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Foreigners who have driving license issued by their home countries can apply for a temporary driving license and drive in China without having to take related tests, according to a clause in a regulation issued by the Ministry of Public Security following a quick hour-long traffic law briefing.
Your license, however, will be time-limited.Actually getting a license may be complicated because the Chinese laws say that foreign residents can have driver's licences and that an IDP ( International Driver's Permit ) converted to a local licence, possibly with an additional examination.
Sometimes you can be excused the actual driving test if you have a foreign license, sometimes not. The particular complications seem to vary from place to place and over time. Some people have been asked to use a computer, some take a written theory test in Chinese. Others get a bilingual test form, or are allowed to bring a translator, (90 answers out of 100 correct) and that takes 30 - 45 minutes. If you are able to pass this test, they will convert the license for you to a chinese license.
What you need and what happens when you get your driving license..
A) A copy of the passport page
B) A copy of the valid Chinese visa
C) A copy of the latest entry stamp in your passport
D) Original overseas driving license
E) 8 one-inch color pictures (on white background, without earrings, glasses)
F) Your Chinese name, weight and height
G) Move from one buliing to another A LOT

Prices to get a driving license are about...........................
Sorry I do have a Chinese Driving License but I didn't paid, so I can't tell you how much but I THINK it was less the 500 rmb
The official driving code is called the Road Traffic Safety Law. It applies to all vehicles except military vehicles who may not follow any rules and may not stop at a red light or go the wrong direction.
Increasingly, Chinese Police tend to accept very much on their on-the-spot judgment of the driver being sufficiently skilled and experienced to drive safely with respect to his own and others safety.In case of an accident, if it is minor as a scrape, most people just drive on, but it is also common that the failing driver pay about 100RMB or so to the other driver, and that is then the end of the matter.
If you disagree, you must not move the cars until the police arrive, which can take time. They usually check registration and licenses, and photograph the incident.
Beware of large black luxury cars because they may belong to relatives of senior party or other officials and consider themselves to be above the law.
If you suspect that the police of taken bribes, make them aware that you know about the Ministry of Supervision (which ruthlessly deals with corruption), the Olympic Committee or the Tourist Complaint Board. It can have a profound effect on procedures.

The physical condition of roads and road maintenance varies greatly. WARNING to drivers and cyclists: it is not uncommon to find an open man hole cover or large crevice on a otherwise smooth road.
On the City Roads traffic is often congested, even on the ring roads. The congestion is far more complex than that in Western countries with Bicycles, Motorcycles and an odd Horse and cart turning up

Dangers

Rule of thumb - busses never stop at the lights or slow down whilst turning. Do not assume that Chinese drivers will follow any rule you know.
Chinese drivers in general are very dangerous and drive in a highly illogical way. They adopt a highly offensive and ignorant driving style. However, this is no place for being angry for being cut off, if someone drives against the red light or on the wrong side of the road. You simply yield, and carry on as if nothing had happened because there is just too many to fight with. It is not uncommon to see cars drive on the Pavement/sidewalk (at speed).
Every car/driver has a "body language" which predicts what they will do next. It is essential to learn this "body language" and drive by it. If you are driving down a four lane road, and the lane in front of the taxi to the right of you and slightly ahead of you is blocked, your lane ahead is free, immediately assume the taxi will move left into your lane without any warning. There is no way to predict or learn the "body language".

My neighbourhood in downtown Dalian has a new little teashop that has jauntily named itself “Jocund Hut”. That’s a pretty funky name and I guess the owner got that obscure and odd adjective from an electronic dictionary, and I also wonder how many native speakers - even - know what it means.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone actually utter the word, but I know it well coz Wordsworth used it in “Daffodils”, one of the most famous poems in the English language. When speaking of the gleeful dancing daffydillies he emoted

A poet could not but be gay, / In such a jocund company

which couples, so to speak, an archaic usage of “gay” with our equally archaic “word for today.”

And I also half-remembered Conrad using it in “Heart of Darkness” for a grimly humoured description of some skulls on poles, but when I checked the quote I found

a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling, too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber.

so it was jocose, not jocund. And who the hell uses “jocose” these days? it must be even more obscure than “jocund.” I guess that’s why it’s not a “Jocose Hut” round the corner from where I live.

