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Q: What's the best purchase you ever made here?
I'm talking about your life saving item here in China. I think many of us have a way of accumulating little things that either keep us sane or bring us to a whole new level of comfort that money just can't buy outside. I'm a big fan of making my home into a bat cave that I'm not leaving unless I have real business to do. Naturally I have bought a lot of things to make it nice and comfortable. One of my most favorite purchases I've made would be a juicer machine. Go to Suning and you'll see tons of wanna' be juicer machines, but I'm talking a pretty good household unit - Huron. Why is this my favorite purchase ever? Because I absolutely hate eating fruit and vegetables in China. Hate! It's also hard for me to get vegetables here. I just hate cooking in China. But with the juicer, I can juice apples and carrots together for a super cheap price. I can add in a tomato, cucumber, apple, and drink a health concoction. The taste is wonderful by the way, and that's coming from a guy with a real sweet tooth. Only bummer is that you have to take it apart and clean 4-5 peices. But not too much of a deal for me.
Before that, my life saving purchase was ground coffee and French press equipment. I tend to use those every day, too.
Anyway, what has been your life saving purchase here?
, Yes Thats all..
The absolute most wonderful thing I have bought (from taobao) is my kindle. I look forward to the daily bus commute and the 2 hour lunch break.
The downside is that it is common for random people to ask what you are doing.
"reading"
"reading what?"
"A book"
(shocked look of horror) "what's it about?"
"it's complicated"
"oh" (amble off shaking head and checking wechat at that ridiculous foreigner who wastes his time)
jetfire9000:
Got a Kindle myself and they are actually pretty nice. Love it but I never find the time to sit down and read. Which branch of Amazon are you linked up with, the Chinese one? I found that the selections of English language e-books are a lot fewer on the Chinese amazon.
iWolf:
I set mine on Airplane mode so I'm not connected because as you say Amazon Cn is shite.
Check out http://kat.cr/ you can download just about any book you like from there for nix. If the books you choose aren't in .mobi format then use Calibre free ebook format converter.
Sometimes taobao or dangdang have some good titles that I can't find a torrent for.
Shining_brow:
"It's about a guy who ends up going postal and killing a bunch of random people who continually rudely interrupt ask him what he's doing when he's obviously reading a book... it's really great! I'm taking notes."
iWolf:
I'll let you know how this turns out when i try your suggestion next time
my chipped xbox 360 and all my copy games (500) but now its my PS4
jetfire9000:
How does "chipping" work? I would like to check into adding an x-box to my collection but I'm sorta' worried about buying something that I can't use. And where do the games come from? I'm assuming that is the problem that chipping is supposed to solve.
dom87:
i had a chipped ps3 before,so guess its the same.
you can just ask for a shipped one, mostly much more expensive, but worth it.
usually the give you 1TB hard drive with games and you can choose which.
you can also download games (cracked) and just put it then on the hd
For the home, I'd say my toaster oven and microwave. I like to cook and eat well.
The gym membership is also a must have for me.
jetfire9000:
I'm a gym guy myself but just ugh. I have to say I absolutely hate gyms in this country. It seems I'm asking for too much when I look for a squat rack, large range of dumbells (anything up to 45 KG each works just fine, I've gotten weaker since I've been here for several years) and any cool back / leg equipment really sweetens the deal. That's pipe dreams though, and I just wish I could avoid gyms with huge crowds of wannabe musclemen who are just swinging and slamming weights around. Can't win all the time I guess.
Car, no Im not taking about expensive cars. Any car would do. Its an absolute life saver here. Ask anyone with a car. Even if they lived without one for years, they cant imagine life without it.
People without cars often talk about traffic being bad, or public transport being sufficient or other stuff. To that i say bullocks.
The fact is, the less I am around Nongs, the happier I am. ESPECIALLY if my wife is around. The car allows me to control things. Sitting in my air conditioned car with my music and blacked out windows for an hour? Or cramming onto a buss with people staring and screaming into their phones and talking about you? Its not even a question.
Even going to the suprrmarket with my woman pisses me off. After the 5th person completely turns around to stare I start cussing people out. So we dont go. We drive to a rich people mall and shop at Ole where people dont give a damn about us. We can have a coffee and i dont have to threaten anyone.
The car is the reason i can stay sane.
yeah, like above the gym membership and Kindle seems the best... Though I had the same feeling about my juicer when I bought it new, made all kinds of shakes, fruit and vegetable juices, then got tired of cleaning the bloody thing. needed cleaning everyday, separate it in 4-5 parts and clean it... Now I use it like twice a week, maybe!
Karma101:
Haha, by the way I read it somewhere, the easiest way to clean the grinder is to put the cleaning liquid, water and grind it, then rinse it water, supposedly cleans the best... try it! probably I will start with the juices again... The OP description has made me think I am not taking in enough fruits and vegetables.
