.

The post Drunk Foreigner Impales Arm On Fence In Shanghai appeared first on The Nanfang.

Can you go a day without cash in China? That’s what one German blogger wanted to know by spending an entire day in Hangzhou, host of the upcoming G20 summit, and the Chinese news was there to report it.

Thomas Dirksen, a Weibo blogger with some 140,000 followers and described as the “German version of Papi Jiang”, challenged himself to see if he could spend an entire day in Hangzhou without using any cash. Dirksen only used the Alipay mobile payment system to make purchases, and found that cashless systems were found throughout Hangzhou, used from everything from food stalls to bus fares.

The facts speak for the themselves: Alipay in supported by a majority of businesses and stores in Hangzhou that include 98 percent of taxis, 95 percent of supermarkets and convenience stores, and over half of the city’s 40,000 restaurants and eateries.

Dirksen has provided Chinese news media with a surplus of quotes and photographs to promote both Hangzhou and Alipay. Here, then, are some of the praise Dirksen had for the upcoming host of the G20 summit:

Truthfully speaking, I’m not willing to leave the house in Frankfurt unless I have money in my pocket. I’ve been to hundreds of cities in over 30 countries, and I have to say that Hangzhou is the world capital of mobile payments, for sure!

I’ve been to over 30 countries all over the world, but there isn’t a city that is as convenient as Hangzhou. Even if it’s a roadside shaobing stall, I can still pay with my mobile wallet.

Chinese have told me that you can use Alipay anywhere. At first I didn’t believe them, and yet now I’m eating a shaobing (paid with Alipay)!

While in Rome, do as the Romans do. All of my Chinese and foreign friends in China use mobile payments. Like me, they all enjoy the convenience of this payment method, so much so that using a mobile phone to take care of your financial needs isn’t even a novel thing anymore.

Even without any cash on hand, you can live an unfettered life in Hangzhou. What a surprise!

If you ask me where I learned all of this, it’s from recommendations given by my German and Chinese friends, as well as learning strategies from online forums! Today, I’m challenging myself to spend a day sightseeing without any cash. Before coming here, I did a lot of preparation. But if I were to do this in Germany, it’d be impossible!

Dirksen is a fluent Chinese-speaking graduate of Fudan University who has since married a Chinese woman. When asked how he views Chinese and what he hopes to achieve by learning it, Dirksen had this to say:

Chinese pronunciation and writing is very difficult. I will use all of my ‘primal force” to learn and assimilate myself into the Chinese lifestyle. I will also continue to introduce China to my German friends through better social discourse.

The post Foreign Blogger Goes Cashless for a Day, Using Only Alipay appeared first on The Nanfang.

As of June 25, government data showed there are just 11,000 African expats registered to the public security bureau in Guangzhou, 6,000 fewer than two years ago. However, many of the Africans that have made a living trading commodities there now say they can’t anymore due to higher production costs. Chinese factories are relocating to southeast Asia, thereby making factory floor deals even more difficult to seal in Guangzhou.

Caixin has interviewed a number of African expats who say they feel unwelcome in Guangzhou due to discrimination and xenophobia.

“I like everything here, except when Chinese people cover their noses and mouths with their hands when they pass by me,” says Radhy, student from Tanzania. “I want to rush home when they point at me, as if they were judging.”

Shirley, a French tutor from the Ivory Coast, said she has no reason to stay in China. “I don’t like it when Chinese people look at me as if looking at an animal, just because of my dark skin. My work visa is going to expire soon. I am moving back to my home country,” she said.

“I like the weather and people here. But I don’t like the expressions of some Chinese people when they look at and talk to us. It upsets me,” says Emma from Cameroon, a deputy manager who works in Shenzhen.

Discrimination against Africans in Guangzhou appears to be deeply rooted. A 2009 study by Sun Yat-Sen University found that three out of four white-collar workers and students in Guangzhou said they don’t want to associate with African migrants despite only having limited interaction with them.

Long-time Guangzhou resident Serges de la Roche said he once had to wait three hours for a cab after buying a computer because no Chinese was willing to stop for him. “At the time, I didn’t think anything bad of it. I knew I had to come here to do something, and that’s why these things don’t matter,” said de la Roche. 

But if you’re not in the commodities business, you may have a very difficult time finding a job in Guangzhou if you hail from Africa. “It is so hard to find a job in Guangzhou. I might just go back to my home country if I can’t find one soon,” said Vikan, a student from Ivory Coast.

de la Roche also pointed out that African expats face strict visa restrictions in Guangzhou. Not only are African expats forced to return to their home countries to renew their visas, but they’re also expected to always be in possession of them or risk punishment.

de la Roche was once detained for five hours because he couldn’t show his passport to a police officer because it was being renewed. In another case, a businessman from South Africa named “Mike” said police officers have come to his office once every three days to check his passport in recent days.

Out of all the reasons that may compel him to leave Guangzhou, de la Roche said the discrimination may be the biggest factor. “What is not good is that some Chinese think all Africans are rogues,” he said.

A new Chinese city looks to take the place of what Guangzhou once meant to African newcomers to China. Yiwu is a city in Zhejiang that has attracted some 30,000 African permanent residents, many of whom have exported 48.21 billion yuan ($7.24 billion) of commodities to Africa.

The post African Expats Abandon Guangzhou Because of Xenophobia appeared first on The Nanfang.

Hu Zhangping, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Committee, said that some senior executives of transnational corporations over the age of 60 had been ineligible to apply for Shanghai residence permits.

“Shanghai is now trying to make some changes on the basis of the country’s policies. For example, we can allow those foreign managers over 60 to apply for a foreign expert certificate. The age limitation can be broadened to 70.” Hu said.

In China, the age of retirement for men is 60, while women retire at the age of 55. The country has been aggressively trying to attract wealthy and highly-skilled foreign talent with targeted policies.

Last June, Shanghai expats were allowed to apply for permanent residence permits after living in the city for just four years, provided of course that they were in a high tax bracket. This allowance was also extended to the personal servants of eligible applicants.

Also in June, green card restrictions were lifted for foreign deputy professors, researchers or other professions that had worked for at least four years and lived in China for three, with good tax records.

In August 2015, residence permits were extended for up to five years for foreigners in Beijing, provided they “met a high enough standard”.

Liu Jiewei, a police officer responsible for handling foreigners’ visas, explained that recent reforms were targeting foreigners holding positions of vice-president and higher in overseas investment enterprises, technology experts at companies in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park, or were members of either the government-backed 1,000 Talent Plan or the National Recruitment Program of Global Experts.

China’s State Council has said the need for “skilled immigration” in the country is “imminent“. Wang Yaohui, Director of the Center for China and Globalization, said “China’s current immigration policy doesn’t do enough to accommodate skilled foreign workers, and should adopt more open talent policies.”

The Chinese green card is held only by a small minority of the foreign population in China. Foreigners granted permanent residency in China can reside in China indefinitely, and will never be required to apply for a visa. A Chinese green card gives foreigners all the rights that Chinese citizens currently enjoy, such as home ownership and enrolment in public school.

In 2013, just 1,886 of Shanghai’s 170,000 foreign population were granted permanent residency. Between 2004 and 2014, only about 5,000 were handed out to foreigners.

The post Foreigners Over the Age of 60 Can Now Work in Shanghai… with Some Exceptions appeared first on The Nanfang.