Section
Life in China
Everyday life here, sorted into what has been measured and what is only habit.
- Getting a phone number in China: channels and prices 2026-10-11·11 min read
Where a visitor can buy a SIM, what real-name registration asks for, the filed prices by carrier, and when a mainland number is actually needed.
- How to buy a China high-speed rail ticket on a passport 2026-10-11·10 min read
Passport verification, the staffed boarding lane, the refund and change fee tiers, and why two trains on one section can differ by 249 yuan.
- Paying in China as a foreigner: what works, what it costs 2026-10-11·9 min read
Four official pages print four different foreign-card limits for Alipay and Weixin Pay. Each platform's own wording, with a source and a read date.
- How renting works in China, from listing to deposit 2026-10-11·12 min read
Which channel charges a fee and who may hold your money, the clauses a lease has to contain, and the official route when a deposit is withheld.
- Seeing a doctor in China as a foreigner: fees and waits 2026-10-11·9 min read
A passport gives you a patient record at a Chinese hospital, but booking channels, fee tracks and waits differ by hospital. Rules and waiting-time data.
- Baduanjin in twelve minutes, movement by movement 2026-10-09·14 min read
The eight-section brocade, move by move: a timeline table, what each movement asks of the body, the mistakes the official sheet lists, and when to stop.
- Fifty Chinese radicals, ranked by frequency 2026-10-09·13 min read
How many of the 1,000 and 3,000 most common Chinese characters sit under each of the 214 Kangxi radicals, and every rule the count depends on.
- What groceries cost in China, channel by channel 2026-10-09·10 min read
Early market, wet market, corner shop, warehouse club, delivery app: unit prices by category where a public source exists, plus three monthly baskets.
- Why Chinese people drink hot water, per the record 2026-10-09·10 min read
The history side of the habit — tea, fuel, bacteriology and slow plumbing — with a date and a link on every number, and a list of what I could not verify.
- Why fast is the default in China 2026-10-09·9 min read
High-speed rail and half-hour delivery read as temperament. They are density, labour, a standard address, state capital, and a promised time.