I concur with Mike about the car. Even though sometimes it's high maintenance, I am able to drive to other cities easily for a weekend.
Midea oven (elements, not tubes).
Bake, grill, broil, slow-cook, rotisserie, anything I want to do to make the foods I miss (lasagna, muffins, steak, leg of lamb, pizza, chicken wings, bread, sausages, garlic bread, steak, nachos, census-takers).
And my Creative Labs Platinum sound card.
Sinobear:
Article is dated but you can get the picture:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1460662,00.asp
Bought a house in late-2011 for 950,000 yuan. The first 4 floors were planned to open as a mall with a movie theater in late-2012. I was really stressed out for 2012 and 2013 because the area didn't develop as well as planned by the developer. Thankfully by the end of 2014 the area was busy! Movie theater opened, mall was bringing in business. Sold the 84m2 house for 1.425 million in April.
Best investment I ever made. Also the most scary! I spent 2.5 years thinking my life savings had gone to hell.
Bread machine or oven. Then my car.
Sinobear:
What brand of bread maker? I bought one years ago but the damn thing never worked properly.
Lord_hanson:
A chinese one. Bear 小熊. It works great. I bought a massive 23kg bag of fliur online. Imported from Hong Kong. It made a big difference having delicious fresh baked bread everyday.
My PC. I use it for everything. The blender and oven are pretty useful too, but I could live without them. I can't imagine not having a PC here. And I mean desktop. TV sucks here, so the TV is just sat there gathering dust. We watch everything online. Gaming, check. Work, check. Photo editing, check. Facebook, check. Outside world, check. Sure it can't make my morning smoothies, but it keeps me sane.
Sinobear:
I was going to say my coffee maker, then my PC, but those are 'normal' purchases for me.
An oven (since not a normal feature here) on the other hand increases the food available by a thousand-fold.
But I guess you and Icniff only eat cat food so...
icnif77:
Mine loved hot-dog and anything from my plate. As soon my cutlery would land on the table, here was she. Sometimes I had to eat in solitary (wine cellar)
.
Can't really justify buying a car right now. So the best thing I've bought is an e-bike! Can take me anywhere in the City, it's hella fun to ride and no license required.
6 pairs of Rolex for 150rmb.
Nessquick:
street in Yiwu city many years ago ... brought them back home to some of my family members
All the ingredients I need for a kick-ass White Russian and my motorcycle usually does it.
Not in combination... of course...
Shining_brow:
How is your kick-ass White Russian different from any other White Russian? (you are talking about the drink, right??)
Kahlua, Vodka, Milk - and the last is iffy... I'm presuming you're using fully imported??
Robk:
1) Cause I made it.
2) Nope you should use some Bailey's and some milk, makes it taste better... if you use Bailey's, you can fill the glass 2/3 with vodka and it still tastes great... just packs a punk.
Gym membership.
I feel much healthier than I did a few years back, before I started.
More importantly, though, the stress relief from practicing kick boxing or grappling is a big benefit.
Not buying a wife.
Then after that, like Burak43, a flight ticket home.
jetfire9000:
didn't you come back to teach? I remember seeing that like 2 months ago.
jetfire9000:
My bad. BTW, What'd you do with the RMB you took back? Carry it on you and convert at home, or did you convert it in China ... or what? (I just opened a thread on this, and I'm desperate for answers)
Hulk:
I never made any hardcore RMB in China. All I had left was around 1000 RMB, and I just converted it to USD at the airport.
I only said I made a lot of cash so I could piss off someone who was pissed about illegal teachers. Some of the old-timers knew about this, as I told them the real story and they thought it was funny.
id prefer a car, but you gotta admit electric bikes are good value for money. 2500 for a machine that gets u up to 30 mph and can carry lots of shopping. 1 yuan to charge and will last a few days usually.
you can laugh at this but i was well impressed by a coolpad phone i bought for 900. it was quite fast and had a good camera. also bought a oneplusone which was excellent value as well.
my ps4, kindle and pro surface 3 kept me sane
jetfire9000:
That phone which impressed you will become the object of great frustration in just six months. Give it time.
It's the laptop that keeps any shred of sanity here... as well as being essential for my 'study' (bawhahahahahaaaa....).
Other than that, just knowing I have a real over for my roasts, and occasional pies, is really nice! And the 3D projector I bought, while not used often, gives me some sense of satisfaction when I use it (GoT across the living room wall - FTW!!! 
)
Shining_brow:
Not "for".. "with". I started a M.Applied Linguistics in 2009, then came here. Then did CELTA, , shortly after I finished that one.
Now, new Master's degree...