And then I also remembered that English was Conrad’s third language and that he was wont to use it somewhat eccentrically from time to time; a habit that led to literary critic FR Leavis’ catty comment that “Conrad’s sea smells of Roget’s Thesaurus”.

Anyways, maybe Chinese and Japanese electronic dictionaries are going to resurrect a few long dormant and/or incredibly obscure words and blazon them on the shopfronts and T-shirts of the Pacific rim. And then we English teachers over here will have to find out what they mean.

Have a jocund day!

K.

Dalian is a peaceful city, the last place I'd expect to see two forklifts having a bash at each other!

Chris posted about this last year, and I thought I'd resurrect the topic as it's quite useful. There are a bunch of places in Dalian where you can access wireless internet for free. Here's a few, and I hope that if you have some to contribute you might add them in the comments.

Hopefully we can assemble a nice useful list for everyone.
NOTE: I'm putting a [?] next to places that have had wifi in the past, but may or may not still have it. i.e. yet to be confirmed.

Brooklyn Bar and Restaurant
Didn't expect them to put wifi in a bar, but pleasantly surprised that they did. They're closed on Mondays, but are open 5:30pm to 2am Tuesday to Sunday (or when everybody leaves).

Amici Cafe
Xi'an Road, Friendship Square's Manhatten Building, Victory Plaza, Heishijiao Locations. Reliable internet access in a comfortable setting.

Starbucks Coffee
Renmin Road location, Olympic Square location, Software Park Location, Senmao Building location.

Tina Coffee Shop
Located in Peace Plaza shopping mall on 4F.

Echo Coffee
They have wifi, just ask for the password at the counter. They also have a hammock in their beer garden!

I55
This place goes on the list, though with their recent price hikes I'm reluctant to recommend them. On Gao'erji Road, just south of Renmin Square.

The following places might have wifi:

Dalian Airport
A friend of mine tells me they have it, but I have yet to confirm.

West Coast Coffee [?]
In the high tech zone, way out yonder... Update: Can someone confirm that this place still has wifi? A friend says that it did not back in July.

The Box [?]
Last few times I've gone, the wifi was hit-and-miss. Feel free to ask the staff if you can't get a signal.

UBC Cafe [?]
The city is littered with these big yellow buggers. Not a fan of UBC, but they stay open late, and they should have wifi. (Emphasis on "should") I've been in one before where it just wouldn't function. Click here to see some of their locations on google maps.

All's Well Cafe [?]
This place is hit and miss. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not.  Though recently it's leaning more towards "not."

GraemeNicol posted a photo:

Post-rockers Wangwen return to their home city (or adopted home city) of Dalian on July 25th, after their longest tour yet, round Northern Europe and then China. They wanted a jumping photo taken to show how happy they were to be back. The final date of the tour was the following evening. It would be the 23rd concert they had played in the space of two months.

I've never applied with the PSB and other relevant authorities to get an international TV card, it's never seemed worth the hassle to watch BBC Worldwide.   The Internet has changed they was I perceive news and seek to be informed and entertained.  But I still miss being able to tune into BBC2 at a set time to watch low budget sci-fi, that part of scheduled entertainment will forever be ingrained in my habits, entertainment on demand does, to an extent, strip the expectation and suspense from the enjoyment on a show.  And sometimes it's just plain annoying not to have streaming TV to potato-out to, CCTV9 and poorly dubbed Korean dramas do not cut it.

So imagine my surprise when I stuck my head into an office to see one person watching a random Japanese game show and another watching Bloomberg TV, live, on their computers.

JLC's Internet TV is a cunningly fantastic bit of software that allows anyone to watch streaming TV from a huge amount of countries, each country has a wide amount of choice (it's not exhaustive, but the big ones are all there).  The software seems very much word-of-mouth, I've seen it little reported or blogged about.

Anyone should take care on installing any new software on their computer.  Saying that, clicking around on their website (and others) revealed nothing highly malicius and I've seen nothing suggesting their motives are alterior.  In any case, use your own judgement and not mine.  Here's the download: Download.

This tiny picture is an example of the program running.

The Spanish men’s basketball team recently provoked a storm in a teapot over an advertising photo showing them pulling the sides of their eyes…because they were off to China! Geddit? Hilarious!

And someone recently dredged up another photo from the Spanish women tennis team’s website showing some of the same high jinks:

In the fuss that has followed some interesting issues arose. The US media pondered aloud as to what the Spanish team thought they were up to by publicly insulting their hosts. And NBA superstar Jason Kidd opined that had the US team done the same they would have been thrown out of the Olympics and not been allowed back in the NBA. The Spanish retorted by calling it “an affectionate gesture” and pointing out that the Chinese themselves hadn’t seemed to have taken offence at all, insofar as to date there have been no comments by the Chinese media on the incident. Fair point!
But then the US and UK (evil Anglo-Saxons) insisted on placing the “affectionate gesture” in a context of other “Spanish gestures”, including “the monkey chants that greeted England’s black footballers in a friendly game in Spain and the blacking up of some local fans when Lewis Hamilton was competing in the Spanish grand prix.”

My take on it all is that who cares if a bunch of greasy spics take the piss out of the chinks? I’m like so totally, yeah…whatever.

Not really! Just my little joke. Geddit?

Actually, I have a fond memory from about 15 years ago when I was living in Hungary. I was studying in a rather sleepy provincial town called Debrecen and one afternoon I witnessed a visiting schoolboy choir from Korea getting off their bus in front of the concert hall. The local lads had probably never seen real live asians before and so the Koreans created quite a crowd of little gawkers. Then one of the wee rascals thought it would be funny to pull his eyes into slitty position and this soon spread until you had a crowd of laughing Magyar boys pulling slanty eyes and pointing at their Korean guests. Hilarious!

But what made it memorable for me was the Koreans’ response. After about a minute of being taunted like that, they responded by making big round goggly eyes with their fingers and pointing back at the local kids and laughing. I loved them for that. It made me proud to have a Korean name.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the Chinese national basketball had a photo done pulling big goggly eyes next time they go off to play Spain? Not particularly, it would be childish. But that’s kind of what the Spanish athletes are guilty of, being childish…but surely not malicious or racist.

The US Olympic Track Team have been training in Dalian for the past month, training and getting sick. The 拉肚子 (la du zi) is pretty familiar for anyone new to Dalian and is highly annoying - quite different from mildly enjoyable Olympic Fever.

The proportion of the team sick is around 15%, a figure the US Olympics Committee said was typical for an international trip.

Dalian does offer a lot of culinary temptations: from some of the best seafood in China (comprehensive list) to freshly boiled dumplings to hotpot to cheap and tasty street side BBQ. But don't eat it, especially street side, assuming there's no chance it won't twist and stretch an intestine like a rubber band.

The US team are not dependent on Xinjiang chuanr and 2 kuai beers for their nutrition needs. They have a specialist chef from the Denver campus of Johnson & Wales University. In addition, long before the Beijing Games commenced, secret Olympic farms were instructed to use less/no pesticides for vegetables and raise meat in safe and sanitary conditions. The US team has probably been eating better than anyone else in Dalian for the past month.

Getting sick is normal for anyone relocating to Dalian or anywhere far from home. Even if the food is clean other factors influence sickness including:

• unfamiliar strains of common viruses and bacterias we're immune to back home,
• dirt in places we're not used to: Spit on Dalian's streets is a given and human feces not uncommon, take your shoes off when at home and wash hands whenever possible.
• Hepatitis is easily spread through unwashed glasses - drink from the bottle.

Local custom and awareness of an unfamiliar situation also helps prevent many diseases:

• tea is drunk hot therefore killing bacteria and other nasties,
• when eating a shared dish stick to the small corner or section near you - it's the height of rudeness to grab randomly from all sides of the dish,
• fruit is often served unpeeled and the skin disregarded,
• a clove of raw garlic taken during a meal is a natural protection from diarrhoea,
• and when food is served it should be thoroughly cooked, rare meat is rare here for good reason.

Most importantly, keep those hands clean.

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/sports/olympics/16food.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7245652.stm

Image: http://flickr.com/photos/cdharrison/2575008703/ (Creative Commons: Share, Remix, Attribution)

I headed up to Shenyang yesterday to see Holland vs Japan in Olympic Soccer.  Given the fact that in 2005 there were violent protests against Japan, it was not surprising that we (me and about 200 Japanese people on 3 buses) had a police escort all the way up there.

Here are some of the highlights. I have more audio updates over on PandaPassport.com as well, for anyone who'd like to check it out.